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58 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2024 ing for medical diagnostics. e potential link between microfluidics and multifunctional biosensing can therefore be found in the real- ization of 3D microfluidic manifolds, propel- ling lab-on-PCB technology to enable low cost and rapid micro-Total Analysis Systems— micro-TAS (µTAS). PCB007 References 1. "Advances in Medical Diagnostics Using Lab- on-Chip and Lab-on-PCB Technologies," by Happy Holden, PCB007 Magazine, April 2020. 2. "LoPCB Technology," by Despina Moschou, AltiumLive, Munich 2019. 3. "LoPCB: One step away from the accomplish- ment of µTAS," Biomicrofluidics, May 2022. Happy Holden has worked in printed circuit technology since 1970 with Hewlett-Packard, NanYa Westwood, Merix, Fox- conn, and Gentex. He is cur- rently a contributing technical editor with I-Connect007, and the author of Automation and Advanced Proce- dures in PCB Fabrication, and 24 Essential Skills for Engineers. To read past columns, click here. and actual transparent 3D-printed serpentine mixer. In Figure 5c is a 3D-printed microde- vice of a chip featuring a mixing stage and a reaction chamber where a photomultiplier can be integrated for bioluminescence detection. In Figure 5d are 3D-printed multilayer micro- channels as small as 32 mm, utilizing a flexible silicone resin and then 3D-printed directly on an unmodified Arduino PCB, demonstrating a fully integrated microfluidic-microelectronic interface (Figure 5e). Some PCB medical devices are so small they can be swallowed and directed through your intestines to perform 2D optical-coherence tomography (Figure 6) from a tear-down by Portelligent. e endoscopic scanner uses a 2D scanning MEMS mirror only 1 mm in diameter to provide real-time 3D images and video for the physician; the device is only 3 mm square. Future devices have propulsion and steering. Summary Advancements in µHDI PCBs and 3D print- ing for additive manufacturing have led to the new products of smart microfluidic packag- Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (MPI CPfS), Dresden, have now found that mechanical pressure enhances superconductiv- ity and, at the same time, facilitates deformation of strontium ruthenate. They attri- bute this to quantum mechanics excitations of the electrons. Superconductors do not have any electrical resistance when the temperature is below the so- called transition temperature. Scientists have not yet under- stood why strontium ruthenate (Sr2RuO4) is superconductive. "Conventional theory cannot be applied to strontium ruthe- nate. But quantum mechanics helps, as it cannot only be used to describe the properties of single atoms and mol- ecules. It also explains the collective properties of multi-particle systems," says Professor KIT's Jörg Schmalian. Schmalian is one of the main authors [report- ing] that mechanical pres- sure in a certain direction con- siderably increased the tran- sition temperature of stron- tium ruthenate and, as a result, changed the excitation behav- ior of electrons. This pressure increases superconductivity. The researchers attributed this to quantum mechanics reso- nance of the electron oscilla- tions. (Source: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) Quantum Materials: Superconductor Performs Best Under Pressure