The Technology and Determination of Taiwan

The 2024 IEEE UFFC‡JS was held in Taiwan, the first time the event has ever been held in Asia. The five-day meeting was attended by 2,300 experts, who presented more than 1,600 papers. The Joint Symposium will have a far-reaching impact on the field of UFFC research.

The joint chairmen of the UFFC-JS, Li Pai-chi (left) and Hsu Wan-thai (right), were the two key figures in winning the opportunity to host this event in Taiwan.

A “Taiwanese-style” conference

It was Li Pai-chi and Hsu Wan-thai, co-chairs of the Joint Symposium, who seven years ago won the opportunity for Taiwan to host this event.

Hsu is currently chief technology officer at the Canadian company Soundskrit, while Li just this year became president of the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand. These two hands-on men spent a lot of time on airplanes preparing for the symposium, constantly crossing time zones. Hsu says: “Although I was spending my own time and money, I felt it was worthwhile.” He believed the most important things were to influence others, nurture participation by the younger generation, and “do something for my country.”

Thanks to these two, this UFFC‡JS had a “Taiwanese style” different from the past.

At the event, every participant was given a “Gaji bag,” a traditional Taiwanese carry-all, which was just the right size for a 13-inch laptop and which came in a black-and-white design as well as the traditional red, green, and blue colors. Li’s idea, these bags were very helpful for engineers moving around from room to room.

“The Taiwanese spirit of hospitality is that guests must be fed.” Hsu, who has a way with food, not only provided Western participants with familiar dishes and coffee, but also arranged for Taiwanese snacks including spring rolls, popcorn chicken, and braised food.

After the Joint Symposium, a special forum was held for exchanges between the fields of semiconductors and ultrasonics. Speakers at the event were delighted to receive 12-inch wafers, one of Taiwan’s most famous products, as gifts. There was also an exhibition organized by the Piezoelectric Crystal Industries Association of Taiwan for the quartz crystal industry, one of the nation’s “hidden ­champions.”

An exhibition organized by the Piezoelectric Crystal Industries Association of Taiwan demonstrated the robust development and technological prowess of Taiwan’s quartz crystal element industry.

Quartz crystal components

Co-chair Hsu Wan-thai noted that the UFFC industry is focused on providing interfaces between semiconductors and the real world, so that integrated circuit (IC) chips can better interpret the signals of the outside world.

If we compare an electronic device to the human body, IC chips are like the brain, relying on a “pulse” (clock signal) to enable all the device’s components to act in synchrony to perform their various functions. The “time component” that enables IC chips to receive and synchronize themselves to its signals is the heart that ensures that devices operate precisely.

Our heartbeat and brain activity jointly determine our health and survival. Electronic products likewise rely on the complementarity between stable signals from timing devices and the computing capacity of chips.

Since crystal oscillators were invented in the 20th century, they have been made with specific types of quartz which vibrate at stable frequencies when voltage is applied to them. As global demand for IC chips has risen, so has the demand for quartz crystal oscillators, which are needed in devices for a wide variety of applications, including AI, 5G, consumer electronics, computers (including servers), and electric vehicles.

The success of Taiwan’s quartz crystal industry is recognized worldwide. Since 2019 it has enjoyed a global market share of 25‡30%, second only to Japan’s. And it’s noteworthy that in recent years Taiwan has been overtaking Japan in making miniature crystal oscillators, repeatedly setting new records for quantities shipped.

With Taiwan’s quartz crystal component industry having such success, Hsu Wan-thai says earnestly: “We hope to prove that Taiwan has many other things to be proud of besides just semiconductors.”

Given the current trend towards light, thin, high-functioning, and low energy-consuming electronic products, Taiwanese firms are using innovative technologies to help customers achieve their product goals.

During breaks in the Joint Symposium, many experts and scholars came to the academic poster area next to the exhibition venue to interact with graduate students from around the world and get an in-depth understanding of their research.

All in for Taiwan

When talking of winning the opportunity to host the UFFC‡JS, Hsu Wan-thai’s and Li Pai-chi’s tone changes from serious to jocular as they say: “It wasn’t enough for us to have gone all in previously, we had to do it again.” In fact, these two men had not only been involved with the IEEE for many years, they were already old hands at organizing conferences in their respective fields.

When they received word in 2017 that some international friends hoped they would step forward once more, this time to organize the UFFC‡JS, the two had just recently finished chairing the 2015 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium and the 2014 IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium.

Li says: “The most recent Joint Symposium was held in Prague, so this time it was Asia’s turn. They [the friends] felt that if it were to be in Asia, it should be in Taipei.” The two repeatedly turned down entreaties from their friends, and even helped to look for an alternate host city. In the course of these discussions they heard it said that China was actively working to get this opportunity.

This news caused the two alumni of PhD programs at the University of Michigan to begin to exchange emails. Hsu asked, “Shall we do it?” and Li replied simply, “Let’s do it.” This was the starting point of Taiwan’s formal participation in the competition to win the right to host the event.

However, Hsu, whose expertise is in frequency control, and Li, whose specialty is ultrasonics, still lacked the support of someone from the field of ferroelectrics. They wrote to Susan Trolier-McKinstry, a professor at Pennsylvania State University and former president of the UFFC Society, to try to enlist her help. Li recalls: “In fact, I wasn’t sure she would respond.” They were surprised by her immediate promise of support and the three formed a team, which proved critical in the competition.

At the time, the only real obstacle was the lack of a suitable venue in Taiwan. But they learned that Hall 2 of the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, then under construction, would be large enough to hold 2,500 people, as required for the Joint Symposium. They boldly put the construction sketches into their submission to the UFFC committee. Li recalls: “At the time we were only showing them a mirage of the future.”

Taiwan’s top competitor, China, not only sold itself as having Asia’s finest conference facilities, they promised to invest a great deal of public resources, thereby aiming to demonstrate the superiority of their offer. Hsu and Li both say they weren’t too worried about this, because the conferences they had organized in the past had repeatedly set new records for fundraising, and this recent collaboration was doing likewise. Even the UFFC Society’s current president-­elect, Debra Coler, who is due to take office in 2026, sought to learn from them how to raise money from the private sector.

The day of their formal presentation to the UFFC committee was unforgettably long for Hsu. Unusually, compared with previous occasions, the pair had to wait a full hour to be told by then-president Clark T.-C. Nguyen that Taiwan had won the bid to host the 2024 IEEE UFFC‡JS. Hsu reveals that he heard after the vote that there had been considerable debate, and that in three rounds of balloting Taipei and its main competitor city had each time come out even. Finally, the president’s casting vote had been decisive.

After the end of the extra forum on the history, current status, and future outlook of the evolution of ultrasonic and semiconductor technology, Hsu Wan-thai gave out 12-inch wafers as commemorative gifts, delighting the participants.

Every participant in the 2024 IEEE UFFC-JS received a “Gaji bag.” The sight of them using these bags to carry their stuff as they moved about the venue is one of the fun and distinctive images from the Joint Symposium.

Taiwanese tenacity

Hsu and Li had written a new page in the history of international academics in Taiwan and went on to win the powerful support of a wide variety of actors in Taiwan. For these two men, the opportunity to host this grand academic event was also a chance to “enhance Taiwan’s intangible influence in the inter­national community.”

When asked if they would do it again, the two laughed. However, while Li joked, “Over my dead body!” Hsu said that in ten years time (when the event is next held), if he were asked to compete again against the same opponent, it would be “no problem!” Li added: “When inspired by such a heavy responsibility, one does what one should.” The sense of mission that they both felt allowed everyone to work together to make the dream of holding this event in Taipei come true. As a platform for international academic exchange, Taiwan can showcase its beauty and pride to the world.

Among the many snacks thoughtfully prepared for the symposium were these awesome brown sugar cakes in the shape of Taiwan.

Clock signal

This signal is responsible for maintaining synchrony among all the components of an electronic device, like a conductor’s baton keeping time for an orchestra.

In computers, processors need clock signals to ensure that data processing takes place at the correct time. At each pulse of the clock signal, the processor undertakes an action. As the signal continues to repeat, the whole system operates smoothly.