Apple's adopting LiDAR based on dToF (direct time of flight) for iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPad (2020) is expected to prompt Android smartphone vendors to follow suit, likely to replace indirect ToF (iToF) to become the mainstream 3D depth-sensing technology in 2021.While major Android phone vendors have integrated less expensive iToF technology with rear cameras, applications have been limited without significantly enhancing user experience. Since dToF can offer significant AR effects, phone vendors are expected to adopt it in place of iToF for their flagship smartphones beginning 2021, Digitimes Research believes.dToF features low power consumption, resistance to ambient ligh interference, capability to cope with complicated scenarios and accurate ranging, but its technological barriers and production costs are higher.iToF has higher resolution for 3D depth sensing and is supported by a mature supply chain for lower production cost but consumes more power.

Foundry supply has been tight, but it may not be easy for foundry houses to expand capacity, with a lack of funding being one of the difficulties. PSMC's solution is an "open foundry" business model, letting clients shoulder the investments in equipment that will be reserved for their exclusive use. The full impact of the outage at one of Micron's fabs in Taiwan is yet to be known, and memory module makers reportedly have stopped taking new orders, as they assess the supply-demand situation. Meanwhile, Digitimes Research forecasts that global server shipments will continue to grow in 2021 amid the lingering pandemic.PSMC in talks for new orders from panel vendor: Pure-play foundry Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing (PSMC) is in talks to rent new 12-inch fab equipment from a panel customer who intends to secure sufficient production capacity for display driver ICs in the long term, according to sources familiar with the matter.Memory module firms wary of Micron fab outage: Supply-side uncertainty arising from a recent power outage at Micron Technology's DRAM fab in Taiwan is prompting memory module houses to stop taking new orders and adopt a wait-and-see attitude, according to industry sources.Global server shipments to rise 5.6% on year in 2021, says Digitimes Research: Global server shipments will resume on-year growth in 2020, driven by rising demand for cloud computing services and work-from-home solutions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Related demand will continue rising in 2021 due to the lingering of the pandemic, drikving up shipments by another 5.6% on year next year, according to Digitimes Research's latest figures from its Server Tracker.

Global server shipments will resume on-year growth in 2020, driven by rising demand for cloud computing services and work-from-home solutions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Related demand will continue rising in 2021 due to the lingering of the pandemic, drikving up shipments by another 5.6% on year next year, according to Digitimes Research's latest figures from its Server Tracker.Server shipments were seriously disrupted in the first quarter of 2020 due to lockdowns in China that stalled the upstream supply chain. The supply chain was back on track in the second quarter, with clients' robust orders pushing shipments to the peak of 2020.Although server shipments have decelerated during the second half of the year, the global volumes are still expected to pick up 7% on year to surpass 16 million units in 2020 due to first-tier cloud computing service providers' keen order pull-ins, Chinese server brands' brisk shipments in response to the government's policies of expanding local cloud computing infrastructure, and a low comparison base in 2019.The lingering pandemic is likely to continue undermining the global economy, and enterprises' spending on procurement of equipment such as servers is expected to weaken in 2021. However, as remote work and online shopping have become a new normal for consumers, demand for cloud computing services will continue to pick up in 2021.With Intel and AMD set to make mass deployments of their new-generation CPUs in the first half of 2021, Digitimes Research expects a small wave of server replacement trend to take place, helping the global server shipments to achieve an annual growth of nearly 6% in 2021.

