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SEPTEMBER 2025 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 33 tariffs and global trade tensions, supply chain resiliency is more critical than ever. Isola's global production network provides critical supply chain advantages with the ability to deliver consistent high-performance materials from Asia, U.S., and European sites. This enables OEMs and PCB man- ufacturers to mitigate geopolitical risk, improve sourcing flexibility, and meet regional compliance requirements. This is especially valuable for indus- tries operating under stringent domestic content rules or regional procurement policies. Isola's advanced material solutions, combined with its unique transatlantic manufacturing pres- ence, create high value for customers navigating the future of electronics. Whether it's enabling higher data throughput in 5G and HPC systems, improving thermal reliability in EV platforms, or ensuring mission- critical performance in aerospace electronics, this new generation of Isola advanced material deliv- ers solid technology and manufacturing in- frastructure to meet the needs of next-generation applications. PCB007 Kirk Thompson is the chief technology officer at Isola Group. K irk T hompson Wrinkles can be an asset, especially for next-gen- eration electronics. Rice University scientists have discovered that tiny creases in two-dimensional materials can control electrons' spin with record precision, opening the path to ultracompact, ener- gy-efficient electronic devices. Computing with spin could overcome the limita- tions of current silicon-based technology, reducing the energy footprint of devices and data centers at a moment when com- puting-driven energy use is soaring globally. However, spintronics has to contend with a major challenge: Infor- mation encoded in spin is quick to decay and can be lost when the electrons in a material scatter and collide with atoms. "In typical materials, spin is tied to electron mo- mentum, so changing direction alters spin, where- as in materials with PSH states, spin state remains fixed," said Sunny Gupta, a Rice alumnus and post- doctoral associate who is a first author on the study. "Very few materials in nature can host PSH, making it rare and, until now, hard to fabricate." The research team led by materials scientist Bo- ris Yakobson hypothesized that wrinkles in 2D mate- rials could be a way to control electron spin states: When a 2D material is bent, the top side of the sheet stretches while the bottom side gets compressed. This uneven strain causes positive and negative charges to shift slightly relative to one another, pro- ducing an internal electric field—a phenomenon known as flexoelectric polarization. Gupta noted that the starting premise of the in- vestigation was somewhat counterintuitive, since "quantum behaviors and elastic mechanics are two different areas of physics that rarely intersect. "Here we showed that not only do macroscopic changes in the geometry or shape of 2D materials have an impact on the deep quantum-relativistic in- teraction between electron spin and nuclei, but also that this effect can be harnessed to create exotic spin textures for novel spintronics," he said. (Source: Rice University) Wrinkles in Atomically Thin Materials Unlock Ultraefficient Electronics