With the advent of the AIoT era, Asus has embraced new technologies and methods to develop advanced manufacturing capabilities. At the end of 2019, Asus expanded the company's AIoT business unit to be able to develop more solutions for industries, and in the process, renamed it the AIoT Business Group (AIoT BG). After consideration and planning around the three major aspects of successful manufacturing - design power, technical ability and continuous profitability - Asus transformed operations to achieve the flexibility, speed, productivity and quality required for supply-side Industry 4.0 upgrades.Detecting defects by hand is a major pain point and cause of inefficiencies in manufacturing processes. By investing in smart manufacturing solutions that utilize AI for producing metal peripherals, fans, printed circuit boards and other computer components as well as for system assembly, Asus was able to remove efficiency bottlenecks and reduce losses resulting from misjudgment of manufacturing defects by factory employees. Moving forward, Asus will continue to use artificial intelligence and big data to statistically classify different types of quality defects, determine their causes and improve processes at the source of defects to further improve and push the boundaries of manufacturing quality."Asus currently has hundreds of suppliers, and whenever we are able to improve quality-inspection processes, suppliers are receptive and willing to make changes," said Jackie Hsu, senior vice president and co-head of Open Platform BG & AIoT Business Group said. "This is a win-win situation for Asus and the entire industry, which has always attached great importance to product quality."AI visual inspection systemIn the manufacturing industry, it is a common practice to replace manual visual inspection with automatic optical inspection (AOI). However, optical inspection is inefficient for mechanical metal parts manufacturers. Manual visual inspection often requires viewing product surfaces from multiple angles to see the defects due to the reflection of light. It is extremely important to grasp the optical and component surface characteristics to obtain complete and correct defect data.Optical inspection is one of the core technologies of AIoT Business Group, which uses machine learning, deep learning and artificial neural network technologies to train the AI detection model correctly. "Automatic optical inspection accuracy in general is about 80-90%, which means that more than 10% of defects may be misjudged, and manual visual inspection accuracy is about 90%," said Albert Chang, corporate vice resident and co-head of AIoT Business Group. "At present, Asus has enabled AI to greatly improve its accuracy to 98% after learning."AI waveform detection systemFans are a key part of many computers and consumer electronics, cooling components and helping to extend product life. To ensure fan quality, manufacturers relied on inspectors who were able to detect problems with fans just by listening to them. Training highly skilled personnel for this important position took from three to six months, and inspectors would occasionally experience short- or long-term ear fatigue and other occupational factors that negatively impacted worker health and reduced the problem detection rate.To solve this difficult problem, Asus introduced the AI Wave Signature System, which analyzed the sounds of correctly operating fans and used them to develop a sound signature. This sound signature was then used to train AI models to quickly identify high quality fans. The AI Wave Signature System can be combined with testing of a product's electric current, voltage, vibration and other characteristics during inspection to ensure overall product quality. Additionally, the system can be applied to monitor production equipment in real time to avoid factory downtime. For example, by monitoring equipment motors in the factory using the AI Wave Signature System, operators will be notified immediately if a motor begins behaving abnormally. The motor can then be repaired before it fails completely, avoid production halts and accompanying losses.Reproducibility as the Asus AIoT business modelThis year, the Asus AIoT Business Group has set aggressive targets with fan and mechanical parts suppliers and is expected to acquire 30 smart-inspection projects. "The original intention and top priority of the business group is to promote common upgrades in the industry and assist the improvement of the supply chain to face international competition and continue to accumulate experience," said Hsu.Commenting on the introduction of smart manufacturing and AI detection solutions by major factories, Chang said, "In the past, AI algorithms and models were highly customized, improving the potential for AI detection solutions. Reproducibility is the goal of the next stage, enabling quick popularization and adoption along with scalability. Finally, the ultimate vision of the Asus AIoT business group is to focus on 'full quality analysis.'"The target of Asus AIoT for the next three to five years will be data analysis. By investigating causes of defects, assisting the supply chain to find fundamental solutions for high yields, creating a formula for success, and accumulating long-term value, data analysis will become an important pillar of the Asus brand.