Production at one of Micron's fabs in Taiwan was disrupted by a power outage on December 3, but the company has maintained that operation of facilities has returned to normal. But how the Micron prodution disruption may be impacting memory supply remains to be seen. Memory may not be be short supply at the moment, but shortages of some other ICs have been troubling many sectors. HannStar Display has warned that driver IC shortages will cripple its fourth-quarter 2020 shipments of panels for wearable applications. Demand for driver ICs is expected to stay strong in 2021, and backend house Chipbond Technology is expanding testing capacity for the segment, along with RF and FA devices.Power outage at Micron Taiwan fab may impact global DRAM supply: A recent power outage at Micron Technology's wafer fab in Taoyuan, northern Taiwan may constrain the global DRAM bit supply, particularly to the server segment, according to industry sources.HannStar wearable panel shipments affected by driver IC shortages: HannStar Display has revealed that its panel shipments for wearable applications will be affected in the fourth quarter of 2020 by the fact that it has been only able to secure about 70-80% of driver ICs it needs due to tight production capacity at 8-inch foundry houses.Chipbond to expand backend capacity for RF, PA devices, driver ICs: Taiwan's backend house Chipbond Technology has disclosed plans to build additional testing capacity to satisfy robust demand for display driver ICs, RF and PA components.

COVID-19 has been hammering the world, with many companies facing tremendous challenges amidst risks and uncertainties beyond their control. But many startup teams demonstrating their prowess at the recent Demo Day held by SparkLabs Taipei have seen double-digit growths.Edgar Chiu, founder and managing partner of SparkLabs, explained what it takes to overcome the adversities of the pandemic and how mature companies can remain open-minded and create the best ways to work with new businesses.Q: At SparkLabs Taipei Demo Day, you mentioned that 2020 is a year when many startups will be severely impacted by the pandemic. But the teams at the event stage have had brilliant results and rapid growths. How did they make it?A: For entrepreneurs, the unknown is an everyday occurrence, but during an epidemic, it is double uncertainty, and some entrepreneurs may be blaming bad luck, as they were ready to soar, only to be hit by an epidemic. I tell them the same thing: Be patient, keep your feet on the ground, and reexamine what your users need. Has it become a different form? Has it translated into more demand? For example, our investment in teams working on cloud kitchen, online education and Internet of Things (IoT) devices around year-end 2019 and early 2020 have all seen rapid growths because of the pandemic.The best example is the cloud kitchen team Just Kitchen. In early 2020 it was a team of only only 10 people but has now expanded to 70, opened eight satellite kitchens, and expanded to Taichung (central Taiwan). It will enter Hong Kong in the first quarter of 2021. Few would understand what cloud kitchen was in later 2019, but the pandemic has sparked strong needs for food delivery.Innovation teams should not only see whether there is demand in the market, but also whether their services and products deserve the money that people pay for them. Innovation is not just about satisfying demand, but also about establishing loyalty among customers would want to use them again and again, as if a habit.In addition, FunNow, which announced in late October its acquisition of Malaysian restaurant reservation startup TableApp, was supposed to be a company that would solve the problem of consumers making last-minute decisions to book hotels and local leisure trips for overseas travels. The pandemic has completely shut the door on cross-border travels, so FunNow has turned its business focus to domestic travel, and moved all of its overseas team members to Taiwan. In second-quarter 2020, FunNow's sales grew 60% year-over-year.Q: We saw a very mature team, Kneron, on Demo Day. Why would such a successful team need the help of an accelerator? When training such a mature team, what are the goals you want to help them achieve?A: Most of the SparkLabs teams are in fundraising rounds of Series A or Pre-A. It is worth noting that the definition of fundraising rounds in the US is that Series A is when the team has readied the app, wants to expand or has already entered one to three countries, and wants to become the market leader. Series B is for teams that are market leaders in more countries and want to raise funds to widen the gap with competitors those in second place. However, many startup teams in Taiwan are not adhering to the definition, and they move up one notch in the fundraising rounds every time they raise funds.Back to the essentials, these seemingly mature teams are actually at a stage where they are either expanding rapidly into international markets, or want to expand even more so. SparkLabs can help at that stage, and some of the partners have had experience in expanding internationally from the time when they started their own businesses. The biggest