In the realm of medical technology, Montreal-based startup Polytone Laser has emerged as a pioneer, spearheading a revolutionary approach to the treatment of solid tumors and other complex diseases. Founded by siblings

The Toronto, Canada-based GestureTek Health is looking to bring its Interactive Rehabilitation Exercise (IREX) system and other physiotherapy solutions to new markets as part of its efforts to grow back up following the conclusion of the Covid pandemic. The company is a global frontrunner in developing and applying video gesture control technology, especially for healthcare and rehabilitation.

The model FPA-1200NZ2C from Canon, a nanoscale imprinting machine, has been making headlines recently, although it first appeared in academic journals as early as 2015. The resurgence of an eight-year-old model in the news can be attributed to its imminent entry into broader semiconductor production applications.

South Korean electronic giant Samsung Electronics has made significant progress since its foray into the automotive device market in 2015. Recent launches of various automotive ICs showcased Samsung's effort to diversify business lines from the volatile consumer memory market and to create valid growth opportunities for its semiconductor foundry business. It aims to become the world's leading automotive memory company by 2025, surpassing Micron, the current champion with a 45% global market share.

Monitoring the driver's state is critical to facilitate road safety. Stockholm-headquartered Tobii has launched a software for driver monitoring system (DMS) leveraging its eye-tracking technology. The company plans to scale the solution in Asia's public transportation and the car sector, enhancing the safety of bus systems.

Recently, the Japanese semiconductor equipment manufacturer Canon released the nanoimprint lithography (NIL) machine FPA-1200NZ2C, capable of achieving a 5-nanometer process node. Nanoimprint lithography is one of the methods in semiconductor manufacturing to transfer circuit design patterns onto wafers, with another well-known and widely used method being photolithography or optic lithography.

Moore Silicon, a chip subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned electronics company TCL, is the latest dissolved in-house IC design team of a technology conglomerate in China after Oppo's Zeku and Meizu disbanded theirs.

In less than 40 years since the inception of the first self-driving car, we have witnessed significant progress and changes in the automotive industry. However, the journey toward the widespread adoption of fully autonomous driving still has its last mile to cover. While the industry focuses on commercially viable, limited advanced driver-assistance systems, the ultimate goal is to achieve truly hands-free, fully autonomous driving.

Global opportunities in the generative AI (GenAI) application market have exploded with the rise of ChatGPT, leading to a substantial increase in demand for AI-related hardware and software. While the establishment of cloud data centers presents a lucrative opportunity, the long-term trajectory of the hardware and software industry remains uncertain. From hardware and software, who are the ones that are capable of reaping the largest benefits from the GenAI trend?

Reflecting on the history of the computer industry, it all began with a small transistor, evolving into integrated circuits and eventually transforming into powerful CPUs capable of processing billions of instructions per second. Intel dedicated decades to optimizing CPU for complex instructions and refining branch predictors to enhance computational speed. However, this focus on intricate processing was rendered historical with the rise of GPUs by Nvidia. Instead of relying on complicated branch predictors, GPUs use hundreds of thousands of small cores to achieve significant computation throughput, which is particularly useful in large-scale computer graphic processing. This shift has empowered us to recreate real-world environments in the digital realm, unlocking immense potential.

Following a November 15 decision from Germany's Federal Constitutional Court against the transferring of EUR60 billion - granted during the Covid-19 pandemic but unspent in fiscal 2021 - into its Climate and Transformation Fund (Klima- und Transformationsfonds, KTF), the three-way ruling coalition led by German Chancellor Scholz is left to confront a budget shortfall that potentially undermines Germany's long-term chip investment, along with the problem posed by so-called special funds (Sondervermögen) that have long functioned as a shadow budgetary source unconstrained by the country's constitutionally enshrined debt brake introduced in 2019.

During an email interview, Atomera founder and CTO Robert Mears discussed how dopant diffusion affects chipmaking and options for delving into the dopant diffusion process to accomplish gate-all-around (GAA). Mears also explored the impact of AI on the semiconductor manufacturing industry.

Chinese semiconductor equipment manufacturers are luring experts to develop their extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment to decrease reliance on ASML EUVs, which was blocked by the US and its allies from selling to China.

Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) recently unveiled its statistics for Taiwan's semiconductor industry, which includes IC design, IC manufacturing, IC packaging, and IC testing. The entire IC industry in Taiwan created NT$1.116 trillion (US$37.5 billion) of production value in the third quarter of 2023, up 10% from the previous quarter but declined by 10.2% from the same period in 2022. It is calculated by the foreign exchange rate of one dollar to NT$29.8. (See table below)

I currently work as a software engineer at a tech company in Silicon Valley. The extent to which Generative AI (Gen AI) has integrated into daily life today has exceeded my expectations. It's fair to say that it has become an indispensable part of life.