The first quarter of 2014 is now in the history books, and industry sales for the first month were sent to me recently. Listed below is a summary of these data compared to last year.

PCB123 v. 5.1.0 free PCB design tool includes new edit panels with several user preference options, drag-and-drop functionality for parts, and smoother rendering performance. Includes a change in uniformity between control panels for layout and schematic views. Parts from libraries can be added from the layout using a new tab in the edit panel. Zooming and panning designs with polygons is reportedly more responsive. Can pan and zoom in layout by holding down right mouse button and moving mouse or scrolling mouse wheel. Display Tab for layout view has been reworked. Edit controls have been configured. Panes are resizable horizontally and vertically. Tooltips on controls teach user what is useful about the feature. In Layer Display pane, a scrollbar has been added for designing many layers. Color visibility selection on Layout Appearance pane is identical to Layer Display.

Sunstone Circuits, http://www.sunstone.com/PCB123.aspx

MULINO, OR – Sunstone Circuits today announced discounts on printed circuit boards orders of five and 10 business day lead times.

fastRise EZpure low-temperature curing adhesive is for rigid and flex PWBs.

The Tankan Survey is a popular economic survey of Japanese businesses issued by the central bank of Japan. 

TAIPEI -- Printed circuit board production among Taiwanese board shops rose 9% year-over-year to NT$287.8 billion ($9.3 billion) in the first six months of 2018.

TAIPEI -- A consortium of Taiwanese electronics manufacturing companies is teaming with the government to develop strategic plan for smart manufacturing.

A307DC visual inspection system offers fully automated defect detection.

ANAHEIM, CA – Tapco Associates received a $7.8 million revolving line of credit from First Capital.

The convergence of ECAD and MCAD into mechatronics means more changes ahead for the profession.

Today I’m talking about the gradual convergence of EDA single tools to integrated systems. In the early days of HiFi home entertainment systems, specialist vendors provided separate record (vinyl!) decks, amplifiers and speakers, then left it to the ingenuity of the customer to build their own system – they still do for the serious audiophiles.

BANNOCKBURN, IL — After four years of declines, the North American printed circuit board market might be in for a turnaround in 2015.

COURBEVOIE, FRANCE – Total energy firm has agreed to sell its Atotech plating chemicals business for $3.2 billion to a private equity firm, according to published reports.

COSTA MESA, CA – TTM Technologies reported first quarter net sales of $329.2 million, up 12.8% year-over-year and down 15.8% sequentially.

COSTA MESA, CA -- TTM Technologies today said it expects first quarter revenue to be near the high end of previous guidance.

WASHINGTON -- China's dominance in critical sectors such as printed circuit board manufacturing represents a “significant and growing risk” to the US military's supply chain, according to a new report from the US Department of Defense.

BOIRDON, HANTS, ENGLAND -- Viking Test has moved its headquarters to a new 15,000 sq. ft. facility here.

Understand what is happening to the energy moving around in a circuit board.

Pulsonix 8.5 schematic capture and PCB layout tool features new  Panel Editor enabling multi-board designs to be panelized for plotting, plus the addition of test coupons, fiducial markers, documentation and fabrication details. Offers IPC-2581 netlist export and Gerber X2 manufacturing outputs. Imports library formats from PCB Libraries, Accelerated Designs and SnapEDA.  Library manager enhanced to allow drag-and-drop methodology from native ASCII files directly into the library. Adds cyclic design backups and security saves, cross probing of Star (Delta) Points, individual width and offsetting of cross hatching, additional DRC checks, import PCB component placement CSV format and multiple group selection for design reuse in Apply Layout pattern as well as multiple positional rearrangement optio

Westdev Ltd., www.pulsonix.com

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Design projects that are actually completed with time to spare are few. We do what we can, but breaking new ground invariably uncovers a few snakes in the brush, and dealing with them takes time. That means that the next step – production ramp – starts behind schedule. At that point you need to get assembly quotes back ASAP so a choice can be made and the trigger pulled to get product flowing.