A research team sponsored by the National Science Council (NSC) has successfully developed a "laser encoder system" involving nano-optical technologies, the utilization of which could reduce the operating costs of high-tech industries due to improvement in both manufacturing processes and measurement systems, officials said yesterday.
The four-year research project, which cost NT$40 million and was led by the Institute of Applied Mechanics at National Taiwan University (NTU), resulted in 11 professional papers, 17 patents and 7 component system products pertaining to technologies ranging from nano-optics to Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS).
The team's achievement gained international attention in January 2000, when Applied Optics, a journal of the Optical Society of America, put the teams' work on a holographic printer named Sparkle on the cover.
Yesterday, C.K. Lee (
Lee said that it performs much better than major rivals produced by the Japanese firm Cannon.
"It has 10 times greater precision and its signal strength will be increased by a factor of 10," Lee said at a press conference.
For years, Canon has developed many kinds of highly accurate laser encoder systems, which can ensure enhanced performance of positioning sensors involved with nanotechnology.
For national defense and business considerations, however, Japan has forbidden the sale of key components of domestically produced laser encoder systems to Taiwan.
Lee said that the laser encoder system technologies play key roles in positioning systems required by diverse high-tech industries, ranging from semiconductor to flat- panel display manufacturing.
According to statistics provided by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan's output of high-tech semiconductor industries next year will value NT$1 trillion. However, the cost of importing manufacturing facilities for high-tech semiconductor industries exceeds NT$200 billion, about one fifth of the output value.
By adopting Taiwan-produced laser encoder systems with better performance, Lee said, the rate of domestic production for high-tech manufacturing facilities, 5 percent, could be significantly increased,further reducing costs.
According to Lee, domestic companies can successfully adopt the high-precision laser encoder in manufacturing facilities involved with anti-counterfeit technology.
"The team's achievement will influence domestic industries, whose total output value exceeds trillions of Taiwanese dollars," said Tsay Chung-biau (
Tsay said that domestic firms would be the council's highest priority in transferring related technologies developed by the team, which was composed of nearly 100 professional researchers, including nine professors.
Lee said, however, that Taiwan needs innovative strategies to share existing position systems' markets needed by manufacturing facilities for high-tech industries, because long-term reliance on familiar brands still dominates consumers' behavior.
Other competitors, Lee said, include firms in Germany and the US.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS