KEY ASIC Bhd, a leading-edge technology company that designs and markets ASIC chips to Asia, the United States and Europe, has seen a significant surge in demand for chips that go into ventilators recently.
Its chairman, Eg Kah Yee, said the company had also started the design platform for the next generation of ventilators that would be powered by the latest Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies so that the ventilators could provide significantly better therapeutic effect to patients.
“At the same time, (this is) enabling the frontline healthcare professionals to control the ventilators and monitor the patients from a distance or remotely, to significantly reduce the risk of infection of these heroic workers in the hospitals.
“A total new generation of intelligent equipment in hospitals based on the Internet of Things and AI technologies is needed to deal with the extremely contagious and increasingly complex diseases,” Eg said in a statement today.
Key ASIC’s customers that have chips used in ventilators include Taiwan-based technology company RAiO International and two others.
RAiO CEO CT Su said due to the wide and rapid spread of Covid-19 globally, hundreds of thousands of patients infected developed pneumonia, a severe lung infection that needed ventilators for the treatment.
He said ventilators were largely computerised machines with multiple chips and display monitors. However, the next generation of ventilators would have to design with the IoMT and AI technologies to meet the new requirements as experienced in this pandemic.
Su said the global market was forecast to grow from less than US$4 bil in 2019 to an astronomical US$26.66 billion by 2027 due to the pandemic.
“Since the outbreak of the pandemic, we have experienced orders soaring by multiple times for the chips that are used in the ventilators. With the number of infections still climbing in many countries, we foresee the demand continuing to be strong for the rest of the year and perhaps next year as well,” he said. — May 12, 2020, Bernama
