Global smartphone shipments are expected to reach 1.278 billion units in 2020, including less than 200 million units of 5G models, taking into account the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak on China and around the world in terms of economic growth, Digitimes Research estimates.In the best-case scenario under which the virus is under control by the end of February and factory resumption rates keep rising, China's top-four handset brands are expected to see their smartphone shipments experience an annual fall of 19.5% in the first quarter of 2020 compared to 11% projected in January.Although most assembly plants and supply chain makers of the leading brands have resumed operations leveraging inventories stockpiled prior to the Lunar New Year holiday, the capacity utilization rates of some key component makers such as those for camera lenses, chassis and touch modules currently reach about 20-40%, with a few at 50%.However, since only large-scale supply chain makers are currently running at lower capacities and a large number of small makers are awaiting approvals from local governments to restart facilities, the handset industry faces the mounting risks of supply chain disruption in March should any kind of components or materials run out of the stock.Digitimes Research believes that if the chilling smartphone demand in China turns out to be more severe than expected, the global smartphone market will tumble further in 2020.

Celebrating 60 years of progress in 2020, metallic glass technologies are widely used today in healthcare, biotechnology, manufacturing and aerospace industries as the material combines the strength, toughness and resilience of metal and glass. As opposed to other academic research teams mostly focusing on the study of material formulation, the team led by Jinn P Chu, vice president, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST), is devoted to the development of metallic glass coating, with an aim to use it in the manufacturing of medical needles and semiconductor chips. Through assistance from the Taiwan Tech Global Research & Industry Alliance (Taiwan Tech GLORIA) project, the NTUST team showcased their achievements at exhibitions held in Philadelphia and Germany in 2019 and began a partnership with an Israeli firm.According to Chu, after years of research, the challenges in the complex metallic glass production process leading to the problem of low yield have been overcome, allowing the material to be used in wide-ranging application scenarios. For example, iron cores in inverters have been replaced by metallic glass, which reduces the conversion loss to just one-sixth. The aerospace industry also makes use of metallic glass for its strength to produce aircraft components. The use of metallic glass will keep expanding to other sectors.Having engaged in metallic glass research for years, Chu leads one of the world's very few teams dedicated to metallic glass coating. The vacuum coating process achieves a less-than 200nm thickness. Furthermore, the team was the first to discover that the low resistance property of metallic glass allows it to be anti-stick when coming in contact with other materials. Teflon coating, which provides an ideal anti-stick effect, is now generally used to make non-stick surfaces but there are concerns that Teflon may be toxic and the coating may easily flake off. The use of metallic glass can eliminate these concerns and therefore is suitable for medical purposes.The use of metallic glass coating for medical purposes focuses on syringe needles. Coating needles with metallic glass reduces the pain associated with needle insertion as this prevents the needle from sticking with skin tissues. The technology has been transferred to an American dental equipment manufacturer to produce anesthetic needles, which are now under FDA review. The metallic glass coating can also be applied on hair implanter needles for repeated use. The research was published and recognized with an award at an international symposium in 2018. It has also obtained Taiwan FDA approval on Class 1 medical devices.Aside from medical uses, metallic glass coating is also used in important semiconductor process equipment. For example, conductive silver paste is coated on semiconductor wires. To coat the fine semiconductor wires, the silver paste nozzle opening must be made very small. However, due to their larger size, silver paste particles can easily stick to the nozzle and clog the opening. Coating the nozzle with metallic glass prevents sticking, ensures free flow of silver paste and therefore eliminates production halt due to clogged nozzles.Another use of metallic glass in semiconductor manufacturing is for wafer dicing. At present, dice are separated from a semiconductor wafer by mechanical sawing or laser cutting. Diamond blade cutting remains the mainstream as laser cutting is costly despite its precision. However, when the diamond blade cutter comes in contact with the wafer, resistance will cause cracks on the wafer, which will widen if the cutter keeps going. As such, manufacturers generally leave sufficient dicing margin to accommodate such cracks. Also, they make it a two-step process when making deeper cuts to avoid big cracks. It has been tested and proven that the diamond blade cutter, after being coated with metallic glass, will generate smaller cracks and the cracks will remain small even when making a deeper cut in one step. Using a diamond blade cutter with metallic glass coating will allow manufacturers to narrow the dicing margin and pack more die on a wafer, thereby raising production yield.Chu's team has been actively demonstrating its robust research achievements and diverse applications at exhibitions around the world after joining the Taiwan Tech GLORIA project in 2018. The team won the American Chemical Society Award at Nano Tech Japan in 2018 for its metallic glass nanotube array. Its showcase attracted industry attention at exhibitions held in Philadelphia and Germany in 2019 and led to a partnership opportunity with an Israeli firm. Chu noted the team has long focused on technology development and needs industry partners to help discover more applications for its research, and through participation in the Taiwan Tech GLORIA project, the NTUST team has rapidly gained visibility.Jinn P Chu, vice president, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST)Jinn P Chu and his team Photos: NTUST

