Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/798021
56 The PCB Design Magazine • March 2017 being isolated because they think differently than the rest? Will people judge their co-work- ers as un-trustworthy, unworthy, or unreliable because of what political position they do or don't support? If this trend continues what will the end result be to the healthy inter-personal work relationships that are foundational in the work place, and by extension; the growth and success of our corporations? In my opinion, I think that we would all do well to get back to the habit of treating each other with respect and compassion instead of judgement. As an example of co-workers doing their best, let me pass on the following: Many years ago, my brother lost his first wife to can- cer. It was a horrible experience for his family, and it affected many others as well. And yet in the midst of all that pain, there was an incred- ible outpouring of care and compassion by his co-workers. Being a school teacher, my brother had only so much personal time that he could use, and it got used up very quickly as he spent more and more time with his sick wife at the hospital. To help him his co-workers gathered together and donated some of their own per- sonal time to him so that he could spend the time where he needed it most; with his family during this difficult period. Perhaps if Sarah's co-workers had been more like my brothers' the outcome would have been different and she would have stayed in her job. As we've already discussed, the financial benefit to the company would have been much better to retain such a great employee, and the person- al benefit to Sarah to be surrounded by support- ive co-workers could have made a life-changing difference. How many of us could also do better if we would just take the time to discover the root of someone's problem instead of quickly reacting to what we see? Whether at the office or walk- ing down the street, none of us know when the next Sarah will come along in our lives. But we can be ready for her when she does. Just because we spend a good portion of our time in the high-tech automated world of work doesn't mean that we have to react to each other like automatons. The choice of how we interact with each other is one that we are privileged as human beings to make for ourselves. Let's make that choice a good one. Remember: It's still all about the people! PCBDESIGN Tim Haag is manager of customer support and training at Intercept Technology. TAKE CARE OF THE PEOPLE IN OUR INDUSTRY A new metallic silicon (Si) nanostructure has been discovered by researchers from the London Centre for Nanotechnology, the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), and the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), USA. The new Si nanostructure is found to form an atomically-sharp edge with the 2D silicene sheet and could enable the development of native electri- cal contacting, an important step to realising func- tional devices based upon silicene and other 2D materials. As the size of conventional semiconductor de- vices approaches the fundamental limit at the atomic scale, quantum mechanical effects begin to dominate their behaviour. One avenue of promise is research into materials that are only a few atomic layers thick. The first of these so-called "atomically- thin 2D materials" to be realised in a laboratory was graphene, which is a single layer of carbon atoms. Since the discovery of graphene, a wide range of other 2D materials have been found that have a broad array of potentially novel properties. Recent work has shown that silicene can be in- corporated into a conventional field effect transistor and other 2D materials. However, a challenge that remains is how to precisely electrically contact ex- ternal wires to the silicene sheet without destroying the electronic properties that we desire. Metallic Atomically-Thin Layered Silicon