STAr Technologies, a leader in parametric and reliability test systems today has launched STAr Pluto series tester to meet test needs for both Package- and Wafer-level reliability test systems. This new tester is an advanced system covering all reliability needs, including HCI, BTI, OTF, TDDB and EM. As the next generation solution that enhances measurement accuracy and efficiency for both engineering and production needs.The next generation Pluto series all-in-one reliability test system delivers two long awaiting fundamental capabilities to the world. First is the per-pin SMU with measurement speed down to one microsecond, and second is its complete HCI, GOI and EM all-in-one reliability test qualification capabilities. With a maximum of 960 per-pin SMUs supporting reliability tests for HCI/BTI with up 480 transistors, GOI with up to 960 gate oxides and EM with up to 480 interconnects in parallel. This new one-of-a-kind reliability test system surpasses all competing reliability systems in the market and achieves highest test performance and throughput at lowest cost-of-tests.Furthermore, the four-quadrant per-pins SMU has multi-ranging voltage and current source-measure capabilities enabling tests of nanometer devices with highest level of precision at shortest test time. Equipped with independent per-pin SMUs, user can create customized test algorithms for in-house needs and to support future reliability qualification tests. Pluto's SMU can support HCI/BTI and GOI with stress voltages up to 20V and measure current down to 10pA for each of the channels. EM (electromigration) with nano-ampere precision up to 400mA stress currents has micro-volt measure accuracies for nanometric interconnects with down to milli-ohm resistance.The Pluto reliability test systems can be connected to individually controlled micro-oven module for DUTs to be tested at different temperature at package/module-level. STAr also has one-of-the-best multi-DUT wafer-level probe stations, and with dozens of install-base at leading customers, it is able to integrate Pluto per-pin test instrumentation seamlessly to form the next generation wafer-level reliability qualification of down-to 3-nanometer node devices."We have listened to users who long wanted per-pin SMU reliability test system, STAr has pioneered the next generation Pluto per-pin SMU reliability test system to meet this need. Pluto supports complete range of nanometer node process and device reliability qualification and with full-flexibility for user to develop customized test programs and qualification methodologies for their own needs. This all-in-one reliability open platform test system will revolutionize the reliability test industry with highest throughput and test capabilities enabling users to mix-and-match different reliability tests in one system. STAr's Pluto reliability test system will significantly lower overall investments with increasing flexible capacity planning for all semiconductor wafer fabs," said Choon-Leong Lou, CEO of STAr Technologies.STAr Pluto all-in-one per-pin SMU reliability test system

Despite the disruptions brought about by COVID-19 globally, Automotive Technology is still progressing in leaps and bounds, especially in the electric vehicle (EV) segment. Latest research from Statista shows the adoption rates of EV projected to reach 30% of total market share by Year 2030, and driving the power electronics market with 6% CAGR till year 2023.This is a good sign for the demand in automotive components but automotive industry quality remains of utmost importance, with 100% inspection of all products as the norm, and a drive toward the goal of zero defective parts per million (zero DPPM). Current quality assurance approaches in the industry are becoming challenging, especially with the impact of COVID-19. It is currently heavily dependent on human inspection, with variations in judgement standards between human operators, not to mention factors such as fatigue, making DPPM increasingly difficult to achieve.The latest AOI system from ASM Pacific Technology Ltd. (ASMPT) can enable the automotive industry to achieve zero DPPM. The system's Optical Inspection and Quality Assurance (QA) functions provide accurate detection capability using Artificial Intelligence technology to augment the rule-based algorithms used by AOI solutions. This blends the advantages of machine accuracy and consistency with the powerful flexibility of human decision-making. In this regard, ASMPT's blended approach is unique.With a full multitude of process features available to monitor and optimize every process and piece of equipment automatically, a truly "Lights Out" production floor vision can be realized. ASMPT views these developments as part of the overall momentum in the industry toward an Industry 4.0 future, astutely marrying leading-edge equipment with intelligent, responsive software to provide a complete solution to secure the 'Holy Grail' of zero DPPM.ASM Pacific Technology

As 5G services began to roll out around the globe in 2019, 5G communication is poised to expand into commercial applications with unprecedented development potential compared to prior generations of mobile communication technologies including 2G, 3G and 4G. While the market is paying close attention to 5G, the industry has started to undertake post-5G and 6G planning. Satellite communication is set to play an indispensable role in communication technologies beyond 5G. In particular, low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites show the most promising potential as means for non-terrestrial communication which will fill the gaps in the coverage by ground network infrastructures.As such, countries around the world are scrambling to establish leadership in space communication technologies. Playing a pivotal role in the global high-tech scene, Taiwan is also engaging efforts across the industry, government and academia for the country's space communication initiative, with the National Space Organization being a pioneer. iST is working with the National Space Organization to leverage its expertise accumulated through its long-term devotion into semiconductor testing to help Taiwan-based firms tap next-generation opportunities.According to Allan Tseng, iST's assistant vice president, wireless signals are transmitted over networks formed of base stations connected by cables for all generations of communication technologies up till 5G. Deployment of such infrastructure is costly and subject to terrain influences, which has hindered widespread network coverage for all generations of communication technologies. For example, 4G broadband networks remain unavailable to 4 billion out of the world's total 7.8 billion population today. However, from a "glass half full" perspective, a technology capable of addressing these challenges will embrace explosive business opportunities. From the looks of current developments, making use of satellites orbiting the Earth in space is certainly a viable option.Space communication replaces base stations with satellites, through which signals can be transmitted without the costs of physical cables and network rollout. Furthermore, the top-down transmission from a single satellite can cover a much larger area than a base station. Not only can the quantity of base stations be significantly reduced but remote regions where it is cost-ineffective to build base stations will also be able to enjoy broadband wireless access.Space communication actually costs much less than what most people would expect, noted Tseng. Based on the distance from the Earth, satellites are categorized into geosynchronous orbit (GSO) satellites, medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites and low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. Among them, LEO satellites enable low latency and they can be launched on a low altitude rocket. These features allow them to be favored by the telecommunication industry and their applications to enter commercialization.A growing number of firms are engaging in space communication technology development. The most aggressive among them is SpaceX, which started a project in 2019 to eventually launch 12,000 satellites. Amazon and Facebook are also actively joining the game. These efforts will accelerate the maturity of satellite communication technologies and their time-to-market.Taiwan will not stand on the sidelines and let the opportunities pass. Taiwan's Executive Yuan has approved the third phase of the Long-term National Space Technology Development Program, the goal of which is to launch ten satellites by 2028. iST and the National Space Organization entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreement in March 2020, wherein iST will leverage its 26 years of experience in semiconductor testing to help Taiwan-based firms test and validate their electronics components to ensure reliable system operation in space.Tseng highlighted two challenges that electronics equipment needs to overcome in order to operate in space. The first is the issue of heat dissipation in a vacuum environment. The second is how to protect electronics equipment from high levels of radiation. Aerospace industries in the U.S. and Europe have long established histories and highly developed expertise. NASA and ESA have instituted standards for components used in aerospace systems, 99% of which are covered by iST's test procedures so now radiation is the missing piece.Radiation technology has mainly been used in the healthcare sector. With Taiwan's leadership in the global medical technology scene and robust research energy, iST is working with National Tsing Hua University, Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University, Chung-Shan Institute Of Science And Technology Nuclear Research Institute and Academia Sinica through assistance from the National Space Organization to tackle the radiation challenge. According to Tseng, it has been a common practice among international communities to drive aerospace technology advances through partnerships with the private sector. For example, during the Cold War, the U.S. government began to adopt COTS products, which are items available in the commercial marketplace that are considered suitable for use in military or aerospace systems after being ruggedized. The bill of material (BOM) lists detailing the components of such systems become the secrets to the nations' and the corporations' competitive power. The goal that iST hopes to achieve through its collaborations with the institutions is to help Taiwan-based firms build their own BOM lists and secure their tickets to space communication.To build such BOM lists to completion requires help from professional organizations specializing in different fields. As part of the initiative, a number of organizations formed an alliance to promote space-level radioactivity resistance testing in Taiwan. iST will lead the efforts in integrating cross-party resources and serve as a starting point where firms can seek help. When approached by firms needing assistance, iST will first clarify the issue at hand and then resort to proper organizations in the alliance for a solution. Tseng believes the alliance will make up for deficiencies in Taiwan's aerospace development resulting from limitations in the past while picking up the pace to embrace tremendous space communication opportunities.According to Allan Tseng, iST's assistant vice president, iST will work with the National Space Organization and an alliance of institutions to help Taiwan-based firms make a smooth expansion into space communication, which is poised to become the dominating trend in the post-5G era.

