Fresh from SEMICON Taiwan 2018, SESTO Robotics, a leading Singapore company in the field of autonomous technology aims to make waves in the Taiwan manufacturing and semiconductor industry by bringing SESTO Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and Intelligent Mobile Robots (IMRs) to the playing field.SESTO Robotics CEO Michael Leong said, "With the main intention to branch into the Taiwanese market as a key robotics implementer, not only will SESTO Robotics' solutions excel at being a flexible, safe and intelligent option to work alongside end users and organizations, integrating current software and providing various IoT solutions for our products to interact with existing automation equipment is another short-term goal we hope to achieve."By providing intelligent IoT solutions, SESTO Robotics can address system usability and introduce more flexibility. For example, if there are changes in the manufacturing line, SESTO Robotics' AGVs allow for simple rerouting, remapping and redeploying for production to continue. Currently, SESTO Robotics' IMRs are capable of supporting both 4-axis and 7-axis arms from major suppliers.But when posed with the question, "What if my organization's needs do not require a robot arm," Leong replied, "SESTO Robotics' answer to this is the S200.V2. With numerous compatible top modules suitable for installation, this opens more doors for us to work with other niche industries such as healthcare, pharmaceutical and the Electrical and Electronics (E&E) sector." Presently, conveyors, shelves and jacking decks are some of the different top modules compatible with the S200.V2.Another competitive advantage of SESTO Robotics' AGVs and IMRs is productivity. From a broad economic standpoint, there is the need for organizations to demonstrate how in the midst of intense competition between manufacturers to increase output, quality in production lines must still be of high standards. AGVs and IMRs can work continuously around the clock for routine operations while maintaining speed and accuracy, thus achieving lights-out manufacturing with industrial robots.This results in a win-win solution for any companies as AGVs and IMRs are deployed to complete mundane, repetitive tasks - at the same time solving the issue of having shortage of skilled labor. In addition, with SESTO Robotics' in-house SWARM Enterprise software, it ensures optimal performance of the AGV and IMR fleet, thereby providing intelligent traffic management with process optimization. AGVs and IMRs can also operate in environments hazardous for humans to work in, for instance, extreme temperatures and toxic chemicals. Thus, employees can monitor, task and control the work of the AGVs and IMRs while concentrating on more important and strategic business matters.When it comes to automation systems and inventory, SESTO Robotics' ecosystem can be coordinated with existing warehouse management systems, allowing for companies to be able to track every detail of material and item handling, increasing accuracy. Programmed to do what it needs to each and every time, SESTO Robotics' AGVs and IMRs help reduce process errors, thus achieving production consistency and efficiency.SESTO Robotics' S200 with 7-axis Robot Arm is an example of an IMR that provides high freedom of movement even in tight spaces, is suitable for use in applications such as machine tending and can transport FOUPs and semiconductor cassettes easily. Using a high-precision laser-based navigation system for movement, the IMR's laser is able to detect the surrounding environment and use the gathered data to plan an optimal route to get to its destination.As the demand for robotics is steadily increasing because of heightened demand from consumers worldwide for electrical products e.g. smartphones and other fast moving products, upgrading factories and manufacturing abilities to use robotics solutions for output production is slowly becoming the norm to sustain a smart factory in today's outlook.With a team composed of engineers and technicians based in Singapore responsible for creating and updating software and hardware systems, SESTO Robotics has already established some partnerships with several Taiwan-based companies and is looking to further grow its market share in the region.SESTO Robotics is a leading robotics company in the field of autonomous technology. Headquartered in Singapore, the company engineers and delivers robotics solutions to global clients seeking to empower their businesses with greater efficiency. SESTO Robotics' line of Automated Guided Vehicles and Intelligent Mobile Robots are sustainable solutions that have been employed by industry leaders in the field of semiconductor manufacturing and warehousing. Visit www.sestorobotics.com.SESTO Robotics S200 with 7-axis Robot ArmPhoto: Company

