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Electronics News Roundup: Week of March 18, 2026

From semiconductor breakthroughs to maker community highlights, here’s what made waves in electronics this week.

Samsung Unveils 2nm Chip Manufacturing Process

Samsung announced its 2nm GAA (Gate-All-Around) process has entered risk production, promising significant improvements in power efficiency and transistor density. The new process could pack over 100 billion transistors onto a single chip. While this technology is years away from your Arduino, it drives innovation that eventually trickles down to hobbyist-level components.

Arduino IDE 3.0 Beta Released

The Arduino team released the first public beta of IDE 3.0, featuring a completely rewritten code editor, integrated serial plotter with data export, built-in library dependency management, and dramatically faster compilation. The new IDE also supports VS Code extensions, bridging the gap between beginner-friendly and professional development environments.

European Chip Act Funding Begins Flowing

The first round of European Chips Act funding began disbursement this week, with €3.2 billion allocated to semiconductor research facilities across Germany, France, and the Netherlands. The initiative aims to bring chip manufacturing capacity back to Europe and reduce dependency on Asian foundries.

Community Spotlight: Open-Source Logic Analyzer

A Raspberry Pi Pico-based logic analyzer project gained significant attention this week after being featured on EEVblog. The project, called “PicoLA,” turns a $4 Pico into a 16-channel, 100 MHz logic analyzer with a web-based UI. It’s perfect for debugging I2C, SPI, and UART communications without spending hundreds on commercial equipment.

New Soldering Iron Challenges the TS100 Crown

Miniware released the TS80P successor, the TS101, featuring USB-C PD charging up to 100W, an OLED display, and open-source firmware. At $69, it’s positioned as the new budget champion for portable soldering. Early reviews praise the fast heat-up time (8 seconds to 300°C) and the ergonomic design improvements over its predecessor.

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