Wurth Elektronik and STMicroelectronics jointly developed a demo using a Wurth power tool. The design, which efficiently drives a low-voltage Brushless DC motor, is ideal for handheld power-tool applications. Moreover, the design includes all the necessary user interfaces required to control the motor's trigger, speed, and direction.The demo is based on the STDES-PTOOL3A reference design, in which the Gerber files, Bill of Materials, schematics and all other reference materials are downloadable from ST.com without charge. It showcases the capabilities of ST's STM32G4 MCU and STDRIVE101 gate driver in powering six STL220N6F7 MOSFETs that all comply with Wurth Elektronik's Ferrite Bead (WE-CBF SMT EMI Suppression Ferrite Bead 74279271) and Power Inductor (WE-LHMI SMT Power Inductor 74437368330) and the benefits they bring to each application in performance, cost, quality, and ease of implementation. The software code embedded in the STM32G4 was developed using the STM32 Motor Control software development kit (X-CUBE-MCSDK). The design shows real-world usage scenarios in battery-operated handheld power tools.Over the past few years, STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, and the passive components manufacturer Wurth Elektronik, an ST Authorized Partner, have established a strong collaboration developing reference designs that leverage the best of each companies' portfolios. By combining active components from ST with passive components from Wurth Elektronik, the companies can offer ready-made turnkey or customizable solutions to customers. The synergies of the collaboration between ST and Wurth Elektronik are reflected in the breadth and success of earlier joint projects, including the integration of Wurth Elektronik components on a range of ST evaluation boards."Working with Wurth Elektronik, ST has shown its capability to work with partners to extract the best performance from its product offer and to jointly develop system solutions addressing the most challenging and complex application needs," said Ricardo De Sa Earp, Executive Vice President, General-Purpose Microcontroller Sub-Group, STMicroelectronics."The development of a cost-effective, high-quality reference design that forms the basis for outstanding power tools is another example of the fruitful collaboration we share with STMicroelectronics," said Alexander Gerfer, CTO, Wurth Elektronik eiSos Group.Wurth Elektronik and STMicroelectronics jointly developed a demo using a Wurth power tool

The STMicroelectronics STPM801 is the market's first automotive-qualified integrated hot-swap and ideal-diode controller featured for functional-safety applications.The ideal-diode controller drives an external MOSFET replacing a Schottky diode conventionally used for reverse-input protection and output-voltage holdup. The reduced voltage drop across the MOSFET reduces power dissipation during normal operation, compared to the forward voltage of the Schottky diode. When a reverse-voltage event occurs, in case of faults like power source failure, brownout or input short-circuit, turning off the MOSFET blocks the associated reverse-current transients.The ideal-diode controller circuit also provides power ORing, to switch between a main and backup battery to ensure uninterrupted supply to safety-critical equipment such as autonomous driving and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).The integrated hot-swap controller drives a second external N-channel MOSFET to protect loads during hot-swap events. A soft-start function controls the turn-on transient of this second MOSFET by charging a capacitor of known value connected to its gate at constant current to avoid high inrush currents. The overvoltage and undervoltage pins cut off the output voltage whenever the input voltage is not within specified thresholds.The STPM801 also includes protection features and monitoring suitable for applications that meet functional safety requirements for systems up to Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) D according to ISO 26262. The features are packaged within a 5mm x 5mm VFQFN-32 footprint, saving PCB space and minimizing demand for external components.Operating from a 4V-65V supply voltage, and with 25µA quiescent current, the STPM801 withstands automotive electrical hazards and minimizes battery drain when the vehicle is turned off. It is used in zonal/body ECUs, ADAS ECUs, high-performance computing ECUs, infotainment ECUs, redundant power delivery systems, and dual-battery systems.The STPM801 is in mass production now.For more information, please visit www.st.com/stpm801.STMicroelectronics STPM801 is the market's first automotive-qualified integrated hot-swap and ideal-diode controller

In recent years, the e-commerce has soared because of the exponential growth of Omni channel strategies. As a result, high efficient supply chain management and flexible inventory management have become the key to success for every logistics companies. Companies now grapple with challenges like scattered orders, concentrated arrivals, strict logistics deadlines, and the cost control pressures. They are keen to find out a way to optimize labor costs, enhance transportation efficiency, reduce delivery times, and maximize the benefits of warehousing and logistics. The retail, manufacturing, and e-commerce industries all are reliant on robust logistics systems to drive business growth. Smart logistics has become a key term for industry advancement, driving the logistics industry to accelerate digital transformation, which requires adopting smart logistics management solutions. With the adoption of technologies as