challenge in expanding internationally is how to modularize and replicate your products and services in other markets. The challenges of international recruiting, business development, and fundraising are new to the Taiwanese teams, but they are critical to the success of the expansion.How can we help new startups? Once we decide to invest in a new venture, we go back to the basics and do a 2-3 hour interview to find out what the biggest bottlenecks are for the new venture. Then it's a matter of prioritizing these challenges, looking at what needs to be accomplished in the next 3 months, and then setting for the schedule weekly progress accordingly. You need to do weekly reviews and tailor support and assistance to individual teams.But the hardest part is corporate culture. People are the heart and soul of a company, but many companies seldom think about how to build a sustainable culture and spirit. How do you design an incentive program that motivates your employees to be proactive and take action to achieve these goals? And while business founders take this for granted, they should also examine whether their actions are consistent with their words. So we have a lesson in corporate culture for these new entrepreneurs to figure out where they want to take their companies and how to implement the corporate culture.As an accelerator, we help companies get back to basics - setting goals and implementing user feedback surveys. Next, we continually tweak the products, release updates in between, and then work on growth in the third month.Mature entrepreneurs come here to reset, or unlearn, to go back to the basics, review their status and improve their products, and make a transformation before a breakthrough growth. Even though a startup may have already raised a lot of money, they often say that they are most afraid of sitting down with us to reformulate their business strategy, re-examine the needs of their customers, and push forward plans to expand their business to overseas markets. Because if you don't meet your goals and get the traffic you want, you won't be able to attend Demo Day.Our role is not only as investors, but also as coaches, mentors, and friends, following the process. What we often tell new entrepreneurs is that even if they encounter a major setback, it's better to encounter it now than later. The psychological quality of the founder can be seen in the two weeks before Demo Day, when he or she has to prepare the presentation in English and promote business growth.Q: There are more and more companies willing to work with startups. There have been many unsuccessful cases in the past. What advice would you give to CVCs?A: There are a variety of ways for companies to connect with new ventures and gain access to innovative energy. One of them is to create their own acceleratos, either by setting up a corporate venture capital to invest in external startups, or by setting up a special department to support them.However, there is a practice in the US that is worthy of reference for Taiwan, and not many Taiwanese companies have done so yet: investing in several venture capital funds at the same time to see if the solutions of the portfolio teams are suitable for their own company's problems, or even to combine the technologies of different teams to form new applications. They are constantly scouting for innovations and investing a portion of their R&D funds in venture funds.Many Taiwanese companies fall into the strategic trap of trying to find external partners when they want to innovate, that is, to build on existing products and technologies to improve product specifications and performance, or to drive down costs.These companies often start from a profit/loss (P/L) perspective, concerned about how much room for growth they can bring to their existing business, but rarely look for new applications in the "blue ocean" market to bring in new revenue streams; nor do they pay attention to whether there is new demand in the market, or even the next big trend.It is usually too late to invest in new ventures because there are more and more competitors, and then it is too late to chase after them or enter the new ecosystem. At present, Taiwanese companies are still thinking about this kind of cooperation, but they are still very single-minded, only looking for potential partners in Taiwan, when they should be also looking outside to see if there are suitable opportunities overseas.Before co-founding Whoscall with my partner, I worked as a consultant at IBM to help the manufacturing industry establish new business mechanisms. Why do so many large foreign companies come to Taiwan to work with SparkLabs? It is because Taiwan's technology capability is very strong. When more and more enterprises come seeking support for their needs, SparkLabs can help match them, and very often, Taiwan's technological innovation may be most suitable for foreign application.Q: How do you form partnerships with the foreign companies?A: There are several ways. The first is to come to our Demo Day, and then choose from our "menu," namely which projects or teams you're interested in. Companies in Northeast Asian countries have been unable to go to other countries