| Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute | |
| Location | Hong Kong SAR |
| Founded | 2000 |
| Chairman | Dr Patrick Wang Shui-chung |
| Chief Executive Officer | Dr Cheung Nim-kwan |
| Field | Information and Communications Technologies |
| Official website | http://www.astri.org |
The Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) was founded by the Government of Hong Kong SAR in 2000 with a mission to enhance Hong Kong’s competitiveness in technology-based industries through applied research.
Since its inception, ASTRI has been delivering customer-focused technologies and R&D catering to the needs of the industry in Hong Kong and the Region. Its R&D efforts traverse five main technological areas, namely:
In April 2006, ASTRI was designated the Hong Kong Research and Development Centre for Information and Communications Technologies by the Innovative and Technology Commission with special goals to perform leading-edge R&D for technology transfer to industry, develop much needed technical human resources and act as a focal point bringing together industry and university R&D assets.
ASTRI has built close collaboration with the Government, industry and universities in Hong Kong on the latest developments of technologies and market trends, and has succeeded in building a portfolio of innovative projects with fruitful results.
ASTRI established a wholly owned subsidiary, the ASTRI Science and Technology Research (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd, in Shenzhen in 2008 to extend its service in the Chinese mainland.
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As stated in its annual report, ASTRI’s mission is to perform applied research and development (R&D) to enhance Hong Kong's competitiveness in technology-based industries.
ASTRI operates with the following special goals:
As a publicly funded applied research institution, ASTRI operates under the firm conviction that it exists for maximizing “public good”, and this public good is measured by economic impact and other benefits it brings to their beneficiaries – industry and the community as a whole.
In order to generate and sustain the economic impact, ASTRI is vigorously focusing on the customers, i.e. the companies which make use of the technologies and intellectual property (IP) developed by ASTRI to achieve economic returns. ASTRI also puts the utmost emphasis on technology transfer, which takes the form of a licensed contract, a service contract or other legal means, for the purposes of commercialisation. It considers technology transfer the critical path to link its research to industry.
Based on the above considerations, ASTRI builds its operations under the theme of customer-focused R&D, and aims to maximize the customer benefits derived from R&D by making successful conversion of researches a systematic process. This process builds customer focus into every aspect of ASTRI’s R&D programmes, from initiation to transfer of generated IPs to customers in the following steps:
Quantitative performance targets have been set to ensure that all the above customer-focused considerations are addressed effectively. These targets including
are used as the essential basis for the performance appraisal of the R&D groups and their leaders, and are set at the beginning of the financial year and monitored continuously for attainment.
From 2007/08 to 2009/10, ASTRI filed more than 320 patents for new inventions (99 in 2007/08, 114 in 2008/09 and 108 in 2009/10). As at 31 May 2010, a total of 67 US patents and 10 China patents have been granted to ASTRI.[1]
The following table compares ASTRI's performance in technology transfers in the last three financial years.
| No. of technology transfers to industry in the form of: | 2007/08 | 2008/09 | 2009/10 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1) ITF-funded collaborative projects agreements signed | 0 | 8 | 1 |
| 2) contract research project agreements signed | 33 | 57 | 69 |
| 3) licensing agreements signed | 20 | 24 | 30 |
| Total no. of technology transfers to industry | 53 | 89 | 100 |
*ITF: Innovation and Technology Fund
In 2009/10, 63 companies were engaged in 100 cases of technology transfer with ASTRI through technology licensing, contract service and other means, resulting in plenty of commercialization cases. For example:
The Communications Technologies (CT) Group, established at the end of 2005, is themed WM7F (Wireless/Mobile Miniaturized Multi-Mode Multi-Media Multi-Function). It aims at addressing key trends and opportunities in wireless communications, such as high data rate high spectral efficiency transmission/reception for broadband wireless communications, ubiquitous radio access and small form-factors for both sustaining and disruptive innovations.
Having identified the three key directions of mid-to-long-term advanced core technology developments in Practical MIMO, Reconfigurable OFDM Core and Miniaturization, CT addressed market needs and selected vehicles for short-term industrial impacts and differentiations.
The four categories of vehicles picked to convey core technology development or respond to immediate demands are: (1) Broadband Wireless: Mobile WiMAX and LTE with Practical MIMO core technology; (2) Digital Broadcast: Multimode mobile TV and DTMB with Reconfigurable OFDM Core technology; (3) Short Range Connectivity: CWPAN/Zigbee and UWB for vertical markets; and (4) RF & Antenna and Miniaturization, which are inescapable in all wireless devices and equipment.
CT also leverages core communications technologies and applies them in value-added applications such as medical equipment, eHealthcare and telemetry.
CT has achieved significant progress in technology innovation/dissemination, as well as in recruiting prominent leaders with extensive management track records from Hong Kong, the Mainland and United States. Most of the R&D leaders come from world-leading companies and thus bring in seasoned technologies and valuable experience.
On technical innovation, 20 patents, 16 by United States and 4 by the Mainland, have been granted to ASTRI due to technologies developed by CT. They included three by the USPTO only within 18 months due to their high quality.
CT achieved much progress in mobile WiMAX, Customizable WMS, Practical MIMO and TD-LTE, DTMB, Multimode Mobile TV, Antenna & RF, RFIC, Material & Miniaturization, MRI and MRE, impacting industry substantially.
The technical breakthroughs and their applications enabled ASTRI and its licensees to receive three important awards: Best Life Style Bronze Award of Hong Kong ICT Award 2008; Best Innovation Award of Chinese National Information Technology Standardization (NITS) Award 2008; and Red Herring’s Top 100 Asia Awards 2008.
Collaboration has been an important CT development strategy. In addition to making active contributions to the advisory committees for Digital 21 Strategy, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp., WTIA and universities, CT co-founded with these partners the Hong Kong WiMAX-DTV (renamed BWA-DTV to embrace LTE) Industry Consortium and the Hong Kong Digital Television Test Group (DTTG), benefiting local industry and ICT development in Hong Kong.
Besides active and close partnerships with local universities, CT established ASTRI-Tsinghua University Multimedia Broadcast and Communication (MBC) Joint Lab to serve local and the Mainland’s digital TV industry. The Chinese Academy of Science, one of the largest R&D organizations on the Mainland, and CT are forming the “Advanced Wireless Technology Joint Research Centre” to develop LTE and IMT-Advanced wireless technologies. Furthermore, collaborations in TD-LTE with leading Mainland firms on China’s Science and Technology Key Programme, and with leading international companies have promoted ASTRI and Hong Kong to Mainland and global wireless communication communities.
The mission of the Enterprise & Consumer Electronics (ECE) Group is to create and expand Hong Kong’s core intellectual property for multimedia and to develop networked consumer electronics and applications. These dedicated efforts will enhance competitiveness of local industries, help them move up the value chain, and capture future job and business growth opportunities presented by the newly emerging worldwide wireless and multimedia consumer market.
ECE was established in 2004. Since then it has filed more than 30 patents regarding its core technologies and signed over 60 industrial contracts for technology dissemination, which generated about $30 million of industry contributions. More than 15 ECE products are being mass produced by customers in Hong Kong, the Mainland, Taiwan, Korea and Australia.
With the maturity of the wireless and broadband network infrastructures, the trend to use and share digital contents via networks, together with the convergence of computers, communication and consumer electronics, are growing at a fast pace. This has also brought about considerable business opportunities for developing new generations of wireless and multimedia consumer electronic devices, applications and services.
ASTRI is developing key technologies and building strong partnerships and strategic alliances with local, Mainland and overseas high-tech companies to obtain significant intellectual property and technology assets to position Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta as a leading innovation and design centre for next-generation digital consumer electronics and applications.
ECE has three major ongoing programmes:
Each programme offers a suite of licensable products and platforms. ECE has also established a Digital Living Platform which hosts the Digital Living Lab and supports the Digital Living Consortium with active participation from industry.
The global IC industry, despite the worldwide financial crisis and energy price fluctuations, showed significant growth in 2008 registering business turnover of US$262 billion, compared with US$215 billion in 2004.
