While accuracy in AI-based interpretation of medical images is improving, the user experience - mainly for doctors and nurses - and accessibility of the technology to them should be enhanced, says Microsoft Taiwan chief operating officer (COO) Hedy Ho.For inter-department diagnoses, experts from different departments should share data and hold discussions that can facilitate development of algorithms, Ho said, adding the algorithms can in turn improve efficiency in diagnosis and logistics management for medical IoT application.For medical equipment with optical lenses, technology of translating voice into text can remind equipment management staff members of maintenance schedule and surrounding environment control for using equipment.Microsoft Taiwan COO Hedy HoPhoto: Shihmin Fu, Digitimes, September 2019

The US-China trade war is sending many manufacturers fleeing the "world's factory," with many Taiwanese makers relocating production lines to Southeast Asia or returning home. For some notebook brand vendors, Taiwan is a preferred location for producing devices heading for the US market - a preference about which Compal has already been told by its clients. For Apple, the trade war has already taken its toll on iPhone sales in China. And it remains to be seen how the freshly launched iPhone 11 series will fare. Taiwan's supply chain players are generally cautious about the sales outlook of the new iPhones. But some believe Apple's new pricing strategy should be able to stimulate sales of the new and older-generation iPhones. And backend service providers expect stable growth in demand for chips supporting Apple's new and older iPhones because of the "friendly" pricing.Compal turns to Taiwan for making US-bound notebooks: Compal Electronics, in response to its major brand clients' requests, is moving production of their US-bound notebooks from Vietnam to Taiwan, which is expected to turn Taiwan into the second largest notebook production base worldwide, behind only China, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.Supply chain cautious about sales of iPhone 11 lineup: The new iPhones' lack of wow factors may fail to ignite strong replacement demand in the global smartphone space where shipments have been locked in a downturn, according to sources from Taiwan's handset supply chain.Apple new pricing strategy steals spotlight at iPhone 11 launch: The brightest spot of Apple's launch for the iPhone 11 lineup turned out to be its new pricing strategy. Apple's move will not only help boost buying sentiment for the new iPhones, but also give it more room to set prices for its future 5G-enabled iPhones.Taiwan backend firms eyeing stable demand for new iPhones: Taiwan-based backend houses including KYEC and Chipbond expect to see stable growth in demand for baseband chips and LCD driver ICs for Apple iPhone.