Notebook ODMs have resumed their production in China, but face the possibility of a lack of components starting in March if their suppliers continue to be prevented from going to work by the coronavirus outbreak. Quanta Computer has started volume production at a new assembly plant in Taiwan to meet urgent needs from clients, but components shortages remain an issue. Now Digitimes Research estimates that global notebook shipments will fall 29-36% in first-quarter 2020, much steeper than previously thought.Notebook ODMs running out of components: Taiwanese notebook ODMs have already resumed assembly operations in China, but risks of supply chain disruptions in March are mounting, as inventories of many components will run out by end-February with many of their supporting suppliers still awaiting approvals from local governments to reopen their plants, according to industry sources.Quanta steps up notebook production in Taiwan amid outbreak: Taiwan notebook ODM Quanta Computer is reportedly moving to accelerate volume production at its new assembly lines in northern Taiwan to fulfill rush shipments to US brand vendors amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to industry sources.Global notebook shipments for 1Q20 to plunge 29-36% sequentially on epidemic, says Digitimes Research: Global notebook unit shipments for the first quarter of 2020 are estimated to experience a larger sequential fall of 29-36% than 17% projected earlier, as severe labor and components shortages and stagnant logistics arising from the coronavirus outbreak are derailing supply chain in China, which commands over 90% of global notebook production, according to Digitimes Research.

AI-based marketing solution developer AccuHit AI Technology Taiwan has raised NT$70 million (US$2.3 million) in pre series-A funding round, with the fund to be used to enhance R&D and expand scope of products and services, according to company co-founder and CEO Jason Lin.Tokio Marine Newa Insurance and National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) Angel Club are the two new venture capital investors in the funding round. Through the investment, Tokio Marine will apply AccuHit-developed AI-based marketing solutions to its insurance products, cooperate with AccuHit to create new business models and help AccuHit tap the Japan market, while NCTU Angel Club will help AccuHit set up an AI core R&D team to expand development of MarTech (marketing technology) services for business use.AccuHit was selected by Microsoft for Startups and PwC's Scale-up accelerator in 2019 and has technologically partnered with Microsoft Taiwan's AI Infinity program and LINE to help Taiwan-based enterprises in digital transformation business operation.With the goal of becoming the first Taiwan-based MarTech brand, AccuHit will cooperate with Microsoft Taiwan to promote AccuNix, its MarTech platform using Microsoft's Azure cloud computing and machine learning technologies, among enterprises.AccuHit adopts a double-barreled strategy for marketing its products and services: subscription-based use and project-based consulting, and has so far had nearly 100 clients of which 80% are on a subscription basis.AccuNix can help users track and identify customers' historical purchasing behavior and integrate such data, and AccuHit will offer a solution of analyzing such data, such as cluster analysis and prediction, for value-added application in first-quarter 2020.AccuHit plans to set up marketing bases in Japan and Singapore in 2021.AccuHit AI Technology Taiwan co-founder and CEO Jason LinPhoto: Company

