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96 PCB007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2022 technologies are intertwined, there is no way to limit critical technologies to military appli- cations. Nations, including the United States, are using economic and industrial policies across multiple industry verticals to influence geopolitical outcomes. e time has come for policymakers to understand that banking, telecommunications, energy, transportation, and healthcare are also vital to our national security. All these sectors are powered by microelectronics and should be considered critical. is has implications for policies that take a holistic view of all the industry verticals that drive our economic and national security. What are the common elements our nation needs to make this happen? We need to invest in a broad and sustain- able base of high-tech manufacturing and form public/private partnerships to both train the skilled workforce and invest in areas like microelectronics that are the foundation of every industry vertical in our modern world. Bringing high-tech manufacturing back to the United States and having a world-class workforce does more than shore up the econ- omy; it makes our nation more secure. Policy- makers need to understand that industrial pol- icy is national security policy and expand their thinking to include a broader definition of what constitutes a critical sector. PCBs are just one example of a foundational microelectronic that makes modern life possi- ble and that's why they need a secure and reli- able domestic supply chain. e Printed Cir- cuit Board Association of America was formed to educate, advocate, and legislate with this outcome in mind. PCB007 Travis Kelly is CEO of Isola- Group and current chairman of the Printed Circuit Board Association of America. To read past columns, click here. A quantum inertial sensor can measure motion a thousand times more accurately than the devices that help navigate today's missiles, aircraft and drones. But its delicate, table-sized array of compo- nents that includes a complex laser and vacuum sys- tem has largely kept the technology confined to the lab. Jongmin Lee wants to change that. Lee is part of a team at Sandia National Laborato- ries that envisions quantum inertial sensors as rev- olutionary, onboard navigational aids. If the team can reengineer the sensor into a compact, rugged device, the technology could safely guide vehicles where GPS signals are jammed or lost. The team has successfully built a cold-atom inter- ferometer, a core component of quantum sensors, designed to be much smaller and tougher than typical lab setups. The team describes their prototype in the academic journal Nature Commu- nications, showing how to inte- grate several normally separated components into a single monolithic structure. In doing so, they reduced the key components of a sys- tem that existed on a large optical table down to a sturdy package roughly the size of a shoebox. The prototype, funded by Sandia's Laboratory Directed Research and Development program, dem- onstrates significant strides toward moving advanced navigation tech out of the lab and into vehicles. When a jet does a barrel roll through the sky, cur- rent onboard navigation tech can measure the air- craft's tilts and turns and accelerations to calculate its position without GPS, for a time. Small measurement errors gradually push a vehicle off course unless it periodically syncs with the satellites, Lee said. Quantum sensing would oper- ate in the same way, but the much better accuracy would mean onboard navigation wouldn't need to cross-check its calcula- tions as often, reducing reliance on satellite systems. (Source: Sandia Labs) A Vision for Navigating When GPS Goes Dark