Power semiconductor plays a very important role for all electronics ranging from smartphone, home appliances, health care equipment, computer, networking, data center, automotive, power train etc. Si, GaAs, InP and other materials of the 1st and 2nd generation semiconductors are widely applied in the market. Today, these technologies become very mature in general switches, Si MOSFET, IGBT, Power Amp, RF devices. However, every technology will face its limitation.Wide Band Gap (WBG) material like SiC, GaN provides extra performance:- Higher current density- Wider operating temperature range - Faster switching performance - Lower RdsON (on resistance) - Less switching losses at high frequencies operationThese SiC, GaN will become more popular and outperform Si in the coming new era.However the new materials of WBG device give different response & requirement during assembly manufacturing, thus various challenges will be faced, including:- Wafer Sawn Process: blade VS LASER singulation - Die Attached Process: brittle die and / or thin die handling - New materials for assembly: High Ag Epoxy or Solder paste VS Sintering Paste / film - Wire Bonding Process: 3-25 mil wires large wire diameter handling application - Thermal management for final packages with better void control - And more….Optimizing these challenges is critical to make the power packages & modules to achieve of low loss, low inductance, and high power density, high heat dissipation performance, high integration, and multi-functional development, manufacturer always need to cooperate with new materials and equipment supplier to achieve this goal.In order to shorten the development time, working with an experienced high-end equipment supplier - ASM Pacific Technology Ltd. can offer a full range of power solution and process know-how to work with customers in all dimensions: from R&D, product & process development, to after-sales service. More than above the one-stop solution concept can also save the time and cost.ASM Pacific Technology Ltd. understands that future is full of challenges & opportunities. They would like to leverage their experience and solution to deepen the long-term partnership with their customers and enabling the digital world.Wallace Hui, vice president of Marketing Semiconductor Solutions at ASM Pacific TechnologyPower semiconductor packagingSiC and GaNASM Power Solution

Winbond Electronics Corporation, a leading global supplier of semiconductor memory solutions, today revealed that the latest system-on-chip (SoC) from artificial intelligence (AI) pioneer Kneron, the KL720 launched in Aug, includes a 1Gb LPDDR3 DRAM die from Winbond.Kneron has risen rapidly to prominence in the market for AI processor chips following the launch of its breakthrough product, the KL520 SoC, which combines proprietary software and hardware technologies to achieve very high AI performance while maintaining low power operation. The KL520, in use today in battery-powered applications such as smart locks and drones, includes a 512Mb LPDDR2 from Winbond.Kneron's new KL720 SoC opens up a new set of low-power/high-performance applications for AI and machine learning technology, offering a higher maximum output of 1.4 TOPS (Tera Operations Per Second), and industry-best performance efficiency of 0.9 TOPS/W.Winbond's LPDDR3 DRAM is supplied as a Known Good Die (KGD) and co-packaged with a new Kneron neural processing unit (NPU) in the KL720. Supporting the high throughput and performance efficiency of the KL720, Winbond's LPDDR3 DRAM offers a maximum bandwidth 8.5GB/s, operates from a dual 1.2V/1.8V supply, and includes power-saving features such as Deep Power-Down mode and a Clock Stop capability.New in the KL720: Simultaneous video and speech processingSetting a new benchmark for performance in AI applications, the Kneron KL720 is capable of processing 4K, Full HD or 3D sensor video images in real time to support AI applications such as face recognition in security cameras or gesture control in public kiosks. It can also perform natural language processing, so allows for intuitive speech recognition and eliminates the need for pre-defined keywords. The 1.4 TOPS performance is even fast enough to support concurrent real-time video and natural language processing.Kneron's determination to set a new standard for edge AI performance underlies its choice of Winbond's LPDDR3 for the KL720. Albert Liu, founder and CEO of Kneron, says: "Kneron has exhaustively evaluated the DRAM products available today. It is clear to us that Winbond's LPDDR3 offers the best combination of high bandwidth and low power consumption for the demanding new edge AI applications that the KL720 enables. Just as important as the performance of the silicon, however, is the support that Winbond has given us to help us optimize the interface between our NPU and the DRAM. We are pleased that the relationship with Winbond, which began with the KL520, continues now and into the future with the development of the next-generation product to follow the KL720.""With the KL720, Kneron has set a new benchmark for performance and efficiency that no other chip manufacturer, even the giants of our industry, are able to match today. We at Winbond are very proud to be associated with the success of Kneron, and are excited to see a new generation of AI-enabled products come to market based on the KL720 with Winbond DRAM inside," said Winbond.Winbond's LPDDR3 DRAM is in mass production. More information can be found at www.winbond.com.The KL720 is available from Kneron for sampling now. More information can be found at www.kneron.com/solutions/soc.

