PCB007 Magazine

PCB007-Nov2018

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14 PCB007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2018 end of this semester (fall 2018), they expect to have put roughly 2,100 students through the program across multiple states. FlexFactor's success at engaging young people with the ca- reers of tomorrow has sparked a national ex- pansion of the program, beginning with Lo- rain Community College in Elyria, Ohio, which launched their first pilot in spring 2018. Colleg- es and universities leverage the turn-key pro- gram to improve engagement with local high school students, increase enrollment in specif- ic education pathways, and achieve regional workforce and economic development objec- tives. The ultimate goal of FlexFactor is to create a generation of students who use their critical thinking, creativity, communication, and col- laboration skills to create the materials and de- vices that will address and mitigate the big- gest challenges of the future. I have personally had the opportunity to participate in one of the student "pitch days" and was completely im- pressed with their innovative product ideas, en- ergy, and knowledge of the advanced manufac- turing space. If NextFlex ever decides to expand this concept to an adult continuing education program, I may be the first to sign up! PCB007 Tara Dunn is the president of Omni PCB, a manufacturer's rep firm specializing in the printed circuit board industry. To read past columns or contact Dunn, click here. Their recent paper published in the journal Nature ex- plains that the same physics that protects the light along the chip's edge also ensures reliable photon production. In the experiment, the team used silicon to convert in- frared laser light into pairs of differently colored single photons. They injected light into a chip containing an ar- ray of minuscule silicon loops and arranged in a way that always allows the light to travel undisturbed around the edge of the chip even if fabrication defects were present. This design not only shields the light from disruptions, but also restricts how single photons form within those edge channels. The loop layout essentially forces each photon pair to be nearly identical to the next regardless of microscopic differences among the rings. Using this approach, the researchers were able to produce high-quality single-color photons re- liably and repeatedly compared to the unpredict- able output of traditional chips. Their device also has one unique advantage: "Our chip works at room temperature," says Sunil Mittal, a JQI postdoctor- al researcher and lead author of the study, "I don't have to cool it down to cryogenic temperatures, making it a comparatively very simple setup." The team says this finding could open up a new avenue of research that unites quantum light with photonic devices having built-in protective features. by Dina Genkina and Emily Edwards JOINT QUANTUM INSTITUTE Researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) have demonstrated a new approach that enables different de- vices to emit nearly identical single photons repeatedly. Led by JQI Fellow Mohammad Hafezi, the team made a silicon chip that guides light around the device's edge where it is inherently protected against disruptions. In earlier research, Hafezi and colleagues showed that this design could reduce the likelihood of optical signal degradation. Photons Created at the Edge of a Silicon Chip Researchers configure silicon rings on a chip to emit high- quality photons for use in quantum information processing. (Source: JQI)

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