The global market has seen unprecedented changes in recent years, including trade tension between US-China, which started in 2018 and spurred a supply chain reshuffle that changed what the industry was used to; and the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, which forced businesses to rethink their operations. However, it's not all bad news. Good things are happening. For example, US, China and Korea kicked off 5G commercial operation in 2019 with more countries following suit in 2020. 5G communication is expected to connect the last mile to smart systems and open the door to new-generation IT applications. These three major changes will reshape wireless communication technologies, said Alex Wang, Compal Broadband CEO & BOD.Founded in 2009, Compal Broadband Networks is a member of the Compal Corporate Group with a focus on home broadband communication products. For cable networks, Compal Broadband Networks provides Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) compliant products encompassing DOCSIS 3.0 all the way to DOCSIS 4.0 devices that are developed in close collaboration with communication chip suppliers. Compal Broadband's wireless communication product portfolio includes two major groups - sub 6GHz and mmWave solutions, which are the results of the company's strengthened efforts toward the 5G market, and Wi-Fi products, particularly those that support the new-generation Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E under development. These products are being marketed around the globe.Compal Broadband Networks started out as an electronics manufacturing service (EMS) provider and later established its own brand CBN. With market footprints throughout Europe as well as Central America, Compal Broadband Networks mainly sells products to European markets, serving almost every cable TV operator in the region. CBN enjoys a 40% share of the home broadband communication market.One-stop service creates unparalleled advantagesCompal Broadband Networks has been able to deliver such outstanding performance in just 11 years. Aside from expressing gratitude for customers' support, Wang attributes the company's success to two elements - the advantages enabled by the Compal Corporate Group's resources and Compal Broadband??s ability to provide customization services accumulated through the years. As a member of the Compal Corporate Group, which is the world's largest computer manufacturer, Compal Broadband Networks not only has a robust engineering workforce of its own but can also tap into the corporation's consolidated R&D resources. On top of that, with centralized procurement, it has absolute advantages in price negotiations with suppliers. Its long-term partnerships with leading international chip makers also enable Compal Broadband Networks to market competitive products with compelling cost-performance ratios and higher levels of technological integration. As a member of the Taiwan 5G Alliance, Compal Broadband Networks can leverage the Compal Corporate Group's advantages in 5G modules while gaining first-hand information on network communication customers' needs so it can quickly combine 5G and network communication resources and thereby introduce products with shorter time-to-market compared to its competitors. Moreover, Compal Broadband's products can work in connection with other repeaters to help businesses and consumers address the challenges they face.Apart from access to corporate resources, Compal Broadband Network's customization ability is also what allows the company to win customer support. Wang speaks candidly that the network communication industry has developed mature technologies and is experienced enough to quickly catch up with new standards that are constantly being released. Under such circumstances, services become the key to success. Wang gives an example in which Compal Broadband Networks was asked by Europe??s top three cable TV operators to incorporate some required functions into its home networking equipment. The Compal Broadband Networks team was able to swiftly modify the product design and add the required functions.The example fully demonstrates Compal Broadband Network's capability in product R&D and manufacturing. Most network communication device suppliers do not engage in in-house design and production but instead only design the product independently and outsource the production to OEM. To brand vendors, this business model allows them to lower operation costs but makes it difficult for them to control delivery schedule. In contrast, Compal Broadband Networks provides one-stop service including product design, manufacturing and marketing so it can more promptly respond to customer needs. According to Wang, under Compal Broadband Network's system of operation, after sales specialists understand a customer's needs, they forward the information to the engineering team to begin design work and at the same time, the manufacturing team allocates production capacity based on the customer's order. This ensures the products are delivered on schedule and on par with the required quality. Close collaborations across different Compal Broadband Networks teams have generated a wealth of success stories and are the main reason why Compal Broadband Networks is able to remain a frontrunner in the competitive home networking market.Close teamwork to meet market requirementsWang notes that Compal Broadband will maintain its market strategy going forward. He adds that 5G competition is what sparked the US-China trade war. American and European industries and governments are making every effort to grab 5G opportunities. The governments offer all types of subsidies to spur industry growth and have begun spectrum auctions over the recent two years. The industries are eyeing enormous Industry 4.0 business opportunities. In addition to telecom operators that are aggressively rolling out 5G services, market newcomers are joining the game while engaging in a diversity of cross-sector partnerships. The most iconic would be the partnerships between mobile service providers and cable network operators.Mobile service providers and cable network operators have been targeting separate market segments. It was once thought that they are to engage in competitions after 5G communication gives rise to burgeoning smart systems which have diverse communication requirements. Wang has a different opinion. In consideration of the small coverage and high density of 5G base stations, widespread cable networks become the best choice to offload 5G traffic from the backhaul network as a way to save costs. This breaks the barrier between mobile and fixed networks and spikes the demand for communication devices for such purposes. Compal Broadband already includes 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) equipment in its product portfolio and plans to offer customization service tailored to customer needs going forward.As to broadband network, governments around the world are strongly pushing their broadband network build-up. American and European telecom operators and cable network operators are struggling to meet rapidly growing consumer needs for network bandwidth. Compal Broadband has established market presence in North America, Latin America and Asia for many years and has gained first-hand insight into the market trend, based on which it launched a series of home networking devices for use in different surroundings. Taking smart gateways for example, Wang points out a growing number of suppliers are forming an ecosystem to strengthen the software functionalities of smart gateways. Compal Broadband Networks has taken a step ahead and developed for customers hardware and software integrated products with customization available to suit different regions.In view of the global trend, Wang thinks broadband communication has become crucial demand in today's world so the market will only grow larger and larger. He also makes it clear that technology and service are the two keys to securing market share. Customized design service is especially what suppliers can rely on to build and maintain a competitive edge. Going forward, Compal Broadband will continue to strengthen its technology research and design capabilities and provide customers a diverse range of premium quality services.Alex Wang, Compal Broadband Networks CEO & BODPhoto: DIGITIMES