big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT) , the industry aims to meet the increasingly complex demands of the market.Traditional warehouse operation in logistics is often labor-intensive, which results in high employee turnover and recruitment challenges. Logistics providers today must be able to respond quickly and ensure accurate deliveries. Meeting customer demands requires companies to devise methods to address staffing limitation, minimize the time from receiving goods and orders to shipping, and provide excellent customer service. To achieve these goals, companies must embrace smart logistics solutions.Driven by information technology, smart logistics integrates perceptual into various facets of the logistics process, including transportation, warehousing, packaging, loading and unloading, distribution processing, and delivery. Collect data from these operations and analyze it to make optimal decision. This field encompasses elements such as equipment sensing, data processing, intellectualized analysis, and decision optimization. However, when we consider the diverse demands of deploying logistics deployment, it becomes the key element that certain challenges need to be addressed. For instance, as companies' image capture quantities requirement and amount information analysis , numerous cameras must be applied in the field, which often necessitates high-speed image transmission and on-device artificial intelligence image recognition. Unfortunately, standard industrial computer (IPC) specifications typically struggle to meet all these diverse configuration requirements simultaneously.In contrast, ADLINK's IMB-M47 industrial ATX motherboard, powered by Intel 13th/12th Gen processors (Raptor Lake-S/Alder Lake-S), not only leads the industry with DDR5 , Gen4 SSD, three 2.5 Gbe LANs and high-speed I/O design to boast high transmission speed but includes 7 PCIe slots for add-on equipment and PCIe Gen5 to fulfill edge computing abilities. As a result, a single motherboard can help companies to break through the bottleneck, enable the industry to integrate large quantities cameras at edge device to capture critical logistics data, conduct AI image computing process at speed of up to 64 GB/s, storage and retrieve vital logistics information rapidly to display real-time information and notify client systems.Empowering Key Image Capture and AI Computing with PCIe Expansion AdvantagesJeremy Huang, Senior Product Specialist of ADLINK's Edge Computing Platform Product Center, highlighted that the pandemic prompted logistics companies to adopt smart technologies. Factors as reduced staffing in production lines, advanced AI image recognition, and climbed in small packages from e-commerce. On the other hand, face challenges with staff shortages and inaccurate issues in traditional RFID or manual scanning, which cause challenges in inefficient warehouse management, inventory control, and material transportation.The utilization of machine vision technology is expected to deliver comprehensive enterprise information through real-time recognition, data generation, computing, and analysis. This technology will enhance operation and enable personnel to focus on situation correlation judgment and problem resolve. It will present operation processes on the control platform and execute the most efficient resource to maximize delivery timeliness, allocate the location of goods and personnel. To sum up, a critical objective is to employ smart logistics solutions to ensure that companies, customers, and suppliers always access real-time information about goods.As this trend continues to evolve, ADLINK's role in the logistics and warehousing industry has grown in significance. Jeremy Huang explained that the advancement of CPUs and GPUs have significantly improved computing performance in the past three years. Coupled with increasingly sophisticated algorithms, logistics companies have become more confident in AI machine vision and are increasingly willing to adopt it. As a result, companies have begun commissioning smart logistics system integrators (SIs) to drive smart logistics projects.For a common application scenario, System Integrators (Sis) establish a smart warehouse control tower with up to 16 cameras installed at the customer's warehouse entrance. When a forklift enters with goods, the solution identifies the items on the pallet from four directions and immediately raises an alert on issues such as damaged packaging, missing barcodes, or incorrect quantities. ADLINK IMB-M47 ATX motherboard boats 7 PCIe slots, enables SIs to configure quantities image capture and network cards to connect 16 cameras, facilitate the seamless capture of critical images like cargo labels, bills of lading, and package. SIs can also install a GPU card to compute image and enable smart image analysis. Additionally, the IMB-M47 offers numerous DIO interfaces, including 8x GPI and 8x GPO, to connect external sensors to provide real-time alerts. Obliviously, ADLINK IMB-M47 is the one of the very few motherboard on the market, which is capable to support 16 cameras by one single motherboard. Hence, startup SIs based in the United States have begun adopting it.Architecture diagram of a smart logistics management system using the ADLINK IMB-M47 ATX motherboardEnhanced data processing and transmission speed to ensure immediate and reliable data transmissionAdditionally, ADLINK IMB-M47 demonstrates several other impressive features. For instance, it efficiently supports the simultaneous transmission of image data from 16 cameras through PCIe x4 (Gen4);The utilization of DDR5 4800 DIMM memory, couple with