If you’ve been following our recent supply chain updates, you know we’ve been enc
ouraging customers to plan ahead as lead times increase for certain electronic components and printed circuit board materials.
Over the past several months, those concerns have continued to grow.
In this article, we will look at why we are seeing material increases, and what RBB is doing to help our clients get what they need, when they need it.
“The best way we can manage longer lead times is to get in front of them,” said RBB Materials & Procurement Manager Edward Blackburn.
The electronics industry is seeing increasing pressure on PCB fabrication capacity, laminate and raw material availability, and select electronic components. At the same time, the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure and data centers is consuming significant amounts of electronics manufacturing capacity and many of the same materials and components used in industrial electronics.
For RBB clients, there is another important effect: PCB quote lead times themselves are beginning to increase.
In other words, it may take longer to get a firm PCB price, the price may be valid for a shorter period of time, and the quoted manufacturing lead time may be longer than what we have been accustomed to.
This still does not look exactly like the widespread supply chain crisis we experienced during and immediately after COVID. But the direction of the market has changed enough that we believe our customers should be paying attention.
The best response isn’t panic buying. It’s planning.
What Is Happening with PCB Lead Times?
Earlier this year, we shared concerns about shortages involving PCB raw materials and longer lead times for certain semiconductor manufacturers.
Those issues have not disappeared. In some areas, they have expanded.
According to the Global Electronics Association’s August 2026 Global Sentiment Survey, 64% of electronics manufacturers reported limited component and material availability or extended lead times. More than half—53%—said supplier lead times increased during the second quarter compared with the first quarter.
Among the leading sources of supply disruption were memory, laminates and resins, microprocessors and GPUs, and passive components.
That combination is important because it means we aren’t looking at one isolated bottleneck. Pressure is appearing at several points within the electronics supply chain at the same time.
PCB Material Shortages Are Expanding
One of the trends we’re watching most closely involves the raw materials used to manufacture bare printed circuit boards.
Earlier shortages were concentrated more heavily in specialty and high-performance PCB materials. More recent industry reporting suggests the pressure is beginning to spread into standard FR-4 materials and thicker copper-clad laminates as well.
Three fundamental materials used to produce copper-clad laminate are under particular pressure:
- Glass cloth/fiberglass
- Resin
- Copper foil
AI servers and high-speed networking equipment require extremely sophisticated PCBs. Some AI platforms use boards exceeding 40 or even 50 layers and require specialized low-loss laminates, advanced glass fabrics and specialized copper foils.
These applications don’t simply require more boards—they can require considerably more material per board.
At the same time, laminate and material manufacturers naturally have an incentive to dedicate limited capacity toward these high-growth, high-value applications.
That can reduce the capacity available for the more conventional PCB materials used by industrial, medical, aerospace, defense, instrumentation and other electronics manufacturers.
This is why the AI boom can affect your PCB supply chain even if your product has absolutely nothing to do with AI.
Why PCB Quotes Are Taking Longer
For customers, one of the first noticeable changes may occur before an order is ever placed.
1. PCB suppliers may need more time to provide quotes: A board fabricator can’t provide a reliable quotation without understanding whether the specified laminate, copper weight, board thickness, finish and other materials will actually be available when the board enters production.
As material availability becomes less predictable, PCB fabricators have more work to do before committing to pricing and delivery.
Industry reporting also indicates that quotation validity periods are shortening as laminate prices become more volatile. That creates an important distinction.
2. Quote lead time and manufacturing lead time are two different things—and right now, both deserve attention. Waiting an extra few days for a PCB quote may not sound significant. But when that delay occurs before the board order is placed, and the board itself then has an extended fabrication lead time, those days begin adding up quickly.For a turnkey PCBA project, PCB availability is only one part of the schedule. We also need to secure all the components required to populate that board.
AI Data Centers Are Also Affecting Component Availability
PCB materials aren’t the only area where AI infrastructure is creating additional demand.
AI data centers require enormous quantities of:
- Memory
- GPUs and processors
- Power-management ICs
- Power semiconductors
- Capacitors and other passive components
- Networking components
- High-performance PCBs
- Power conversion and distribution equipment
The effect can extend beyond components specifically designed for AI servers.
Suppliers have finite manufacturing capacity. When enormous volumes of capacity are committed to rapidly growing AI applications, other industries may have to compete for the remaining production.
For example, industry reporting this year has pointed to capacity prioritization for AI servers as a contributor to longer lead times for several components used in general-purpose servers. Power-management ICs, memory and other components tied to data-center infrastructure are areas worth watching closely.
We’re also seeing a market where shortages are highly uneven.
That is an important difference from the COVID-era shortage.
A large portion of the electronics supply chain may still operate normally while one component on your BOM suddenly becomes a 30-, 40- or 50-week problem.
And one missing component can stop an entire assembly.