The implementation of innovative technologies and AI have changed the face of retail as companies develop various smart solutions to assist retailers with transformations. During the smart retail forum hosted by AUO, Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC) analyst Dr Liao Yan-yi pointed towards a study by the US National Retail Federation stating how 80% of corporate investments by global consumer brands and retail channels are in smart AI technologies.However, she repeatedly emphasized that "the focus of smart retail is on 'retail' as opposed to 'smart,' so any use of smart technologies must be based on the needs of retailers and consumers."Pandemic accelerates trends in smart retailAs if echoing the words of analyst Liao Yan-yi, CEO and Chairman Hank Liu of AUO subsidiary ComQi-JohnRyan pointed out that due to the impact of COVID-19, retailers have turned aggressively to smart technologies to solve their problems. This has resulted in many innovative applications such as unmanned stores, smart vending machines, self-driving delivery vehicles, or even logistics robots in order to maintain social distancing during this pandemic. However, any introduction of smart technologies must return to the nature of providing solutions to consumers and assisting retailers with improving operational efficiency.When there is a shortage of labor, digital information display and integration with various functions become especially important. AUO provides a comprehensive smart retail solution which at its core integrates digital signage with cloud management platforms, smart shelves, POS, and customer interaction technologies for mobilize businesses to quickly transform into smart retail in response to the challenges of this pandemic.Building smart retail that enhances customer experiencesSmart retail solutions provided by AUO has helped many Taiwanese retailers begin their smart transformations; Aeon Motor CEO Tony Lin was present at the forum to speak about how the company is a prime example. In 2019, Aeon Motor released their first electric scooter Ai-1 Sport. In order to provide an enhanced customer experience, they built a smart retail location based on solutions by AUO.Aeon Motor's smart retail experience utilized interactive displays by AUO which integrated large spliced wall displays and multimedia equipment in a cloud content management platform. One single piece of playback equipment was used to handle 3 types of spliced playback modes including full screen display, a 9-grid synchronous display, or 9-grid independent display; the wall can be toggled between the 3 modes at will.It's worth mentioning that these interactive display solutions could also be linked and streamed online to all nationwide retail locations. Aeon Motor utilized the solution's flexibility to host a nationwide online media event to attract massive public attention. This year, Aeon Motor expects to expand to 35 smart retail locations, each with large display walls, throughout Taiwan. Tony Lin stated that "traditional decor becomes dated with time, but using display walls as part of the decor allows us to keep them constantly updated."Creating new value with retail as a serviceSHUI-MU International also used AUO smart solutions to innovative their business model. SHUI-MU International, a company with 68 years of history, realized the downturn trend of traditional retail and began to make changes 4 years ago. General Manager Michelle Kuo of SHUI-MU International emphasized that "our goal was to create new value in retail services and while we fearlessly explored innovative methods, the team at AUO was the only partner willing to fully devote themselves to working with us."By utilizing smart solutions provided by AUO, SHUI-MU International created the retail as a service model to rebrand A.S.O retail locations from merely selling shoes to becoming community health stations. A.S.O expanded on this to establish posture and balance centers, sports centers to reverse aging, and released dynamic foot pressure measurement services by utilizing technologies such as displays and cloud management provided by AUO to drive A.S.O retail towards a compound operation model."In the future, we look forward to utilizing smart display solutions to provide our customers with remote consulting services," said Michelle Kuo.Integrating software/hardware solutions in concept storesYYsports, a subsidiary of Pou Sheng International (Holdings) Limited is a comprehensive sports service distribution channel that provides various sporting goods and sports experiences. With the support of AUO subsidiary Space4M, YYsports was able to create a mesmerizing concept store in Hsinchu. Space4M utilized core technologies such as a digital content playback management system through a cloud platform to provide integration of old and new hardware/software services for both online/offline and virtual/physical locations to enhance customer experiences for the brand, merchant, and site owner.YYsports General Manager Wang Wen-xin introduced the concept store's latest equipment such as a unique 270 degree fitting studio that utilized "bullet time" filming technology to capture images through 16 professional cameras to form a near panoramic image. The system helps customers make better choices by providing both frontal and rear views during fitting.Additionally, the concept store includes a running lab that allows controls for humidity, temperature, and wind speed to simulate frigid, desert, and windy environments that allow customers to test the functionality of performance wear in these scenarios.Listening to retailers to satisfy real demandsIn the final forum, Associate VP of AUO Smart Retail Division Lin Pei-hong pointed out in his conclusion that throughout the process of innovation, retailers expect their technology partners to understand their language; meanwhile, technology suppliers must assist retailers make good use of digital tools by developing solutions that meet real needs.Generally speaking, most retailers have acknowledged the necessity of smart retail innovation. Powerful technologies have opened up even more possibilities that allow retailers to crossover from product sales to integrated service models or even create lifestyles. As an "on-site solutions provider," AUO has earned the trust of our retail clients and will continue to invest the group's resources into various fields of application.ComQi chairman and CEO Hank Liu presented at AUO Tech Forum 2020Associate VP of AUO Smart Retail Division Pei-hong Lin concluded that IT companies need to assist retailers to target the retail industry's needsAUO's comprehensive smart retail solution is integrated with cloud management platforms, smart shelves, POS, and customer interaction technologies

