As AI data centers, electric vehicles, energy storage, and advanced consumer electronics demand more power from increasingly compact systems, engineers are confronting an unavoidable consequence: heat. In this episode, Marcy LaRont talks with Shih-Wei Chang, Global Business Development Leader, about why thermal management has moved from a downstream design consideration to a fundamental part of system architecture. We explore how the PCB itself is becoming part of the thermal solution, why heat affects far more than the component generating it, and how advanced materials can help engineers balance thermal conductivity with electrical insulation, safety, and long-term reliability. As Chang says, the real opportunity lies in taking a system-level approach, bringing designers, manufacturers, and materials suppliers together early to manage power, heat, electrical performance, and reliability from the very beginning.

Consumers want it all: smaller, lighter devices with more processing power, longer battery life, better cameras, faster connectivity, and increasingly sophisticated features. Making all of that fit is where the real engineering challenge begins. Marcy LaRont talks with Bruce Lee about the flexible circuitry working quietly behind the scenes to make today's smartphones, smart glasses, wearables, and foldable devices possible. We explore how flex enables designers to squeeze more functionality into ever-smaller spaces, why thinner isn't always better, and how materials must balance bendability, signal integrity, thermal performance, manufacturability, and long-term reliability. Bruce also discusses Qnity's latest material developments and why the next generation of flex may help enable product designs that, only a few years ago, simply weren't possible.

As AI computing pushes performance and power requirements to unprecedented levels, “smaller form factor” is taking on a whole new meaning. When it comes to the AI data center, the challenge isn't necessarily building a smaller PCB, but packing dramatically more bandwidth, power, and functionality into increasingly complex systems. In this episode, I talk with Dr. Jin Hyun Hwang about what that means for PCB designers, fabricators, and materials suppliers. We explore the challenges of high-layer-count and sequentially laminated boards, the increasingly intertwined roles of signal and power integrity, and why technologies such as embedded capacitance, vertical power delivery, UHDI, and co-packaged optics are gaining attention. As Dr. Hwang explains, the next breakthrough in AI hardware may not come from any one technology, but from rethinking how materials, packaging, PCBs, power delivery, and system architecture work together.

In this episode, Marcy LaRont speaks with Rich Wessel, who explores how advanced materials enable electronics to perform reliably in demanding and mission-critical applications. From aerospace and automotive systems to AI infrastructure and humanoid robotics, we discuss the growing intersection of high performance and high reliability—and the thermal, electrical, and mechanical challenges engineers must overcome. We also look at how Qnity’s materials expertise and collaborative approach help customers design for performance and reliability from the start.

Qnity may be a new name in advanced electronics materials, but the technology behind it is anything but new. Separated from DuPont in November 2025, Qnity brings decades of materials science and some of the electronics industry's most recognizable material platforms into a company focused exclusively on semiconductor and electronics manufacturing. In this foundational episode of On the Line With… Qnity, Marcy LaRont talks with Jake Joo about the company's heritage, its Advanced Flex Technologies business, and the long history behind familiar names like Kapton® polyimide films and Pyralux® flex circuit laminates and adhesive systems. From materials that have traveled to Mars to today's increasingly complex consumer electronics and AI systems, we explore how Qnity is building on that legacy and helping OEMs and fabricators solve problems at the system level.