PCIe Gen4 M.2(1.5 times faster than the current mainstream DDR3 and three times faster than traditional SATA III SSDs), 2.5 gigabit LAN with rich high-speed I/O to achieve high-speed data transmission.IMB-M47 is equipped with a Gen5 PCIe x16 expansion slot, offering double the computing speed and bandwidth compared to mainstream PCIe Gen4. The remarkable computing power allows customers to deploy GPUs at edge devices for direct AI image processing as needed.ADLINK launches the IMB-M47 ATX motherboard featuring 7 PCIe slots and supporting DDR5 memoryHsin-Chen Lin, Product Manager of ADLINK's Edge Computing Platform Product Center, highlights that while many motherboards on the market offer Intel 12/13th Gen processors, most syill rely on DDR4 or PCIe Gen4. In contrast, the IMB-M47 stands out as an all-in one solution, embracing the latest DDR5 and PCIe Gen5 configuration. This makes it the ideal choice for smart logistics applications, capturing a significant share of the market.Traditionally, when goods arrive at a warehouse, forklifts would unload pallets into a designated area. Staff would then manually scan and categorize the goods using barcode scanner, a process taking tens of minutes before shipping. Implementing ADLINK IMB-M47 in smart logistics management introduces automation, data integration, and intelligence. This facilitates "fast logistics" where data processing and exchange occur rapidly, minimizing shipping wait times. The impact of this optimization is remarkable.Conclusion: The Tech-Powered Future of LogisticsTechnology is no longer just a tool, it's the driving force behind the evolution of logistics management. With adopting the latest technology solutions to obtain real-time tracking, data analytics, automation, and AI, companies are unlocking unprecedented levels of efficiency, visibility, and sustainability. The logistics landscape is being reshaped, enabling companies to meet customer demands faster, reduce costs and navigate complexities with confidence. As technology continues to advance, the possibilities for optimizing supply chain efficiency are boundless, ushering in a new era of logistics excellence.Learn more about the ADLINK IMB-M47 or contact ADLINK for more information about its products and solutions.

According to the latest report published by tech research company ReportLinker in August this year, the global UWB (Ultra-Wideband) market is expected to grow from USD 1.55 billion in 2023 to USD 3.45 billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 17.4%.Avalue Technology Inc. (TAIEX: 3479-TW), a global industrial PC solution provider and a Titanium member of the Intel Internet of Things Solutions Alliance, endeavors to provide a complete range of smart retail, smart healthcare, smart manufacturing, smart transportation and embedded solutions.Key factors driving the growth of the UWB market include the increasing adoption of industrial IoT, greater demand for real-time response in information system and wider deployment of mobile devices. In particular, industrial IoT, which is all about increasing operational efficiency through labor reduction and process automation, is the core driver. In terms of applications, UWB is poised for explosive growth as its RTLS locating system is used extensively across many industries, and boosted by industrial IoT, RTLS is flourishing in smart healthcare, and smart manufacturing, construction and retail. With a string of upgrades, the Avalue RENITY ARTEMIS indoor locating system is now equipped with the highest accuracy, highest integration, reinforced cybersecurity and seamless real-time tracking, helping users achieve real-time accurate control of objects and manage smart objectives.Opportunity: Breakthrough Demand, Highly Integrated Comprehensive ServicesWith demands and patterns dramatically altered by the pandemic, communication, AI, IoT and cloud technologies have been used to accelerate automation, digitalization and urbanization in the effort to improve industrial infrastructure so as to counter the impact of labor shortage. A diverse array of needs is created as a result, at the same time propelling development and improvements in Avalue RENITY ARTEMIS UWB solution in the fields of healthcare, manufacturing and construction where it already has deep roots. In comparison to the meter-accuracy of RFID, Wi-Fi and Zigbee, Avalue indoor positioning solution RENITY ARTEMIS' core competency is in its centimeter-accurate UWB location. Able to pinpoint position and distance with unprecedented accuracy, ARTEMIS is equipped with real-time tracking, high penetrability and anti-interference capability. Its signals can also be safely hidden within other types of signals and environmental noise. Furthermore, ARTEMIS solution supports highly integrated services, enabling connection with management systems, such as MES, WMS and ERP, via API. To enhance user experience, not only is it designed with high-capacity battery for longer battery life, free online spatial measurement tool – ARTEMIS Layout Evaluation Tool, is also provided, allowing user to detect the number of base stations within an area by uploading user map so as to optimize layout in advance.Device Management Service Added, Real-Time Map with Friendly Interface, Complete Range of FunctionsWith its new device management service, Avalue's indoor location solution RENITY ARTEMIS has added a health diagnostic function. Tracking tags originally attached to critical assets or people are paired with devices using USB link. Data collected from UWB signals, including fan speed, CPU, HDD and memory, are presented using a visually appealing user interface. Real-time