Chips Don’t Float: Rebuilding the PCB Base Behind Secure Electronics | The Factory Doctor w/ Alex Krutz

Podcast Spotlights​

Chips Don’t Float: Rebuilding the PCB Base Behind Secure Electronics

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The U.S. has put enormous attention on chips, but chips do not operate on their own. They have to be mounted to printed circuit boards, and that makes PCB manufacturing a critical part of the secure electronics supply chain. 

 

For Shane Whiteside, this is where the reshoring conversation has to get more specific: the U.S. invented printed circuit boards and once held a much larger share of global production, but today domestic capacity is a fraction of the market. That matters because PCBs sit inside defense platforms, AI infrastructure, banking systems, cloud storage, the electrical grid, and many of the electronic systems tied to national security. 

 

Shane brings 30 years of PCB industry experience as the Founder and CEO of Summit Interconnect, the former Chief Operating Officer of TTM, and the Chairman of the PCBAA. In this conversation, he explains why rebuilding domestic PCB capability is not just a manufacturing issue but a secure electronics, industrial policy, and national security priority.

 

What You’ll Discover In This Episode 

 

• Why PCBs matter to secure electronics,

• How chips depend on PCB manufacturing,

• Why domestic PCB capacity has declined,

• What reshoring means for the PCB industry,

• How AI and defense are changing PCB demand,

• Why PCBs are now an industrial policy issue.