In 2022, Nuvoton Technology continued to scale up its R&D with the annual R&D expenditure of NT$9.1 billion, accounting for approximately 22% of its total revenue. Nuvoton Technology ongoingly invests in technology with more than 20% of its annual revenue. Along with the 182 R&D personnel allocated for R&D capacity, product design and technology development, testing, or production efficiency improvement, our determination and commitment to product and technology innovation are demonstrated.

The improvements and achievements in low-carbon process energy conservation innovation in 2022 include

• High-efficiency 200 MHz microcontroller for IoT gateway, industrial control, telecommunications, data center, and HMI applications;
• Microcontroller featuring low power consumption, security, and built-in tactile keys and display;
• On hardware monitor: power consumption of product reduced to 50uA or even to 15uA;
• Electric vehicle (EV) is the trend of environmental protection in the future. Since EVs lack the sounds of the mechanical operation of engine of the convention ICE vehicles, the sounds arising from electric motor driving the gears and the noises from the road will be relatively more prominent. The one single IC offers intelligent and adaptable audio processing technology, road noise cancellation (RNC) technology, speaker protection circuit, and integration of external discrete component circuits, along with certification to the rigorous automotive standard. The newly-developed NAU83G60 of Nuvoton can provide product development of high reliability, high convenience, and high audio quality for the clients, which can be configured flexibly in tune with the needs of products;
• Transition of green energy speech products from 8" to 12" plant was made, and totally 4 ICs were developed. The number of ICs in a single wafer has increased by 2.3 times, cutting the total number of wafers required, so as to reduce the carbon emissions in the semiconductor manufacturing process;
• Nuvoton has successfully trial-produced with the 120~250V process technology, and there have been clients that started trials and introduced such into new product development. Since the client’s product was a motor-driven application, an especial design was required for reliability and anti-static capability. Nuvoton also provided related anti-static process technology to improve the competitiveness of client’s product, reduce IC failure and loss in applications, and improve the sustainability of the product.

Intellectual Property Protection

The corporate culture at Nuvoton encourages bold thinking and creativity. From senior managers to employees, we are committed to unceasing improvement and change. Nuvoton continues to hold patented technology sharing sessions and award ceremonies each quarter to ongoingly support and inspire more creative behaviors. Nuvoton owns the world-class intellectual property protection system and intellectual property professional team.

The fabs of Nuvoton are seasoned with years of experience in mass production of high-voltage process products. With a stable quality control process and reliability of components, it is capable of meeting the quality requirements of customers. The demand of a low number of mask layers of the process platforms helps customers reduce costs and shorten the process time for faster product delivery. With respect to the electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection design, the new design that does not affect component performance was developed under the premise of effectively utilization of component area. Nuvoton applied for related process technology and anti-static patents, transforming the innovative achievements into intellectual property rights to creating technical barriers and avoid intellectual property risks. At present, we have already obtained over 100 patents in high-voltage process technology cumulatively.

Meanwhile, Nuvoton  stays focused on the field of microcontrollers for ongoing R&D and works on patents in the relevant fields to protect the fruits of R&D and innovation, co-creating values with its clients and partners in the spirit of innovation.

In 2022, the number of patent applications filed by Nuvoton Technology globally are >340. As of 2022, the number of patents granted worldwide hit 1,533*.

Intellectual Property Management Plan - en