TSMC is expected to have another strong year in 2020, driven by demand for its advanced manufacturing processes, including the 5nm node that is on course to start volume production in the first half of the year. And the Taiwan-based foundry house has also obtained orders for making Intel's automotive AI chips, whose production will also involve KYEC's testing services. For the memory market, although it is heading towards recovery in 2020, a recent glitch - disrupted production at a Samsung plant due to a brief power outage earlier this week - has promised to destabilize short-term pricing and supply.TSMC to post at least 15% revenue growth in 2020: TSMC is forecast to enjoy revenue growth of at least 15% in 2020, driven by robust 7nm chip sales and sales generated from its newer 5nm process node, according to industry sources.TSMC, KYEC reportedly grab orders for automotive AI chips from Intel: Foundry house TSMC and testing house KYEC have both obtained orders for automotive AI chips from Intel, with the orders set to generate revenues starting the second half of 2020, according to industry sources.Power outage at Samsung fab to affect memory spot prices: A brief power outage that took place recently at Samsung Electronics' production base in Hwaseong will have a short-term impact on the memory spot market prices, industry sources believe.

Time Banking Cloud Services has introduced a blockchain-based cloud computing-based time banking platform to enourage enterprises' and non-profit organizations' volunteers to offer help for elderly people, according to company general manager CJ Lin.Volunteers from enterprises and non-profit organizations can obtain time coins through the cloud computing-based banking mechanism for giving care services, and they can use the coins to ask for care services in the future, equivalent to future return on time investment at present, Lin explained. The platform keeps accurate and fair blockchain records of every volunteer providing services, Lin said.Currently, enterprises include insurance companies and non-profit organizations include governments' social welfare organizations, Lin said. Time Banking provides training in elderly people's care and related consulting for volunteers, Lin noted. For every enterprise or non-profit organization, the company monthly charges NT$2 (US$0.066) per time coin it issues, but exempts the charge if fewer than 5,000 time coins are issued in a month, Lin indicated.Time Banking Cloud Services general manager CJ LinPhoto: Mark Tsai, Digitimes, January 2020

With the launch of the world's first smart home soap maker Soapmaker 1.0, Taiwan-based Lessdo raised over NT$1 million (US$33,275) on the first day its crowdfunding campaign went online in May 2019 and later accumulated more than NT$3 million during the funding period.The Lessdo team has been chosen by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) to present its product at the Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA) at CES 2020.Soapmaker mixes soap in six minutesLessdo CEO Jun-Jie Li came up with the idea of developing a soap maker - inspired by a colleague's problem. This colleague had been suffering from chronic skin conditions and spending a fortune buying handmade soap for nine years. He wanted to make his own soap but it was not easy to figure out the correct proportions of ingredients. The process is time-consuming and error-prone. The ingredients are often sold in bulk and do not have a long shelf life. Also, there is no guarantee on the origin and quality of handmade soap on the market. Lessdo was born to address these pain points - a startup now comprising eight people.Their soap-making machine sticking to the principle of "one-button operation." But being simple is not easy. The ability to simplify the 20-some steps of soap making is the most eye-catching feature of Lessdo's Soapmaker. It is built with a 10,000 rpm motor module, 304 stainless steel stirrer and smart thickness sensor."Traditional soap making by hand is time-consuming. The process relies on the person's experience and feel. The tools they use may not comply with fluid mechanics design principles and may fail to achieve uniform mixing. With LESSDO's soap maker, it only takes six minutes to mix the soap batter," noted Shih-Chang Chang, a member of the startup.Chang added, "Making soap is not like cooking. When you make something too salty or too sweet, people can still eat it. Controlling the saponification reaction is at the heart of soap making."To verify the result of soap mixing by machine, Lessdo has repeatedly invited master soap makers for comparisons. Aside from designing the device, Lessdo additionally offers 54 combinations of ingredient packs, allowing users with no prior soap making experience to get started effortlessly. All they need to do is pour the pre-measured ingredient pack and clay powder into the cup and press the button at the top of Soapmaker. After the mixing step is completed, blend in the provided essence oil, using the stirrer for uniform mixing. Pour the soap batter into the mold. Set it aside for two days. Then, unmold and let it cure for five more days before use.Soapmaker can produce three bars of 100g soap at a time. Furthermore, making soap into a spherical shape adheres to the "form follows function" principle and can better prevent glycerin rivers compared to making it into a cuboid shape. This is why Lessdo's Soapmaker comes with a spherical mold.Expanding internationally to create a blue ocean marketDriving smart living forward, Lessdo will continue to optimize Soapmaker's technology and design, said Chang. The next generation product will incorporate Bluetooth communication and smartphone app to allow users to build a soap making database through Bluetooth connection between their smartphone and Soapmaker. In addition to handmade body soap, Lessdo will also develop soap ingredient packs for face, hair, and even home cleaning.Lessdo's marketing plan for the first half of 2020 will focus on the domestic market. It looks to build up brand image and customer loyalty through self-media and word-of-mouth advertising and thereby increase online repurchase. It will also try to expand into the giveaway market and explore co-branding opportunities to grow brand awareness. For the second half of 2020, following the participation at CES 2020, Lessdo will undertake a round of funding on American crowdfunding platforms such as Indiegogo in hopes of replicating its success in Taiwan.The long-term goal is to establish presence in the US, Europe, Japan and other international markets.Lessdo's SoapmakerPhoto: Digitimes staff, December 2019

