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56 SMT007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2025 space tech accelerate, demand for reliable, high- performance PCBs is surging, and so are expecta- tions. OEMs don't just want a supplier. They want a strategic partner that understands both the front- end design and the back-end logistics, that offers speed without sacrificing quality, and that has the agility to scale from prototype to mass production. No single nation has it all, but together, China and North America might. A Final Thought: We're Not Competitors, We're Co-creators In the spirit of true global citizenship, let's reject the outdated mindset that divides "us" from "them." Bridges, not fences, will shape the next era of electronics innovation. Let's pick up the phone, open the design files, and walk the line together, because it's impossible to make a perfect PCB solution in a single location. People will make it collaboratively—across borders, oceans, and minds. SMT007 Tom Yang is CEO of CEE PCB. To read past columns, click here. G LO BA L C I T I Z E N S H I P Researchers at EPFL and Harvard University have en- gineered a chip that can convert between electromag- netic pulses in the terahertz and optical ranges on the same device. Their integrated design could enable the development of devices for ultrafast telecommunica- tions, ranging, spectroscopy, and computing. Terahertz radiation describes a band of waves on the electromagnetic spectrum with frequencies high- er than microwaves (which are used in telecommuni- cations technologies like Wi-Fi) but lower than infra- red light (used in lasers and fiber optics). Their short wavelengths mean that terahertz (THz) signals can transmit large amounts of data very fast but connect- ing THz radiation to existing optical and microwave technologies has been extremely challenging. In 2023, researchers in Laboratory of Hybrid Pho- tonics came one step closer to bridging this gap when they created an extremely thin photonic chip made of lithium niobate that, when connected to a laser beam, produced finely tailorable THz waves. Now, the team has reported a novel design that not only generates THz waves but detects incoming ones as well by converting them to optical signals. This bi-directional conversion on a single, minia- turized platform is an essential step toward bridging the THz and optical domains and could enable the development of compact and power-efficient devic- es for communication, sensing, spectroscopy and computing. The research has been published in Nature Communications. The team is already working on fully miniaturizing the chip design to enable seamless integration into the next generation of communications and ranging systems, such as those used in self-driving cars. The team anticipate that the proposed design guidelines will become crucial in future terahertz applications such as high-speed 6G communications, where sensing and ranging will be an essential component of the communication network. (Source: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) A Hybrid Photonic-terahertz Chip for Communications and Sensing