The completion of the first 5G NR standard specified in 3GPP, the frequency bands are being separated into two different frequency ranges named sub 6 GHz and the millimeter-wave (mmWave) bands. The large amount of underutilized spectrum in the mmWave frequency bands are a viable solution for achieving tens to hundreds of times more capacity compared to current 4G networks. The beamforming technology is widely used in the telecom industry when referring to 5G. This technology uses an array of multiple antennas to intelligently form the patterns transmitted to or received from a large antenna array by controlling the direction of a wave-front. That is, the mmWave beamforming technology is an enabling technology for 5G.TMY Technology (TMYTEK) is a Taiwan based startup company and leading 5G beamforming solution provider. The company is focusing on mmWave technology and RF (Radio Frequency) front end solutions by providing highly modulized beamforming systems that enable 5G designers to successfully develop innovative antenna and baseband technology.This award-winning startup is gaining exposure of working with national research institutes and several Taiwan electronics manufacturers. TMYTEK develops cost-effective solutions solving technology challenges of mmWave through its unique and complicated skills of controlling weighting the magnitude or phase of signals in an array of multiple antennas. The value of the company product offerings is widely recognized and continue to move to accelerate 5G product development in Taiwan electronics industries. For fast-expanding business into China and Taiwan region, TMYTEK engages the business partnership and work with ACE Solution to attract more opportunities in the future.Aiming 2020 Startup Event at Barcelona to connect with global ecosystemsNicole Chan, vice president of the Science and Technology Law Department at the Institute of Information Industry, at the event.On August 22nd 2019, TMYTEK holds "#BeamUp 5G Product Launch" event to showcase their recent development of 5G mmWave technology. The invited speakers include Chunghwa Telecom, ACE Solution, AAMA Taipei Startup Camp and Nicole Chan, Vice president of the Science and Technology Law Department at the Institute of Information Industry. In the guest open remarks session, the investment department of Chunghwa Telecom will offer the funding program to help TMYTEK to join the 4YFN Startup Event at Barcelona during Mobile World Congress 2020. This will help TMYTEK to connect with global 5G ecosystems and discover more opportunities for business and finance support.Su-Wei Chang, President of TMYTEK, talks the major milestones when he found the company in 2014 in his keynote. He looks at the beamforming technology continuing to gather strong R&D momentum from industries. With the 5G transition, there are a lot of new businesses appearing, reshuffling existing value chains and creating new markets. Building a 5G R&D ecosystem and partnership will help to shape the future of 5G development in Taiwan. TMYTEK is trying to form an industrial mmWave development platform to continue to make contributions to Taiwan 5G community.Showcasing XBeam, AiP and BBox for fast-tracking achievementsInside the XBeam chamber, there is a DUT (device-under-test) being tracked. On the right side of the screen it shows how the DUT's beam looks like.The XBeam, AiP and BBox product series become the spotlight of the event. Ethan Lin, Vice president of TMYTEK, demonstrates these major solutions for 5G antenna design and production test. The first live product demonstration is the Beamforming Box (BBox). This is a powerful development tool and design kit for mmWave antennas. The current BBox product series is the third generation design with several different models.The BBox One is the flagship product with 16 independent RF channels fulfilling the developers' requirements. The standard BBox product is a hardware device with various options of software GUIs and API tools. The friendly product design will ensure customers opening the box and ready to use. Another version called BBox Lite equipped with 4 RF channels is most suitable for engineers to emulate UE beamforming performance. The current frequency band support is 28GHz. And the 39 GHz version will be available within this year.XBeam OTA test solutions aiming to reduce massive cost in 5G antenna production linesXBeamWith a dramatic increase in user expectations on the 5G network, the demands for testing devices and base stations solely on an OTA (Over-the-Air) manner becomes essential. The OTA Test is a standard process to evaluate radio performance of 5G devices. It requires dedicated test chambers and sophisticated testing instruments to perform the full testing procedures. The test and measurement solutions are critical for mass production stage because of the high setup expanse and testing cost. TMYTEK uses BBox One as a scanning probe combined with a testing chamber to create a competitive test solution for the industry. That is the XBeam Test and Measurement solution.The key is the Beam Steering technology, Lin highlights. Using BBox One with TMYTEK dedicated software control in a test chamber will have better simulation to test RF modules performance of various orientation angles. Obviously, the benefit is reducing testing time for each DUT (device under test) because saving time from rotating the DUTs mechanically. Through XBeam test solution, the overall testing time in the mass production stage could be reduced for 10 to 15 times compared with traditional rotating test chamber approach. This is the reason why Taiwan electronics manufacturers so exciting to see XBeam test solution to be launched.AiP, antenna-in-Package, is a miniature module combined with the functions of BBox and UD Box. Our AiP is made ready to help users to prepare, design, test, and deploy beamforming solutions for small cells, User Equipment, CPE, and 5G research.There are other products showcasing to gain attention. For example, the XRifle is the technology to optimize the number of base stations for solving the issues of coverage-constrained base station deployment. Lin adds, the concept is using the signal repeater devices to maximize the 5G signal coverage. . Meanwhile, in the semiconductor product showcase, the AiP (Antenna in Package) chip is not only a proof of concept design, it is a funcational prototype and can be used as the base for the future cusomization. This module is an 8×8 antenna arrays. It could be tiled up to form 4K antenna arrays in theory. These product demonstrations have successfully show TMYTEK technical strength of 5G antenna arrays and test solutions to Taiwan technical sectors.Technical partnership makes us work together and go farAs in a world where quick execution and first-mover play a key role in success, TMYTEK is looking to reinvent itself and continuing to explore mmWave technologies for delivering innovative industrial solutions from design to mass production the 5G products. Talking the next step for TMYTEK, the company is aiming to develop solutions embracing the trend of satellite Internet services. Satellites are a reasonable way to provide internet access where previously there was none.Su-Wei Chang talks to his next big move for planning the projects to develop satellite receivers leveraging the mmWave technologies. But no one company can do it alone, he adds. It requires a partner ecosystem. Taiwan electronics manufacturers and ecosystem partners have traditionally differentiated themselves from the rest of the industry. This is how they have managed to stay ahead of the game. Like the key theme in this event, "Alone we go faster, together we go further", which is the most important message that TMYTEK would like to share with investors and partners.