In recent years, strategic and modern facilities have been built to manufacture ICs on the Mainland, and a great amount of work on the core technology has been done to sustain the continuous growth of the electronics and manufacturing industries.
The Mainland has already been transformed from a manufacturing base into a design and development base. It is foreseeable that its electronics industry will gradually acquire the capability to serve as IC-design bases in the next decade, and will further grow into innovation driven enterprise.
ASTRI's IC Design (ICD) Group is conducting applied R&D in IC design technologies to enhance the industry’s competitiveness, consolidate the technology foundation and sustain the IC design ecosystems in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta. R&D teams are combining their efforts to help the industry capture the best opportunities in the fast growing global semiconductor and electronics markets, especially in Hong Kong, the Mainland and Taiwan.
ICD currently focuses on two major areas: Portable Analog and Mixed Signal Design (PAD) and Applied SoC Design (ASD). Among the various projects are power management ICs, high speed data communication ICs, low power data converters, integrated LED drivers/controllers, LCD display enhancement controllers, solid-state storage controller, common platform for IP qualification and Nanometer SoC design technologies. It is also developing expertise and technologies in semiconductor device modelling and advanced solar cell materials.
During the past year, ICD delivered services, consultation, IC prototypes, IC cores, IC design libraries and methodologies to its customers in Hong Kong and the Mainland, especially the Pearl River Delta. All these are important to their IC products and thereby enhance their competitiveness in global markets.
Since establishment in 2005, the Material & Packaging Technologies Group (MPT) has focused on developing high-value, next-generation technologies and products in the form of devices, components, modules and system integration that are differentiated mainly by material and packaging technologies.
Four key technology initiatives have been implemented. They are:
During the year 2008/09, MPT filed 31 patent applications in the United States, bringing the total number to 99. With continuous innovations and breakthroughs, MPT received several international awards, including a product innovation award in the Mainland’s largest National Solid State Lighting Innovation Contest (2008), Best Paper Awards in International Conference on Electronic Packaging Technology (ICEPT) (2008), the largest international packaging-related conference on the Mainland, and an Outstanding Poster Paper Award in International Display Workshop (IDW) (2008) in Japan.
In the area of industry support, MPT performed well meeting the increasing needs and demands of industries, especially from Hong Kong and the Mainland. During the year, the Group signed 20 contracts with industry partners, bringing in more than $14 million in industry contributions, equivalent to approximately 28 per cent of the total R&D spending for the year. More importantly, 93 per cent of the above industry contributions came from companies in Hong Kong and the Mainland.
In present day society, people are attaching great importance to good health. Hence advanced health care and medical products have become increasingly popular. In view of the changing needs of international communities, ASTRI established the Bio-Medical Electronics (BME) Team in 2009.
BME specializes in performing focused and high quality R&D in bio-medical electronics for technology transfer to industry. The team has been set up with the objectives of becoming a strategic bio-medical technology partner of universities and industry, and an incubator of bio-medical talent and businesses. It also aims at fulfilling the mission of establishing Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta as a leading and international center for bio-medical electronics.
ASTRI, which focuses on applied research, has preference for applying new technologies to areas where they can most likely improve people’s quality of life. As medical and health have always been its target areas, ASTRI in recent years has initiated a couple of medical-related projects. They include technologies such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Magnetic Resonance Electrography (MRE), Thermal Therapy Apparatus & Device (TTAD) for surgical applications and Amblyopia Treatment System (ATS).
With the establishment of BME as a separate research team, it will continue its endeavours in MRI and MRE projects. It will also jointly develop medical electronic devices with other R&D groups because developing medical electronics requires expertise from different disciplines and domains, and success will depend on the ability to capitalize on cross-domain competencies. Therefore, it is BME’s strategy to develop more joint projects with other groups so that ASTRI’s developed core competencies can be used to full advantage.
Starting with seed projects and Industry Collaborative Projects, BME will continue to grow and develop value-added bio-medical applications for industry for years to come.
ASTRI’s R&D projects are formulated to continuously spawn a multitude of future applications. The key technology initiatives (each may have multiple tracks) of the five technology domains are summarized below: