Apr. 11, 2001

A technology team of the Mechanical Industrial Research Laboratories (MIRL) under the government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) recently launched a corporation that will manufacture telecom chips made with nanotechnology.

The new company, named Crystalwise Technology Inc., is currently part of ITRI's incubator center. The company will make lithium titanium and lithium niobate wafers for radio frequency surface acoustic wave filters (RF-SAWFs) in the initial stage, with monthly output projected at 5,000 wafers.

H.Y Tsai, general director of the lab, said that the fast growth of the wireless telecom and optical communication industries have encouraged Taiwan entrepreneurs to develop key components for the two sectors.

So far, the United States and Japan dominate the core technology for producing lithium titanium and lithium niobate wafers, Tsai said. His lab began developing technology for making the two wafers several years ago and produced the first wafers using nanotechnology in June last year.