TSMC is set to open its R&D center for 2nm and more advanced manufacturing processes in Hsinchu in 2021, with plans to build its 2nm wafer fab nearby. TSMC has disclosed it is working closely with a major client to accelerate its 2nm R&D, but it did not name the client. Demand for USB chips has been robust, fueled by strong demand for PCs supporting stay-at-home economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. In the displays market, Taiwanese LCD makers are banking on mini LED applications in their competition against the OLED camp. Innolux has just unveiled a rollable mini LED public information display.TSMC stepping up 2nm R&D for major client: TSMC is working closely with a major client to accelerate its 2nm R&D and facilitate related investment procedure, the foundry disclosed at its online technology symposium on August 25.Demand for USB chips staying robust in 3Q20: Demand for USB chips has been robust and will boost Taiwan-based IC design houses' sales by over 30% both quarterly and annually in the third quarter, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.Innolux unveils rollable AM mini LED display: LCD panel maker Innolux has unveiled a 55-inch rollable active matrix (AM) mini LED public information display (PID), which will be commercialized in first-quarter 2021.

TSMC is fast advancing its manufacturing processes. With volume production for 3nm node planned for second-half 2022, TSMC has disclosed that it has already obtained land in Hsinchu for a project to build its 2nm wafer fab. The new project will take the foundry's most advanced manufacturing capacity back to the northern Taiwanese city that houses its headquarters, but its expansions for 5nm and 3nm nodes continue at the Southern Taiwan Science Parks, where TSMC has acquired several plant buildings from other companies. In China, Chinese DRAM maker CXMT is aggressively expanding its capacity, with monthly production likely to reach 70,000 wafers by year-end 2020.TSMC to build 2nm fab in Hsinchu: TSMC plans to build its 2nm wafer fab in Hsinchu, where land has already been obtained for the facility, according to YP Chin, senior vice president for operations at the foundry house.TSMC steps up factory site expansion in southern Taiwan: TSMC has stepped up its expansion at the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP), having acquired several factory buildings, with the latest being a plant from an LCD panel maker.CXMT scaling up 19nm DRAM output with better yield rates: China-based DRAM chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) is scaling up its 19nm chip output with better yield rates, with the monthly production likely to top 70,000 wafers by the end of 2020, according to industry sources.

Taiwan-based Spirox and Molecular Sensoring Technology (Molsentech) have announced their joint development of a MOSFET-based COVID-19 rapid test system, which is slated for launch at the end of 2020.Based on ultra-high sensitivity biomedical detection technology, Molsentech's COVID-19 rapid test kit, including a biosensor chip and a test device, can run a rapid test with accurate result in three minutes, even in early stage infection or asymptomatic infection, according to the companies.The rapid COVID-19 test systems will kick off next-stage clinical trial at Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital (KSVGH), and is expected to be launched by year-end 2020, the companies said.Jack Chen, chairman of Spirox, said, "The launch of COVID-19 Rapid Test System is a success of cross-domain integration of biomedicine and semiconductor industries. In addition to providing the customized test solution Molsentech needs, the relationships and channels Spirox has in the industry make it possible to connect the supply chain and overcome every obstacle Molsentech confronted while releasing this product to mass production, and make this first MOSFET-based COVID-19 rapid test system together."Molsentech CEO Chia-Jung Chu said Molsentech uses bio-FET and its ultra-high sensitivity to electric charge feature, along with surface modification and probing molecules, to provide the result by reading current signal change.Besides, there are thousands of test points on every biosensor chip, so micro sample can be tested for over thousands of times simultaneously, Chu said. By analyzing large current signal data, high accuracy test result can be provided. It will be the best solution for COVID-19 early-stage test for it can greatly reduce the time needed to conduct PCR tests, providing the same accuracy as Nucleic acid tests, Chu added.

