What's Next in PCB Fabrication?

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

If you have been in the PCB business for any length of time, you either know Gene Weiner or know of him. With a career spanning more than six decades, he has been an active member of the Global Electronics Association (formerly IPC) since the early 1960s and was inducted into the  Raymond E. Pritchard Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition of his lifelong impact on the industry. Having presented hundreds of technical and management papers, he remains a sought-after speaker in the HDI and UHDI space, most recently being recognized at the TPCA conference in Taiwan.

Now an octogenarian, Gene continues to look forward and engage in the technology evolution and what it means for PCB fabrication, especially in the United States. We asked Gene to share his thoughts on what it means to look forward in 2026.

Gene, what do you see as the most influential changes in PCB fabrication as we wade into the new year?

This question stimulates hours of discussion and speculationand there are many things I see coming in the next several years.

The first thing that comes to mind is the advent of AI and the need that will generate for billions of high-density boards, coupled with next-generation automotive electronics, including, potentially, wearables. This technology will require and facilitate closer cooperation between designers, fabricators, and assemblers. PCB fabricators will need advanced manufacturing capabilities in their facilities to keep up, including advanced imaging, laser drilling, finer plating and etch controls, and multi-point automated optical inspections to meet tighter registration tolerances.

There will also be a major shift to the adoption of advanced laminates and prepregs with very low dielectric constants and low signal loss. Legacy FR-4 materials simply cannot meet either the performance needs of many RF/mmWave applications, nor can they meet the thermal resistance and dissipation needed for automotive or AI boards.

We will see automation come into play for PCB fabricators in a larger way, with shops required to automate using AI and machine learning (ML) in every way possible, to help move those facilities towards Factory 4.0 with closed-loop process control, predictive maintenance, and real-time analytics. There will be fully integrated digital workflows from design to manufacturing to test to traceability. Product reliability and cost considerations will demand it. We will see standards like IPC-2581, additive/co-design tools. MES (manufacturing execution system) integration will become mandatory. Gerber data will become a thing of the past.

To continue reading this interview, which originally appeared in the January 2026 issue of I-Connect007 Magazine, click here.