Innovative Measures

Innovation is one of RichWave’s six major core values and a core element of corporate growth. We adhere to the quality policy of “Ongoing quality refinement – Customer satisfaction comes first” to achieve market differentiation and develop products with outstanding performance through innovation, technology, and unique market positioning. In the field of WiFi wireless communication and IC, we have constantly developed new products to accommodate the market’s needs. RichWave monitors technological changes and developments in the industry closely to maintain a high level of understanding of industrial dynamics while persistently elevating our R&D capabilities. At the same time, we have hired external professional consultants to introduce new technologies and engage in industry–academia collaborations, where the patent mechanism is applied to protect RichWave’s innovative ideas and R&D outcome, thereby maintaining our technological leadership position, allowing us to strive to become the leader in the global RFIC market through innovative technology. We will vigorously invest resources to perform innovative R&D; in 2022, RichWave’s R&D totaled NT$602,470,000, accounting for 18% of the company’s revenue.

Energy-saving Performance of Green Products

RichWave specializes in chip design, and our chips are sold worldwide for a wide range of wireless communication product applications. The company is committed to developing more energy-efficient products with lower carbon emissions through chip design in an attempt to minimize environmental impact and enhance product competitiveness. RichWave can achieve the objective of energy-saving, carbon reduction, and environmental friendliness by improving the performance of the products, such as lowering power consumption, minimal design, and changing the production process.

Saving GHG Gases Through Manufacturing Materials

Design and process innovation is one of the company’s primary concerns; besides demonstrating RichWave’s pursuit of product quality, we also want to contribute to environmental sustainability. Through chip design’s control over the surface area and innovations in the production process, we can significantly increase the die yield per wafer to lower GHG emissions by approximately 60%. Based on the calculation of the product shipments in 2022, the CO2 emissions reduction is about 4 tonnes. Based on 2023 product shipments plan, the estimation of CO2 emissions will be reduced by 37 tonnes.

Energy-saving Technology of Flagship Products

For products with an advantage in transmission range, RichWave has completed a “green innovation” design in 2022 to improve power consumption under various scenarios (reducing power consumption by 32% and 30% respectively while in the standby mode or working mode). Our customers have already proposed such need for energy-saving products in 2023, saving 1.64 million kWh of electricity annually (calculation based on 12 hours of standby mode and 12 hours of transmission mode).

Mobile Communication Product

Mobile communication products boast extremely low power consumption when in special standby mode, which only consumes roughly 30%–45% power compared to the normal mode. In transmission mode, the efficiency mode of the mobile communication product offers a transmission power comparable to that of the normal mode but only consumes 80%–92% of power compared to the normal mode, hence it can extend battery life and minimize battery pollution.

Tablet and Smartphone Product

Under special standby mode and combined with the efficiency transmission mode, tablet and smartphone products can achieve the benefits of lowered power consumption. The technology has been applied to the tablet and smartphone project in 2022. If calculated based on 12 hours of standby mode and 12 hours of transmission mode daily, the products can save up to 42.6 million kWh of electricity. Based on the estimated product shipments in 2023, Due to the slowdown of global smartphone shipments in the year, the product series can save approximately 37.5 million kWh of electricity. If calculated based on the Electricity Carbon Emission Factor announced by the Bureau of Energy, MOEA in 2021, the products can decrease CO2 emissions by about 19,088 tonnes.

Microwave Radars with Integrated Signal Processing Sensor Products

Products continue to undergo the current drop design. The CW mode current of the 5.8GHz microwave radar front sensor was 40mA, but it was decreased to 10mA in 2022, showing a reduction of 75%. The pulse wave motion sensing mode current of the 10GHz ultra-wideband microwave radar (UBW) with an integrated signal processing sensor was originally designed to be 150mA, and was reduced to 53mA in 2022, which was better than the target, with a 65% reduction, and is expected to be further reduced to 15mA in 2023.

Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction Applications of Microwave Radar with Integrated Signal Processing Sensor

• Lighting fixtures or lightbulbs equipped with the automatic sensing function of the radar sensor can turn off the lights automatically when the room is unoccupied.
• Air conditioners equipped with radar sensors can detect the presence of occupants in the room and the angle and automatically adjust the fan volume to the lowest level or enter sleep mode, and the fan angle can be adjusted to achieve the best comfort and cooling effect.
• Desktop or notebook computers equipped with radar sensors can turn off the screen and enter sleep mode when the user is away from the screen.
• Surveillance systems equipped with radar sensors will automatically enter sleep mode when no object movement is detected for a while.
• The dashcam is equipped with radar sensor for anti-theft function, which can detect abnormal movement before turning on the recording system to reduce battery consumption.

RichWave Masters Key Technologies, Increases Market Share and Garners International Recognition

RichWave Masters Key Technologies, Increases Market Share and Garners International Recognition In recent years, as Taiwan’s RFIC industry and technology become more sophisticated, RichWave is the only domestic manufacturer utilizing the advanced material SiGe to produce and design PA, as well as designing SW using the SOI process, and our technological capability has already reached economies of scale. Moreover, the company has taken advantage of the technical exchanges between the technical team, our clients, and partners to develop highly integrated and price-competitive IC products that cater to the needs of domestic system manufacturers. What’s more, RichWave has steadily increased production to become a contender amid fiercely competitive major international manufacturers. We have not only reshaped the market that was once monopolized by major domestic and foreign manufacturers but also indirectly increased the global market share of domestic RFIC products year after year. In terms of RFIC FEM products used for WiFi applications, RichWave has shipped over 100 million chips on average every month in 2022, totaling 1.243 billion chips for the entire year, hence the global market share in 2022 of RichWave WiFi products is estimated at approximately 15%.

Proactive Participate in Academic Seminars to Establish RichWave’s Industry-leading Position

RichWave has been sponsoring the IEEE RFIC Symposium for 4 consecutive years since 2019, actively gaining publicity for the RichWave brand. Additionally, we also participate in TSIA’s quarterly report presentations and the content production of NTU SoC Center’s R&D quarterly report to disseminate RichWave’s technological know-how through academic institution journals. In terms of international presence, for two consecutive years, the company has participated in the UWB alliance, expanding the application of UWB radar and exchanging ideas with related industries.

Patent Management

RichWave is eagerly promoting the smart intellectual property management project to reinforce the company’s innovative ability and product competitiveness, as well as to protect our cutting-edge technological accomplishments. The company focuses on the strategic goals of “becoming the leader in the global RFIC market through the application of technology” and “market differentiation” to determine the number of patent applications and grants for the year, encouraging our R&D colleagues to achieve the target. RichWave has formulated the “patent management regulation” document to help our colleagues apply for patents systematically and keep the R&D outcome in the form of patents to safeguard the company’s R&D achievements and patent rights. RichWave has established a Patent Review Committee headed by the President, in charge of reviewing patent applications’ economic benefits, application countries, patent maintenance, as well as offering technical consultations and patent management policies, etc. To incentivize our colleagues to submit patent applications RichWave has set aside invention patent application bonus, invention patent grants bonus, new patent application bonus, new patent grant bonus, design patent application bonus, design patent grant bonus, and patent infringement reporting bonus to increase our patent quality and competitiveness.

Patent target achievement:

The company reports the number of patents and intellectual properties to the Board of Directors annually in Q4 and report to the Board of Directors on December 22,2022 to close out the achievement to the end of November 2022. Settlement until the end of November2022, the target number of patent applications for 2022 was 51, the cumulative number of proposals was 28, with a 54.9% achievement rate; settlement until the December 31 2022, the cumulative number of proposals was 50, with a 98% achievement rate, which was an important milestone for the company to exceed 500 global patents.