TSMC has been devoting a lot of efforts to developing packaging technology in line with its efforts to extend the validity of Moore's Law. The foundry house's packaging technology development is expected to remain focused on SoIC and organic interposer in 2021. Its major foundry rival, Samsung, is also stepping up development of packaging technology. For Intel, Moore's Law remains an inspiration for its chip development, according to the company's chief architect Raja Koduri.TSMC packaging development to remain focused on SoIC, organic interposer in 2021: TSMC is expected to continue its advanced packaging development focus on 3D SoIC (system on integrated chips) technology and organic interposer in 2021, although it has fabricated WSE (wafer-scale engine) AI chips for Cerebras with InFo-SoW packaging process and second-generation 7nm node, according to industry sources.Samsung stepping up efforts for advanced chip packaging: Samsung is stepping up its deployments in the 3D IC packaging field, looking to compete against TSMC starting 2022 for advanced chip packaging in-house, according to industry observers.Six pillars bolstering Moore's Law: Q&A with Intel chief architect Raja Koduri: At the inaugural Architecture Day held in late 2018, a new technical group headed by Intel senior vice president and chief architect Raja Koduri first came up with six strategic pillars of technology innovation - process, architecture, memory, interconnect, security and software - for the firm's future development roadmaps. Koduri served as SVP and chief architect of the Radeon Technologies Group at AMD before joining Intel in 2017.

Autonomous driving tests in Taiwan are required to have human drivers onboard the vehicles to take over steering when occasion arises, according to Statute for Experiments of Technological Innovations in Unmanned Vehicle.Bus service operator Green Transit has cooperated with smart transportation solution provider Lilee Systems and National Taiwan University to undertake trials of autonomous buses in Tainan, southern Taiwan, with Green Transit providing such buses and accompanying drivers, according to company chairman FF Hsu.Drivers play the role of supervising the management of the self-driving cars, Hsu said.For autonomous buses being tested currently, a screen that will display green, yellow and red lights is installed beside the collaborative driver: green indicates safe conditions; yellow alerts the driver to conditions ahead; and red means emergency where the driver must take control.Green Transit chairman FF HsuPhoto: Yihan Li, Digitimes, August 2020

With automakers having little time to undergo digital transformation jointly with their supply chain partners amid quick and revolutionary changes in the industry, Taiwan-based ICT makers stand a good chance of getting a bigger presence in the car supply chains thanks to their strong capability in electronics, according to Liv Huang, assistant vice president for Automotive Environment, Energy, Electronics and Engineering Division under government-sponsored Automotive Research & Testing Center (ARTC).But ICT makers must understand the significant differences between consumer and automotive electronics in terms of product life cycle and reliability, Huang said.Drastic temperature changes in various scenarios make it a challenge for electronic components suppliers whose products have to stably function under unstable power supply and large mechanical impacts, Huang noted.For product life cycle, carmakers may offer after-sale warranty for as long as 10 years, much longer than that for consumer electronics, and their partnering OEMs face long-term tests for maintaining high enough yield rates and steady production capacities, Huang indicated.Unlike consumer electronics which can be rebooted after functional failure, running cars stand no chance of being restarted, Huang said. Due to high standards for reliability, automakers spend much time and cost in examining OEM qualification and makers, and chosen OEMs will not easily be replaced, Huang noted.

The latest development of small- to medium-size panel technology is rapidly shifting toward AMOLED panels and related applications, including OLEDoS (OLEDon-silicon) panels for AR/VR applications, rollable AMOLED panels and in-display camera modules.An assortment of small- to medium-size panels highlighted at the recently concluded SID 2020 virtual event also showed that panel makers are more active in developing smaller applications such as those for HUD (head-up display) and AR/VR devices, as the growth of panels in the smartphone market has slowed down, and screen sizes for tablet and automotive applications have further enlarged, Digitimes Research has found.Some makers were placing camera modules under flexible AMOLED panels, indicating that the development of related in-display camera technology has become more mature.China-based BOE Technology and Tianma Microelectronics showcased reflective TFT LCD panels that target the e-book reader market, while Taiwan's E Ink Holdings (EIH) has already rolled out its next-generation colored e-paper solutions with faster response rates.It remains to be seen if efforts by BOE and Tianma could pose a challenge to EIH's colored e-paper solutions.

Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robotics Association (TAIROA) has established a platform bringing together system integrators from different sectors in a bid to improve service quality and smart manufacturing.The Taiwan Automation Intelligence System Integration Alliance currently has 44 members mostly engaged in system integration, including Hiwin Technologies, Delta Electronics, Marketech International, Gallant Precision Machining and Qisda, said TAIROA, adding there are also research organizations such as government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Institute for Information Industry (III) and Precision Machinery Research & Development Center.Smart manufacturing needs cross-domain support, which a single system integration service provider is incapable of providing, said TAIROA, adding currently in Taiwan, most system integrators have insufficient talent and resource, and their operational scales are usually small.Core automation components and equipment, robots and system integration are key to smart manufacturing, TAIROA chairman Szu Kou-i said.A ceremony marking the founding of Taiwan Automation Intelligence System Integration AlliancePhoto: Chloe Liao, Digitimes, August 2020

TSMC is going to disclose more about the development of its sub-3nm manufacturing processes and SoIC at its upcoming technology forum on August 25. The foundry is building 3nm fabricaion lines at the Southern Taiwan Science Park, and it has acquired substantial amounts of facilities there, the latest being a plant from E-Ton Solar. Nan Ya PCB has delivered samples of SiP substates to clients for processing 5nm chips, and volume shipments may begin by the end of 2020.TSMC to talk about sub-3nm process, SoIC at upcoming tech forums: TSMC at its upcoming technology symposiums will disclose more details about the foundry's 3nm and 2nm process nodes, and advanced 3D heterogeneous integration technology, such as SoIC (system-on-integrated chips) packaging.TSMC acquires factory building in southern Taiwan: TSMC has announced the acquisition of a factory building and related facilities owned by E-Ton Solar Tech at the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) for NT$860 million (US$29.2 million), according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE).Nan Ya delivers sample SiP substrates for 5nm chips: Nan Ya PCB has delivered samples of SiP substrates for processing 5nm chips for validations by clients and expects to kick off shipments of such substrates by the end of 2020 at the earliest, which will boost the revenue contribution from high-end applications.

Coretronic Intelligent Robotics has developed a navigation solution based on 3D LiDAR SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) technology for autonomous mobile robots, according to company president Andy Hsin.Without GPS signals for positioning, industrial carrying vehicles used to be equipped with magnetic stripes, reflectors or QR codes for accurate positioning, making it difficult to deploy them at factories, Hsin said.The 3D LiDAR SLAM-based navigation solution is capable of 360-degree scanning and matched with a sensing-fusion algorithm and sensing data collected from gyroscopes for positioning.The solution is equipped with 3D-depth cameras to real-time capture characteristics of pallets for comparison and thereby can recognize shapes of different pallets and spatial coordinates of pallets to automatically adjust depth of fork-picking and compute optimal routes for robots to fork-pick pallets.Coretronic Intelligent is developing AGVs (automated guided vehicles) in cooperation with material handling equipment maker Noveltek Industrial Manufacturing, which is providing vehicles and necessary parameters to be set for moving vehicles, Hsin noted. With tests recently completed, such AGVs will be put into use at one or two factories by the end of 2020, Hsin said.It has cooperated with military, police and fire agencies in Taiwan to boost use of drones for security patrols and with a company in Japan to use drones in logistics operation, Hsin said.It has signed a MoU for strategic cooperation in application of drones with Japan-based KDDI and South Korea-based LG U+, Hsin noted. For cooperation with KDDI in particular, plans of using drones to inspect electric towers and facilities along railway lines in Japan will be finished by the end of 2020, Hsin indicated.An AGV developed by Coretronic Intelligent RoboticsPhoto: Michael Lee, Digitimes, August 2020