Chronic illness affects more people than other diseases in Taiwan. In fact, according to Taipei City's Department of Health, seven of the 10 leading causes of death are chronic diseases and 64.3% of deaths are due to chronic diseases. Following the recent trend of smartization in the healthcare sector, the BEAR Lab team, led by Hsin Hsiu, chairman of Graduate Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST), built a high-precision pulse analyzer that collects blood flow measurements from different parts of the body through wearable devices the patient puts on. It then performs AI-based analyses to provide extremely accurate results. Through assistance from the Taiwan Tech Global Research & Industry Alliance (Taiwan Tech GLORIA) project, the BEAR Lab team has initiated collaborations with medical institutions and leading medical device suppliers at home and abroad to put their pulse analyzer to use at hospitals, in communities and in people's homes.Hsiu started devoting himself to the research on chronic illness detection 17 years ago. The healthcare industry began to embrace a wave of smartization in 2014, incorporating a multitude of information technology (IT) applications with wearable devices among them as well. However, for usability and practicality reasons, these applications have yet to enjoy widespread use. The pulse analyzer developed by the BEAR Lab team after years of research is built on top of solid hardware and software strength in addition to close clinical collaborations with medical institutions. Through continuing refinements, the BEAR Lab team was able to quickly boost the accuracy delivered by the pulse analyzer.BEAR Lab (Bio Electronic Application and Research Laboratory) is committed to advanced research in the field of biomedical electronics. The BEAR Lab team's pulse analyzer works by measuring arterial pulse waveforms and then performing AI-based analyses on the signals. It can be used for wide-ranging healthcare purposes. Hsiu noted that blood transports nutrients and oxygen to cells throughout the body and plays a vital role to normal body operation. The human body responds to changes by making adjustments in order to maintain a constant and balanced internal environment. Regulating blood flow is a way to make such adjustments. When blood circulation in a certain part of the body shows irregularity, it may be an indication that something is wrong, possibly cancer or dementia. The pulse analyzer can measure pulse waveforms and detect irregularity. However, due to the instable nature of blood-flow waveforms and the intricate human body, it is very challenging to discern signals from noise. The BEAR Lab team said it is the first in the world to achieve accurate signal reading.The BEAR Lab team's pulse analyzer currently targets four use areas, including cardiovascular disease and cancer detection as well as long-term care and rehabilitation therapy. In cancer detection, it can identify stage 0 to 2 breast cancer with 99% accuracy. In long-term care, it can achieve 99% accuracy in dementia case identification. Aside from its high precision, Hsiu highlighted the pulse analyzer's advanced features and usability as its additional advantages. Taking dementia case identification for example, Hsiu pointed out medical professionals currently diagnose dementia by having patients fill out assessment forms and make a determination based on evaluation results. The pulse analyzer, on the other hand, relies on physiological data and makes a more objective judgement based on blood-flow waveforms. It also enables more refined classification of disease severity and progression. Furthermore, the pulse analyzer is quick and easy to use. It only takes the pulse analyzer two minutes to come up with the result, a significant improvement over most medical-grade wearable devices currently in use that require patients to wear them for an extended period of time.BEAR Lab may have developed advanced technologies that are ahead of the rest of the world, but the NTUST team has long focused on doing research in the lab and knows little about marketing and promotion, indicated Hsiu. With limited time, resource and staff, it is not easy for the team to find the right industry partners. The team participated in the GLORIA project in 2018, which helped bring the team to the attention of medical institutions and leading high-tech firms at home and abroad. It has now engaged in collaborations with large hospitals in Taiwan to collect clinical data in the four target use areas to help further enhance accuracy. Going forward, the team will continue to work with medical institutions while endeavoring to expand the use of the pulse analyzer into communities and homes. It will also look to integrate the pulse analyzer with consumer electronics and rehab equipment, bringing healthcare closer to people's everyday life.Hsin Hsiu, head of BEAR LabPhoto: Digitimes staff, January 2020

The coronavirus outbreak is hitting hard the ICT industries and markets in China. Digitimes Research provides a preliminary estimation on the impacts on four major sectors: semiconductors, display panels, handsets and notebooks. Many manufacturers in China are slowly returning to work. The pace of recovery reportedly has been faster than expected though production for many ODMs remains low. For some in the semiconductor sector, the outbreak so far has had little impact on their orders. IC testing solutions provider Chunghwa Precision Test Tech (CHPT) continues to land major orders from first-tier vendors.Digitimes Research examines health of four major ICT sectors in China amid outbreak: IC design houses in Taiwan and China will see the coronavirus outbreak impact their revenues for the first quarter of 2020, and foundry and backend houses may take clearer hits starting in the second quarter, according to a study by Digitimes Research on impacts of the epidemic on semiconductor, panel, handset and notebook sectors.ODMs see better-than-expected recovery in China capacity amid outbreak: Taiwan-based ODMs including Compal Electronics, Quanta Computer and Inventec have seen capacities at their plants in China recovering in a pace faster than expected amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to industry sources.CHPT secures major wafer test orders for flagship smartphone APs: IC testing solutions provider Chunghwa Precision Test Tech (CHPT) continues to land major orders from first-tier vendors for wafer probing cards and other test interfaces for high-end handset APs despite the coronavirus outbreak, and will be carrying on its capacity expansion plans as scheduled, according to company chairman Scott Huang.

Despite automation equipment, robotic arms and AGVs (automated guided vehicles), manual operation is still necessary for some manufacturing industries and thus harmonized collaboration between workers and robots is essential to Industry 4.0, according to Shinyi Fukui, executive officer for Technology Development under Omron.Fukui made the remarks at a keynote speech "Manufacturing Site in the Near Future Where People and Robots Are Harmonized" at the Robot Development & Application Expo 2020 (RoboDEX) taking place in Tokyo, Japan, during February 12-14.Japanese and other advanced countries' manufacturers, to cope with declining labor supply and rising wage rates, have moved production lines to China and Southeast Asian where workforce is abundant, Fukui said. However, moving of production lines is not the optimal solution, and instead hiking automation via adoption of robots and AI technology is a sustainable solution, Fukui noted.While Industry 4.0 is mostly thought of as development of automation toward unmanned factory, not all manufacturing industries can realize that because robots and AI technology are unable to replace many types of manual work, Fukui explained. Omron aims to transform human-robot interaction from mutual replacement to mutual cooperation and have robots excite potential human capability eventually, Fukui indicated, adding this is the goal of Industry 4.0 for many manufacturing industries.For realizing human-robot collaboration, 5G communication technology plays a key role, for its high-speed data transfer in large volumes enables analysis of detailed movement of human bodies. When robots can understand the characteristics of human behavior via analysis of real-time images and algorithm-based computing, they can ideally collaborate with workers, Fukui explained. By virtue of low latency and multi-point connectivity, 5G technology enables wide deployment of IoT sensors and hikes efficiency in data collection, Fukui said.Omron has begun human-robot collaboration at its factories, Fukui noted. For example, AGVs carrying components and materials can run to each worker and avoid collision through machine learning-based sensing of surrounding physical changes, Fukui said. In addition, IoT sensors collect data on workers' operating conditions to let them understand their working performance and what can be improved, Fukui noted. This can not only hike working efficiency in man power but also save time and cost for training workers, Fukui indicated.Omron will keep cooperating with NTT DoCoMo, Nokia and other telecom carriers to seek more applications of 5G technology to human-robot collaboration.A robotic device showcased at RoboDEX 2020Photo: Jay Liu, Digitimes, February 2020

High-definition electronic map provider Kingwaytek Technology has obtained Taiwan's approval for trial operation of autonomous mini-buses, and will start the trial on a road mainly used for sight-seeing trips in central Taiwan in March, according to the company.The government of Taoyuan City has been developing Hutoushan Innovation Park specifically for use to test smart driving, IoV as well as IoT information security, with Kingwaytek commissioned to operate the testing site and facilities for the former.Following enforcement of Statute for Experiments of Technological Innovations in Unmanned Vehicles in October 2019, Kingwaytek and partners had been testing autonomous mini-buses at the testing site in preparation before obtaining the trial-run approval, it said.

