Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1526666
62 PCB007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2024 and put funding where it needs to be, not just in a few companies. In Korea and Vietnam, they are funding large advanced packaging because they see that as an avenue to market share. At some point, there will be huge capac- ity in these types of factories, and the US may no longer be competitive in building lesser technology. I don't think that's what any coun- try wants. Intel and AMD say the only way that we can be secure is to build chips that are secret, where our IP is protected here in the United States. I'm okay with that. at's the high-level brain of it all. But I don't hear anyone saying, "We need power supplies to be built in the United States because we're not competitive in power supplies even though it's a super important part of the process that can make or break the product." You want to buy the best power sup- ply for the lowest price, with the highest reli- ability, and put that in your product. at is where panel-form processing should be. e next big advancement of PCB technol- ogy is to move into substrates so only the very critical layering is done by the expensive high- performance factories. Matties: Joe, this has been interesting. Thank you for your time and perspective. ank you, Marcy and Barry. PCB007 A tiny battery designed by MIT engineers could enable the deployment of cell-sized, autonomous robots for drug delivery within the human body, as well as other applications such as locating leaks in gas pipelines. The new battery, which is 0.1 millimeters long and 0.002 millimeters thick—roughly the thickness of a human hair—can capture oxygen from air and use it to oxidize zinc, creating a current of up to 1 volt. The battery they designed consists of a zinc elec- trode connected to a platinum electrode, embed- ded into a strip of a polymer called SU-8, which is commonly used for microelectronics. When these electrodes interact with oxygen molecules from the air, the zinc becomes oxidized and releases elec- trons that flow to the platinum electrode, creating a current. The researchers showed that this battery could provide enough energy to power an actuator— in this case, a robotic arm that can be raised and lowered. The battery could also power a memristor, an electri- cal component that can store memories of events by changing its electrical resistance, and a clock circuit, which allows robotic devices to keep track of time. The battery also provides enough power to run two different types of sensors that change their electri- cal resistance when they encounter chemicals in the environment. One of the sensors is made from atomically thin molybde- num disulfide and the other from carbon nano- tubes. " We' r e m a k i n g t h e basic building blocks in order to build up functions at the cellular level," Strano says. (Source: MIT) MIT Engineers Design Tiny Batteries for Powering Cell-sized Robots