Getac, an innovator of rugged mobile computing solutions for a range of industries, today announces updates to its leading Getac F110-Ex fully rugged tablet, designed to deliver exceptional productivity and drive the speed of digital transformation in hazardous environments.Energy sectors such as the oil and gas industry have to cope with harsh work conditions, fluctuating prices and unpredictable environmental changes, so risks constantly run high. The operators have to maintain round-the-clock monitoring of large-scale equipment such as dangerous offshore rigs. They face some of the roughest work conditions and risks - extreme temperatures, loud noises and hazardous chemicals. Any downtime due to accidents or human errors could translate to 1%-3% of lost revenue. Other hazardous sectors such as the chemical industry and the pharmaceutical industry face similar situations and are in urgent need for advanced technologies.Hazardous industries are beginning to use new applications from advances in AI and IoT technologies. For example, they are used to digitalize archive paper documents into a corporate knowledge cloud database, to raise efficiency and minimize risks and machine downtime. Firms can provide a digital platform to train engineers and resolve knowledge gaps between experienced and inexperienced workers. These are all part of the digital transformation that is making ground-breaking changes to the industries.Digital transformation is occurring in every area of hazardous manufacturing including production equipment management, factory automation, automated repair, maintenance scheduling and innovative services enabled by big data analytics and forecast. Each of these user scenarios requires fully rugged tablets with not only robust computing power but also protection against explosion at the operating sites. Regarding digital transformation of hazardous industries, Rick Hwang, President of Rugged Business Unit at Getac Technology Corporation, comments, "Based on their intrinsic safety designs, Getac fully rugged tablets help users safely collect and send digital data, capture images and even engage in video communication in high-risk environments helping enterprises complete the last mile of digital transformation."Intrinsic safety is a protection technique for safe operation of electrical equipment in high-risk environments with combustible gases by not igniting potential sources of ignition. Built on top of Getac's safety expertise, Getac's line of fully rugged tablets is designed with explosion protection certified with ATEX, UL913 and IECEx standards in addition to multiple US military standards. Getac's rugged computers engineered with exceptional strength and safety for professionals in oil, gas, petrochemical, manufacturing increase efficiency by allowing cross-zone operations from the office to the work site.The new F110-Ex Fully Rugged Tablet combines mobility, performance and safety to meet the needs by high-end industrial applications. Featuring an 11.6-inch display guaranteeing clarity under direct sunlight, 1.49kg lightweight, 2.5cm slimness, MIL-STD810G and IP65 water and dust resistance certifications, a wide operating temperature range between -21 degree C and 60 degree C. F110-Ex is built to withstand harsh environments.Equipped with the 7th generation Intel Kaby Lake Core processors and multi-factor security mechanisms, F110-Ex provides exceptional computing power and secure authentication. The intrinsically safe F110-Ex is certified to ATEX & IECEx Zone 2/22 standards. For full data protection, F110-Ex runs the latest Windows 10 while offering optional face recognition camera compatible with Windows Hello as well as bar code scanner and (LF/HF)RFID reader.As one of the top rugged solution providers, Getac markets a comprehensive portfolio of vertically integrated solutions to work in all types of extreme operating conditions, we stay committed to the development of cutting-edge explosion-proof products.Aside from the new launched F110-Ex, Getac's fully rugged tablet portfolio further includes EX80, ZX70, T800 and other ATEX-certified models, all delivering exceptional ruggedness and performance for hazardous industries.Availability The new F110 will be available to buy from 27 September 2018. For more information, please visit: www.getac.com

Designers seeking to enable continuous monitoring of various health parameters can now quickly create unique, highly accurate wearable solutions using Health Sensor Platform 2.0 (HSP 2.0) from Maxim Integrated Products. This next-generation rapid prototyping, evaluation and development platform, also known as MAXREFDES101#, brings the ability to monitor electrocardiogram (ECG), heart rate and body temperature to a wrist-worn wearable, saving up to six months in development time.When it comes to wearables, a wrist-based device is convenient for users to wear daily. However, it has been challenging to derive precise ECG monitoring from the wrist (most alternatives require a wearable chest strap). In addition, getting accurate body temperature typically requires using a thermometer at another location. Through its proprietary sensor and health monitoring technology, Maxim has overcome these challenges in the HSP 2.0.Enclosed in a watch casing, the wrist-based form factor enables HSP 2.0 to provide basic functionality out of the box, with body-monitoring measurements starting immediately. Data can be stored on the platform for patient evaluation or streamed to a PC for analysis later. Unlike other wearables, the data measurements collected by the HSP 2.0 can be owned by the wearer, alleviating data privacy concerns and allowing users to conduct their own data analysis. Also, because HSP 2.0 is an open platform, designers can evaluate their own algorithms on the board. In addition, the modular format is future proof to quickly accommodate new sensors over time.Health Sensor Platform 2.0