to see new innovations or technologies because of the epidemic, so they are keen to communicate clearly what they want to achieve. These are overseas and foreign investors who have done their homework and have figured out how to work together before the conversation.The second way is to tell SparkLabs what their most important task for 2021 is, and see if SparkLabs can match a team to that. Most companies set their goals for the year in October or November each year.Some companies are very focused on their own field of business. For example, banks only look at FinTech, while manufacturing companies are much interested in AI-related solutions. Companies usually start with partnerships, investments, and acquisitions. Some companies will partner with SparkLabs directly, or their senior executives will become SparkLabs' mentors to foster rapport and synergy by coaching startups.Companies can also choose to invest in SparkLabs' startup fund. Because of this financial relationship, it is possible to see early on which teams SparkLabs has brought in, and to collaborate with them at an early stage of the new venture.SparkLabs Taipei founder Edgar ChiuPhoto: Judy Lin, November 2020

TSMC may be the clear leader in the pure-play foundry sector, but Samsung is keen on catching up in advanced manufacturing processes. Qualcomm's freshly unveiled Snapdragon 888 will be made using 5nm process at Samsung, which reportedly has offered major discounts in manufacturing quotes to secure the US chip vendor's orders. While Samsung is handling the foundry work for Snapdragon 888, ASE Technology is responsible for its packaging. Qualcomm is upbeat about the 5G smartphone market in 2021, and its optimism has been echoed by Micron, who has seen strength in mobile, auto, industrial and PC sales. Now DRAM spot prices are expected to rise soon on rebounding end-maket demand.Samsung cuts foundry quotes for 5nm chip orders from Qualcomm: Samsung Electronics has cut its foundry quotes to attract 5nm chip orders including those for Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 888 processor series, according to industry sources.ASE obtains FC packaging orders for new Qualcomm 5G SoC: ASE Technology has reportedly grabbed flip-chip packaging orders for Qualcomm's just-unveiled flagship 5G SoC Snapdragon 888, as well as orders for the new integrated X60 5G modem, according to industry sources.DRAM spot prices about to rally: Spot market prices for DRAM memory are about to rally on an anticipated pick-up in end-market demand, according to sources at memory module makers.

A presentation to showcase the achievements of Taiwan Advanced Instrumentation Project (TAIP) took place in Taipei recently. As part of the government's Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, TAIP is aimed at promoting Taiwan's independent R&D, manufacture and utilization of advanced instruments and exploring opportunities for their commercialization.Keynote speakers at the event included: Chau-Hwang Lee, deputy executive secretary, Academia Sinica; Howard S Lee, chairman, Taho Pharma; and Yi-Sheng Wang, principal investigator, TAIP. Among the audience were participants from industries, venture capital funds, academic institutions and research organizations.TAIP's advisory committee - headed by James C Liao, president, Academia Sinica, and a group of experts - selected 10 research projects in consideration of marketability, national policy and public interest. In three years of operation since its establishment in 2017, aside from making capital investments to enable prototyping and field testing, TAIP has also provided a diversity of services including startup incubation in an effort to promote and drive research results to commercialization while building a complete industry ecosystem step by step and fostering high-caliber research talent. The event marked successful completion of TAIP's short-term objectives.The 10 selected research projects generated 10 instruments based on a diverse combination of measuring technologies and device designs. They form a series of viable and commercializable solutions to fully address challenges in drug testing, disease screening, environmental pollutant analysis, public safety and long-term healthcare. These solutions, showcased at the event, are highlighted below.Portable mass spectrometer, liquid chromatography system and liquid chromatography mass spectrometerMass spectrometers are fundamental to chemical analysis. A TAIP team developed patented innovative mass spectrometers and related instruments that feature lightweight, convenience, usability, low cost and easy maintenance to enable testing and measurement anytime anywhere. The team's patented ionization device is much smaller and lighter, making it particularly suitable for detecting narcotics and explosives. The team has also designed a portable liquid chromatography system that flexibly accommodates use by different types of laboratories. Rapid saliva drug screening instrumentA TAIP team presented a rapid saliva drug screening device that can simultaneously identify multiple common illegal substances including amphetamine, heroin and ecstasy to allow a quick assessment of suspected