alerts may be set up to notify maintenance personnel so as to prevent system paralysis. Tracking tags will only send out specification parameters from computing devices; they do not read confidential information so users can rest assured that their data is secure. In addition, RENITY ARTEMIS' new anti-fall tag can warn of a fall or collision event in real time, enabling crisis management within the shortest time and improving the outcome of rescue and recovery. Other location-based functions include patrol and inspection (by setting rules, area and checkpoint), loss (reminder of return date/time), electronic fence to ensure personnel safety or for area control, and overstay alert to manage visitors/ activity time for residents of elderly care center or visits during unreasonable hours so as to prevent accidents. To enhance user experience, RENITY ARTEMIS' user interface is designed to be user-friendly, intuitive and easy to operate, and data and reports are visualized with tree diagrams and linear graphs.Avalue RENITY ARTEMIS location system targets users requiring high accuracy and in great urgent need. Applicable scenarios include high-risk environments, such as chemical plant, energy exploration and building construction, logistics service provider urgently requiring high turnover efficiency, and places that must be stringently managed, including factory production line, manufacturing plant, prison, epidemic supervision and care, and healthcare facilities and nursing homes safeguarding precious assets and personnel safety. Avalue indoor location solution RENITY ARTEMIS features high accuracy, low power consumption and high stability, enhances efficacy with automation, and continuously improves operating process through big data gathering and analysis, enabling optimized and smart personnel and asset management.Avalue RENITY ARTEMIS Ultra-Accurate Micro-Location Solution

Today, iCatch Technology proudly announces that it has accomplished the SGS-TUV Saar ISO 26262 functional safety process certification, achieving the highest level, "ASIL D." This certification underscores iCatch Technology's commitment to adhering to ISO 26262:2018 standards, establishing a comprehensive SoC product development process system that complies with the highest level of functional safety. iCatch Technology's achievements in functional safety development and management capabilities now align with international excellence.With the ongoing evolution of electric vehicles, advanced smart automotive electronic products have become a major trend in recent years. This trend has attracted the active participation of numerous international giants in the automotive electronics industry. Product reliability and security are the two most crucial indicators for quality verification in automotive electronics. The ISO 26262 functional safety standard verifies whether automotive electronic suppliers meet the requirements for Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL).iCatch Technology has long been dedicated to the research and development of high-quality smart imaging SoC products and application services. In recent years, they have robustly expanded into the field of smart cabins and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). To penetrate in the automotive OEM market, iCatch Technology began collaborating with SGS Taiwan's localized expert team in 2022 for technical consulting and verification services. Today, they proudly announce their successful compliance with the world's highest functional safety standard for automotive electronics, ISO 26262.In the future, building upon the verification requirements of the ISO 26262 highest level specification, iCatch Technology will continue to design and develop automotive image processing and computer vision SoCs. They aim to provide automotive electronics solutions with high quality and functional safety, meeting the needs of the high-quality automotive electronics market.Jack Kuo, Vice President of SGS Taiwan, said, "iCatch Technology's acquisition of the ISO 26262 process certificate is based on its development strength in product functional safety, complying with the highest standards of car safety and quality requirements. Only by achieving this can it become a trusted partner of global automotive OEM and gain a competitive advantage in the automotive field."Weber Hsu, CEO of iCatch Technology, stated, "Through this certification, iCatch has laid a solid foundation for penetrating in the automotive OEM market. In the future, iCatch will continue to innovate and conduct research and development while considering the functional safety and quality requirements of automotive SoCs. We aim to compete in the smart automotive supply chain."iCatch Technology Receives SGS-TÜV Saar ISO 26262 ASIL D Functional Safety Process Certificate – Penetrate in Global Automotive OEM Smart Imaging IC DesignPhoto: iCatch

