As COVID-19 cases surge in Taiwan, concerns have been raised over the stability of chip supply from the local semiconductor value chain. No major infections have been reported among Taiwan's semiconductor and IT supply chains yet, but Pegatron has adopted work-from-home measures for its Taiwan offices after one of its employees was infected with coronavirus. But demand for PCs in Southeast Asia remains strong despite the resurging pandemic there, according to Acer's president for the region. Concerns rising over Taiwan chip supply stability: With Taiwan encountering a sudden rise in the number of domestically transmitted COVID-19 infections, concerns about the stability of Taiwan's IC industry supply chain have emerged.Pegatron adopts WFH measures for Taiwan after COVID infection: Pegatron has implemented a three-team rotation working schedule for its offices in Taiwan starting this week, as an employee has been confirmed a COVID-19 infection case.Notebook demand in Southeast Asia stays strong despite resurging pandemic: Demand for PCs from Southeast Asian countries remains robust despite the recent resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic there, according to Acer Pan Asia Pacific president Andrew Hou.

Some first-tier brands, including Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, are likely to see their smartphone shipments decline in the second quarter of 2021 due to shortages of semiconductor components, according to Digitimes Research.Global smartphone shipments enjoyed a 47% on-year growth in the first quarter of the year thanks to a rebound in consumer demand in the wake of an easing of virus impacts and a lower base recorded a year earlier, Digitimes Research figures show.Samsung Electronics, Apple and Xiaomi were the top three vendors in the first quarter.Samsung saw its shipments grow 15.9% on year to 75 million units in the first quarter, outpacing Apple to recapture the number one title in the vendor rankings.Apple was second with its shipments totaling 56 million units, which represented a 49.5% increase from a year earlier.Chinese brands Oppo and Vivo also ramped up their shipments significantly in the first quarter. Xiaom, Oppo and Vivo have been gearing up their efforts, including the launch of more entry-level 5G models, to grab market share relinquished by Huawei.On the other hand, Huawei's shipments were almost halved in the first quarter from a year earlier as the firm has run out it inventory for parts and components. Shipments from Honor, a spin-off brand from Huawei, were still far from satisfactory as its supplies parts and components were affected by large-scale procurement by rival vendors.But Xiaomi and Oppo have recently revised their shipment targets set for 2021 previously due to insufficient supply of parts and components, Digitimes Research noted.A surge in demand for IT products, networking devices and smartphones, along with the recent global economic recovery, has sent manufacturers from related industries scrambling for needed semiconductor parts and backend service capacity, resulting in an extension of delivery lead times and shortages.As a result, smartphone shipments from first-tier brands are expected to decline in the second quarter before picking up again in the second half of the year, bolstered by most vendors' launch of new models.For all of 2021, global smartphone shipments are likely to reach 1.35-1.4 billion units or comparable to the figures achieved in 2019, Digitimes Research estimates.

Global all-in-one (AIO) PC shipments went down 5.5% sequentially to come to 3.37 million units in the first quarter of 2021, due to a high comparison base a quarter ago and shortages of panel and chips.As the component shortages will continue, the volumes will increase only around 4% sequentially in the second quarter, driven primarily by Apple's new devices.The share of AIO PCs in global desktop shipments increased in the first quarter of 2021 and their share is expected to expand slightly to 14% in the second quarter.Hewlett-Packard (HP), Apple, Lenovo, Dell and Asustek Computer remained the top-5 AIO PC brand in the first quarter, with Micro-Star International (MSI) surpassing Acer to become the sixth largest and Acer in seventh place, Digitimes Research's data show.However, Apple may leapfrog HP to become the largest AIO PC brand in the second quarter, while Acer and MSI will swap places.Wistron had the strongest sequential shipment growth among ODMs in the first quarter, obtaining new enterprise model orders from HP and seeing Dell increase the proportion of its orders for the quarter. Quanta will remain the largest ODM in terms of shipments in the second quarter, with its share to increase to 46%, thanks to Apple's order ramp-ups.