AMobile Intelligent, a joint venture by MediaTek, Arbor, and Konka Group, has achieved its design pinnacle by receiving the International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) 2018 organized by The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). The awarded product, Mobile Inspection Assistant G60, has won Red Dot, Good Design, Computex d&i, Taiwan Excellence, China Industrial IoT, and IDEA Award, which proves AMobile's capabilities of R&D and innovations, as well as leading the industry to fulfill market applications and demands.The 38th International Design Excellence Award for 2018 is the world's most prestigious and rigorous design competition, and only 145 winners were selected among 1870 submissions from around the world. Winning IDEA represents the ultimate achievement in product design. "Since 2017, AMobile has won 6 international awards including IDEA, Red Dot, Good Design and more. In addition to the team's efforts, we would like to share the honors with our global partners," says Eric Lee, president of AMobile. G60 will be conducted a roadshow at Medica in Germany, Power Expo in Myanmar, and TaiwanExpo in Malaysia.The Mobile Inspection Assistant G60 is the world's first 3-in-1 handheld device, combining a thermal imager, a push-to-talk radio, and a smartphone. It's designed for industrial inspections, including electric power, petrochemical plant, building quality, firefighting, and rescue personnel, to increase work efficiency and accuracy. It is a powerful handheld device with rich wireless communications and multi-data collectivity. Ideal for working in harsh environments, the G60 is waterproof and dustproof, as well as protected by a rubber coating for shock and drop resistance up to 1.5 meters.For more details about AMobile, please visit our website at http://www.amobile-solutions.comAMobile earns IDEA 2018 from IDSA

Getac has today announced the launch of the new K120 fully rugged tablet, designed to meet the challenges faced by public safety personnel around the world. The K120 builds on Getac's legacy of creating powerful, rugged devices that have helped paramedics, police officers and firefighters successfully carry out their public safety duties for many years.As public safety becomes increasingly data driven, the need for fast, effective communication and information transfer between the field and the command center has never been more important. First responders rely heavily on their Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs) for vital on-scene intelligence to enhance situational awareness, inform decision making and above all, keep them safe. The new K120 fully rugged tablet has been designed with this in mind. Equipped with an 8th generation Intel Core i7/i5 processor and a wide range of connectivity options including GPS, 4G LTE, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, it offers exceptional processing power and communication capabilities from anywhere in the field. A large 12.5-inch multi-touch display and robust security options including multi-layer authentication, fingerprint/smartcard readers and RFID authentications also ensure optimal functionality and security in the most demanding work environments."Getac's K120 fully rugged tablet is designed to provide public safety personnel with a powerful, compact MDT that seamlessly combines video, voice and electronic data communication, for fast access to critical intelligence in the field," comments Rick Hwang, president of Rugged Business Unit at Getac Technology Corporation. "Through products like the K120, Getac is constantly aiming to deliver new value to public safety customers, using our core technologies and innovative product design to help frontline teams overcome the challenges they face every day."Police officers, paramedics and fire crews need an MDT they can rely on in all situations and weather conditions. The K120 meets MIL-STD-810G and MIL-STD-461G military durability standards in addition to IP65 water and dust resistance, meaning it can go anywhere personnel go without fear of damage. It has also passed durability tests when dropped from 1.8m in power-on mode, an industry-leading benchmark, and can operate in temperatures ranging from -29 degrees C to 63 degrees C, offering exceptional versatility.For extended field operations, the K120 comes with optional dual hot-swappable high-capacity batteries, eliminating concerns about running out of power at critical moments. Public safety isn't just about first response though, which is why the K120 is fully compatible with a variety of Getac accessories and secure docking solutions, allowing it to be securely mounted in a vehicle as a mobile office, or used as a conventional office computer as well.Getac is a strategic Microsoft partner and the K120 features a Windows 10 OS and utilizes Microsoft cloud technology, including Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things, to address modern public safety challenges."Getac's rugged computers are ideal edge devices for the public safety cloud, providing fast intelligence and actionable insights to officers when needed most," said Kirk Arthur, director in WW Industry Solutions / Public Safety & Justice team. "The new K120 is a perfect example of this, complementing Getac's public safety product roadmap and helping public safety personnel conduct their duties as safely and efficiently as possible."The K120 comes with a three-year bumper-to-bumper warranty, covering accidental damage as standard, for complete peace of mind.In addition to the K120, Getac's suite of rugged computers for public safety also includes the F110 and A140 Fully Rugged Tablets, V110 Fully Rugged Convertible Notebook and S410 Semi-rugged Notebook. Moreover, Getac Video Solutions offers a variety of specialized products for recording, managing and securely storing vital video evidence.Availability The new K120 will be available to buy from 19 September 2018. For more information, please visit: www.getac.comA new class of tablet engineered with versatility in mind, the K120 can adapt to all your needs indoors and in the field through a variety of usage modes and an extensive selection of accessories.