Looking for true and effective solution fighting against COVID-19? Feeling confused of all sorts of UVC air purifier on the market but no idea which to bring home? It is our honor to present you with our recent big win, SADC-AP01 air purifier.Within 1 hour, conducting 36 times air circulation in 45 square feet area, SADC-AP01 air purifier can assure you breathing truly sterilized fresh air. Unlike other brands playing word games, boasting their products can conduct 99.99% sterilization because of UVC light but not exactly by their products.Here we sincerely announce that every single set of our air purifier did acquire CE, FCC, UL and most importantly SGS certification, which can prove that our structure design, along with the precise calculation can assure our products effectively killing bacteria, virus, also assuring customer receiving true, safely products in hand.Hard to choose between HEPA filter and static filter? The key point is to pick the one which can block the P.M2.5, stopping the bacteria and virus go through the machine. Both filters can do so, but HEPA filter is suggested to change at least every 2 months, while static filter is non-consumable materials, so it is life-long free. Our filter save your money and save the earth.Found the cheaper and similar products online? Is it UVA or UVB or even merely a blue light? Is it mercury light or UVC LED? Do you prefer real effectiveness or the outlook? Are you saving your money buying fancy but useless products? Harvatek air purifier is the solution of all your questions.What's more, Harvatek has all the UVC LED modules you might be interested in air solution also water solutions. For air solutions, our module perfectly made the balance between UVC LED and heat with effectiveness. It has the advantages of occupying small volumes, high sterilizing efficiency, and effectively guaranteeing the indoor environment sanitation of the user. Sterilization rate reaches above 70% after turning on module for 1 hour.For water solutions, we are having two type as water-flowing and water-tank. Water-flowing type can completely solves the problems of microbial contamination and bacteria levels in drinking water exceeding standards. Water-tank type features for it can sterilize the water stored in the tank. Different liters of still water has correspond module suggestion.Last but not least, Harvatek UVC module team are also dedicated in providing ODM service, as air purifier SADC-AP01 has proved that we have the ability to finalized an module from kitting to finished goods. Customer will be the one to find out the most competitive functions for their products and strategy, and we will be the one to realize their ideas, finding out the best and most effective solutions for all kinds of UVC related products.Our successful story varies from dentist sterilizing box to UVC water filter sterilization, which is boosting quite well at the moment. Please visit the website for more information.Harvatek UVC model air purifierPhoto: Company

The era of AI is coming. It will not be long before our cities operate efficiently with tremendous amounts of devices and robots connected through 5G infrastructure with enough bandwidth for data handling and transferring. In order to analyze the huge amount of data coming from massive amount of edge devices (50B units by 2025), High Performance Computing (HPC) device is one of the key essential elements required for both end-terminals and also edge computing. Hence, the design and assembly of HPC chips is critical for semiconductor industry to address so that the bright AI enabled future for the society can be realized.Heterogeneous integration: A back-end scaling approach to achieve more-than-MooreThe Moore's Law has guided the semiconductor industry for many decades. However, it is approaching to the limit when the node size gets smaller than 14nm/10nm. Meanwhile, advanced node development has to be continued. To reduce the financial commitment for future node development, Heterogeneous Integration (HI) is the way forward. Switching from "only front-end node scaling" to "combination with back-end scaling," HI is a backend approach by means of advanced packaging technologies to integrate multiple chiplets, with different functionalities and each fabricated with best fit node in terms of technology and economic aspects, to reassemble an SoC (System on Chip) like function.Impact of HI evolution to the supply chainWith the continued development of HI, we see significant impact on the supply chain for the industry. In the past, each player such as wafer foundry, OSAT and substrate supplier stays in his or her focus area. Nowadays, with HI, it opens up more business opportunities for each player by enlarging their served available market. Foundry is stepping into the advanced package assembly business; substrate house is also getting into the assembly process by offering passive and active embedding capability along with their substrate business. Although OSATs seem to be in a keen competition from both the foundry and substrate house, they are also pushing the development of more cost effective packaging technology to cope with the emerging but massive requirements of Edge and IoT devices required by the Al world. Without doubt, they will be facing many new technical challenges in the associated processes, critical material and enabling equipment.In order to shorten the development time in the advance packaging, working with a high-end equipment supplier - ASM Pacific Technology Ltd. can share their years-experience in R&D to overcome the challenges and save the cost. To build our AI future and enable the digital world, ASMPT will expect a greater collaboration and co-development work, together with different parties.Please visit https://www.asmpacific.com/en/articles/ for full text.There are different HI approaches currently and some are already in volume production modeImpact of HI evolution to the supply chain

Demand for digital transformations has risen sharply in the post-pandemic era. At the "smart healthcare" sub forum during "AUO Tech Forum 2020," the company and its partners displayed innovative integration of AIoT and display technologies to assist healthcare industries in finding key opportunities for smart upgrades.Displays are key devices in smart hospitals, with 4K and 3D soon to become main streamChang Tsz-yin, leader of the ITRI Biomedical Technology and Device Research Lab was the first to take the stage with an analysis of the current conditions and future outlook of smart healthcare. She pointed out that any ICT technology solutions relating to medical decision-making, enhancing doctor-patient relations, improving operational efficiency, simplifying administrative processes, or optimizing service processes could be selected as long as they solve the problems and pain points in the field of medicine.Chang Tsz-yin mentioned that as we enter the era of healthcare 4.0, there is an emphasis of big data, IoT , AI integrated decision-making and interpretation, as well as connecting different clinical operations and information systems. Medical displays are an indispensable technology in smart hospitals as they assist physicians with visualizing the conditions within a patient's body for clinicopathological diagnosis and displaying treatment progress; 4K and 3D displays are expected to become mainstream in medical imaging applications due to their enhanced clarity.MedicalTek CEO Jack Liu stated that while there are numerous methods of treatment, physicians still rely on surgical treatments at critical junctures; utilizing technology to build safe, high quality surgical models is extremely important.Technological advancements have replaced traditional open surgery with minimally invasive surgeries. Operating theatres have become areas with high display density as physicians utilize endoscopes and displays to view patient lesions, thereby making requirements for picture quality even higher. Display resolutions have gone from SD, 2K all the way to improved full color gamut, improved resolution of reds, and better emphasis of ICG fluorescence in 4K and 8K displays to help doctors identify lesions with enhanced clarity.Eddie Huang, the NVIDIA Solution Architect Director of Healthcare mentioned that models are the soul of AI. When problem solving within industries, single modules are rarely utilized; instead, multiple modules are often linked as jobs, then multiple jobs are linked to form pipelines. Due to this complicated architecture, NVIDIA developed a data center platform architecture to assist users with the acceleration of end-to-end processes; additionally, the NVIDIA Clara framework was developed for healthcare applications. It includes a wealth of reference applications and SDK so that physicians can develop AI autonomously