In SEMICON 2023, alongside digital technology, the continuous surge in the sustainability trend has garnered extensive attention.With the international momentum behind carbon reduction efforts, there is a growing focus on energy conservation, carbon reduction, product efficiency, and sustainable living across various end applications, all with the ultimate aim of achieving net-zero carbon emissions. Taiwan's 3rd Gen semiconductor (Wide Band Gap Semiconductors, GaN/SiC) sector, primarily centered on wafers, has also been investing in sustainable technology development related to the environmental aspects of wafer use.Taiwan-based company Precious Mountain, a subsidiary of the local industry, has pioneered "PACER Bio-Mass" disposable gloves made from bio-mass source. This innovative technology has taken center stage at the exhibition. Guided by the philosophy of "Assisting in societal improvement and advocating for sustainability," Precious Mountain has seamlessly integrated ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) principles into its corporate operations and product manufacturing. They have successfully developed the world's first PVC eco-friendly Bio-Mass gloves, garnering patents from multiple countries and meeting the environmental standards for high-tech cleanrooms and pharmaceutical clean environments. The Bio-Mass gloves have secured three major international bio-based product certifications, and manufacturers in Europe and Japan have already begun their adoption. Mr. Lin Guo-Tang, CEO of Precious Mountain, stated that their future goals include adhering to ESG principles, maintaining quality, and exercising cost control. Furthermore, they plan to elevate the perfect ratio of biobased technology gloves, increasing the proportion of biobased materials, with the aim of advancing their research breakthroughs. Precious Mountain will continue to develop an array of gloves and products rich in biobased materials, with the intention of curbing the use of petrochemical raw materials by augmenting the biobased content and fostering the establishment of a recycling supply chain ecosystem.PACER Bio-Mass gloves not only possess eco-friendly attributes but also meet the ISO Cleanroom standards for "high cleanliness" and "low ionization." These gloves have undergone rigorous process control and testing and have received independent verification from impartial third-party tests, rendering them invaluable tools in assisting businesses in implementing ESG practices.The atmospheric cycle is intrinsically linked to the process of photosynthesis in trees, constituting a static biological cycle involving the release and absorption of carbon dioxide. PACER Bio-Mass employs patented technology to substitute a portion of the petrochemical raw materials in gloves with biobased materials. After disposal and incineration, biobased carbon continues to circulate within the original photosynthesis environment, undergoing transformation into organic matter. Subsequently, postmortem or oxidation, this organic matter re-enters the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2), thereby embodying a "carbon-neutral" characteristic. In contrast, many eco-friendly gloves on the market employ biodegradable plastics, necessitating specific temperature and humidity conditions for degradation or partial breakdown into small particles. This approach does not constitute genuine decomposition and may still pose environmental and wildlife survival concerns. PACER Bio-Mass gloves reduce the utilization of petrochemical raw materials at the source, ultimately achieving the goal of "carbon reduction."In this semiconductor exhibition, Taiwanese companies once again shine on the international stage. Every facet of the manufacturing industry should not be underestimated, as precision technology emanates from scrupulous attention to detail. The utilization of gloves has become indispensable in daily life, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, with widespread applications. While safeguarding human health, the extensive use of gloves also necessitates our commitment to the preservation of wildlife and the environment. The integration of technology into a healthy living environment, the preservation of ecological harmony, the mitigation of global warming, and the pursuit of eco-friendly business practices form the core values underpinning the attainment of ESG objectives and the progression towards the goal of net-zero carbon emissions for sustainable development.Precious Mountain has pioneered the world's first eco-friendly PVC biobased gloves, known as "PACER Bio-Mass."

Chain Reaction, an Israel-based startup founded in 2019, is leveraging Taiwan's cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing capability to build a privacy processor chip using a privacy enhancing technology called Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) which transforms the public cloud into a trusted environment. This empowers use cases and workloads from big pharma, finance, aerospace, defense, and government where data needs to be securely and efficiently processed. This enablement solves the challenge commonly referred as the holy grail of cloud computing.As more and more corporations transit into digitization and cloud expansion as a vital part of their business strategy, concerns over data security in the cloud have prevented companies from undergoing digital transformation. While encrypted data such as medical records, financial statements, manufacturing inferences, secret recipes, etc., are forbidden to be stored and analyzed in the cloud by current regulations, Chain Reaction's privacy processor will equip the cloud service providers to overcome the regulatory hurdles.According to the company, the privacy processor chip built on the optimized architecture for FHE, is designed by their Israeli R&D team and will be manufactured in Taiwan. In addition to securing data processing in the cloud, the privacy processor also accelerates the encrypted computing with much better performance comparing to CPU and GPU chips currently available in the market.Chain Reaction targets hyperscale cloud service business market such as Amazon AWS, Google GCP, and Microsoft Azure which are generally headquartered in the US.For Taiwanese server suppliers, the chip opens up new business opportunities in the encrypted computing field. Based on a research survey, the market value of cloud computing is expected to reach over US$2 trillion in the coming years. Chain Reaction's solution is helping Taiwan's server suppliers to capitalize novel business opportunities as it offers optimal security and performance for applications ranging from server, AI, 5G network, IoT, and more.Chain Reaction earns the 1st place in the semiconductor application and will present their innovation at TIE Awards in Taipei on October 12-14.Chain Reaction's Privacy Processor for the Holy Grail of Cloud Computing

