ITRI wins best practices, product innovation award

2015-03-13

Hsinchu County-based Industrial Technology Research Institute recently won a Best Practices New Product Innovation Award presented by U.S.-headquartered market research firm Frost and Sullivan.

ITRI was recognized for its In-Line Compact Thermal Analyzer, an advanced shipping inspection technique used for LED, or light-emitting diode, manufacturing to reduce thermal-induced stress in semiconductor devices.

Kao Ming-jer, deputy director-general of ITRI Electronics and Optoelectronics Research Laboratories, said March 11 that the institute’s first-ever Frost and Sullivan award represents a strong vote of confidence in the innovation and market-driven applied research approach championed by the state-run outfit.

“The analyzer enhances production line efficiency by rapidly identifying defective LEDs that exhibit less-than-ideal thermal resistance,” Kao said. “As thermal performance has always been the primary factor impacting the life and light quality of LEDs, the analyzer will prove an extremely important tool in global LED production numbering over 100 billion annually.”

According to Kao, ITRI has successfully integrated the technology to create the world’s first automatic thermal analyzer, with a measurement speed of 12,000 LEDs per hour, or a rate of just 0.3 second per component. “This is 2,000 times faster than the traditional approach conducted in the lab,” he added.

Rajender Thusu, Frost and Sullivan’s industry principal, said most existing equipment is complex and time-consuming, and allows for testing only in the lab at the product design or post-production stage. “ITRI rightly identified the need for a high-performing in-line thermal testing device.

“It will improve production performance, extend product lifespan and enable faster analysis. In addition, the distinct capability of the technology to enable high-precision thermal structure analysis during the production process is highly commendable.”

The latest accolade for ITRI follows the 2014 R&D 100 Award presented in November 2014 by U.S.-based R&D Magazine.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=228167&CtNode=413)