Acusense Biomedical is looking to digitally transform Taiwan's medical care industry with AI, medical IoT architectures and sensor systems, said company CEO Kuanyu Chen.The Taiwan-based startup is currently developing systems that can detect fluid leakage and estimate low blood pressure, and a smart tourniquet. Acusense is also working with a Singapore-based partner to develop home-use medical care equipment for cancer patients, Chen noted.At the moment, Acusense is in talks with several hospitals in Taiwan about technical cooperation and has applied for clinical trials for its leak detection and low blood pressure estimation technologies, Chen said.Acusense CEO Kuanyu ChenPhoto: Mark Tsai, Digitimes, December 2019

Huawei's smartphone business is likely to continue to be affected by the US trade ban in 2020 and beyond, and the performance of global shipments of 5G phones and foldable devices will vary in 2020, according to Digitimes Research.Huawei's de-Americanization campaign to mitigate the impact of the US trade ban has made some progress in terms of use of RF components for its smartphones, but the vendor still relies heavily on US-based vendors for the supply of key optical components such as VCSEL devices.Huawei has also apparently failed to reach self-sufficiency as far as Google's GMS (Google Mobile Service), ARM's CPU architecture and supplies of EDA (electronic design automation) tools are concerned.Huawei will continue to suffer from the adverse impacts or see its competitiveness further weaken in 2020 and beyond if the US trade ban continues to deny its access to Google's GMS service, ARM's CPU IP products and other EDA tools, or if it tries to force its de-Americanization efforts beyond reasonable means, Digitimes Research believes.Digitimes Research has revised upward its estimation of global 5G phone shipments for 2019 due to the ramp-ups in shipments by Chinese handset makers since October 2019. Global 5G phones are estimated to reach 21 million units in 2019, including 12.5-13.5 million units shipped to the China market, and are likely to expand to over 248 million units in 2020.Global shipments of foldable smartphones are estimated to total 400,000-600,000 units in 2019 and are expected to grow slowly to 2-3 million units in 2020 due to higher prices and lack of innovative applications of these models, Digitimes Research estimates.

The world has been as curious as ever about Apple's upcoming lineup of iPhone for 2020, and the latest news coming from the supply chain claims that the vendor may launch as many as six iPhone models this year, and that it will continue to keep LCD screens for two of them. And for the new 5G iPhones, TSMC is said to be processing antenna modules for them using its InFO_AiP technology. In the memory market, major NAND flash chipmakers are ready raise their quotes to reflect ever-increasing demand for a wide range of applications. NAND flash contract prices may soar as much as 40% in 2020.Apple may launch six iPhone devices in 2020, say sources: Apple is likely to launch as many as six iPhone devices in 2020, including four OLED models and two LCD ones, according to sources at Taiwan's handset supply chain.TSMC reportedly lands InFO_AiP orders for 5G mmWave iPnones: As US leading chipmakers and system vendors are gearing up to commercialize their mmWave technologies, TSMC reportedly has landed a big order from Apple for processing handset antenna modules with its InFO_AiP (antenna in package) technology, and it remains to be seen as to how far the move may impact Taiwan's suppliers of IC substrates, according to industry sources.NAND flash prices to rise by up to 40% in 2020: NAND flash contract prices are forecast to rise by up to 40% in 2020, according to sources at memory chipmakers.

While the number of lower-power wide-area networks (LPWAN) in commercial operations and the number of connected devices of these networks both expanded exponentially in 2019, NB-IoT networks ended the year to account for 70% of these LPWA networks, with its connected devices six times those situated on eMTC (enhanced Machine Type Communication or LTE-M)-based networks, Digitimes Research has found.There were a total of 114 operators in 57 countries worldwide offering commercial LPWAN services as of September 2019, showing a significant growth from a year earlier, according to GSA (Global mobile Supplier Association).The availability of LPWA chips and modules that are fully compliant with the 3GPP Release 14 standards, and the subsidies offered by China's telecom operators to LPWA module makers, were the crucial factors driving the fast expansion of commercial LPWA networks in 2019, said Digitimes Research.However, the fact that over 85% of connected devices globally are controlled by the world's top-10 LPWAN operators indicates that the size of the domestic market is a key factor in determining the scale of the IoT market. As a result, due to a lack of economies of scale in some countries, the promotion of IoT applications globally may not reach satisfactory leves in the short to medium term.Meanwhile, factors including high initial investments for the build-ups of LPWA networks, slower returns on equity, and the fact that IoT revenues currently account for less than 3% of their overall mobile service business, have impeded the world's major LPWA network operators to expand significantly their LPWAN services, or have even slowed down related investments.

Taiwan startup NADI System, dedicated to smart city solutions, has penetrated its 3D visualization management solutions into Southeast Asia by joining the Taipei Smart City@AMATA project now undertaken in Thailand by Taiwan's Sinotech Engineering Consultants, according to the firm's overseas representative CC Wu.Wu said NADI's 3D visualization management platform will be used to integrate the operations and maintenance of every buildings in a pilot smart city complex to be built in Amata City Chonburi Industrial Estate in Thailand.Wu continued that his company can leverage its 3D visualization technology to integrate BIM (building information modeling) and CIM (city information modeling), analyze traffic and human flows, and optimize the deployments of smart streetlights, surveillance systems and fire-fighting systems in the pilot complex.Wu disclosed that NADI will also incorporate its 3D visualization management solutions into the plants operated in Thailand by Cal-Comp Electronics & Communications, in cooperation with Cal-Comp Automation & Industrial 4.0 Service.

The output value of China's IC design industry is forecast to rise 22.5% on year to top CNY300 billion (US$43.06 billion) in 2019, according to Digitimes Research.Government subsidies have encouraged more homegrown chips development. The number of China-based fabless chipmakers has been growing rapidly, while their capability of developing chips is also being enhanced.China's IC design sector has enjoyed over 20% in output value annually since 2015. In 2019, there were already more than 1,700 China-based IC design houses while China's National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund's (Big Fund) first-phase capital support was bearing fruit.The Big Fund is expected to spend more on its second-phase capital support for the local chip industry, Digitimes Research believes. The government-led fund was set up in 2014 aiming to nurture China's local IC industry and raise the country's self-sufficiency for ICs.Among all segments of China's IC design sector, communication ICs will generate more than CNY100 billion in output value this year making the largest contribution to the overall industry output.

