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68 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2024 ral disasters, or other events outside our con- trol. Ultimately, building a supply chain capable of handling the expected and unexpected calls for mutual understanding and effective com- munications between supplier and customer. is is critical to achieving resilience and effi- ciency and establishing close, strong, and enduring relationships that benefit all parties involved. PCB007 Mark Goodwin is chief operating officer, EMEA & USA, at Ventec International Group. that lengthen production time. It's harder for either the customer or supplier to walk away from such a carefully set up and effective part- nership. At Ventec, we own the complete supply chain of PCB materials, including laminates and pre- pregs, from end to end. is means we can keep lines of communication short and mar- shal our resources to focus on our own needs, unaffected by any competing interests of other companies. Also, we can maintain carefully managed inventory in various locations world- wide, which gives us the flexibility to adapt in the event of international trade disputes, natu- Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have fabricated a device no wider than a human hair that will help physicists investigate the fundamental nature of matter and light. Their findings, published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, could also support the development of more efficient lasers, which are used in fields ranging from medicine to manufacturing. Because of this property, topological insulators can make many photons coherently act like one photon. The devices can also be used as topolog- ical "quantum simulators," miniature laboratories where researchers can study quantum phenomena, the physical laws that govern matter at very small scales. "The photonic topological insulator we created is unique. It works at room temperature. This is a major advance. Previously, one could only investigate this regime using big, expensive equipment that super cools matter in a vacuum. Many research labs do not have access to this kind of equipment, so our device could allow more people to pursue this kind of basic physics research in the lab," said Wei Bao, assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at RPI and senior author of the Nature Nanotechnology study. To create their device, the researchers grew ultrathin plates of halide perovskite, a crystal made of cesium, lead, and chlorine, and etched a polymer on top of it with a pattern. They sandwiched these crystal plates and poly- mer between sheets of vari- ous oxide materials, eventu- ally forming an object about 2 microns thick and 100 microns in length and width (the average human hair is 100 microns wide). (Source: Renssalaer Poly- technic Institute) How a Tiny Device Could Lead to Big Physics Discoveries and Better Lasers