without having to rely on IT.Reliance on professional medical displays to effectively solve pain points within the fieldAUO General Display Business Division Director Jerry Chen elaborated on the new opportunities of medical displays and sensing in the post-pandemic era. This pandemic has driven the medical field to accelerate towards digital transformations based on the theme of "ABCD" (AI, big data, cloud, and displays). AUO has accumulated strong capabilities in research and technology after years of investment in the field of medical applications. Today, the company holds more than 20% of the global market share in both professional medical displays and X-ray sensors.Jerry Chen stated that "physicians have very high expectations for displays in areas such as high definition imaging and color fidelity due to their prolonged periods of daily use". AUO designs human-centric professional medical displays to solve the pain points within the field.By utilizing 4K Deep-Red surgical displays, the company has successfully overcome the restrictions of color gamut with enhanced performance at high saturation to display multiple levels of red so that surgeons can clearly identify the differences between tissues and lesions. Diagnostic displays with high contrast ratio and wide viewing angles utilize enhanced contrast to emphasize light and dark levels so that radiologists can view fine tissue with clarity.AUO offers the world's first "super narrow bezel and true portrait" design, creating a superior visual experience to give radiologists improved image reading quality during diagnosis. A.R.T (Advanced Reflectionless Technology) displays effectively improves the visual comfort of physicians during prolonged viewings by reducing glare and reflections.The event's finale concluded with talks by Yu-li Tsai, Director of the Embedded Platform and Module Department of ADLINK Technology and Ken Yu, Chairman and CEO of imedtac. Yu-li Tsai pointed out that edge computing in medical imaging is the quickest application to land in the field of smart healthcare; While ADLINK Technology first started in designing controllers, the company formed alliances with industry leaders and behemoths such as AUO, Intel, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm. The company developed various AIOM smart modules based on industry standards and combined them with AI-enabled machine vision systems to provide a comprehensive application-ready edge computing platform in the field of healthcare; edge video analysis (EVA) is provided to assist with simple data collection, advanced processing, model training, to complicated processes such as system deployment in healthcare.Ken Yu stated that medical institutions place an emphasis on satisfying the demands of OT (operational technology), yet rarely pay attention to the evolution of IT technologies. The reason that AI, IoT, and robotics can thrive in healthcare is due to their OT value in requiring "less focus", "less attention", and "less effort". Based on this context, imedtac invested in a series of AIoT based smart medical solutions for smart guided treatment, high-quality nursing, smart operating theatres, medical logistics, and green hospitals in the hopes of accessing foreign markets by exporting modules or planning entire hospitals.Hence, the company has held a long-term partnership with AUO as imedtac's product deployment encompasses turnkey solutions for software/hardware integration, touch displays, and the management platform's automated dispensing cabinet (ADC), all of which heavily rely on professional medical displays.Medical IoT is the cornerstone of future hospitals and is critical for conducting broad sensing and data acquisition in key areas such of outpatient clinics, wards, operating theatres, storage, disinfection, and supply rooms. By combining technologies such as AI analytics and displays, the quality and safety of healthcare can be enhanced by assisting physicians and administrators in monitoring medical processes.AUO General Display Business Division Director, Chen Yu-cun, provided a keynote on AUO Tech Forum 2020ADLINK has launched an efficient and safe intelligent diagnosis solutionAUO's professional medical care display technologies are able to assist medical staff in making accurate diagnosis

Aluminum electrolytic capacitor is a popular passive component with unique strengths of high capacitance value and cost advantage. Lelon Electronics is one of the major suppliers in the market. In an interview conducted through video conferencing, Jimmy Wu, CEO of Lelon Electronics, talks about the company's development strategy in response to the coronavirus pandemic.Q: How does Lelon respond the COVID-19 pandemic crisis to support global supply chains fulfilling the urgent orders and demands?A: In fact, the second quarter of 2020 was the peak of the outbreak. In some countries, like Malaysia, with cities on lockdown, the shipments of aluminum electrolytic capacitor had been stuck. The supply of aluminum electrolytic capacitors has been hit hard. Most of Lelon's upper stream material suppliers are from China, and some of the advanced material suppliers are from Japan. Relying on the strong connections with the material suppliers, Lelon had fully support from the material suppliers when the outbreak started. Besides, Lelon always maintains sufficient materials in stock. Therefore, Lelon didn't have any problem with raw materials. In fact, Lelon even had the resources to take a large number of orders to cover the shortage customers were facing.Q: How do you see the new booming demands such as remote office, on-line education and stay-at-home economy?A: Lelon's revenue from telecom and network customers have increased significantly this year, benefiting from the growth of demand for stay-at-home economy, work from home and distance learning amid the pandemic. As 5G going mainstream in China, its base station construction supported by government has become the key driving force for 5G infrastructure businesses. There are more than 600,000 base stations to be built across China major cities in 2020. Apart from 5G base stations, there are other associated facilities such as network equipment and servers boosting further growth of demands. In 2021, the 5G market will continue to have further growth and make Lelon benefiting the strong momentum of 5G infrastructure construction projects around the world. Lelon is the strategic supplier of Chinese and European telecommunication equipment giants. Lelon can capture the opportunities of the fast-growing 5G market.Q: Apart from 5G infrastructure demands, the medical sector seems to have a strong growth, does Lelon benefit from the market?A: The demand of medical equipment has increased due to the pandemic. Lelon's products have been adopted by many medical customers. Some of the global major medical equipment manufacturers used to get aluminum electrolytic capacitors from Japanese makers. Due to the shortage of aluminum electrolytic capacitors caused by the pandemic, we have the opportunity to prove to our European and American medical equipment customers the stability of our product quality and outstanding supply management. It's a good start for further cooperation. In the other hand, talking about China medical equipment market, Mindray, a global medical instrumentation manufacturer based in Shenzhen, selects Lelon as the major supplier of the aluminum electrolytic capacitors. From the beginning of the pandemic, we have given strong support to Mindray and other medical equipment suppliers to try our best to respond to the medical demands amid the pandemic.Q: How do you see the development of China automotive market? Is any chance for Lelon to further boost in the sales?A: For the second half of 2020, our revenue from the market segment of automotive electronics has grown significantly compared to the same period of last year, and it's expected to continue to grow in 2021. Despite significant progresses