Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1126810
36 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2019 mat with a push of a button. You should give this format some serious consideration if that is an option for you and your manufacturer. Now, if you will forgive me for droning on and on about this cake that I created, there is one more comparison in this story that I would like to explore. I would not even have known that poppy seed was one of my wife's favor- ite cake flavors if I had not been talking to her about it first. I also wouldn't have known about some of the baking tips that I needed if I had not talked to my daughter-in-law and oth- ers about how best to do this. My point is that the most effective communication starts before you are ready to build the product so that you are ready for the task ahead. One of the best things that you can do for yourself when getting your PCB design built by a manufacturer, is to begin talking to them before you start the design. I have heard fabrication and assembly people talk about the successes they've had working with the designer ahead of the build, and the problems they've experienced when there hasn't been adequate communica - tion. The more communication they have with you, the better the results are likely to be. Here's a little design treasure that I learned a while back, and hopefully it will be helpful to you too. Your manufacturers know a lot about building circuit boards because it's their job to know, and they wouldn't still be in business if they didn't have this knowledge. They have a very good understanding of PCB materials and layer stackups and what needs to happen to configure the board for the type of design that you are doing. Ask them for help if you don't understand, and listen to their different op- tions for performance, price, and manufactur- ability. With their expertise, they will be able to narrow the options down for you to give you the best value and performance for the money that you will be spending. Remember that clear communication is the key to getting the job done right. Just as a well- written recipe helped me to be the big hero a couple of days ago on my wife's birthday, open communication and clear instructions help you to be the hero on your next PCB design. Every- thing starts with design, and that means that you have to take charge of making sure that everybody knows what you need to be done for the job to be successful. Now, if you will excuse me, there's only one slice of that cake left, and I want to snag it before someone else beats me to it. DESIGN007 Tim Haag is a PCB design consultant based in Portland, Oregon. To read past columns or contact Haag, click here. track memory devices. Instead of using individual do- mains, in the future one could store the information in 3D spin structures, making the memories faster and more ro- bust and providing a larger data capacity. The Mainz-based researchers examined a number of different combinations of materials grown in multilay- ers. They were able to show that this previously unknown interaction exists in different systems and can be engi- neered by the design of the layers. This opens up the pos- sibility of designing various new three-dimensional spin structures, which could lead to new magnetic storage units in the long term. (Source: Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz) We ubiquitously stream videos, we download audiobooks to mobile devices, and we store huge numbers of photos on our devices. In short, the storage capacity we need is grow- ing rapidly. Researchers are working to develop new data storage options. One possibility is the racetrack memory device where the data is stored in nanowires in the form of oppositely magnetized areas, so-called domains. A research team from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany, together with colleagues from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands as well as Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Tech- nology and Sogang University in South Korea, has made a discovery that could significantly improve these race- New Interaction Between Thin Film Magnets Discovered