Foxconn has made another step towards developing more affordable electric vehicles. The EMS giant has just struck deals with California-based Fisker for the development of EVs with starting prices under US$30,000. Meanwhile, the global top-5 notebook brand vendors' combined shipment slipped in May due to component shortages, according to Digitimes esearch's latest figures. But ODM Quanta Computer expects its notebook shipments to stay robust in second-half 2021.Fisker, Foxconn sign pacts for development of sub-US$30,000 EVs: Fisker, a developer of electric vehicles (EV) and mobility solutions, has announced it has signed framework agreements with Foxconn (Hon Hai) Technology Group for joint development of EVs that will enter the market with starting prices under US$30,000, with manufacturing to start in the US from fourth-quarter 2023.Top-5 notebook vendors see combined shipments drop 4% in April: Despite seeing strong demand from the education and enterprise sectors, the global top-5 notebook brands (not including Apple) still saw their combined shipments slip 4% on month in May, due to component shortages.Notebook demand to remain strong in 2H21, says Quanta: Quanta Computer continues to see notebook customers step up their pace of orders with the orders pull-in momentum to carry on in the second half of 2021, according to the Taiwan-based ODM.

Despite seeing strong demand from the education and enterprise sectors, the global top-5 notebook brands (not including Apple) still saw their combined shipments slip 4% on month in May, due to component shortages.Hewlett-Packard (HP) had weaker-than-expected shipments in the consumer and enterprise sectors in April because of tight supply of ICs and panels, while Lenovo also experienced an on-month shipment decline in April, with its orders from Japan's GIGA School project reaching an end, Digitimes Research's figures show.Dell enjoyed an on-month increase in April shipments with its robust output for Chromebooks and enterprise products.The top-3 ODMs' combined April notebook shipments went down 8% on month. Wistron was the only ODM with an on-month shipment increase in April thanks to a US-based client beginning volume shipments of its new enterprise notebooks.

UK-based biotech firm Nuclera has announced it has acquired Taiwan-based E Ink Holdings (EIH)'s digital microfluidics unit to form its US subsidiary.Combining the technologies of the two companies will enable the delivery of a desktop protein and gene "bioprinter" with breakthrough speed and convenience for researchers in human health, agriculture, and other markets of global importance, said Nuclear.Nuclera has been working in a strategic partnership with EIH since 2018 to deploy Nuclera's proprietary biopolymer synthesis technologies on EIH's digital microfluidic devices.Instead of the physical channels found in conventional microfluidics, digital microfluidics uses electronic signals to guide microdroplets, according to Nuclera. When combined with Nuclera biopolymer synthesis, this advanced lab-on-a-chip technology will enable a user to digitally program the next day bioprinting of proteins and genes on a desktop device. The result is a bioprinter that gives unprecedented access to biology. Commercialization is expected in 2022, the company said.In the transaction, EIH will contribute intellectual property, equipment, and highly specialized scientists and engineers. Reciprocally, EIH will become the largest strategic shareholder in Nuclera. The resulting Nuclera US subsidiary will be co-located within the E Ink Innovation Center in Billerica, Massachusetts, a short distance from the growing biotech technology hub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The combination of these two efforts into one company will further increase the rate of development, commercialization, and adoption of this ground-breaking product as well as consolidate the intellectual property position. EIH will continue to be a strategic supplier to Nuclera for key electronic components of Nuclera's desktop bioprinter.Michael Chen, co-founder and CEO of Nuclera, said, "Our partner, E Ink, made reading accessible by printing words with electronic ink. We are proud to work with E Ink to make biology accessible by printing biology with digital microfluidics. This acquisition allows Nuclera to combine the biological with the digital in one product and under one roof. We now look forward to further strengthening our strategic partnership with E Ink through joint R&D, manufacturing, and product development projects."Michael McCreary, chief innovation officer of E Ink, said, "This spinout and ongoing relationship with Nuclera gives E Ink the opportunity to leverage our knowledge and capabilities in electronic paper technology into the growing biotechnology sector which has increasingly critical importance to the current and future challenges in global health and sustainability. We are pleased to be able to participate in this market through an equity stake in Nuclera and look forward to the continuing relationship as a strategic supplier to and equity partner with Nuclera."Nuclera desktop bioprinter powered by digital microfluidic technologyPhoto: Company

