The NARL-ITRC was awarded with four gold medals at iENA 2010 in Nuremberg, Germany. Po-Jui Chen (left) and Chia-Wei Hsu (right) are the members of the research team.

The IENA is the world's leading forum for the marketing of inventions and product innovations. And the 2010 event, held at the Nuremberg Exhibition Centre, Germany from 28-31 October 2010 drew more than 800 inventions from 37 countries and specialized visitors from 38 countries. The Taiwan delegation won 27 gold, 32 silver and 23 bronze medals, and thus ranked top amid all participating countries. Among Taiwan awardees, the NARL's Instrument Technology Research Center (ITRC) was the biggest winner of all, with four gold medals. The NARL-ITRC’s prize winning titles are as follows:

The “Single Axis of Multi-Edge for Lens Quality Measuring System” is a measuring machine for cell phone imaging lens. The device projects collimated light with multi-directional parallel rays by means of a collimator through a patented optical module. This is the first instrument in the world that performs orthographic and multiple point projection. It can measure an imaging optics in several different field angles simultaneously and rapidly. This low-cost machine is light but sturdy, therefore mobile and versatile for a range of applications.

The “Device and Method for Generating One Shot Bipolar Waveform” presents a novel method to generate bipolar sawtooth waves, bipolar sinusoidal waves and bipolar square waves by employing a division circuit, an one-shot circuit, an analog switch and a synchro-trigger gate-controlled circuit. This high voltage signal generator can be used for the observation of the transient state with a single click. It also dissolves the polarization of piezoelectric materials, and thus achieves precision control. The device can be applied in gas discharge luminance, micro electromechanical engineering, biochemical engineering, electrostatic engineering, etc.

The “Non-visible Light Beam Profile Inspector” can determine the invisible light (infrared ray) profile by detecting the emitting fluorescence light with a visible light sensing device. This profile inspector employs an infrared sensitive compound, which can be excited by invisible light and then emit fluorescence, and human-machine-interface software. This low-cost device can be widely applied in light profile quality control, such as weeding out defect products in the LED industry.

The “Liquid Lens Module Inspecting Device” makes the inspection of hysteresis parameter in cell phone camera and digital camera modules feasible. The hysteresis of whole camera module with liquid lens can be measured rather than single lens with focal length meter or modulation transfer function. An inspection process takes only 20 seconds to complete. Accordingly this inspection method is suitable to integrate into the mass production lines for online quality assurance.