FiO Technology, dedicated to serving as a BaaS (Blockchain as a Service) platform for enterprises, has developed a new business model allowing corporate users to gain reward from business transfers without exposing their own secret business data, according to Geroge Chu, founder and CEO of the startup.Chu said FiO aims to drive a real commercialization of blockchain in the business world, helping enterprises integrate and manage digital assets and analyze distributed user behavior through blockchain application.Chu continued that FiO draws its name from the abbreviation of "figure it out," seeking to help more enterprises explore blockchain application potentials in a convenient and low-cost way and faciliate their expansions in international markets.Through the BaaS platform, enterprises can plug FiO's API (application programming interface) into their APP/Web to kick off blockchain applications without having to spend heavily on creating their own blockchain systems or alter their original computer systems, Chu stressed.Chu said that FiO has completed its company registration in Singapore thanks to the country's friendly regulations and easier access to angel funds in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The company has also set up its R&D base in Taiwan to capitalize on the abundant software talent supply, and established its strategy headquarters in Hong Kong. Such a deployment has given the startup more room to develop business in Greater China, Southeast Asia, and even Japan and South Korea.FiO has developed patented bottom-layer technologies based on the open Hyperledger Fabric architecture in cooperation with IBM, and will promote its blockchain technologies and services to small and medium-size clients.Chu stressed that FiO's BaaS platform is a hybrid chain combining both public and private chains, allowing enterprises to load only risk-free data of their own onto the platform.Meanwhile, FiO uses Hyperledger Indy, a distributed ledger for decentralized identity, or the digital avatar solution to support AI analysis of big data about consumers' genders, ages and locations instead of their names, phone numbers and addresses, thus effectively safeguarding personal data.The company has secured investments from Forbes Digital Asset and Israel's Infinity Leadway, and is enforcing a new round of fundraising seeking to solicit fresh funds of US$10-20 million from potential partners in Japan, Singapore and the Middle East, according to Chu. FiO Technology founder and CEO George ChuPhoto: Shihmin Fu, Digitimes, September 2019

Apple has just released its new iPhones and smartwatch, and its next-generation AirPods is likely to be available soon. Supply chain sources have disclosed that ODMs will begin mass assembly of the new AirPods as early as October to meet year-end shopping season demand. While it remains to be seen how well the new iPhones may be selling, chip supplier MediaTek in the Android camp sees robust sales at the moment, thanks to demand from major Chinese smartphone vendors for its midrange SoCs. MediaTek receives major backend support from ASE Technology Holding, which is expected to see significant sales through the end of the year, driven by orders from the smartphones and wearables sectors.Production of next-gen AirPods to kick off as early as October: Apple's supply chain makers reportedly have kicked off volume production of related components for next-generation AirPods that will enable ODM production partners to begin mass assembly of the gadgets as early as October to meet year-end shopping season demand, according to supply chain sources.MediaTek set to post record 3Q19 revenues: MediaTek is expected to see its September revenues climb to a record high, with revenues for the third quarter also hitting record-high levels, according to market observers.ASE to enjoy revenue growth through 4Q19 on SiP orders: IC backend house ASE Technology Holding is expected to generate sequential revenue increases through the last quarter of 2019, driven by orders for SoC chips for smartphones, wearables and other portable devices, according to industry sources.

China's move to improve self-sufficiency for semiconductors is gaining momentum - in line with the country's national policy and in the wake of the trade war with the US - with DRAM startup ChangXin Memory Technologies moving in equipment at its 12-inch fab. CXMT aims to start commercial runs for part of its production lines by the end of 2019. But in general, the US-China trade war has been disrupting the operations of the supply chains and seasonal patterns. Notebook ODMs expect disappointing shipments for the third quarter of 2019 - a period that is supposed to be a traditional high season.DRAM startup CXMT gearing up for production: China-based DRAM chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT, formerly Innotron) has kicked off 12-inch fab equipment move-in in the third quarter, aiming to start commercial runs for part of its production lines by the end of 2019, according to industry sources.Compal, Inventec expect flat 3Q19 revenues after reporting declines for August: Compal Electronics and Inventec are on track to achieve flat sequential performances for their third-quarter revenues as expected, since clients advanced their orders originally for the quarter to the second in anticipation of the US expanding tariffs on notebooks imported from China.