achieved globally in the struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic, the outlook for the pandemic remains uncertain. Therefore, the uncertainty of orders remains high. The current order situation is mostly in rush type of needs. Customers are more conservative than before. The lead time of current orders have been shortened to three to six weeks only. In such a short lead-time condition, Japanese suppliers are difficult to meet the requirements, and Lelon has the strength of flexible response. Lelon is the supplier to many of the world's tier-one automotive electronics manufacturers, at this point Lelon has become the best partner for the manufacturers of automotive electronics in China.We think the sales of the fourth quarter of 2020 is cautiously optimistic. It will compensate the order loss of the first half of 2020. The revenue from automotive electronics customers is expected to maintain 9-11% of total aluminum electrolytic capacitors revenue in 2020. This year, Lelon received "Supplier Quality Excellence Award" from General Motor. This is showcasing Lelon's long time efforts to devote to the continuous product development and quality improvement. These efforts will support Lelon to develop market in the field of automotive electronics in the near future. Energy vehicles will be one of the growth drivers in the future, Lelon has cooperated with many automotive electronics manufacturers to develop the aluminum electrolytic capacitors for 48V power supply systems, and has started shipping products to automotive electronics manufacturers in China.Q: Facing the challenges to management and business fine tuning due to the pandemics, what else does Lelon do for the adjustment?A: In addition to continuous new product development, in response to the rush orders, Lelon has adopted a highly flexible and modularized production mode, with the ability to adjust machines to produce different sizes of aluminum electrolytic capacitors quickly. Our new factory in Suzhou will be completed in the second half of 2021. The third factory in Huizhou is planned to begin operation after receiving approval from the local government. The production capacity ramping up will help Lelon embrace opportunities arising from growing markets of 5G and automotive electronics.For the first half of 2020, Lelon's EMS and distribution customers comprise 34% of the total aluminum electrolytic capacitors revenue, power and green energy customers has 18.8% share, telecom and network is 17.9%, consumer electronics and home appliance is 14.4%, automotive electronics is 7.5%, IT and cloud is 4%, industrial and medical is 3.4%.The above revenue analysis shows Lelon has a wider distribution network and diversified customer base. There is no single customer to occupy big portion of revenue. This strategy helps Lelon to absorb the impacts when a single customer or a market segment fluctuates wildly. Therefore, Lelon has a dynamically stable operation. A stable operation can support Lelon to develop and execute long term strategy for future expansion.Going forward, Lelon will continue to devote time and effort to high-end markets of electronic equipment such as automotive electronics, telecommunication, medical, green energy, cloud computing and industrial robots. Lelon develops new products according to the design requirements of the customers. In the meantime, Lelon keeps improving quality system to deliver products with high reliability to our customers. These efforts give Lelon a leading edge in a highly competitive marketplace and set a new milestone in the next stage of growth for Lelon.The pandemic and trade wars have profound effects on global economy and supply chain. The past experience can't be applied to the rapid-changing operating environment at present. However, Lelon will make the best efforts to fulfill customers' needs with short lead-time and fast services. After the outbreak brought much of the China to a halt in the first month of 2020, Lelon overcame all difficulties to maintain the operation of production lines since Chinese New Year holiday till now. Once you are determined to do something, making efforts and not giving up lead to a good result. The year of 2020 once was a big challenge for Lelon but it has become a milestone for Lelon to turn the tables and step into a new stage of growth.Jimmy Wu, CEO of Lelon ElectronicsLelon's new factory in Suzhou China will be ready for production in the 2H 2021Lelon's latest product lines of aluminum electrolytic capacitors

How do you envision the future? You may find answers at AUO Tech Forum 2020 in October. Joining forces with partners, AUO presented vertical solutions that shape a smart future and enable endless new possibilities for different industries.AUO Tech Forum 2020 was themed on four major smart application trends - smart healthcare, smart retail, smart transportation and smart manufacturing. Before exploring AUO's messages conveyed at AUO Tech Forum 2020, forget what you already know about the company as AUO will transcend from a panel maker to a vertical solution provider.Repositioning itself towards a vertical solution providerIn his opening speech, AUO chairman and CEO Paul Peng said that digital transformation is closely-connected to smart applications. Displays are critical to communication success between human and machine. The value of displays will naturally be re-defined once they are applied to smart vertical solutions.Its two decades of efforts into display manufacturing has allowed AUO to accumulate a wealth of system integration experience, which enables AUO to expand integration services across upstream, midstream and downstream as well as hardware and software sectors to bring value to system-level solutions. Going forward, AUO will work with partners based on the principles of complement, cooperation and co-creation and endeavor to become a vertical solution provider. This is also the sprit driving the "AUO NEXT" transformation.Leveraging display strength to successfully foray into smart verticalsAUO president and COO Frank Ko noted in his speech that the forum was held for the purpose of sharing how AUO can leverage its strength in innovative display technologies to enable and capture opportunities with smart verticals ecosystem partners.He envisions a "Displays Everywhere 2.0" future. With years of devotion in the display industry, AUO has secured a leading position in technologies and applications. "AUO's strength will allow us to connect displays with a range of vertical markets and technological advances including 5G communication and artificial intelligence (AI) to create innovative solutions for a diversity of application fields as the industry moves toward digital transformation," remarked Ko.For example, displays are instrumental to many online and offline integration tools that enable digital communication to break time and space barriers. These devices are critical to meeting surging work-from-home and online learning needs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. AUO's displays for notebook PC, eyecare display and low reflection technology as well as large-sized interactive whiteboards play a vital role in this wave of rising trend. As to smart retail applications, although the e-commerce sector enjoys rapid growth thanks to the thriving stay-home economy, Ko thinks brick-and-mortar stores and restaurants still bring consumers the warm feeling that cannot be replaced. In the post-pandemic era, displays coupled with AI-enabled implementations will be introduced to physical retail locations at an accelerated pace. AUO's smart retail solutions combining hardware and software will expediently realize store owners' expectations.For the world's aging population, digital devices enable a myriad of healthcare innovations. AUO provides professional medical display solutions, which, coupled with 5G/AI technologies, help doctors make more accurate diagnoses. For smart transportation applications that relieve