Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1501483
68 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2023 How can we draw new workers into the industry? Like most of the manufacturing verticals, we suffer from a generation of young people who don't view manufacturing as a viable career choice. ey were told it wasn't important. But from my 40 years of personal experience, I can tell them that there are exciting challenges and many different roles one can play in this critical industry, especially as we begin converting our PCB manufacturing operations into Smart fac- tories. PCBAA and our members need to push hard to attract younger workers. at infusion of energy will revitalize our industry and make us more competitive on the world stage. What is your message to Congress? I would tell them that supporting this ecosys- tem is a necessity, not a nice-to-have. Our eco- nomic and national security depends on how they legislate to support us. PCBs are in every electronic device you can think of. I was glad to see PCBAA formed to give this industry a ded- icated voice in Washington. e more voices we get, the better our impact will be for the entire ecosystem: PCB and substrate manu- facturing, assembly, and services for the OEM market. PCB007 The researchers from Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Peking University have developed a new technique for upgrading the qual- ity of topological insulator bismuth films for use in ultra-broadband photodetectors. The study was pub- lished in Optics Express. The researchers used femtosecond laser treat- ment to significantly improve the photoelectric con- version and carrier transportation of bismuth films, which previously limited the optoelectronic proper- ties of the material. Bismuth is a type of topological insulator, a class of materials that have unique properties such as gap- less edge states and insulating bulk states. These properties make them promising for fabricating room-temperature, wide bandwidth, and high-perfor- mance photodetectors that can span the ultraviolet to the far-infrared and even terahertz ranges. How- ever, bismuth films often suffer from high surface roughness and obvious grain boundaries, which can affect photoresponsivity, a key factor for topological insulator ultra-broadband photodetectors. To overcome this challenge, the researchers used femtosecond laser treatment to modify the surface morphology and physiochemical properties of bis- muth films. Femtosecond laser is an intriguing approach that can provide non-contact high precision manufac- ture on various materials due to its ultra-high peak power and ultra-short time duration characteristics. By tuning the laser parameters such as pulse energy and scanning speed, the researchers were able to reduce the average surface roughness to sub-10 nm, while eliminating grain boundaries on the interface. The researchers then fabricated an optoelec- tronic device on a large surface area of the efficiently treated bismuth film with cylindrical focusing condi- tions. The researchers suggest that this method can be further used for improving the quality of other topological insulators, which could promote their application in the field of ultra-broadband photoelec- tric detection. They also hope that their work can inspire more studies on femtosecond laser process- ing for modulating topological quantum materials. (Source: Chinese Academy of Sciences) Femtosecond Laser Improves Bismuth Film Quality for Ultra-broadband Photodetection