The NaviFUS System developed by NaviFUS Corp. has shown great potential to treat recurrent glioblastoma multiforme and epilepsy, which both lack effective therapies. There are approximately 10,000 brain tumor patients in the United States, and their predicted survival is no more than 12-18 months. There are also approximately 200,000 epilepsy patients in Taiwan, in which one third cannot be treated with standard medication. Applications of ultrasound have grown beyond traditional diagnostic uses, making it an intriguing technology in the medical treatments space; for example, ultrasound in aesthetic medicine has matured into a Red Ocean market, while recent studies in clinical applications of focused ultrasound in brain diseases suggest a nascent Blue Ocean market with great potential. NaviFUS Corp. will begin a Phase III clinical trial in Taiwan and Phase II clinical trial in the United States to treat brain cancer and epilepsy, and NaviFUS Corp. will also seek patent sublicensing and joint development agreements with major companies worldwide.Focused Ultrasound (FUS) Opens the Blood-Brain Barrier Non-Invasively and can Regulate Epileptic SeizuresNaviFUS Corp. was founded by Professor Hao-Li Liu at the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University. The company then recruited Arthur Lung and Ting-Kuang Chang to form the Executive team that successfully implemented NaviFUS' core FUS technologies. This included using optical tracking neuro navigation to precisely target parts of the brain that need treatment, using FUS to temporarily open the BBB ofthe targeted region non-invasively to increase drug delivery to that area, and using FUS to non-invasively inhibit electrical signals in the brain in epilepsy patients which has shown effects of reduced epileptic seizures.Arthur Lung, CEO of NaviFUS Corp., stated, "It was hard to deliver large molecule drugs into the brain for treatment in the past, and treatment was often ineffective or impossible as a result. However, FUS can safely stimulate microbubbles to oscillate in blood vessels, and the resulting cavitation squeezes endothelial cells in the blood vessels to allow drugs – protein drugs, antibodies, and genes or cells for treatment – to pass through and be directly delivered to the part of the brain that needs treatment.The NaviFUS system is used to treat common recurrent glioblastoma multiforme and epilepsyFocused Ultrasound Phase II Clinical Trials Results Suggest FUS Treatment Can Potentially Extend Progression-Free Survival of Brain Cancer Patients and Inhibit Epileptic SeizuresArthur Lung explained that among the nearly 310,000 brain cancer patients worldwide, over 50% have a primary malignant brain tumor, and the majority will not live past 12 months. Results of a Phase II clinical trial for the NaviFUS System that was recently completed by NaviFUS Corp. were positive, and the primary outcome showed an improved proportion of patients with 6 months Progression-Free Survival (PFS-6) in comparison to historical data of the standard treatment alone. This suggested that the NaviFUSSystem combined with Avastin improved the efficacy of the drug treatment.Furthermore, the United States has 3.4 million epilepsy patients while Taiwan has 200,000, in which one third are drug-resistant, so there is a large population of patients suffering from this unmet clinical need. Countries around the world currently all use implanted electrode wires that emit tiny electric waves to inhibit epilepsy. The cost of the implant and surgery is over USD$30,000, and the cost of replacing batteries every two to three years is approximately USD$15,000. If NaviFUS Corp. can use FUS to achieve similar therapeutic effects, the cost of the treatment is estimated at only 1/5 the cost of an implant, and it can also bypass surgery that involves anesthesia and blood transfusion.NaviFUS Corp. was recognized with the 2019 Taipei Biotech Awards and 2022 Edison AwardsSeeking International Cooperation with Pharmaceuticals Companies and Semiconductors CompaniesThere are only two companies in the world currently developing Transcranial focused ultrasound systems, one is NaviFUS Corp. and the other is Insightec, a medical device company in Israel. Arthur Lung pointed out that NaviFUS Corp. uses optical neuro navigation tracking for its device's guidance while Insightec uses intraoperative MRI. The NaviFUS System's FUS treatment is designed to reduce the time required, while offering flexibility in being able to perform the non-invasive treatment in the outpatientclinic.The NaviFUS System developed by NaviFUS Corp. was a winner of the TIE Award during Taiwan Innotech Expo this year. The device plans to complete a multi-national Phase III clinical trial, so the company is seeking to cooperate with major pharmaceuticals companies worldwide in testing their drugs or acquiring funding to obtain a sales license from the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Furthermore, the equipment needs specializedsemiconductor components and microprocessors to generate and receive ultrasound. Hence, the