Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/937683
50 PCB007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2018 or by building a better relationship and gaining the business even though your product may not be superior. Or perhaps it is by helping the career of an internal competitor even though it was you who got the promotion. Sometimes you can work with a competitor on an indus- try project for the common good. When you beat someone for the sale, or per- haps for a key promotion, or you work with them on a common project, you have a great opportunity to gain the respect of the competi- tion who may have just lost to you. Find a way to then help them and take advantage of the opportunity. Years later I will bet that you will be glad you did. I can recall situations in my career where all of these situations helped me get to where I wanted to go. Remember the path does not end when you make the sale. The marketing plan is a life-long path and there will be times when some people you never expected to do so will become your customers. PCB007 Dan Feinberg is president of Fein-Line Associates and a contributing editor for I–Connect007. To read past col- umns or to contact him click here. Researchers have identified a mechanism that triggers shape-memory phenomena in organic crystals used in plastic electronics. Shape-shifting structural materials are often made with metal alloys, but the new genera- tion of economical and printable plastic elec- tronics is poised to greatly benefit from this recently identified phenomenon, too. Shape- memory materials science and plastic electron- ics technology, when merged, could open the door to advancements in low-power electron- ics, medical electronics devices and multifunc- tional shape-memory materials. Devices such as the expandable stents that open and unblock clogged human blood ves- sels use shape-memory technology. Heat, light and electrical signals, or mechanic forces pass information through the various devices, tell- ing them to expand, contract, bend and morph back into their original form. They can do so repeatedly, like a snake constricting to swallow its dinner. This effect works well with metals, but remains elusive in synthetic organic materials because of the complexity of the molecules that are used to create them. "The shape-memory phenome- non is common in nature, but we are not really sure about nature's design rules at the molecular level," said Professor of Chemi- cal and Biomolecular Engineer- ing and Co-author of the study, Ying Diao. "Nature uses organic compounds that are very differ- ent from the metal alloys used in shape-memory materials on the market today," Diao said. Shape-shifting Organic Crystals Use Memory to Improve Plastic Electronics