Following the successful launch of its first-generation Ultra-Low-Voltage 1.2V SPI NOR flash in 2018, Macronix is introducing the second-generation ULV 1.2V SPI NOR flash product line in 2020 to meet the low-power consumption requirements by a diverse range of IoT devices. These low power requirements are arising from a wide range of of wireless communication technologies being designed in, including 5G, Wi-Fi, NB-IoT, and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).This new product line is the result of Macronix's efforts to explore innovative technologies that enable significant improvement on power consumption while maintaining high clock frequencies and data rates. Macronix leveraged its advanced process technology to mark a new market milestone with its ultra-low power consumption product line, pushing applications in smart healthcare and IoT devices a big step forward.Donald Huang, PhD, director of product marketing at Macronix, expects continued developments of low power consumption applications and continued strong market demand. According to Huang, not only are 1.2V low-voltage designs gaining visibility, but he's seeing robust growth momentum in applications for popular innovations such as automotive electronics, smart IoT, mobile devices and other high-end consumer electronics. Thanks to advances in semiconductor process technology down to the 7-nm node, logic ICs are largely available with 0.9V or lower core voltages. This enables the explosive growth of semiconductor solutions featuring ULV consumption and miniaturized packages.Consuming 50 percent less power than 1.8V productsWith industry leading multi-national brands aggressively driving innovations in smart applications and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, a plethora of battery-powered and ultra-low power consumption designs are bolstering the popularity of smart healthcare and wearable devices. This trend is also putting memory devices operating at 1.2V at the center of market attention and their demand is rapidly on the rise.Macronix's second-generation 1.2V SPI NOR flash MX25S-x3F features several important breakthroughs. First, it consumes 50 percent less power than the 1.8V series, which means the deep power down current of MX25S-x3F is reduced to 0.05μA and the active current can be as low as 0.27mA (1 MHz).Furthermore, because SPI NOR flash is commonly used to store boot code, the speed of code access is acritical consideration. Supporting an impressive 120 MHz clock rate, the MX25S-x3F stands out from the other 1.2V ULV NOR flash products currently on the market.MX25S-x3F's actual saving in power consumption - combining voltage, current and speed performance - reaches 50 percent compared to the 1.8V series. This is especially significant to battery-powered BLE devices, medical-grade wearable devices and mini-size smart healthcare devices. MX25S-x3F's ticket to wide adoption in mainstream applications will not only be its low voltage but more importantly its ability to maintain an impressive high data rate. Offering the double benefits in power saving and data rate is the purpose of Macronix launching the new 1.2V low-voltage product line.Enabling simpler system design and better cost advantageThe use of Macronix's 1.2V low-voltage NOR flash eliminates the need for some components due to the use of a standard I/O voltage. Implementing a standard streamlined I/O voltage design presents advantages in cost reduction and design flexibility. It allows a design that works in combination with the MCU, DRAM and multi-axis sensors also operating at low voltages.New semiconductor processes continue to improve performance and reduce power consumption. To extend battery life for mini-size electronics and to meet the demand for smaller battery size, the industry has started to adopt new technologies such as zinc-air batteries and metal-air batteries, which work at a wider voltage range. Because of this, Macronix's second-generation 1.2V SPI NOR flash covers a wider operating voltage range, from 1.14V to 1.6V to accelerate market adoption of low-voltage products.Volume production to kick off in second-quarter 2021Second-generation MX25S is planned with density offerings ranging from 1Mb to 256Mb with an initial focus on low- to mid- density models. Ultra-miniature packages including WLCSP, WSON, USON and SOP, as well as Known Good Die (KGD), for use in MCU SiP designs are available to accommodate diverse application requirements.Engineering samples of second-generation MX25S were shipped to major customers for design verification beginning in August 2020. Highlighting ultra-low power consumption applications pioneered by smart healthcare and IoT devices, the entire product line will enter volume production in second-quarter 2021. Leveraging its advances in low-voltage process technologies, Macronix will continue to augment its product portfolio of low-voltage and ultra-low power consumption memory, while stepping up efforts to capture new opportunities arising from smart healthcare and smart home applications, and medical-grade wearable devices featuring ultra-high energy efficiency.Donald Huang, PhD, director of Product Marketing at Macronix