company is searching for industry partnersto engage in joint R&D to make the equipment smaller, so that patients will not need to go to a hospital and can use the equipment in a clinic or even at home.The NaviFUS System to Obtain Marketing License in Taiwan as Soon as 2027The NaviFUS System's mechanism of action involves a unique combination of optical tracking guidance and FUS stimulation of microbubbles, so it is collaborating with German medtechcompany Brainlab and Italian imaging company Bracco, which manufactures the microbubbles. The equipment and clinical trial results will be displayed in the Future Tech Pavilion during the Taiwan Innotech Expo (TIE) this year. Arthur Lung pointed out that the company is about to start a Phase III clinical trial in Taiwan, and aims to obtain TFDA certification in 2027. The company will begin Phase II clinical trials in the United States this year and in Europe next year.Arthur Lung stressed that once the system is approved, NaviFUSCorp. will handle sales in Taiwan and is currently seeking strategic partners in the United States, Europe, South Korea, and Japan using a royalties and profit-sharing business model for sales. Brain diseases all face the same challenge of safely delivering large molecule drugs past the BBB. Hence, after the clinical trials for recurrent glioblastoma and epilepsy are completed and the system is successfully licensed and approved for commercialization, NaviFUS Corp. will begin clinical development for Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and depression in the next stage.CEO Arthur Lung indicated that NaviFUS Corp. will begin development for Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and depression in the next stage

Climate change has shaken the world. Taiwan as an island is no exception and has been stricken with rising heat, abnormal weather patterns, and drought. In the last two years, Taiwan has seen such severe droughts that the central government set up a drought emergency response center to take all necessary measures to conserve water.The emergency response center, when not in times of drought, has begun constructing seawater desalination plants to ensure water supply. However, the costs of commonly-used technologies to desalinate seawater remain prohibitively high. There are also technical issues remaining to be solved. For example, the water can hardly be used by the semiconductor industry for cooling, and processing the minerals in seawater is still a challenge.CryoDesalination, a US-based startup specializing in processing seawater in a sustainable way, which has won the first place of this years' TIE Awards for net-zero emission, said it has developed a much simpler and lower cost way to turn seawater into drinking water. CryoDesalination uses a natural phenomenon as the centerpiece of its process: when saltwater freezes, the ice is pure. CryoDesalination's patented process has much lower capital and operating costs than the legacy seawater desalination technologies.According to public information, the reverse osmosis desalination plant built by Formosa Petrochemical Corporation in Yunlin county, Taiwan required a total investment of NT$6.8 billion (US$210 million) and more than 70 million kWh in energy, emitting around 6,000 tonnes of carbon, to eventually produce 100,000 tonnesof desalinated water per day.In contrast, according to industry researchers, integrating CryoDesalination's zero carbon solution with the liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants in Taichung and Yung -An would require a fraction of the investment, which is estimated to be NT$787 million (US$24 million), the CryoDesalination plants would not use any electrical power or have any carbon emissions; the estimated daily production of desalinated water could reach 66,000 tonnes.CryoDesalination: powered by waste energyThese exceptionally low costs are possible because Taiwan's LNG regasification terminals release cold waste energy that CryoDesalination can use as a clean power source to desalinate water. Co-locating LNG terminals with CryoDesalination eliminates power costs for freezing the seawater and significantly simplifies the CryoDesalination Units.Re-using the waste energy released from the vaporization of liquified natural gas is part of sustainable cycle the company envisions. Company CEO and co-founder William Buchsbaum added that LNG regasification plants are located on the coast where seawater is available to be processed into clean water to satisfy industrial, agricultural, and residential demand.CryoDesalination will present its zero-carbon solution at the TIE Awards on October 12-14 in Taipei. The company has expressed high interest in connecting with industrial players in Taiwan to process seawater.CryoDesalination Process

With the rapid development of various digital innovations such as Generative AI, the demand for high-performance chips in the market has surged dramatically, leading to increased complexity in chip design. Take Nvidia's H100 GPU, for example, which contains 80 billion transistors. Managing such a vast number of transistors, coupled with increasingly tight market schedules and shrinking product lifecycles, makes relying solely on manual development nearly impossible. To address this challenge, Maxeda Technology has partnered with international IC design giants to offer a range of production-validated AI-assisted EDA (Electronic Design Automation) solutions. We hope that our participation in the TIE Award competition will allow more international companies to see Taiwan's innovative achievements in EDA and create opportunities for further collaboration.Strong