United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE:UMC; TWSE: 2303) ("UMC"), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced that Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) has selected UMC as a global component for the 11th consecutive year.DJSI awarded UMC with the industry's highest scores in "Policy Influence," "Product Quality and Recall Management," "Tax Strategy" and "Climate Strategy" categories. Several of those items received full marks. UMC's overall scores have continued to increase in recent years, illustrating the company's continued excellence in sustainable operations. DJSI-World 2018 evaluated approximately 2,500 global enterprises, with only six semiconductor companies selected worldwide.SC Chien, co-president at UMC, said, "We are pleased to be selected as a DJSI Global Component for the 11th consecutive year. UMC is committed to the Environment, Society, and Governance (ESG), using this three-pronged sustainability approach to promote the implementation of the 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. In 2018, UMC continued to improve its performance in the implementation of sustainable management strategies. With the help of all UMC employees, we successfully reached the second-year goal of our "Green 2020" plan for saving electricity and water as well as reducing waste. We have also invited our supply chain partners to practice Reuse, Recycle and Reduce concepts through the environmental 3R League initiative and have fully embraced the spirit of global partnership promoted through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Going forward, we will continue enhance our efforts toward sustainability in order to benefit our stakeholders and society."Dow Jones Sustainability Indices was launched jointly by Dow Jones Index, STOXX and Sustainable Asset Management (SAM) in 1999. DJSI is the first index that traces social responsibility performance of leading-edge enterprises, and is also one of the most creditable evaluation tools for reviewing sustainability worldwide. The Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and respective subsets track the performance of the top 10% of the 2500 largest companies in the S&P Global Broad Market Index that lead the field in terms of sustainability.

Global smartphone AP shipments may show a 0.8% on-year decline to reach 1.59 billion units in 2018, according to Digitimes Research.Apple may see impressive demand for its three newly released iPhones, shipments for which are expected to surpass 85 million units in the second half of 2018, Digitimes Research estimates. Other smartphone vendors, however, are generally conservative about their shipment results for the entire 2018, despite the upgrades, including all-screen features, to their new devices, according to Digitimes Reseach's newly published Special Report about smartphone AP shipments.But the smartphone market has entered the third-quarter high season with healthy inventory levels, Digitimes Research believes. Smartphone AP shipments worldwide are estimated to reach 450 million units in third-quarter 2018, down 0.45 on year but up 18.7% sequentiallyThe Digitimes Research Special Report shows that Qualcomm will remain the top smartphone AP vendor in third-quarter 2018, with total shipments nearing 200 million units. Enjoying a high penetration among leading smartphone AP vendors, Qualcomm will outperform its rivals in terms of third-quarter 2018 shipment growth, as downstream vendors prepare inventory for the high season.The top-three smartphone AP vendors - namely Qualcomm, MediaTek and Apple - will together command a market share of over 80% in third-quarter 2018, and their combined share will drop to 76.6% in first-quarter 2019, as Qualcomm is expected to feel a major impact from competition from Huawei's and Samsung's in-house-developed smartphone APs, according to the report.

