The weather couldn’t have been nicer for PCB West 2026 last week at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California. As soon as I walked into the conference on Tuesday afternoon, I saw old friends and colleagues. The energy was high and overwhelmingly positive during the four-day event, which featured 70 technical sessions and events, including 10 free sessions on Wednesday, the day of the Expo.
The show started humbly in the early 1990s with a primary focus on PCB design, and has grown and thrived for over three decades, becoming a must-attend event in the PCB design and fabrication community. With about 2,000 attendees, you feel like you can see everyone there that you’d like to. This more concentrated focus and intimate feeling is one reason I believe PCB West remains such a popular show.
At the start of the show, PCEA President and show organizer Mike Buetow said he expected it to be the best and most well-attended PCB West since the first show immediately post-COVID. He sold out with over 100 exhibitors, and every time I walked the hall, it was busy and loud, just as one would hope. There was consistent traffic throughout the day, and exhibitors looked sufficiently tired as the day wound down, with everyone more than ready to enjoy happy hour on the show floor and head off to various dinners and meetings.
One change to the program was to address assembly issues, featuring speakers such as Chrys Shea, Doug Pauls, and representatives from companies such as Indium and MacDermid Alpha Electronics Solutions. Though nowhere near a conclusive list, notable speakers in PCB design included Rick Hartley, Suzy Webb, Dan Beeker, Stephen Chavez, Zachariah Peterson, and Kristen Aquilar. On the fab side, notable contributors were Dr. Hayao Nakamura, and representatives from NCAB, Shenan Circuits, TCLAD, and Jiva Materials.
Not surprisingly, PCB West 2026 will go down as another clear success for PCEA and the PCB community and looks to remain a must-attend event for the PCB supply chain.
