Updates on wireless peripherals, PCBA, connection experience, and industry trends.
SIA reported global semiconductor sales of $120.6 billion in May 2026, up 9.2% from April and 104.1% year over year. The market has grown month over month for 15 consecutive months, showing continued demand from AI, data centers, end devices, and communications applications.
The Global Electronics Association reported a May 2026 North American EMS book-to-bill ratio of 1.36, above parity for nine consecutive months. May EMS shipments grew 5.2% year over year, while year-to-date shipments rose 9.6%, indicating resilient electronics manufacturing services demand.
Global Electronics Association data for May 2026 showed a North American PCB book-to-bill ratio of 1.60, with PCB shipments up 11.9% year over year and bookings up 102.8%. AI server and data center investment continued to drive complex PCB demand, affecting PCBA process planning and supply-chain timing.
The Connectivity Standards Alliance released Matter 1.6 with a focus on NFC commissioning, Joint Fabric multi-ecosystem administration, thermostat suggestions, device capability reporting, and safety/security state communication rather than new device categories. The release emphasizes real-world installation, cross-platform coordination, and device-state transparency.
Bluetooth Core Specification 6.2 reduces the minimum connection interval for Shorter Connection Intervals from 7.5 ms to 375 us with 125 us resolution, while adding Channel Sounding amplitude-based attack resilience, HCI USB LE isochronous support, and LE test mode enhancements. Low-latency peripherals, real-time HMI, and sensors can benefit from finer link control.
Nordic Semiconductor announced Bluetooth Channel Sounding support in its nRF Toolbox Android app, allowing developers to evaluate ranging between a smartphone and a Bluetooth LE device using the nRF54L Series and Google Pixel 10. Its public demo used an nRF54L15 DK as the reflector and achieved about +/-1 m distance estimation up to 20 m.
Nordic Semiconductor expanded the nRF54L Series with the nRF54LM20A. The SoC offers 2 MB NVM, 512 KB RAM, a 128 MHz Arm Cortex-M33, a RISC-V coprocessor, high-speed USB, and up to 66 GPIOs, supporting Bluetooth LE, Channel Sounding, Matter over Thread, and more for advanced HID, gaming peripherals, smart home, commercial, and industrial products.
Google announced expanded Android support for LE Audio Auracast across more Pixel, Samsung, Xiaomi devices, and Sony headphones, adding audio sharing through QR codes, Fast Pair, and multiple headsets. Bluetooth audio is moving from single-device pairing toward public broadcasts, private sharing, and assistive listening.
Bluetooth SIG projected in its 2025 market update that annual Bluetooth device shipments would exceed 5.3 billion units in 2025 and approach 8 billion by 2029. The report also highlighted roadmap areas such as Channel Sounding, ultra-low-latency HID, high data throughput, LE Audio enhancements, and cooperation with other standards.
Thread Group released the Thread 1.4 specification and certification program in 2024, focusing on credential sharing, Thread over Infrastructure, network diagnostics, secure commissioning at scale, direct cloud connectivity, robustness, and scalability. The release addresses multi-border-router, network fragmentation, and troubleshooting issues seen in Matter deployments.