Digi-Key Electronics, who offers the world's largest selection of electronic components in stock for immediate shipment, announced that it has partnered with Machinechat to deliver the industry's most affordable and easy-to-use IoT data management solution to accelerate IoT development and deployments.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. Under terms of the partnership, Digi-Key will be the exclusive distributor of Machinechat's JEDI One."We are excited to partner with Machinechat, an emerging leader in delivering easy-to-use and innovative IoT data management solutions," said Robbie Paul, director of IoT business development for Digi-Key. "The majority of today's IoT projects are stalled or delayed due to the costs and complexity in developing custom software applications for each project, with as much as 50% or more of the cost to develop a prototype for developing custom software to process, store and present IoT data. Machinechat's configurable all-in-one JEDI One IoT solution enables developers to readily integrate data collection, visualization and monitoring into their IoT projects in minutes, saving them thousands of hours of custom software development.""Digi-Key is a global distribution leader in providing best-of-breed technology tools and solutions that are helping to accelerate the development of tomorrow's IoT solutions," said E.E. Wang, chief marketing officer for Machinechat. "We're excited to partner with them to deliver our affordable and robust IoT software to the millions of engineers, developers and makers building IoT projects."For more information about Machinechat and to order JEDI One, please visit the Digi-Key website.Digi-Key Electronics announces global partnership with Machinechat

Electronics systems continue to grow in complexity as automotive electronics and a diverse range of smart applications feature ever higher levels of integration. When artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) Vehicle to Everything (V2X) technologies, and 5G adoption that everyone is talking about, falls in place, it paints a clear picture of people's future for which information security becomes a concern for semiconductor solutions.The implementation of information security has traditionally been dictated by leading processor developers as processors have the computing power to efficiently handle large amounts of data. However, a new trend is emerging; entrusting memory chip suppliers with information protection. Macronix, as a leading manufacturer of nonvolatile memory solutions, has brought to market high-end secure memory ArmorFlash to address users' needs to guarantee the confidentiality, integrity and availability of digital data. With the launch of ArmorFlash, Macronix also looks to satisfy market demand and strengthen long-term partnerships to help customers secure valuable information.In an interview, Donald Huang, PhD, director of product marketing at Macronix, noted that native functionality including data encryption and decryption, identity authentication and anti-tamper protection, combined with a "physical unclonable function" (PUF) code providing a very strong form of unique identification, form the core security technology of ArmorFlash. Designed for wide-ranging information security applications, ArmorFlash is implemented with data encryption, that prevents unauthorized access and features a wide range of data-protection technologies, including native identity authentication, crypto keys and secure boot enhancements.ArmorFlash's security core comprises four design pillars: Monotonic Counter, True Random Number Generator (TRNG), PUF Code, and an AES Hardware Crypto Engine, enabling robust protection against data corruption and malware implants. An example use case is the adoption of ArmorFlash on NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Xavier and Pegasus Platforms in high-performance Level 2+ to Level 5 autonomous driving systems. This partnership sets a good example, where system information reliability is maximized and potential security risks are minimized throughout the product lifecycle from deployment, installation to long-term operation for autonomous driving systems. Moreover, it demonstrates ArmorFlash's tremendous potential for use in other applications such as industrial automation and IoT.Passing CAVP certification, ArmorFlash next targets FIPS 140-2 certificationWith the advent of 5G, network communication will become increasingly open and data exchanges at low latency and high bandwidth will become the norm. This will make digital data ever more vulnerable to security threats. In view of this, Macronix has introduced the MX78 series of its secure ArmorFlash product following the launch of its MX75 ArmorFlash. One of the most important goals for optimum security assurance is to obtain FIPS 140-2 certification. FIPS 140-2, short for Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2, that specifies the standards used by non-military U.S. government agencies and their contractors to approve cryptographic modules. It is also widely accepted by the industry to validate the design and implementation of a cryptographic module.Macronix's ArmorFlash has passed validation testing by laboratories accredited by the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP), which is a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) program, and has received Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program (CAVP) certification. Macronix's ArmorFlash is now included in NIST's validation list. The next step will be to pass FIPS 140-2 Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) certification. Consumers will have more confidence when they choose information security products certified by industry standards.Asymmetric cryptography enables a higher level of data protectionAccording to Huang, MX78 implements asymmetric cryptography, also known as asymmetric Elliptic-curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) key exchange. This can eliminate the risks of a data breach resulting from hardware theft or loss and is a focus of attention among security implementations of electronics hardware components. It allows the system to operate in a protected, isolated environment to allow critical procedures to be executed in a trusted environment that shields against cyber attacks.The MX78 is also certified to be compliant with the rigorous AEC-Q100 standard for automotive applications. Supporting 1.8V and 3V operating voltages, it can be used with mainstream controllers and processors from leading automotive chip suppliers. With a wide operating temperature range between -40 degree C and +125 degree C, The MX78 ideally supports data storage and processing in limited footprint scenarios on automobiles. Sampling of the MX78 is now available to major customers. For example, Macronix is actively seeking opportunities for the integration of the MX78 in high-end autonomous driving systems.Huang highlighted that Macronix is making the the MX75 and MX78 available to meet burgeoning the challenges of designing secure storage in automotive systems. They will also come with a wide range of density offerings to accommodate diverse requirements and applications. Macronix ArmorFlash offers these solutions in BGA, SOP or KGD packages. Macronix is projecting a strong presence in the automotive market while also catering to secure memory requirements in in flourishing IoT, smart home and industrial automation applications.Donald Huang, PhD, director of product marketing at Macronix

As the world emerges from the COVID-19 crisis, it is likely to leave lasting impacts not only on the patients who have been treated by dedicated doctors and nurses, but also generally on the way that medicine is practised.As a leading manufacturer of specialty memory ICs, Winbond is constantly looking ahead to understand the broad trends in areas such as the medical equipment market. It is clear that post-COVID changes in patient health monitoring and in the way that medical services are delivered face-to-face are going to create greater demand for personal and wearable medical devices. This change in the pattern of demand has important implications for users of memory products.As this article argues, the new state of the medical electronics market calls for wide deployment of secure memory devices, and for non-volatile memory chips which can store greater quantities of user data at a lower cost-per-bit.Personal medical devices at risk of intrusion or attackIf COVID-19 has taught us anything, it is the risk to health when large numbers of potentially infected people congregate in a confined space.For the foreseeable future, social distancing is going to continue to be mandatory in indoor spaces for citizens in many countries. Like schools and factories, hospitals too will be looking for ways to reduce the number of people gathered inside at any one time, to make it easier to maintain distance between people.Health systems are therefore going to be giving high priority to technologies which enable monitoring and diagnosis to take place outside the hospital, and which do not require the patient to be admitted to a ward for observation.Consumers are already familiar with wearable activity trackers which monitor physiological signs such as the user's heart rate. Now Winbond expects to see a rapid expansion in the use by medical practitioners of wearable devices for use in the treatment of a range of conditions.Patients can be expected to embrace this new approach to medical treatment. Covid-19 will not be the last novel virus to cause an epidemic: HIV, MERS and SARS are other recent examples, and a growing human population is certain to catch new diseases transferred from wild animals. And through COVID -19 we have learned that we are less likely to suffer if we are healthy at the time we become infected. Activity and health trackers provide a new way for consumers to maintain a more healthy lifestyle and to increase their resistance to new illnesses.So both specialist wearable diagnostic equipment and consumer wearable devices seem likely to become much more widely used post- COVID. This broad expansion of the user of wearable medical technology has huge implications for security, for two reasons:- Specialist medical equipment will in some cases be safety-critical - the user's life will depend on it. So the device must be safe from malicious attacks, such as denial of service attack, which could disable or impair its operation. - Private user data are logged and transmitted by a wearable device, normally over a wireless link such as a Bluetooth® Low Energy radio to a host device such as a smartphone. It is crucial to the user's trust in their device that these data should only be shared with authorized entities such as the user's physician.The risk to connected, wearable devices is real. Official bodies such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have issued a stream of warnings to device users and manufacturers about known