IC design houses in Taiwan and China will see the coronavirus outbreak impact their revenues for the first quarter of 2020, and foundry and backend houses may take clearer hits starting in the second quarter, according to a study by Digitimes Research on impacts of the epidemic on semiconductor, panel, handset and notebook sectors.Impacts of the outbreak on IC designers have gradually surfaced in February, as China's first-quarter demand for smartphones has been revised downward by 15% from January estimates, significantly denting shipments of MediaTek and HiSilicon relying heavily on the Chinese market. In addition, demand for their 5G APs may remain weak until the fourth quarter.Foundry plants in China, boasting highly automated operations, have seen smaller impact in the first quarter as they can sustain normal runs following the Lunar New Year break. But they will see growth momentum weaken starting the second quarter as epidemic-induced shrinkages in consumer demand and delays in product launches will slow inventory depletion at IC designers, with 5G chip shipments unlikely to see significant increases until the fourth quarter.For IC backend plants, which require the support of relatively larger workforce, their operations will remain plagued by slow return of employees for at least two more weeks and it will take one more month to ramp up their capacity utilization to 80-90% if there is support of sufficient backend orders.Digitimes Research estimates that if the entire supply chain of the semiconductor industry in China can resume normal operations in early March and the epidemic can end in the first half of the year, the industry is expected to gradually return to growth track in the third quarter.LCD panel segment suffering more than AMOLEDChina-based panel makers BOE Technology, Tianma Microelectronics and China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT) all have plants in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, and they can hardly resume normal operations in the foreseeable future. Among them, CSOT is suffering the most as its 6G LTPS TFT LCD panel fab there is estimated to be running at only 30% of its capacity in the short term due to serious labor shortages. This will significantly undermine the firm's shipments to clients as the plant now account for 10% of global LTPS LCD production capacity, although the company has managed to mitigate impacts of traffic controls on transportation of raw materials and finished products.As Tianman's 4.5G a-Si TFT LCD line in Wuhan has shifted to production for industrial control and medical applications and its 6G AMOLED line there still registers low yield rates and capacity utilization, their production delays will not much affect the overall supply. BOE's 10.5G LCD line and CSOT's 6G AMOLED line are still at an initial volume production stage with global capacity contribution ratio of less than 1% each, and therefore their failure to resume normal production soon will neither much affect global supply, according to Digitimes Research.Meanwhile, CEC Panda LCD Technology's Nanjing plant, BOE Technology's plants in Chongqing and Hefei, and Century Technology's plant in Shenzhen will not restart production until February 17, with their massive shipments of LCD panels to be somewhat impacted. In contrast, Chinese AMOLED panel makers such as EverDisplay Optronics, Visionox and Royole will remain less affected as they mainly adopt imported components.Many panel makers in China are suffering insufficient supply of components, particularly PCBs and backlight modules, as many plants operated by Taiwanese PCB makers in Huangshi and Xiantao, both adjacent to Wuhan, can hardly restart regular operations due to serious labor shortages and labor-intensive production of backlight modules at most plants are also unlikely to run smoothly.Handset vendors lower 1Q20 shipment projectionsIn the handset sector, four major Chinese vendors Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi have lowered their shipment projections for the first quarter of 2020, with their combined quarterly shipments estimated to fall by 15.2% to 84 million units as it would take time for their supply chain partners to resume high capacity utilization while domestic consumer demand is also being eroded by the outbreak, Digitimes Research estimates. Camera lens maker Largan Precision, EMI parts supplier Triumph Lead Group and many touch control makers, for instance, can register only up to 50% capacity utilization till mid-March, and may face shipment disruptions if the epidemic fails to have eased by then.Foxconn, a major assembler for iPhones and other Chinese handset brands, is also suffering from uncertainties in employee returns to its plants in Chinese cities of Zhengzhou, Longhua, and Taiyuan, which is likely to drag down shipments of a new entry-level iPhone model by 10% in the spring and affect scheduled normal shipments of new iPhones in the autumn.Samsung Electronics should be more immune to the epidemic thanks to its heavy production deployments in India and Vietnam.Heavy blow to notebook supply and demandAs up to 90% of global notebook shipments come from China, the coronavirus has dealt a heavy blow to both supply and demand of the sector, according to Digitimes Research.Taiwan's major notebook ODMs including Compal Electronics, Quanta Computer and Wistron have resumed operations at their plants in Chongqing, Kunshan and Shanghai at low capacity utilization rates of around 20% since February 10, and the utilization may gradually pick up starting February 24 after returning employees finish a 14-day quarantine and their components suppliers restart production then.The ODMs still have to recruit new employees to fill labor shortfalls associated with low rates of returning employees, but the recruitment will be increasingly difficult as Chinese people increasingly prefer working in the service sector to the manufacturing industry.

Global all-in-one (AIO) PC shipments totaled 3.42 million units in the fourth quarter of 2019, rounding out the volumes for the whole-year 2019 at 13.25 million units, down 3.4% on year, according to Digitimes Research's latest report on AIO PCs.Fourth-quarter shipments accounted for 26% of the overall volumes in 2019, showing no obvious sign of a seasonal pickup in demand from the business sector.Shipments in the first quarter of 2020 are expected to slip 27% sequentially and 17% on year partly due to the high comparison base in the same quarter a year ago during which vendors pre-stocked extra inventory to avoid the US tariff, Digitimes Research's figures show. The coronavirus outbreak is also dampening demand in first-quarter 2020.Among major AIO PC brands, Apple and Micro-Star International (MSI) were the top performers in shipments in fourth-quarter 2019. The top-2 brands - Lenovo and Apple - continued to see increased market shares with the two together already dominating over half of the AIO PC market in the quarter.However, the top-2 brands will both witness slipping shipments in the first quarter of 2020 due to unsatisfactory sales. Lenovo will be hit particularly hard by the coronavirus outbreak in China, its home market.Among key manufacturers, Quanta Computer will see its first-quarter 2020 shipments undermined by the order cuts from Apple and Hewlett-Packard (HP), while Lenovo's ODM partners Wistron and Compal Electronics will also see decreased orders for the quarter.