TSMC expects it 2019 capex to exceed the high end of its previous guidance range of US$10 billion to US$11 billion, as the pure-play foundry steps up efforts to expand its 7nm process capacity and develop a newer 5nm node ready for new customer designs in 2020. Industry sources say TSMC's capex for the year is likely to reach US$12.5 billion, judging from the need to satisfy robust chip demand in the 5G era. Samsung, another major player in the foundry sector, may be trailing behind TSMC, but the Korean giant has recnetly made gains in the China market by winning chip orders from smartphone vendor Vivo, thanks to the US trade ban on Huawei. But the 5G chip market is becoming very comeptitive, with prices already seeing a lot of downward pressure.TSMC capex likely to reach US$12.5 billion: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is expected to see its capex this year reach around US$12.5 billion to satisfy robust chip demand in the 5G era, according to industry sources.Samsung reportedly lands 5G AP, baseband chip orders from Vivo: Samsung Electronics has taken a two-pronged approach to boost sales of its products, including 5G application processors (APs), 5G baseband chips and mid-range smartphones, in China, according to industry sources.5G chipset solution prices likely to drop significantly in 2H19: Chipset suppliers, including Qualcomm, MediaTek and Unisoc Technologies, are facing increasing pressure to slash prices of their 5G solutions in order to make a preemptive presence in the segment, according to industry sources.

A group of 10 startup teams from Taiwan will be showcasing their innovations at the 2019 TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco (TCD SF) running October 2-4, according to the National Development Council (NDC).The group will be led by NDC's Taiwan Startup Stadium (TSS), with the 10 members selected from a total of 65 registered startup firms based on their US market development capability, product matureness, and business negotiation ability. They cover a variety of segments including Internet of Vehicles (IoV), IoT, blokchain, AI and biomedicine.Among them, 3drens, a B2B software solution provider, will display its Vehicle Intelligence Platform, a data-driven IoT platform designed for commercial fleet owners to optimize operations with deep machine learning, data analysis and prediction services.Autopass will exhibit auto payment service solutions based on car license plate identification, which can help parking lots, gas stations and other driver-related services providers collect payments.Dapp Pocket will highlight a blockchain wallet as a secure and easy way to manage cryptocurrencies. With the pocket, users can access 2000+Dapp on their phones and find the best price to exchange diverse digital coins.InnovArt will demonstrate a solar-powered smart gadget, CarWink, which allows drivers to communicate with each other when on the road. The device comes with hands-free voice control allowing users to inform drivers behind you when there is an accident or other issues ahead.DT42 team has strong backgrounds in AI technology and embedded systems, with its expertise enabling next generation machine vision on edge devices for application to smart plants, smart cities and smart healthcare.Fox-tech will present temperature and humidity IoT sensing solutions to help manufacturers improve production and safety.There will be another 24 Taiwanese startups attending the TCD SF 2019, including those organized by Taiwan Tech Arena, Startup Terrace and the Institute for Information Industry (III).

The overall semiconductor market may be weak, but TSMC has seen strong demand for its 7nm manufacturing capacity, with orders, particularly those from Chinese clients, already extending to the first half of 2020, despite uncertainties arising from the US-China trade war. One of its major clients is Huawei, who is said to be releasing its Kirin 990 chip with an integrated 5G modem built using TSMC's 7nm FinFET Plus EUV process. While TSMC sits comfortably at the top of the foundry sector, the DRAM sector mostly sees a three-horse race between Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology. And it is no surprise that a recent meeting reportedly between Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra and executives from China's Tsinghua Unigroup - which is keen to develop its own DRAM prowess - has sparked some speculation.TSMC to see 7nm chip demand remain robust through 1H20: TSMC has enjoyed a pull-in of chip orders demanding advanced 7nm node manufacturing, with order visibility stretching through the first half of 2020, according to sources in Taiwan's IC design sector.Huawei to unveil 5G SoC built using 7nm EUV process: Huawei is to unveil its latest mobile processor, the Kirin 990, at a product event at IFA 2019 tradefair.Micron CEO visit to China sparks speculation: Micron Technology CEO Sanjay Mehrotra has paid a visit to China to meet executives at Tsinghua Unigroup, raising speculation about potential cooperation between the two companies.

Taiwan-based PC brands Acer and Asustek are unveiling new products in Berlin, as IFA 2019 approaches in the German city. Asustek will be showcasing its ProArt series for CAD users, as well as AIoT applications. As the PC market has entered the traditional peak season, the company expects its third-quarter sales from the PC business to see a 20% sequential growth. For Acer, it has announced a range of new products at its own event in Berlin. Acer expects strong increase this year in notebook sales in Germany, one of the key markets for the vendor in Europe.Asustek unveils ProArt series innovations at IFA 2019: Asustek Computer will showcase results of its development of products for CAD and enterprise users as well as AIoT applications at IFA 2019 in Berlin from September 6-11.Acer positive about notebook sales in Germany: Acer expects its notebook sales in Germany to register a double-digit increase in 2019, thanks to enterprise users replacing their Windows 7 machines and growing demand from the gaming sector, according to notebook business manager of Acer Germany, Marcel Behm.