OpenStack Day Taiwan 2018 - a major annual event for the Taiwan open source community - took on a whole new look with OpenStack renamed OpenInfra. Carrying on with the same OpenStack spirit and architecture, OpenInfra will engage more partners specializing in open source technologies and continue to flourish in the world of cloud computing.Themed on the ingenuity of open source platforms and innovations combining different technologies, OpenInfra Day Taiwan 2018 highlighted topics including multicloud architecture and its deployment, container development, distributed data storage and software-defined everything. The event also presented use case examples in applications such as artificial intelligence (AI), edge computing and 5G IoT.Delivering an opening speech at the event, OpenInfra Day Taiwan 2018 organizing committee chairman Brian Chen remarked that this year's event gathered influential leaders to share their views on the latest OpenInfra trends. The change in the organization's name allowed it to expand the discussion topics and engage more industry ecosystem partners. Providers of private, public and hybrid cloud IT infrastructure and services were invited for discussions on multicloud architecture and its deployment. For Infra, 5G and IoT, the participants looked into use case examples of edge computing, combination of 5G and IoT, as well as developments of IoT devices and application services. The discussions related to software-defined everything focused on the trends of software-defined storage, network and infrastructure. Popular AI topics including deep learning and machine learning were also highlighted at the event this year. In closing, Chen hoped the event would load participants full of inspirations and help advance Taiwan's IT and open source developments.A close look at current developments of OpenStack with a market value of US$6.1 billionJonathan Bryce, OpenStack Foundation executive director, gave an account of OpenStack's development history and the reason for the name change to OpenInfra. With user groups consolidating and open source software growingly used in vertical applications, open source infrastructure actually encompasses a wider scope than OpenStack, so the name change to OpenInfra represents open source code, open source design, open source development and open source community, making open source software infrastructure available to more businesses.Bryce continued to present some important data. According to the results of the foundation's user survey, OpenStack is supporting infrastructure running across more than 10 million CPU cores around the world. Among OpenStack users worldwide, 71% are corporate users deploying OpenStack in production environments or are preparing to do so within the next 12 months. Lastly but most importantly, the OpenStack market size is estimated to top US$6.1 billion in 2018.Applications today have different requirements for OpenStack, cloud and infrastructure than before. They need AI machine learning, container, ML and serverless technologies more than ever before, which drives rising demand for open source software for use outside of datacenters by edge computing, added Bryce.According to Bryce, OpenStack Foundation has realized open source is not just transitioning from open source code to open source infrastructure but more importantly, it should build an open infrastructure community, where humans are the most critical element. As such, the migration from OpenStack to OpenInfra represents a change from the perspective of infrastructure to the perspective of community.The foundation is transcending the open source spirit to a higher level with the transition from OpenStack to OpenInfra. Open source software will become not only omnipresent but also part of people's daily life in the future, summarized Bryce.Continuing cloud native computing development focuses on openness, ecosystem collaborations and innovationsCloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) was established for the purpose of promoting fast-growing open source projects on Github. CNCF China director Keith Chan shed light on the current development of cloud native computing and CNCF's achievements with respect to openness, ecosystem collaborations and innovations.Chan pointed out the open source model has played an important role in global trade and business models. The next step to promoting the open source model is for businesses to form an ecosystem.In regard to innovations, Chan introduced CNCF's organizational structure and functions: Technical Oversight Committee mainly approves new projects; End User Community serves to help CNCF gain a closer understanding of user needs and make open source development more in line with market applications; Marketing Committee aims to match promotion efforts, for example, for Kubernetes, closely with market dynamics. CNCF is also offering conformance certification for software based on Kubernetes, with which software vendors can display or make flexible use of the Certified Kubernetes logo. CNCF will continue to engage contributions from cloud native computing experts worldwide.Current development of Kata container and comparison to gVisorXu Wang, CTO and co-founder of HyperHQ, introduced the company's open source Hyper, which can run Docker Image directly on Hypervisor, as well as Kata container, an open source container infrastructure project managed by the OpenStack Foundation.According to Wang, Kata container was developed with the goal to make it independent of hardware architectures, so it not only is compatible with the OCI runtime specification but also supports the Kubernetes Container Runtime Interface (CRI).Wang also shared his