traffic congestion headaches in the process of global urbanization, displays combined with big data analytics can deliver real-time information to not only prevent traffic jams but also enhance road safety.AUO plans to establish a subsidiary in 2021 AUO Display Plus, which will focus on providing services with higher levels of flexibility, creativity and integration to vertical market customers. AUO has also created Edgetech and Mega Insight to offer smart manufacturing services on the foundation of its years of experience in display manufacturing. In addition, AUO will also join forces with ADLINK to form a robust team offering optimized smart manufacturing solutions.Ko set forth three missions that AUO will undertake in the digital transformation era. AUO will stay committed to being an "enabler" of new display technologies. Drawing on its accumulated strength, AUO will uphold its role as a "contributor" to customers' and partners' success. AUO will strive to become the best "partner" to industry members and engage in more collaborations to co-create complete smart eco-systems.Joining efforts with partners to build a smart futureADLINK chairman Jim Liu gave a speech titled "The Edge is Coming" at the forum, shedding light on the development trends of AI-powered edge computing. According to Liu, data is increasingly generated and collected at the edge. In fact, more than 70% of data is processed at the edge and 80% of AI chips are embedded in edge computing devices. He proposed the concept of "edge autonomy," wherein allowing edge devices to act autonomously will create bigger values and enable edge computing to generate maximum benefits.Also delivering a talk at the forum, Far EasTone Telecommunications vice president Eric Li explored innovative applications to be enabled by 5G communication. He highlighted how these applications can help address common challenges facing the manufacturing industry such as labor shortage and factory automation while boosting yields and improving defect detection efficiency.Zse-Hong Tsai, executive secretary, Office of Science and Technology, Executive Yuan, presented the action plans derived from the "Smart Living Display Technology and Application Industry Strategy Review Board Meeting (SRB)" to realize the vision of "Smart Living in Taiwan 2030."Tsai drew the industry's attention to how they can cope with changes in the post-pandemic era as the world moves rapidly toward digitization. "Vendors should make systematic strategic planning and look further into the future, not just two to three years but ten to twenty years, when creating product roadmaps," spoke Tsai.Going forward, AUO looks to join efforts with more partners across different industries to leverage AUO's display strength and the Taiwan government's industrial policy support to create localization opportunities in vertical markets and together drive Taiwan's global expansion.AUO chairman and CEO Paul Peng giving an opening speech, highlighting vertical markets are a strategic focus of the company's "AUO NEXT" transformationAUO president and COO Frank Ko delivering a speech titled "Innovative Display x Smart Verticals - Co-creating Industry Eco-System"Zse-Hong Tsai, executive secretary, Office of Science and Technology, Executive Yuan, sharing the action plans to realize the vision of "Smart Living in Taiwan 2030."

Digi-Key Electronics, who offers the world's largest selection of electronic components in stock for immediate shipment, announced that it will be the exclusive global distributor of the industry's most affordable ready-to-use IoT data management software for the BeagleBone platform, Machinechat JEDI One for BeagleBone."As one of the founding sponsors of BeagleBoard, Digi-Key is pleased to continue to be the leader in supporting BeagleBone developers with innovative solutions that enable them to make their IoT ideas reality," said Robbie Paul, director of IoT business solutions for Digi-Key Electronics. "With the addition of Machinechat's JEDI One for BeagleBone to our product offering, we are continuing our tradition of offering the industry's best-of-breed solutions for the BeagleBoard community."Machinechat's JEDI One is an all-in-one software application for IoT developers and solution architects to provision IoT data collection, visualization, monitoring and local storage capabilities in minutes. Offered as a single binary software application that is installed on-premise, JEDI One for BeagleBone is the industry's most affordable ready-to-use IoT software solution that enables developers and their customers to have complete control over their data, along with an advanced set of data management tools that can be leveraged in minutes."One of the key challenges for any engineer, maker or student is the time and effort it takes to develop an infrastructure for data collection, transformation, monitoring and visualization software for their IoT project," said Robert Nelson, Digi-Key principal applications engineer. "With Machinechat's JEDI One software, these steps are transformed into something that can be done quickly and cost-effectively, while using minimal resources on the BeagleBone platform. This allows all developers to easily add robust data functions into their IoT projects within minutes.""We are excited again to be partnering with Digi-Key to deliver a solution that serves the IoT development community," said E.E. Wang, chief marketing officer for Machinechat. "BeagleBone has long been recognized as one of the leading embedded platforms for developing IoT home, industrial and commercial applications. With the availability of JEDI One for BeagleBone, we are delighted to provide a solution that allows BeagleBone developers and enthusiasts to spend more time inventing and less time, money and resources developing data software for their project."Machinechat JEDI One for BeagleBone is available exclusively through Digi-Key Electronics for a one-time fee of US$39.00 for a single premium license. Each license supports one BeagleBone board and up to 16 devices and sensors.Available exclusively through Digi-Key Electronics for US$39, MachineChat JEDI One for BeagleBone

5G is the hottest topic in the technology industry today and the most interesting trend is the move towards an open, disaggregated white-box solutions, which is expected to bring great business opportunities. While everyone is gearing up for the 5G wave of monetary profits, one Taiwanese company is already ahead of the curve and has started by providing a 5G Cell Site Gateway Router (CSGR) solution to AT&T and other carriers last year (2019). That company is UfiSpace.Founded in 2012, UfiSpace entered the white box market in 2017, providing cost-effective, flexible disaggregated solutions with corresponding solutions from carrier base stations to core networks, which will help carriers meet all requirements for future 5G network deployments and operations.UfiSpace also developed the world's first 400G Distributed Disaggregated Chassis (DDC), which completely overturns the traditional design, and allows telecom operators to incrementally scale up their network capacity from 4Tb to 192Tb at any time according to their business needs. This has impressed many telecom companies and cloud service providers who have enthusiastically began engaging with UfiSpace on proof of concept (POC) projects.In order to increase the efficiency of equipment development, UfiSpace decided to build a 5G performance verification lab last year, which will double as a showroom to provide better customer experience with a more "hands-on" approach. However, with UfiSpace's core competence in research and development, they will constantly add new solutions and their showroom will need to be able to expand dynamically with the possibility of relocating in the future, which made it difficult to build a lab using traditional methods. Thus, UfiSpace decided to implement a pre-assembled micro data center with careful consideration, UfiSpace