risks, such as the SweynTooth family of cybersecurity vulnerabilities affecting Bluetooth Low Energy radio chipsets. The FDA's March 2020 announcement about SweynTooth said that 'software to exploit these vulnerabilities in certain situations is already publicly available'.Winbond is ready to help manufacturers of wearable and medical equipment to protect against threats such as SweynTooth by providing secure memory for code and data storage. In medical devices, exposure to threats is greatest when data or code are in transit: for instance, when logged heartbeat measurements are uploaded via a Bluetooth Low Energy link from a wearable heart monitor to the user's smartphone; or when updated firmware is delivered over-the-air from the cloud to the wearable device.In simple wearable products, security provision may be confined to a microcontroller or system-on-chip (SoC), which will include a small on-chip Flash memory area for secure code storage. In more sophisticated devices, however, the size of the code will be too large for the embedded MCU's memory, requiring the use of external Flash for code storage. If this external memory, however, does not provide security functions such as an encryption engine and a root-of-trust, then it will be vulnerable. And no matter how secure the host MCU or SoC, if the external memory is at risk, the whole device and its data are at risk.This is the problem solved by Winbond's TrustME family of secure memory products. The latest TrustME memory product, the W77Q, protects connected devices from remote software attack. By ensuring robust, end-to-end security in connected medical devices it enables:- Secure code updates, including over-the-air updates, via an end-to-end secure channel between an update authority and the W77Q even when the host MCU or SoC has been compromised.- Secure boot and root-of-trust- Authenticated and encrypted data transfer between the Flash device and the host- Execute-in-Place (XiP) of boot and application code- System resilience, enabled by the key security functions of protection, detection and recoveryHow to store a torrent of personal user data at lower costThe use of wearable and in-home patient monitoring equipment will relieve pressure on medical facilities and facilitate social distancing in surgeries and hospitals. But this personal equipment will generate a torrent of personal data. Multi-sensor monitoring equipment is already available to track various vital signs simultaneously, such as heart rate, heart-rate variability, blood oxygen levels, and temperature.Wearable devices cannot be assumed to have continuous access to the internet, so the system architecture has to allow for local storage of these user data. This means that wearable medical devices need high-density, non-volatile memory. And because decisions about a patient's diagnosis and treatment might be based on the data, data integrity is a mission-critical requirement.The traditional choice of memory type for non-volatile, error-free storage of data is NOR Flash. In low densities of below 512Mbits, NOR Flash is a cost-effective choice. When data capacity of 512Mbits or more is required, however, the fabrication process advantage of NAND Flash comes into play.Winbond's outlook on the medical equipment market suggests that high-reliability, high-speed alternatives to NOR Flash for user data are likely to become increasingly popular. This is why Winbond has developed new technologies to increase the Read and Write performance of its reliable Single-Level Cell (SLC) NAND Flash products.For instance, the W25N QspiNAND family is available in densities of 512Mbits, 1Gbit, 2Gbits and 4Gbits. It shares the same interface as conventional SPI NOR Flash for easy replacement in existing designs, and at densities of 512Mbits offers a lower cost-per-bit and a smaller board footprint. The W25N devices also feature fast Program/Erase performance, and high reliability: their specifications include more than 100,000 Program/Erase cycles, and longer than 10 years' data retention. An on-chip Error Correction Code (ECC) engine ensures that data in storage are free of bit errors.Winbond also offers a migration route to higher performance , for medical devices integrating a higher number of sensors and operating at higher sampling speeds: the High-Performance QspiNAND Flash and OctalNAND Flash products offer the same high-reliability SLC NAND Flash quality, but with even higher data bandwidth.A new generation of personal medical devicesThe implications of the Covid-19 pandemic are still emerging, but it is already clear that the medical world will need to embrace the use of more personal and wearable technology. Data are the key to these emerging personal medical devices - and this has huge implications for the design of security and storage systems.Winbond's forward-looking approach to memory technology has seen it take a lead in the development of secure NOR Flash products and high-reliability, high-density QspiNAND Flash. As the market for wearable medical technology evolves, OEMs can expect Winbond to continue to introduce new product types and technologies to meet the latest requirements for secure and low-cost code and data storage.The new state of the medical electronics market calls for wide deployment of secure memory devices, and for non-volatile memory chips which can store greater quantities of user data at a lower cost-per-bit.