observation on a special development – information security concern about Kata container becoming the focus of attention. Then, he gave a comparison between Kata container and gVisor. gVisor is a new sandboxed container runtime authored by Google, which provides secure isolation for containers while being less resource intensive than a full virtual machine. In comparison to Kata container, gVisor supports most Linux system calls and is designed with different trade-offs than existing container technology. Wang wrapped up his talk with a few key characteristics about Kata container. Like runC containers, Kata containers deliver the security of virtual machines while supporting other VM accelerating technologies. Despite using virtualization, Kata containers are light, fast and easy to integrate into many different application workflows. It supports multiple architectures including x86_64, arm64 and ppc64le.Large-scale AI cloud platform architecture and service, and NCHC's five major strategies for AI developmentDr. Feng-Yi Chao of National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) gave a talk, themed on large-scale AI cloud platform architecture and service, about how NCHC helps Taiwan establish five major strategies for national level AI development.NCHC's Taiwan GPU Cloud currently serves 66 projects undertaken by five major AI research centers and 13 subprojects under the Semiconductor Moonshot Project by providing users a single container platform with single authorization. For the long-term objective, Chao said NCHC aims to offer enterprises SLA-based AI-HPC services, build a demo project with NVIDIA GPU Cloud (NGC) in Taiwan and provide Data Mart services, social media hosting services as well as Learn to Learn AI services.In summary, Chao shed light on NCHC's role at the international level. Focusing on AI-HPC cloud services, the goal is to provide a selection of flexible service models where CPU, GPU and other public-cloud-based computing services are consolidated through cloud resource management software. It not only effectively increases the usage rate of domestic AI computing platforms but also combines public and private clouds to carry out computation for researchers on cloud platforms worldwide through a single management interface with uniform features in one implementation.As the Taiwan government is devoting tremendous resources to fostering AI developments, spurring burgeoning innovations, now is a good time for AI undertakings. Keeping a clear vision of the goal and the strategy to find partners, build teams and make alliances, NCHC endeavors to build hardware and software platforms for use by the industry, government, research institutions and academia.Innovative AIoT applications are the popular trend, spurring edge computing developments and opportunitiesAIoT innovations are grabbing market attention in recent years. During early development in 2013, IoT applications mostly targeted smart grid and home surveillance with low-volume data collection. Today's IoT applications process large amounts of data. Their software and hardware are growingly incorporating AI capabilities, giving rise to widespread implementations of edge computing. According to Norr Wei, industry analyst, Industry, Science and Technology International Strategy Center (ISTI) at Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the rise of edge computing has much to do with AI + IoT applications. In some AI use scenarios, cloud computing architectures are beginning to encounter challenges – limited bandwidth, communication latency, data security and confidentiality concerns, and inadequate network coverage among others.For its low data latency and high transmission frequency, edge computing will enjoy rapidly rising demand particularly from IoV, AR and VR applications. It is estimated 75% of data will be processed and even stored at the edge by 2022.According to ISTI, solutions targeting vertical applications will present better opportunities for vendors to penetrate into the edge computing market. As to the business models, B2B IoT applications are generating rapidly growing values while the B2C segment will focus on smart home applications with service providers like Apple, Amazon and Xiaomi dominating the market. The competitiveness of edge computing will hinge on whether it can achieve economies of scale. Cloud service providers are betting on increasing their volume of connected platforms. IT hardware suppliers are looking to expand the deployment of their products through vertical applications and cross-sector collaborations.To Taiwan-based vendors expanding into edge computing, Wei suggested two development strategies. First, they should form strategic alliances with international platform operators to jointly develop solutions integrating software and hardware or make their way into the supply chain. Second, they can focus efforts on applications with tremendous potential.Four separate sessions focusing respectively on multicloud, IoT, software and AIThe afternoon sessions of OpenStack Day Taiwan, respectively themed on diverse topics including multicloud architecture and its deployment; Infra, 5G & IoT; software-defined everything; AI, presented real use cases and advanced technologies, fully demonstrating the OpenInfra spirit.OpenInfra Day Taiwan 2018

The emergence and convergence of AI, IoT, cloud, and autonomous driving technologies have brought tremendous opportunities to the semiconductor industry. However, as the process technology moves towards 7nm/5nm nodes, heterogeneous integration, and 3D structures, there are many challenges in the industry to be resolved.At this year's Semicon Taiwan, Akihisa Sekiguchi, deputy division general manager of Corporate Innovation Division at Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL), a leading semiconductor equipment company, gave a speech on the topic of "Semiconductor Equipment in the Era of Internet of Cognitive Entities," sharing his views on the latest trend. He stressed that TEL will strengthen cooperation with customers to overcome various technical challenges, so that the industry can continue to enjoy the cost reduction benefits at advanced nodes and to realize the vision of smart life in the AI era.Opportunities and challenges coexist in the semiconductor industryWith the spread of IoT technology, the age of AI/big data has begun. A large amount of data generated by each node needs to be stored, processed, transmitted and analyzed, therefore pushing up the demand for various semiconductor devices, including memory, logic, sensors, and the emerging AI chips. It is expected that the trend will drive the long-term growth of the overall industry, and for this year, the semiconductor production equipment market has set a new record of US$60 billion."From the computer to the mobile era, by process scaling, the industry has been able to keep growing and meet consumers' demands for smaller, cheaper, and better products," Sekiguchi said. "But now we are at a turning point. If we want to continue this successful model in the AI era, we need new breakthroughs in both chip design and process technology."First of all, in terms of chip design, so far the AI function is mainly used in the cloud. But the long-term growth brought by AI cannot be made possible if the deep learning/inference functions are not prevalent across every IoT nodes.At present, many companies are investing in GPU, FPGA, and ASIC chips for this. In addition, a brand new kind of neuromorphic chip, which adopts non-Von Neumann architecture, has been actively developed. This is a new revolution for the existing CMOS circuits and CPU architectures, in a bid to accelerate the realization of AI applications by providing several orders of magnitude enhancement of performance, cost and power efficiency.This is because different AI algorithms require different hardware solutions, and the traditional way of making processors faster is no longer enough. New architecture, integration and system optimization are required to meet the different needs of cloud and edge devices. Therefore, a variety of new AI-optimized chips/devices will show up in the market. And TEL is working with multiple partners to address the AI development needs.In addition, in terms of process technology, DRAM, NAND and logic devices are all facing the increasingly difficult challenge of process scaling, which must be solved by adopting new materials and moving to 3D architecture.For DRAM, scaling has become increasingly difficult as the capacitor aspect ratio increases to be over 50 at D16 node. As for NAND, the implementation of 3D structure has enabled continued scaling. "But we are now talking about over 100 layers of different materials stacking. How to keep dimension consistency from the top to the bottom, it's a daunting task," said he."For logic scaling, thanks to the progress of lithographic technology, we are able to keep scaling as EUV is ready to be used at 7nm node. But in terms of process complexity, we have to deal with the problems from planar to FinFET, high-K, and to nanowire and nanosheet at 5nm below."When fabricating these tiny 3D structures, maintaining the uniformity and consistency of operation is very important. From the capability side of equipment, atomic level control of processing is a must at leading edge technology nodes.Winners are those who can keep driving down the costScaling capability limitation and growing demand for devices occurring at the same time means the cost is an issue. Though the industry can always get the performance required by utilizing innovative technologies and new materials. But now the question is that is it the end of cost scaling?Sekiguchi is optimistic about this, saying, "We don't believe that it is the end of cost scaling but it is true that cost is a big factor. FinFET is a performance requirement and as we have progressed through several nodes of its development, production issues are being ironed out. If anything, the introduction of EUV can have a positive effect in terms of reducing the manufacturing cost by making EUV plus dual patterning the solution for patterning instead of SAQP for example. To some effect, the dependence is on EUV throughput and cost effectiveness. Of course, for 3D NAND, the dependence is not on lithography, rather it is on how many device layers we can stack. There it is deposition and etch productivity that will determine cost scaling.""Though it's hard, the problems can be solved, provided that the industry as a whole works together to solve it systematically. And the winners in the future will be those who can still enjoy the benefits of cost-effectiveness at advanced nodes, who are the end users of our products," he stressed."As process technologies get increasingly complicated, every customer may have different requirements. We need to collaborate with each customer to provide the specialized solution they need, and the commodity tools can't fit anymore. In particular, new materials and its chemistry play an important role in creating these tiny structures. From the front-end process of devices build all the way to contact, wiring, to the back-end packaging, the considerations for processes are all different. Therefore, equipment vendors should understand all these issues. And for that we need to understand integration better, just like our customer needs to understand