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AUGUST 2023 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 73 Again, the conformal nature of the products enables their near seamless integration into various EW platforms. Cybersecurity Closely coupled with electronic warfare is, unsurprisingly, cybersecurity. Once again, flexible circuit technologies can offer enhanced security in military communications and data transmission. Sealed flexible circuit designs include built-in EMI and ESD shielding to make it difficult to physically tamper with the circuitry while at the same time providing an additional layer of protection against wireless electrical and electronic threats. Satellites and Space Last but certainly not least are satellite and space applications for flex and flex-hybrid electronics. e technologies have long been employed in such products to create flexible solar panels, lightweight antennas, and various electronic sensors of many varieties. Flex and FHE designs enable more efficient use of space while reducing weight, both long considered critical factors in the aerospace industry. is is not an exhaustive recitation of where and how flex-hybrid electronics are helping to advance military and aerospace industries, but it is reasonably representative. As familiarity with flexible circuit and flex-hybrid electron- ics technologies continue to advance, there will unquestionably be more innovative appli- cations coming into existence, providing ever greater efficiency, reliability, and versatility to the products. DESIGN007 Joe Fjelstad is founder and CEO of Verdant Electronics and an international authority and innovator in the field of elec- tronic interconnection and packaging technologies with more than 185 patents issued or pending. To read past columns or contact Fjelstad, click here. Download your free copy of Fjelstad's book Flexible Circuit Technology, 4th Edition, and watch his in-depth workshop series "Flexible Circuit Technology." Researchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford Uni- versity say they've found a way to make thin films of an exciting new nickel oxide superconductor that are free of extended defects. Their first look at a superconducting nickel oxide, or nickelate, that does not have defects revealed that it is more like the cuprates, which hold the world's high- temperature record for uncon- ventional superconductivity at normal pressures, than previ- ously thought. It's the latest step in a 35-year quest to develop superconduc- tors that can operate at close to room temperature, which would revolutionize electron- ics, transportation, power transmission and other technologies by allowing them to operate without energy-wasting electrical resistance. The research team, led by Harold Hwang, direc- tor of the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences (SIMES) at SLAC, described their work in the journal Nature. "Nickelate films are really unstable, and until now our efforts to stabilize them on top of other materials have produced defects that are like speed bumps for electrons," said Kyuho Le e, a S I M E S p o s t d o c t o r a l researcher who contributed to the discovery of superconductiv- ity in nickelates four years ago. (Source: SLAC) A Foundation That Fits Just Right Gives Superconducting Nickelates a Boost