2022 representative patents: Position detection system (US11307301B2) and method and devices for detecting the presence of objects in an environment (TWI757802B)

CMOS radar sensors with functions such as motion detection, distance measurement, presence detection, angle detection and signs of life detection are used extensively in lighting, security protection, and smart home applications. As the leading brand in RF technology, RichWave offers clients comprehensive CMOS radar sensor solutions from sensor IC, and algorithm, to reference design. Currently, the company’s product portfolio such as the 5.8GHz Doppler radar and 10GHz radar SoC. By installing the patented products US11307301B2 and TWI757802B, the company is able to accomplish the angle detection of installed objects for smart applications such as auto- start, auto-adjustment, and object presence detection.

[Personal Computer Applications]

Taking the corresponding product RTC6031 as an example, RichWave’s CMOS radar sensor is installed on the desktop computer, where the system can automatically detect the user’s movement. When the user nears the computer, it will automatically wake up the screen to enhance convenience; when the user leaves the screen, the system automatically locks the screen to ensure data security and increase energy efficiency. Besides this, the system can also detect the user’s computer usage duration and physiological values such as breathing and heartbeat to kindly remind the user to adjust his/her computer habit in order to foster physical health.

[Smart Home Application]

Taking the corresponding product RTC6031/RTC60301 as an example, RichWave's microwave sensor can provide distance, direction, angle presence sensing, and headcount detection, etc. If the RTC6031/RTC60301 is installed in a home air conditioner, the system can determine the angle and distance of the presence of people through waveform monitoring, and adjust the direction of the air conditioner fan to achieve the best cooling effect. Air-conditioners are made a member of the smart home, allowing users to enjoy the most comfortable temperature and save energy and save money for the consumers at the same time. When this device is installed with other smart home appliances, it can perform smart home angle detection to adjust the air conditioning fan, automatically open the toilet or garbage can, and activate lighting. And when people are present in the space but not moving, it can also keep the lighting and air conditioning on, effectively improving the efficiency of home appliances, and achieving true smart home planning and green energy saving.

2022 representative new product: WiFi 6E Dual Band FEM:RTC66918 [Product introduction]

[Product introduction]

The RTC66918 is a 5.15 - 7.125 GHz Dual Band RF Front-End Module (FEM) that complies with the WiFi 6E platform performance planning. RichWave has launched the RTC66918 WiFi 6E FEM in response to the demand of mobile devices and other C-client products (e.g., laptops, TVs) that do not require high output power but can combine the WiFi 6E 5GHz & 6GHz bands and share the same FEM. The packaging is only 2*2mm and can support 16dBm output power under WiFi 6E signal demand, and supports 3.6~4.2V power supply, which is suitable for mobile devices.

With the dual-band shared FEM design, the product only uses one FEM to operate in the 5/6GHz band, which can save more than 40% of current consumption and 50% of PCB area.

[Product applications]

1. WiFi 6E cellular phones, mobile devices, wearable devices, and other products that require circuit board space.
2. TVs, laptops, and other client products with WiFi functionality that do not require high output power but need to save current consumption.

2022 representative new product: WiFi 7 High Isolation DPDT Switch

[Product introduction]

For the simultaneous use of WiFi 7 in 5/6GHz similar frequency bands, and 6GHz opens up a large bandwidth of 320MHz, in order to make the two bands not to interfere with each other and cause a drop in the data transmission rate, it is a necessary task for the system design to increase the degree of isolation. RichWave introduces the RTC66015 DPDT RF Switch, which provides more than 50dB of isolation and supports 0.1 - 7.2GHz band to minimize the mutual interference in the 5/6GHz band, and supports 1.6-5V power supply to meet the requirement of direct battery power supply for today's mobile and wearable devices. If multiple SPDT switches are used in conjunction with each other, the PCB area will increase by more than 30%.

[Product applications]

WiFi 7 system: Wireless AP, Router, Gateway and 5-6GHz band for mobile and wearable devices.