our tools' capability better as well."On the other hand, tool efficiency is also a key factor to the cost scaling. In order to improve equipment productivity, it's an inevitable trend to migrate to smart manufacturing by adopting AI and data analytics. "The ability to analyze vast amounts of data is important and critical. By implementing smart analysis of information, scheduling of events within the semiconductor device fabrication factory can be optimized and production performance improved. On the equipment side, the concept of tool health monitoring and predictive maintenance coordination are fairly well known, and we continue to work on these solutions on a customer-by-customer basis to meet their specific requirements."Finally, he stressed that the competition in the semiconductor production equipment market is very fierce. "We need to help customers reduce the cost of operations. Therefore, we aim to keep competitiveness in the market by responding to diversity, constantly pursuing higher efficiency, and deepening cooperation with customers."Akihisa Sekiguchi, deputy division general manager of Corporate Innovation Division, TELPhoto: Grace Lee, Digitimes, September 2018

Technology has always played an important role in improving the quality of people's lives. However, not all technological advances are needed. A study on the human history will tell us what people are mainly pursuing is freedom and security. In a recent interview, Jiu-Fan Lin, sales vice president, AMobile Intelligent, gave his fresh point of view - NB-IoT is a new technology shaped to human needs."We want young people to live harder and embrace endless possibilities enabled by technology," noted Lin as he thinks many technological innovations were created because people started to think about how to build safer and more livable cities after being hit by devastating natural disasters. After years of refinement, NB-IoT is not only an enabler of smart cities but more importantly a new hope for higher quality of life.NB-IoT brings people closer to their surroundingsTaiwan has experienced major natural disasters, such as the 921 earthquake and Typhoon Nari. "If there had been a system to warn the Taipei City authorities that the flood gates were left open, maybe we could have prevented Typhoon Nari from causing the widespread flooding in Taipei," indicated Lin. If we had been able to use IoT sensors for early warning at the time of Typhoon Nari, we might have avoided the extensive damage.NB-IoT communication technology can be used in wide-ranging applications not only for early warning purposes but also for keeping track of the changes in the city's natural environment, for example, monitoring water levels and river flows. Such types of natural environment monitoring do not need to collect data at the rate of hundred times per second as the natural environment generally does not change at a rapid pace and the monitoring system can be configured to collect and report data at an interval of a few times per month or per year. According to Lin, using NB-IoT for effective wide-area management and monitoring in city administration helps people achieve the desired quality of life and prevent disasters.AMobile Intelligent and MediaTek have combined forces to develop NB-IoT modules, which are powered by MediaTek's NB-IoT chips purposed-built for AMobile Intelligent's products, including water monitoring, water meter, traffic and smart home solutions. In particular, its NB-IoT solution has been put to use to monitor India's Ganges River and Thailand's Mekong River.Built on top of 3GPP standards, NB-IoT has deployment cost advantagesMajor cities around the globe are endeavoring to become smart cities by actively deploying IoT devices citywide. However, with a wide variety of devices being put to use for different applications and cloud infrastructure for collecting and analyzing data being in place, equipment enabling the connection of massive devices, long-range and low-power data transfer and low deployment cost is not yet available, so full-scale IoT realization still has "one last mile" to go.NB-IoT is what it takes to complete the last mile. NB-IoT enables low-power wide-area communication and can operate with the cellular network structure of most telecom operators' base stations. In other words, manufacturers of NB-IoT solutions only need to focus on the designs and functions of their products without having to worry about infrastructure issues.Based on 3GPP standards, NB-IoT can make use of most existing base stations and upgrade them to serve as media for data transfer. Compared to LoRa and Sigfox using unlicensed frequency bands, NB-IoT has superior advantages.However, compared to LTE-M, also transmitting signals through telecom operators' base stations, NB-IoT is more favored because NB-IoT chips have lower cost and higher performance and support over-the-air (OTA) upgrade, according to market research reports. These benefits have allowed NB-IoT to surpass LTE-M in a short time and likely to outperform Sigfox and LoRa in five years in terms of market demand.According to Lin, NB-IoT sends data through 4G networks and will use 5G networks in the future. Take the current 4G networks for example. NB-IoT uses fragmented 4G frequency bands for data transfer, so service providers or general users pay smaller fees than mobile subscription charges. For advanced technologies to become widespread in people's lives, they have to enable access by everyone. If businesses can reduce their operating costs, they will be able to pass the savings to their customers.Current applications of AMobile Intelligent's NB-IoT modulesJiu-Fan Lin, sales vice president, AMobile Intelligent