drug abuse during a crackdown operation. It resolves the privacy concerns and inconveniences of traditional urine drug tests. Comprising a disposable saliva collection container, a test cartridge and an automatic reader, the test takes only 10 minutes to complete, significantly reducing law enforcement officers' time and effort and expedites drug testing processes.Rapid drug testing instrument and cloud database for analyticsA TAIP team proposed a rapid drug testing instrument based on Raman spectroscopy with compelling cost advantage. It helps front-line law enforcement avoid false positive assessments on whether the substances are actually illegal drugs. Moreover, the team makes use of machine learning to build a cloud analytics database that aims to effectively identify new types of drugs with constantly changing chemical compositions. Characteristics data are processed by a low-dimensional classifier to effectively determine the type of drug. The solution is also suitable for biomedical, pharmaceutical, food science and environmental monitoring applications.High-resolution ion mobility spectrometerA TAIP team's patented Periodical Focusing Differential Ion Mobility Spectrometer (PFDIMS) performs high-resolution ion analysis even without a perfect vacuum. It can be a portable and cost-effective device not only for detecting narcotics and explosives anytime anywhere but also for measuring creatinine and carbohydrate levels to screen diseases and biomarkers.Mobile terahertz scanner for security inspectionA TAIP team incorporated terahertz imaging onto a portable imaging device to scan lightweight materials such as clothing, mail and plastics. Comprising an automatic feeder, a sorting apparatus, and a terahertz imaging device, the system automatically processes large amounts of mail loaded on a conveyor belt and screens out suspicious articles using AI-based image recognition, which are then further identified and sorted based on the types of contrabands.Wide-field 3D scanning for long-term care, enhanced with AI-based recognition technologiesA TAIP team designed a thermal imaging care system that combines wide-field thermal scanning and thermal AI motion behavior identification technologies. It serves as a home care solution that delivers the benefits of protecting privacy while enabling cost advantage. Featuring AI-based prediction and analysis, the system can identify movements such as going to bed, getting out of bed, sitting or lying in bed for a long period and falling to enable timely and precise care services not only for home care but also for use at public spaces and factories.Optoproteomics instrumentCombining photochemistry and AI-based image recognition, a TAIP team is able to use precise photochemical reactions for protein positioning and labeling and then perform analysis under a mass spectrometer to determine the protein composition. The solution is an instrument that allows the identification of proteins in critical regions of cells under a microscope. It is expected to be indispensable for next-generation protein research and play a critical role driving advances in precision medicine and targeted therapy development.Active low-frequency acoustic pipeline safety monitoring systemBy actively emitting low-frequency acoustic signals and performing time/frequency domain analyses and diagnoses on the acoustic signals using machine learning AI, a TAIP team's solution detects pipeline leak or provides an early warning. It addresses the continuity, long-distance and real-time safety monitoring needs for commercial pipelines transporting oil, natural gas, industrial liquid or water with enhanced capability to locate pipeline leak and detect pipeline degradation.Microarray X-ray phase-shift imagingUsing a high-power electron beam to hit a microarray of metal targets to generate multiple X-ray sources, coupled with innovative phase-shift imaging technologies for image reconstruction, a TAIP team's solution can considerably enhance the resolution of X-ray images. The new technology can differentiate among muscles, blood vessels and fat tissues to raise the accuracy of doctors' diagnoses of lung or breast tumors.High-end chemical composition analyzer for PM2.5 aerosolsA TAIP team combined a micro aerosol mass spectrometer and an ultra-sensitive off-axis integrated cavity output spectroscopy in one device, coupled with its self-developed adjustable pneumatic sample inlet system, for precise particle collection. Featuring an excellent signal-to-noise ratio and easy deployment on mobile utility vehicles, the complete system can be used to conduct field measurements in outdoor environments for real-time and on-spot PM2.5 tracking and monitoring. It can also analyze the chemical composition, i.e. molecular structure, of the pollutant to find the source of air pollution.The instruments targeting applications in wide-ranging sectors make use of varying technologies to overcome barriers in particle analysis, spectroscopy or antibody screening. They can effectively and significantly reduce false negatives and false positives, which is critical for drug detection.Four startup firms have been incorporated out of the 10 teams and they will accelerate the pace of commercializing their products over the next two to three years. Enterprise executives approached the teams and expressed interest in placing orders for their products at the event, which marked a good start for Taiwan's advanced instrument industry.TAIP's achievement presentation Photo: Sandy Du, Digitimes, November 2020