R&D Team with Customers Among the Top Ten Global IC Design Fabless CompaniesFounded in 2015, Maxeda Technology specializes in EDA. We offer solutions in the field of digital design for integrated circuits, including dataflow analysis, layout automation, placement optimization, and tailored solutions.The dataflow analysis and Floorplan exploration tools developed by Maxeda Technology can significantly enhance chip design efficiency.Dr. Yao-Wen Chang is one of Maxeda Technology's co-founders and he is the Dean of EECS at National Taiwan University, and also the mentor of the company's CEO, Dr. Tung-Chieh Chen. Under Professor Chang's leadership and with the support of Taiwan's Ministry of Science and Technology's incubation program and the support of the Business Angel Investment Program of the National Development Fund, Maxeda Technology was established. With outstanding R&D capabilities, Maxeda Technology has successfully attracted investments from companies like Raydium and MediaTek. And also successfully introduced products to multiple top-ten global IC design fabless companies."Our team possesses robust R&D capabilities and we have accumulated numerous core technologies", Dr. Chen describes. Currently, the company boasts a team of over 25 R&D engineers, with core members holding extensive experience in the EDA field. The team includes two researchers who were crowned champions in different editions of the ACM CADathlon at ICCAD (known as the Olympiad for EDA). Furthermore, four team members have secured championship titles in Taiwan IC/CAD Contest. Dr. Chen himself was honored by the ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC) with Under-40 Innovators Award in 2021, recognizing his outstanding contributions and achievements in advancing the field of EDAIt is worth mentioning that the paper co-published by Maxeda, MediaTek, and NTU titled "Flexible Chip Placement via Reinforcement Learning" was selected as a publicity paper for the DAC. The AI-assisted EDA Solution also received third place in the semiconductor category of the TIE Award this year.The Trends: Enhancing Chip Design Efficiency with AI-assisted EDA SolutionsEDA, revered as the 'Mother of Chips,' is the Key to Achieving Digital Innovation. IC design engineers utilize EDA tools to design chip functions, convert the code into actual circuit designs, and verify the correctness of designs before mass production. Consequently, in the face of rapidly increasing transistor counts within chips and the growing complexity of processes, EDA will determine chip design schedules and performance. Embracing the trend of integrating AI into the EDA field becomes a crucial factor in determining whether future IC design can overcome challenges in the post-Moore era.Dr. Tung-Chieh Chen points out that Google and Nvidia are integrating AI technology into IC design now. Consequently, an increasing number of IC design engineers are considering how to adopt AI technology into the IC design process, particularly through techniques like Reinforcement Learning.However, even for tech giants like Google, incorporating reinforcement learning into the chip design process presents challenges. This is because reinforcement learning requires over 100,000 iterations to achieve optimized results. Consequently, it is a very time-consuming method and requires extremely high machine resources."In addition, existing commercial solutions are primarily focused on achieving precise placement and routing to meet IC tape-out criteria. However, this time-consuming approach is not well-suited for reinforcement learning, as it requires even more resources and processing time. Therefore, when introducing AI technology, reducing the resources required for applying reinforcement learning while maintaining a high correlation to the final results becomes a crucial point of AI technology adoption.To address this challenge, Maxeda Technology has introduced the MaxPlace RL Reward Platform. This platform overcomes the limitations of machine resources and processing time by 100 times faster placement while maintaining high correlation rewards. Through real-world production validation, it has been demonstrated that the floorplan results produced by reinforcement learning significantly outperform the original reference design flow. This effectively optimizes chip performance and reduces the physical design from several months to just a few days.MaxPlace RL Reward PlatformDr. Tung-Chieh Chen uses the analogy of architecture to describe Maxeda Technology's role in chip design, emphasizing their focus on early-stage floorplanning, much like an architect designing a house. In architecture, the initial floorplanning involves designing the overall structure, layout, and flow of spaces like bathrooms, living rooms, and corridors before delving into detailed design elements. A good start is half the success, when floorplanning is done correctly, coupled with precise placement and routing EDA tools, it can assist IC design engineers in shortening design time and achieving better chip performance.As an EDA company with a vision to develop innovative solutions, Maxeda Technology continues to collaborate closely with partners to develop validated AI-assisted EDA solutions. These solutions support engineers in overcoming the challenges of chip design and optimizing chip performance to accelerate digital innovation. Additionally, Maxeda Technology looks forward to leveraging the exposure by TIE to create more opportunities for collaboration with global chip design companies and further enhance Taiwan's resilience and competitiveness in the semiconductor industry.