Another Sign We’re Watching: Purchasing Restrictions
RBB is also beginning to encounter an interesting change when sourcing some parts: suppliers are placing restrictions on the quantities that can be purchased.
Minimum order quantities certainly aren’t new. However, we are now also encountering maximum-buy restrictions on certain parts.
That means a supplier may have inventory available, but limit how many pieces a client can purchase. In a constrained market, suppliers may use these restrictions to manage limited inventory or allocate available product across multiple clients.
From a planning standpoint, this is important. Seeing inventory listed as “in stock” doesn’t necessarily mean we can secure the entire quantity required for a production order.
At the same time, minimum buys can create the opposite problem—requiring a client to purchase more inventory than the immediate build requires.
Neither situation is necessarily a crisis, but both are another reason why earlier visibility into future demand is becoming increasingly valuable.
This Isn’t 2021—But We Should Remember What 2021 Taught Us
RBB has been through this before.
Back in 2021, we were warning clients about bare PCB shortages caused by constraints involving glass fiber, metals, epoxy and resin, along with shortages of resistors, MLCCs, MOSFETs, ICs, connectors, diodes, capacitors and transformers.
Today’s market is different.
We’re not currently seeing the across-the-board shortages that characterized the pandemic-era electronics market. Instead, we’re seeing targeted but increasingly interconnected constraints.
We don’t recommend buying everything you might possibly need simply because the market is tightening. Excess inventory has its own risks and costs.
Instead, we recommend identifying the items that could stop production and making thoughtful decisions about those materials.
How Can We Get Ahead of These Issues?
The best supply chain problem is the one we identify before it affects your production schedule.
“The best way we can manage longer lead times is to get in front of them,” said RBB Materials & Procurement Manager Edward Blackburn. “We’ve been expanding our PCB and component supplier network and working with our existing suppliers to find better options for difficult-to-source materials.”
For RBB customers, there are several practical steps that can help.
1. Share forecasts earlier.
If you know your expected production requirements for the next three, six or twelve months, let us know. Even when those numbers aren’t firm orders, visibility helps us identify potential material issues.
2. Release known orders sooner.
When a requirement is firm, placing the order earlier gives our purchasing team more opportunities to secure PCBs and components before availability changes.
This is becoming especially important because a component showing plenty of stock today may have limited availability—or purchasing restrictions—by the time an order is released.
3. Identify long-lead components early.
A single component can determine the lead time for an entire assembly.
Reviewing BOMs earlier allows us to identify components with unusually long lead times, limited sources, allocation concerns or minimum/maximum purchasing restrictions before they affect production.
4. Consider strategic material purchases.
For stable, repeat-production programs, it may make sense to purchase certain long-lead components or PCBs ahead of the immediate build.
That doesn’t mean stockpiling everything.
It means identifying the relatively small number of items that create the greatest production risk and considering whether securing those materials earlier makes sense.
5. Approve alternates before you need them.
If a critical component has only one approved manufacturer or part number, now may be a good time to evaluate alternatives.
Having an approved alternate before a shortage occurs gives everyone more options.
6. Review PCB specifications for flexibility.
In some cases, an unnecessarily restrictive laminate, stackup, surface finish or other specification can limit sourcing options.
Where engineering requirements allow, approving equivalent materials or alternative constructions may help maintain availability.
7. Give us visibility—even if you aren’t ready to place the order.
This may be the most valuable step.
If you know a project is coming later this year or in early 2027, tell us.
“If customers share upcoming requirements with us before they’re ready to place an order, we can review their custom, identify potential problems early, and even discuss securing critical material ahead of time,” said RBB Materials & Procurement Manager Edward Blackburn. “The earlier we know what’s coming, the more options we have to protect their production schedule.”
Forecast information allows RBB to start asking questions now:
- Are there long-lead components on the BOM?
- Are any parts showing allocation or purchasing restrictions?
- Is the specified PCB laminate becoming difficult to source?
- Should we consider an alternate component?
- Would an early material buy reduce risk?
Those conversations are much easier to have months before a production date than weeks—or days—before one.
Planning Ahead Is the Best Supply Chain Strategy
The current electronics supply chain isn’t a repeat of 2021, and we don’t want to create unnecessary alarm.
But we also don’t want our clients to be caught by surprise.
We’re seeing enough changes—longer PCB quote times, tightening PCB material availability, increasing component lead times, shorter quote validity periods and new purchasing restrictions on certain components—that it makes sense to adjust how we plan.
AI and data center investment are adding another powerful source of demand to an electronics supply chain that already serves automotive, aerospace, defense, industrial, medical and countless other markets.
That competition isn’t likely to disappear overnight.
At RBB, our job isn’t simply to tell you there’s a shortage after it happens. We want to help you see what’s coming and find practical ways around it.
Have a build coming up later this year or in early 2027? Send us your forecast, BOM or upcoming requirements. Let’s look at the potential supply chain risks now—while we still have time and options to solve them.
