The industrial event 'Satellite 2023' has begun in Washington DC, USA, attracting over 350 companies from the aerospace supply chain, among them household names like NASA, SpaceX, OneWeb and Intelsat. As a crucial link in the global electronics industry, Taiwan has also set its sight upon the space industry. Satellite 2023 is consequently seeing numerous Taiwan-based participants.

Credit: Taiwan Space Agency

Together with Taiwan-based suppliers, Taiwan's Bureau of Industry under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan Space Agency and Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) have also set up a 'Taiwan Space' exhibition sector for Sateliite 2023. Su-Wei Chang, founder and CEO of 5G mmWave total beamforming solution provider TMY Technology, noted that the concentrated and complete supply chain is Taiwan's greatest advantage to tap into the international LEO satellite market, though the hitherto discrete suppliers have to be linked up. LEO satellite supply chain includes ground station, dish antenna, signal transmitter, power amplifier, PCB, copper foil substrate, power supply and semiconductors - all of these play into Taiwan's strength.

Pangan Ting, the director of ITRI's Information and Communications Research Laboratories, also indicated that Taiwan has been cooperating with SpaceX, OneWeb, Kuiper and Telesat, noting the country's strength in contract manufacturing. Ting also believes that Taiwanese suppliers can gradually move from manufacturing ground station and end-products to making satellite components, similar to how some 5G mobile component suppliers eventually entered the base station market.

Specifically, Taiwan-based suppliers should tap into the core chips used in satellite communication payloads and meet the derived needs for advanced packaging and space-spec components to enhance their own indigenous design and manufacturing capabilities.