selected Vertiv's SmartRow data center solution. Vertiv is a global provider of power, cooling and IT infrastructure solutions covering the cloud to the edge of the network and has built on the Emerson Group's past successes and years of experience in the data center industry. With a focus on data center design and services, Vertiv is able to provide complete data centers from a single rack to the design, commissioning and implementation of complete and deployed data centers, and has served several telecom companies around the world. Therefore, UfiSpace was confident Vertiv can meet their requirements.Vertiv's integrated modules are designed to expand and relocate according to business needs"The telecom industry is a capital-intensive industry, with an emphasis on cost control. However, traditional telecom equipment is a closed system, in which hardware and software are proprietary, resulting in higher costs and limited application scenarios," said Nicole Chen, Marketing Director at UfiSpace. According to Nicole, UfiSpace's disaggregated and open architecture solutions can help telecom operators to achieve economies of scale and reduce future equipment management costs by using the same set of hardware coupled with different software to meet different service applications.To take advantage of the new blue ocean of 5G white box market, UfiSpace planned to establish a showroom and laboratory environment to help with business promotion and speed up product development. The traditional way of building these new environments is not enough to meet the changing needs of a growing organization, and it is difficult to incorporate future plans into the design, additionally UfiSpace needed a solution with the criteria of space saving, energy saving and cost control.Vertiv SmartRow was selected amongst the many data center and telecom infrastructure providers. It perfectly meets UfiSpace's requirements which include space saving, energy saving and cost reduction. SmartRow is a closed-circuit module, including cabinets, air conditioners, UPS, power distribution, facility monitoring and management and other subsystems, all of which can be pre-designed, integrated and tested in Vertiv's factories, which significantly reduces deployment time and footprint. Through high-efficiency power and professional cooling technology management controls, cooling capacity can be provided according to the actual load demand to achieve accurate cooling production, thus increasing cooling efficiency and reducing annual energy consumption by more than 30%. It also improves the predictability of construction schedule and cost performance, and allows for phased renovation and expansion, and is easily relocatable to meet UfiSpace's expectations and needs for showroom and laboratory environments.According to Nicole, with the traditional construction method, after installing the cabinets, additional wiring and other complicated configures are required to integrate power and air conditioning facilities, which often leads to high costs and prolonged installation. On the other hand, the value of SmartRow's all-in-one solution is that everything is integrated at the factory for faster deployment and reduced installation time.UfiSpace's DDC runs at a high data rate of 100G to 400G, with a single DDC router capacity of 4.8Tbs. A chassis cluster can interconnect up to 48 routers for a total of 192Tb switching capacity. All those routers running at the same time can make presentations a bit difficult to hear. Fortunately, the SmartRow's airtight design isolates all sounds inside the cabinet, so UfiSpace's solution presentations will not disturbed, which is highly appreciated by the sales staff. According to Nicole, SmartRow's quiet, energy-saving, space-saving, aesthetically pleasing (its exterior resembles more of a luxury product), and easy relocation features will be of great help to the realization of UfiSpace's showroom promotions.Energy efficient, low noise, space saving, suiting requirements for showroom and lab buildsOverall, Vertiv SmartRow is a great solution for power distribution, heat management, environmental safety, management interfaces, appearance, cable management and installation delivery; all of which provide a new, tighter, more secure, more reliable, more convenient and more aesthetically pleasing server room deployment experience for users. This is due to it not only inheriting the advantages of integrated design, rapid deployment and on-demand expansion, but also considers energy saving, monitoring and management needs, and even effectively solves the problem of lack of space in the server room of ordinary customers. Therefore, UfiSpace sees SmartRow as not just a product, but the delivery of the complete lifecycle of the server room.From the UfiSpace IT management team's point of view, the most notable feature of Smart Row is the enclosed design with strict cooling control and monitoring, which is different from the traditional server room solutions that rely separate systems. In addition, Smart Row is dust-proof, significantly reduces IT equipment failure rates, and reduces system noise, perfectly separating the human-machine environment in the server room. Vertiv is an experienced infrastructure solution provider with expertise in helping customers reduce their energy costs, with energy optimization strategies at every level, whether it's for hosting 5G equipment, infrastructure or network management, or to help UfiSpace with the optimization of TCO.Steven Hou, General Manager of Vertiv Taiwan indicated that his ultimate objective is to build a top-rated, reliable and energy-efficient modular intelligent data center for his customers. More importantly, Vertiv's products support high mobility and flexibility to adapt to different environments and scenarios, a key attribute for UfiSpace, which is constantly and rapidly experimenting with new technology developments to make its mark in the 5G telecom market.UfiSpace implements Vertiv's SmartRow data center solution to create 5G lab and showroomNicole Chen, Marketing Director at UfiSpace

No embedded device manufacturers would claim that the exposure of connected devices to security threats is due to vulnerabilities in the security components available on the market today. This would be ridiculous: it is easy to find specialist components such as secure elements or high-end systems-on-chip (SoCs) which will implement sophisticated forms of cryptography, secure on-chip key storage, power analysis and other security functions. Properly integrated into system designs, these components provide a strong shield for the device which hosts them.So if security components are readily available, why do successful attacks on embedded, connected devices continue on a daily basis? After all, the evidence of cyber attacks on electronics systems is abundant. Independent research shows that the number of cyber attacks on IoT devices in the US surged by 300% in 2019 compared to a year earlier. At the same time, it is estimated that some 57% of US IoT devices are vulnerable to attacks of a medium or high severity, and that each breach of an IoT end-point costs on average $9m.The financial cost of a successful cyber attack is due not only to the loss of revenue caused by service outage. Other costs include damage to the product manufacturer's brand, potential penalties from government authorities for breaching security regulations, and the diversion of skilled and expensive engineering resources from productive development work to urgent recovery and repair measures. Regulation in this area also continues to tighten, forcing IoT device manufacturers to pay attention to compliance requirements. The EU's Cybersecurity Act and China's Cybersecurity Law impose wide-ranging requirements backed by independent testing of device vulnerability, while the California Consumer Privacy Act imposes fines of $2,500 on companies for each unintentional violation.But despite all these costs and