NEWS
Taiwan and Lithuania Center for Semiconductors and Materials Science established in Lithuania with focus on Taiwan’s laser Technology
Representatives from FTMC and Officials
The Center of Crystal Research at National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU) and the Center for Physical Sciences and Technology (FTMC) established the Taiwan and Lithuania Center for Semiconductors and Materials Science in Lithuania, integrating both countries’ strengths: Taiwan’s crystal growth technologies and Lithuania’s laser technology to jointly develop advanced thin disc laser (TDL) systems.
Director of the Center of Crystal Research, Prof. Mitch Chou, pointed out that this oversea center offers a platform to develop talents for industry, and academia. Director Chou envisions that win-win cooperation with Lithuania will speed up Taiwan’s goal to develop an independent laser system.
Director Chou said that the industrial laser giant, Trumpf, demonstrated the high-power thin disc laser system in the Laser & Photonics Taiwan exhibition held in December 2021.This technology is mainly used for heterogeneous metal welding, automotive battery cutting, solar panel cutting, and high-precision drilling. Its broad applications indicate a trend for the development of such laser technologies.
Several senior Lithuanian government officials attended the opening ceremony, including Vincas Jurgutis, the Vice-Minister at Ministry of the Economy and Innovation of the Republic of Lithuania, and Dalia Kreiviene, the Director of External Economic Relations and Economic Security Policy Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. More than 50 professors and researchers from both nations joined the workshop after the ceremony, including professors from NSYSU’s Department of Photonics and Department of Materials and Optoelectronic Science.
The National Development Council Minister Kung Ming-hsin led a trade delegation to Central and Eastern Europe in October, 2021 and visited Lithuania and signed a memorandum of understanding that included six items of cooperation, including crystal growth and semiconductor technology.
Taiwan representative to Lithuania, Eric Huang, expressed that the National Development Council announced in January the establishment of a US$ 200 million “Central and Eastern Europe investment fund.” This fund will prioritize investments in Lithuania and focus on industries that are of strategic interest to both Taiwan and Lithuania. The opening of the Taiwan and Lithuania Center for Semiconductors and Materials Science is foreseen to be an important milestone in bilateral industrial cooperation, in which the jointly developed solid-state thin disc laser technology is anticipated for application in precision machinery, metal processing, and semiconductor industries in both Taiwan and Lithuania in the near future.
The Center of Crystal Research at NSYSU has already collaborated with the Baltic countries for seven years. In March 2020, Taiwan and the Baltic States Research Center on Physics was established in Latvia, with participation from Lithuanian scientists.
FTMC is the largest scientific research institution carrying out unique fundamental research and technological development works in the scientific fields of laser technologies, optoelectronics, nuclear physics, organic chemistry, bio and nanotechnologies, electrochemical material science, functional materials, electronics, etc. More than 530 researchers and Ph.D. students perform scientific investigations in FTMC.
One of Taiwan’s top five-ranked research university, NSYSU consists of 10 Colleges, 21 Departments, 17 Graduate institutes, 56 Master’s and 31 PhD degree programs having more than 100,500 students along with 530 faculty members. In the QS World University Ranking by Subject in 2023, 15 subjects are recognized, and 10 research fields entered the global top 1 % in Essential Science Indicators (ESI) ranking in 2023.
MoU signing of Taiwan and Lithuania Center for Semiconductors