Taiwan-based startup KaiKuTek has developed a system-on-chip (SoC) solution that combines mmWave radar technologies, antennas and AI accelerators to realize close-distance fine gesture recognition.The advent of the 5G and AIoT eras promises huge opportunities for applications of millimeter wave (mmWave) technologies. Especially when Google's Pixel 4 smartphone allows users to skip a song, snooze an alarm or mute a call with a simple wave over the phone, gesture-based human machine interaction is catching market attention again. However, it remains quite challenging for mmWave technologies to be used for gesture recognition while achieving low energy consumption, low latency and low cost.KaiKuTek, founded by Mike Wang with funding from JMicron Technology in 2017, has developed a solution that it says has matured to commercialization ahead of international technology heavyweights.KaiKuTek has been chosen by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) to be among 80 startup teams that will present their achievements at the Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA) at CES 2020. It will showcase what it calls the world's first 3D gesture recognition SoC based on 60GHz mmWave radar technology.A useful solution made by a combination of technologiesWang founded the company at a time when he had little connection in the Taiwan high-tech business but only expertise in RF and wireless communication technologies."I had never worked for a Taiwanese employer before I started KaiKuTek. All my research partners were working in the US at the time," said Wang.Although starting his own business for the first time, Wang had helped build two startups when he was in the US. He helped start a company that provided RF CMOS solutions in 1999 when the Bluetooth technology was emerging. The company was later sold for US$150 million. The second startup that Wang helped establish offered indoor data transmission solutions for Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MOCA) set-top boxes. It later went public in the US, worth US$800 million at its peak.According to Wang, KaiKuTek is not smarter than others but just integrates related technologies and leverages all their benefits to create a useful solution. Wang said he had been researching on 60GHz mmWave radar technologies in the US, but it was not until he saw Google's Project Soli three years ago that he thought it might be interesting to combine radar sensors with AI.CMOS-based solutionWang highlighted KaiKuTek's three major advantages. The first is its innovative mmWave circuit design, which puts up a high barrier. Latecomers will have to spend tremendous time and money to be able to catch up with KaiKuTek, he said. Second, leveraging hardware capability and software algorithm, KaiKuTek's AI algorithm achieves higher power efficiency, shorter response time and optimal energy efficiency. Third, KaiKuTek has robust technologies and capabilities in antenna design.Despite the high bandwidth, the problem with 60GHz signals is that they do not travel far and attenuate quickly in the air. KaiKuTek is able to use this to its advantage. By using the radar only for close-range detection along with the use of directional antennas to avoid interferences from adjacent devices and increase recognition precision, KaiKuTek's solution can detect subtle finger movements. Not only does KaiKuTek make use of edge computing but it has actually implemented computing on the dedicated AI processing unit embedded in the SoC, realizing computing on the sensor and saving smartphone power consumption.As opposed to other mmWave radar ICs on the market that are manufactured on the expensive gallium arsenide (GaAs) process or use camera-based solutions, KaiKuTek's chip is made using the more mature and affordable CMOS process. Integrating 1T3R antennas, MMICs and its proprietary AI accelerator in an advanced antenna in package (AiP) SoC, KaiKuTek's solution enables multiple benefits including fast response, energy efficiency and low cost.In terms of applications, Wang is optimistic about market opportunities arising from the use of gesture recognition in home appliances enabled by AIoT developments. However, KaiKuTek will focus efforts on smartphones, wearable devices and gaming markets for the time being.KaiKuTek has been putting its test chips in action at major exhibitions with an aim to provide users a new and alternative human machine interaction experience. KaiKuTek marketing director Griffon Lin noted the demonstrations now use test chips with the purpose to gain an insight into market reaction and then KaiKuTek can make adjustments to better suit user needs. Volume production for the first-generation product is scheduled for second-quarter 2020.Gesture recognition has its advantages but it is not aimed to replace touch control. Wang thinks it can be a complementary addition to human machine interface (HMI) designs. The HMI market is big enough for different solutions to thrive, he added.KaiKuTek founder Mike Wang