Components shortages have been troubling the notebook industry for months. ODM Pegatron's previous optimism that its second-quarter 2021 notebook shipments would grow 25-30% has now been reduced to a projection of only 5-10% increase due to worsening compoent shortfall. But brand vendor Asustek remains optimistic about its PC sales in second-quarter and second-half 2021, buoyed by strong order visibility. For smart manufacturing, Canadian startup ForceN has developed small, thin, flexible and customizable force sensors, according to its CEO Robert Brooks, whose ambition is to revolutionize robotics.Pegatron cuts notebook shipment growth forecast for 2Q21: Worsening shortages of notebook-use chips and components has prompted Taiwan's ODM Pegatron to revise downward its sequential shipment growth forecast for the second quarter to 5-10% from 25-30%.Asustek upbeat about PC sales in 2Q, 2H21: Asustek Computer is upbeat about its PC sales in the second quarter and the second half of 2021, judging from clear order visibility through the end of the year, according to Asustek co-CEO SY Hsu.Small sensors, big goals: Q&A with ForceN CEO Robert Brooks and VP of engineering Albert Chen: The advent of Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 has increased the demands for robots and edge computing, and the tasks are becoming more and more complex. Force sensors are critical to preventing the machines from breaking. Toronto-based startup ForceN has developed customizable force sensors that are thin and flexible, and do not require design change on machines to accommodate them.

