The humble printed circuit board continues to change to meet new demands.

Power is nothing without control. It’s not a quote by a famous politician or social commentator, or even Mark Twain. It’s an advertising slogan for car tires. But it’s also an apt description of the opportunities for our industry that are now happening as part of the green energy transition.

Electrification is one of today’s dominant megatrends. The “old way” of releasing energy from traditional fuels by explosions and burning is giving way to alternatives like electromagnetic and photovoltaic conversion, as well as chemical processes inside batteries and fuel cells. Taking the utmost care of every joule is critical to maximize the harvest from the scarce ambient energy sources and to minimize waste throughout the conversion system, distribution infrastructure, storage and – ultimately – the load.

Exercising that care demands control. This is where more power electronics are being employed to ensure efficient and precise conversion as we accelerate the pace of electrification; changing traditional mechanical, hydraulic, and fossil-fueled tools and vehicles that we have all become accustomed to using into electrical equivalents that can be powered from clean and sustainable energy. Replacing conventional boilers with electric heat pumps for heating buildings is one example.

Getting a grip on the many moving parts.

Much of my time this decade has been spent supporting private equity (PE) firms considering an investment in the EMS space, with no prior EMS experience on their staff. Those of us who have spent years in this space know there are vast amounts of "moving parts" involved with running a solid EMS business.

I've been told that my audits and SWOT writeups proved to be very valuable, provided accurate insight into a business the potential investors knew very little about and reduced previously unknown risks that would have crept into the deals.

Many similarities exist among the audits I've conducted over the past few years. Many of these findings would not surprise EMS industry veterans. But these situations may not be self-evident to an investor who hasn't previously worked in this complex service industry. I have also seen many of these elements of risk at my direct EMS clients managed to different degrees of efficiency.

Some questions/topics to consider before making any investment decision include:

Supply chains are stronger when spurred by private investment.

Both the Trump and Biden administrations have taken measures aimed at bringing manufacturing back to the US. But realistically, when will that happen?

And how much longer will we ask domestic PCB buyers who must rely on Asia for product to pay a tax for boards they cannot get made in a reasonable amount of time in the US?

In late May the US trade representative announced one more year of reprieve from the 25% tariff for two- and four-layer rigid printed circuit boards.

While two- and four-layer boards represent only a narrow portion of the PCBs manufactured in China, an exemption continuance is good news and will provide some relief to many OEMs and EMS companies struggling with supply chain challenges.

Rigid-flex brings the best – and worst – of both worlds.

Combining all aspects of a flex circuit with a rigid board that makes full use of HDI techniques is one of the breakthroughs of our time. The stacking connectors for board-to-board or the typical flex circuits are bypassed. If you've ever tried to connect a flex circuit to a stacking connector, you know that's a bottleneck in the process – blindly positioning the flex connector over the mating connector can be fiddly to the point of destroying the connectors. Now what?

Rigid-flex projects remind me of digital/analog projects: the best of both worlds and the worst of both. Just for starters, if the team is taking this route, you know they are serious about holding things together with all possible integration. Both technologies are well understood on their own, though the rigid camp is larger and better understood.

Flex circuits on their own. Flexible printed circuits (FPCs) require more than a change of materials from their stiffer cousins. Additional tolerance must be designed into the data. Reason: The different types of material stacks used in the manufacturing process. For the most part, a flex will also have a rigid section where the connector is mounted. The stiffened area could also be extended to host the ESD protection, an LED or microphone; we're flexible.