Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1520956
58 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2024 educate them on the importance of our indus- try and ask them to co-sponsor HR 3249, the Protecting Circuit Boards and Substrates (PCBS) Act. By the way, the PCBS Act has a 25% tax incentive for OEMs to buy American, so we hope they will join us in supporting the bill and joining the association. In the current political environment, I bal- ance my optimism with patience. e CHIPS Act took more than four years to become law, driven by powerful industry associations that lobbied hard for their members. We believe our legislation deserves the same support, and we must never let up on our campaign to edu- cate, advocate for, and support legislation that will bring PCB and substrate manufacturing back to America, leveling the global playing field and batting 1.000 for our industry. PCB007 Travis Kelly is CEO of Isola-Group and current chair of the Printed Circuit Board Association of America. To read past columns, click here. ing. We recently sent another joint PCBAA/ IPC letter to Congress signed by many of our member companies asking for $85 million to be restored for FY25. e DPA account is an important resource for our industry. Calu- met and GreenSource were both beneficia- ries of DPA funding, and we hope more mem- ber companies will receive funds in the years ahead. Our legislative priorities go beyond the defense market, which is a small but important slice of our industry. PCBAA also represents the companies supporting our nation's criti- cal infrastructure. e Department of Defense recognizes the need for a domestic PCB indus- try, but we must broaden our outreach to the other agencies of government responsible for the security of critical infrastructure. As our association grows—now approaching 60 members—our voice is stronger in Wash- ington. We need other manufacturers, assem- blers, and material providers to join PCBAA and increase our influence. is is why we spend a day on Capitol Hill during our annual meeting in June. Having face-to-face time with members of Congress and their staff helps us Tiny chips may equal a big breakthrough for a team of scientists led by Brown University engineers. The research team describes a novel approach for a wireless communication network that can effi- ciently transmit, receive, and decode data from thousands of microelectronic chips that are each no larger than a grain of salt. The sensor network is designed so the chips can be implanted into the body or integrated into wearable devices. Each submillimeter-sized silicon sensor mimics how neu- rons in the brain communicate through spikes of electrical activity. "Our brain works in a very sparse way," said Jihun Lee, a postdoctoral researcher at Brown and study lead author. "Neurons do not fire all the time. They compress data and fire sparsely so that they are very efficient. We are mimicking that structure here in our wireless telecommunication approach. The sensors would not be sending out data all the time —they'd just be sending relevant data as needed as short bursts of electrical spikes, and they would be able to do so independently of the other sensors and without coordinating with a central receiver. By doing this, we would manage to save a lot of energy and avoid flooding our central receiver hub with less meaningful data." Through simulations, they were able to show how to decode data collected from the brains of primates using about 8,000 hypothetically implanted sen- sors. The researchers say next steps include opti- mizing the system for reduced power consumption and exploring broader applications beyond neuro- technology. (SOURCE: Brown University) Brain Inspired System Gathers Data from Salt-sized Sensors