The advent of Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 has increased the demands for robots and edge computing, and the tasks are becoming more and more complex. Force sensors are critical to preventing the machines from breaking. Toronto-based startup ForceN has developed customizable force sensors that are thin and flexible, and do not require design change on machines to accommodate them.Robert Brooks, CEO of ForceN, told Digitimes in a recent interview that his team aims to revolutionize the third wave of robotics by making the best sensors and the easiest sensors to integrate in the world. The Canadian startup company's vice president of engineering Albert Chen was also at the interview.Q: Could you introduce ForceN, the core team and why you decided to create this company?Brooks: My background is in mechanical engineering. I did my PhD at the University of Toronto. I did my thesis on what the next generation of robots would look like from a sensing and actuation standpoint. Before I did my PhD in sensors and actuators, I had extensive experiences working across the robotic automation industry. My first job was in a particle-physics facility, designing sensors. After that, I had worked in steel and manufacturing industry implementing the early forms of mobile robotics. Finally, I worked in manufacturing robotics for pharmaceuticals before specializing in surgical robotics.I have a broad knowledge of the industry, and with my background as a PhD, I noticed one of the things we are missing out on robotics: Right now, robot arms typically operate in cells or in cages. These systems are designed to do the exact same movements repeatedly.We are rapidly manufacturing different types of products; we are manipulating and moving these products faster than ever. We can design products in a much shorter period of time, so we need robots that can work much more flexibly and outside of cages.Enter the first generation cobots (collaborative robots). The cobots need to get a lot more intelligent and a lot more sensing capability. So ForceN was created as a way of creating robust, multi-point, multi-dimensional touch-sensing for this third wave of robotics. That's where the "n" in ForceN comes from. It means n dimensions of force, or n points of forces.Our VP of engineering, Albert Chen, is our expert of sensors.Chen: I was born in Taiwan but I spent the latter half of my education in Canada. My PhD was in MEM sensors: I specialize in designing MEM transducers. To manufacture them, I worked in a cleanroom for three years. The latter part of my PhD was figuring out how to integrate sensors in a smart way. You can design a very accurate and sensitive sensor, but if you don't design it to interact with the system in an elegant way, you would not maximize its capability. At ForceN, one of the things we place a significant amount of effort into is packaging these ForceN sensors into a compact form-factor and optimize its sensitivity and robustness.We design it in such a way that our customers find simple to integrate into their systems. So, we work with the customers very intimately, to make sure our sensors would not break, and are incredibly easy to install, and easy to use.So it's not just the sensor design; we put a lot of efforts into edge computing, as well as user experience.Brooks: (Showing a sensor) This is the sensor we talked about. It is incredibly thin and flexible. It is glued to the surface, and it has multiple sensing points in it. That is why it gives you multi-point, multi-dimensional touch. Albert has been putting a huge amount of effort into making this film mass-manufacturable and easy to install. And then we have a very high-density electronic module. This module does all the edge computing.You can actually plug a cable and connect it to a computer, and you can get an incredibly clean, high sensitivity force data. Our goal is to bring human-level sensitivity, dexterity, and robustness to the next generation of robotics.We were founded in December 2015. In the first year and a half, it was only R&D. With three more people coming in this year, our team will consist of 12 people, pretty much all working on engineering at this point. We are scaling up for production now. In house, we are able to manufacture up to 50 robotic sensors a month. Then we have manufacturing partners who are able to manufacturer up to 1,000 units a month.We work with new customers on proof of concept, which would be between 1-10 units. And once they are satisfied, we usually make a pre-production prototype, that being between 10-50 units. And from there, we move into production through our manufacturer partners. We are at the early production stage now, working with 18 major customers.So we build quite a bit of a system at this point, including surgery robotics, logistics, industrial robotics, and robots solving Covid-19 issues.Chen: I would also like to emphasize that more than half of those customers are leading companies in their field, definitely a few Fortune 500 companies.Q: Besides those verticals that you are working with your customers, are there other verticals that also have potential for your technology to apply?Brooks: A couple of areas we think would be interesting. We do manufacturing and surgical robotics. Pharmaceutical manufacturing, medical device manufacturing, and even food production are the areas that our technology could be applied to. Because they care about biocompatible and safety to the point you could use share a lot of similarity with surgical instrument. There are robotic surgical instruments with our technology installed on it but we also make robots that handle anything from optics and boxes. So it makes sense that we will go after those markets, especially those which rely on automation. That is becoming very popular. The other one area we are working on is the human-machine interface (HMI). Most of the time when we use our robots to interact with the outside world, we usually use it as a control device. Albert is now developing a technology that can turn a solid plate of stainless steel into a HMI. It is multi-point, multi-dimensional; you can create something that acts like a joystick or dial, or treadpad. But that is a solid piece of metal, so you can put it in a very harsh environment such as under water, you can even operate it wearing gloves. Or you can put it in a very clean environment, for use of, say, nuclear or semiconductor wafers, or medical device manufacturing. They are the same size as the business card, you can take it to a conference and show it to the people. They make wonderful development kits.Chen: The important thing to know is that engineers in the automation field require force sensors, but the machines are already built. They don't want a force sensor that is chunky or require design change on their machine just to accommodate the force sensor.Whereas we come in and say, our module is incredibly small, and our force sensor is a film. We can put it on your robotic finger, or robotic arm. Sometimes it doesn't even need to look like a robot, such as a surgical tool. Your form doesn't need to change. We can put on the film for you, so you can retrofit and take a technological leap from what you currently have. Just the fact that it is so small and so thin, our customers love it, because it doesn't have any footprint on what they have.Q: What you just showed me is a strip, so you can actually make it into a film or a plane?Brooks: Yes we can laser cut it into any kind of shape, size, profile, or cut-out. We can put in any number of sensing points and any number of sensing dimensions into a single film.Q: What are the possible areas you can collaborate with Taiwanese companies?Brooks: We pride ourselves by making the best sensors in the world. We typically don't make the end product. So we look forward to working with companies which will benefit from integrating force and torque sensing. We are looking for the innovators in end equipment, or OEMs. And we are looking for applications which will benefit from this force-sensing technology.Chen: In Taiwan there are many great contract manufacturers. We work with many of their customers, especially many high-tech medical equipment companies: they do a lot of R&D, and then send it to Taiwan. If Taiwan is already using tons of force sensors, and they try to integrate, we can definitely try to be part of that supply chain.We can do anything the other force-sensor companies can do, but we only takes up 1/10 of the space.There are also a lot of robots in Taiwan. Typically, companies which use a lot of robots would use a lot of sensors. And they constantly need to detect force, because if the robot experience too much force, it will break. So you really want to be there to stop things like that from happening.The trend is, those robots are pushed to work harder and harder. There will be conditions where those robotic arms need different types of force equipment. We would be a good fit, being capable of being customized to any shape.Brooks: Besides equipment manufacturers, we are also looking for system integrators and specialty manufacturers. You can get one from us customized for just your application, and don't need to buy the ones off from shelve. That will get the sensor much lighter, and much smaller. Which means your robot can move faster, so you will be able to get much more working volume for the robots.Lastly, our film allows us to separate the sensing element from the protection element. For typical sensors, your protection element is your sensing element. So if your robot clashes for some reason, that affects the life of your sensor. Typically, your overload is based on your sensing range. So if you sense 10kg, and your overload 100%, your device will break at 20kg. By separating them, we build a very strong overload element for very sensitive sensor, such as 1 kg range but 50 kg overload with our technology.This would be really useful if you have fine tasks. But if you still work with people it is easy to break the sensor. We've done this a lot with surgical robotic series, but that can be applied across the industries.The flexibility of the film, the size, and weight savings are our strength. We can also make the integration of the system incredibly robust.Chen: We are getting to make small volumes really quick at really high quality. But at larger quantities, everywhere we looked, it seems to point to Taiwan. We would be looking for contract manufacturing partners in Taiwan to help scale up our production. I will be doing factory tours when I go back to Taiwan.We need to manufacture the film, it is the more difficult one. The sensors are not made on silicon wafer, but flexible substrates. This is really difficult to make the film into a sub-1% accuracy sensor that will last decades. That's where we need some Taiwanese manufacturing partners to help build giant industrial rolls of this film.Q: So you would need companies with specialty in special materials, precision manufacturing, and semiconductor companies to work out a solution?Chen: Yes. The size of our electronic module is the same as my fingernail. The competitor module is the size of a wallet. That little chip makes a huge difference. It means saving a robotic control engineer maybe six months of development work. Robert spent blood, sweat and tears on that board, to make all this possible.Q: Are there any plans for expansion or fund-raising? What is your status as a startup?Brooks: We are considered pre-A. We finished our seed round with a total of CAD2.25 million. Canada also has quite a few grant programs, so we are well-funded. Our goal is to work with, hopefully, every major robotic manufacturer in the world, using our technology. We want to create a robotic sensing revolution, especially with the advent of AI coming along. Edge-computing is the muscle memory to artificial intelligence. For example, once you learned to ride a bicycle, you remember that for the rest of your life, and that's muscle memory. That's what we do, enabling the organic edge computing.We have already sold our system to many manufacturers in the US and in Europe. But two thirds of the world's robots are operating in Asia. We already have one customer in Taiwan and two customers in Japan. And we will continue to expand our business in Asia. Early next year, we will raise our series A. We will continue to grow our technical team to make the best sensors in the world, and the easiest sensors to integrate in the world.Robert Brooks, CEO of ForceNAlbert Chen, VP of engineering at ForceNA ForceN sensor on a flexible stripPhotos: Company