LCD panel maker AU Optronics (AUO) has cooperated with MedicalTek, a startup engaged in developing endoscope visualization systems for minimal invasive surgical operation, to develop 3D medical displays.MedicalTek has developed MonoStereo 3D and DARIWN 3D endoscope visualization systems as well as Lascaux, an endoscopic image recorder, and a training platform for minimal invasive surgical operation through cooperation with IRCAD Taiwan, company chairman and CEO Jack Liu said. IRCAD is a France-based medical research and training institute focusing on minimal invasive surgery.MedicalTek has upgraded MonoStereo from 2D to 3D to enhance surgeons' feeling of harmony between eyes and hands in a bid to hike quality, safety and efficiency for minimal invasive surgical operation, Liu noted.A display for minimal invasive surgical operationPhoto: IRCAD Taiwan

TSMC is expected to move its 3nm process to volume production in second-half 2022, but the foundry house reportedly is planning to launch an enhanced version of the 3nm process technology in 2023. Tight foundry supply is sending IC manufacturing costs rising, which in turn has prompted IC vendors to hinke their product prices. Driver IC designeres are expected to incease their quotes by another 10% in first-quarter 2021. Some memory backend specialists have also raised quotes for their wirebonding packaging services for niche DRAM which has seen demand picking up.TSMC to roll out 3nm Plus process in 2023: TSMC plans to launch an enhanced version of 3nm process technology in 2023, with Apple being the initial customer adopting the process, according to industry sources.Display driver IC prices to rise another 10% in 1H21: Prices for display driver ICs and TDDI chips are expected to rise by another 10% in the first half of 2021 after hiking in fourth-quarter 2020, due to tight foundry supply and rising manufacturing costs, according to industry sources.Niche-market DRAM demand picking up: Orders for niche-market DRAM memory has started picking up recently, thanks to the roll-outs of new consumer electronics devices, according to sources at backend houses.

Micron Technology's two factories in Taiwan were recognized by the Global Lighthouse Network (GLN) under the World Economic Forum (WEF) in September 2020, according to the company's corporate vice president and Taiwan country manager Hsu Kuo-chin.GLN is a group of advanced manufacturers promoting Industry 4.0.While the development of 5G and AI leads to demand for large volumes of data, memory chips are becoming increasingly complicated, with better performance, less power consumption and small dimensions, Hsu said, adding memory chip makers have to hike precision of products and differentiate manufacturing processes by virtue of smart manufacturing technologies.Micron began to undertake smart manufacturing at its factories globally in 2015, Hsu said. Initially, data were internally integrated under an architecture enabling visualization and transparency; then in 2017 various IoT technologies were put into use for real-time monitoring, Hsu indicated, adding that engineers now can predict abnormal conditions using AI.The smart manufacturing began at wafer fabrication and has been extended to IC packaging and testing, procurement and supply chain manufacturing, Hsu said. In particular, wafer fabrication involves more than 1,000 manufacturing processes and takes three months, while IC packaging and testing take only 3-5 days, Hsu noted.Currently, Micron collects data of 13TB in total from all factories a day, equivalent to 6,500 hours of movies, and uses AI to analyze 3.3 million images of wafers a week, Hsu indicated. In order for real-time monitoring, Micron has installed a total of 110,000 sensors at its 13 factories around the world, Hsu said.The smart manufacturing is intended to boost productivity through using AI to simulate scheduling and optimize manufacturing processes, with AR/VR technologies to support remote maintenance of equipment and robots. Detection of operating indexes and anomalies at production lines is enabled by real-time monitoring based on IoT, machine vision and deep learning technologies. Automatic recognition of and response to anomalies through using an in-house-developed AI-based analytical and diagnostic system can hike yield rates, Hsu explained.For manufacturing processes in particular, Micron uses sensing technologies to detect dynamic and static images as well as sounds to real-time monitor operating conditions of equipment and product quality, Hsu said.The smart manufacturing has resulted in 18% increase in employee's productivity, 34% decrease in unplanned stoppage of equipment in operation, and 40% reduction in non-conforming products, Hsu noted. In addition, time taken in hiking yield rates for new products has been reduced by 20% and total power consumption by 15%, Hsu added.