rules, compromised end-points remain vulnerable. In some cases, this will be because of a vulnerability in some part of the system beyond the secure element or secure SoC. Most commonly, such a vulnerability is in a standard external Flash memory storing critical code or data.In other cases, a device is exposed to cyber attack because the system has no secure element or secure SoC, and so lacks the sophisticated protection that it would provide.In both cases, the barriers to the implementation of hardware-level security are generally cost and difficulty. And it is true that high-end, payment-grade security components aimed at financial products such as payment terminals and mobile phones are technically complex and difficult for engineers who are not security specialists to implement.But now a new generation of secure Flash memory products has come on to the market to provide a secure hardware foundation for embedded devices which do not require payment-grade protection. Often featuring a standard Flash memory package footprint and pin-out, and controlled via the standard SPI NOR Flash instruction set, these secure Flash memories are easy for general embedded device designers to implement, but provide a comprehensive set of security functions to protect connected devices from attack on a system's integrity or data privacy.Why implement security in a memory device?It's traditional to conceive of non-volatile memory as a simple device: bits are written to it, and the same bits are then read out. It's generally thought of as a store, not a processor.In fact, of course, every NOR Flash memory used for code or application data includes logic to control memory operations and communications with the host via a serial peripheral interface. Secure Flash devices build on and extend this logic block to provide security functions alongside the memory control functions.Flash memory manufacturers such as Winbond have developed this new generation of secure Flash products because of the limitations of the embedded Flash memory provision in microcontrollers and SoCs. While advanced microcontrollers and SoCs have migrated to wafer fabrication processes at nodes smaller than 20nm, the scaling of embedded NOR Flash has not followed suit. This means that in the latest MCUs and SoCs, the embedded floating-gate flash process is not available and the capacity is often not large enough to store the sophisticated software code which they are intended to run.So in today's embedded device designs, application code is more commonly stored in an external Flash memory device. But if the device is connected - particularly if it is an IoT device connected to the internet - the boot code in external Flash is vulnerable to attack, and data is vulnerable to theft or intrusion, unless the memory device itself is shielded by comprehensive security functionality. This is the value of a secure Flash device, complementary to SoC/MCU securityThe key capabilities of secure FlashThe reason for replacing standard external NOR Flash in an IoT end-point with secure Flash, then, is to protect the integrity of boot code and application data. Various secure Flash devices on the market provide some form of secure storage. At its most basic, this security functionality provides for secure, encrypted authentication: this means that the Flash device will only permit the authorised host to perform Read and Write operations, protecting the data from being accessed by any device other than the host SoC.But this provides only a limited form of security protection. To protect against the many types of cyber attack, and to provide for compliance with regulations such as the EU Cybersecurity Law's Basic and Substantial levels of security functionality, Winbond has developed a multi-function secure NOR Flash memory, the W77Q, part of its TrustME family of secure Flash products. In addition to secure authentication, the W77Q provides: -*Resilience: protection, detection and recovery, to ensure that an IoT device can automatically reboot into known safe code even after a cyber attack has attempted to disable it *Root-of-trust to enable authenticated communication with the host SoC and with external systems such as cloud computing services. *Secure data storage *Secure channel from Flash to a trust authority in the cloud for over-the-air firmware updates. This channel means that the memory can update to a new version of boot code independently of the SoC, and even when the SoC has itself been compromised.The W77Q has been assessed by an external, accredited laboratory. It complies with the requirements of the EU's GDPR privacy legislation, and provides the 'Substantial' level of protection as specified by the EU's Cybersecurity Act. It holds security certifications including CC EAL2 (VAN.2), IEC62443, SESIP and the Arm Platform Security Architecture (PSA) certification.Resilience is particularly important for IoT devices - and is a capability missing from most secure Flash products. In some devices, such as utility meters, physical intrusion (tampering) is a common form of attack for which protection is required. Large, very valuable assets such as power generation plants or military bases might be subject to physical intrusion into a local area network.For IoT devices, however, the main threat is a scalable cyber attack exploiting a remote connection via the internet to the entire population of installed devices. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) SP 800-193 standard specifies mechanisms which protect firmware and configuration data from such attacks, and which can detect and recover from successful attacks. The W77Q provides the resilience functions required to conform to this standard. Resilience has three elements: protection against attack, detection of attacks, and recovery from attackFunctions such as encrypted authentication to prevent attempts by unauthorized devices to access data provide protection against attack. An attack might be successfully carried out on the host SoC, however, so the W77Q maintains the ability to detect when an attack has taken place. For instance, it checks that stored code has not been corrupted automatically, whenever the code is updated or accessed. It can also scan code on the instruction of the host device.If the W77Q detects that an attack has been successful and that, for instance, the compromised, authentic SoC has corrupted its own boot code, the Flash device automatically and with proper authentication recovers the platform firmware. It does so via its 'Safe Fallback' function, which reinstates boot code to a known safe version. This Safe Fallback function is backed by an authenticated watchdog timer, which can force the host SoC into a clean boot using the known safe code.Winbond's approach in developing the W77Q has been to provide an off-the-shelf set of layered security capabilities to enable easy deployment by customers. With the W77Q, Winbond provides: *End-to-end, out-of-the-box security, with no need for prior security expertise *Fast deployment *A complete solution backed by compatible products from security software vendors *Simple security certification *Affordability.By providing this comprehensive set of capabilities in a familiar SPI NOR Flash package with a standard footprint, Winbond can help ensure that no IoT device needs to go to market without proper protection against cyber attack.(Note: The author of this article, Hung-Wei Chen, is director of Security Solution Marketing and Application Division at Winbond Electronics.)The W77Q can institute a secure channel to a trust centre in the cloud for over-the-air software updates even when the host SoC has been compromised. (Image credit: Winbond)The W77Q can always be trusted to maintain platform health by protection, detection and recovery. (Image credit: Winbond)Comprehensive protection Comprehensive protection against cyber attacks requires the implementation of a layered set of security capabilities. (Image credit: Winbond)