Device makers may be heading towards inventory correction next quarter, as they revisit their production plans amid weakenig demand in some major markets. Taiwan-based chipmakers have seen some clients slow down the pace of orders. But many still believe demand will remain robust and component and material shotages will persist - which provides motivation for Nan Ya PCB to expand production capacity. Cryptominers' demand for graphics cards has been extremely strong. But as they only need graphics cards to support their mining, they are expected to dump other PC peripherals and motherboards that have come with bundle purchases of the grahics cards.Chipmakers see customers turn cautious about placing orders: Taiwan-based IC design houses have seen terminal customers start slowing down their pace of orders, and are aware that downstream device makers will be revisiting their production plans and closely monitoring chip inventories they hold over the next quarter, according to industry sources.Nan Ya to invest NT$8 billion to expand ABF substrate capacity: Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board has disclosed plans to invest a total of NT$8 billion (US$286.4 million) to expand production capacity for ABF substrates at its factory site in Shulin, northern Taiwan.PC component sales may be hit by second-hand products from cryptominers in 2H21: Sales of PC peripherals, CPUs and motherboards are expected to be impacted by second-hand mint products offloaded by cryptominers in the second half of 2021, according to sources from the PC DIY channel.

The rampant pandemic in India has raised an alarm among ICT makers. Suppliers in the handset and PC sectors have seen orders dlowing down from the South Asian country. Taiwanese IC design houses are also bracing for disappointing sales in second-quarter 2021 because of the impacts from the surging COVID infections in India. But server ODMs still expect stgrong growth in shipments in the second quarter, driven by persistently strong stay-at-home demand.Suppliers see orders slowing for handsets, notebooks from India: ODMs and other suppliers engaged in the notebook and handset industry supply chains have seen orders from India start slowing down recently, as a resurgence of COVID-19 infections in the country has led to both supply- and demand-side issues, according to industry sources.Taiwan IC design houses may see disappointing 2Q21 sales: Taiwan-based IC design houses may post disappointing revenues for the second quarter of 2021, as a resurgence of COVID-19 infections in India has led to an overall deceleration in sales of handsets, tablets and other consumer technology products locally, according to industry sources.Server makers eyeing double-digit shipment increases in 2Q21: Server makers including Quanta Computer, Wiwynn, MiTAC Computing Technology (MCT) and Inventec have all estimated their second-quarter 2021 server shipments to see double-digit sequential increases, mainly driven by strong demand for datacenter applications, according to industry sources.