Dual use intellectual property technology transfers under the scope of export controls

Mestrado em Gestão/MBAExistem diversas formas de transferir tecnologia e conhecimento, quer através de métodos tangíveis ou intangíveis. O conhecimento e a tecnologia a transferir poderá ser incorporado em bens, serviços, transmitido por pessoas e/ou através das organizações, sendo que poderá assim assumir diversas formas. A transferência poderá ser efectuada durante a formação, em qualquer fluxo de conhecimento tácito, através de transferências electrónicas, ou através de qualquer meio físico que armazene informação tangível ou intangível. Da mesma forma a própria transferência poderá ocurrer entre indivíduos e organizações, sendo que não está confinada às fronteiras de um país. O objectivo desta dissertação é de informar sobre os regimes de exportação existentes que se aplicam às transferências de tecnologia, informação e o conhecimento pelas entidades exportadoras e, ainda questionar, se as entidades que transferem tecnologia e informação relacionada, estão conscientes da necessidade de cumprir com as regras identificadas pelos vários regimes multilaterais de não proliferação.There are multiple ways of transferring technology and knowledge, either via tangible or intangible techniques. Knowledge and technology to be transferred can be embodied in goods, services, people, and organizations, and can assume several forms. It can also be passed on in training, any flow of tacit knowledge, any electronic transfer or any media that can store tangible or intangible information. The transfer itself can occur between individuals and organizations, and is not confined within the borders of any country. The aim of this dissertation is to raise questions about the knowledge by companies and other entities of the existing export regimes that apply to technology transfers and to inquire, at this point, if technology transferees are aware of the need to comply with the rules identified by the several non-proliferation multilateral regimes

Decision Structure and Performance of Networked Technology Supply Chains

Supply chains in key growth industries increasingly commercialize a critical piece of technology invented by an upstream technology supplier. The focal technology is licensed to specialist design firms and designed into products, which are fabricated by dedicated large-scale manufacturers. We examine a technology supplier’s licensing decision in such emerging multiparty networked supply chains in which a downstream design firm’s capability may not be publicly known. We find that the supply chain and firm profits are critically affected by whether or not a license agreement between a technology supplier and a design firm is kept confidential from a manufacturer. Instead of licensing to two downstream firms, a technology supplier may also license to an integrated firm with both design and manufacturing capabilities, which forms a conventional vertical supply chain. We compare a networked supply chain with a vertical supply chain and show that the network model can, under some conditions, outperform the integrated configuration and increase profits for all supply chain entities. In particular, a downstream firm can be better off decentralized, with design and manufacturing functions taken by different firms. Our research helps explain the emergence of such networked supply chains and offers insights on how to structure them to improve outcomes.postprin

A study of the foundry industry dynamics/

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 76-79).In the process of industrial evolution, it is a general tendency that companies which specialize in a specific value chain have emerged. These companies should construct a business eco-system based on their own platform to compete successfully with vertically integrated companies and other specialized companies. They continue to sustain their competitive advantage only when they share their ability to create value with other eco-system partners. The thesis analyzes the dynamics of the foundry industry. Through the top-down approach (how the semiconductor industry trends have influenced the foundry industry), the foundry market size is expected to grow continuously as the semiconductor industry becomes more horizontal due to exponential increase in IC manufacturing/design cost and focusing strategy on design or manufacturing capabilities. In addition, the bottom-up approach (how companies in the foundry industry compete with each other) indicated that previous key success factors such as time to market, economies of scale and learning curve effect are not necessary conditions any more in this industry. Rather, the success of a foundry company is mainly driven by successful management of eco-system partners based on leading process platform. However, sustainability of platform leadership in the foundry industry can always be threaten by continuous innovation in a technology driven industry, hold-up problem with eco-system partners and change of regulations. These factors are expected to make the foundry industry extremely dynamic despite first mover advantages.by Sang Jin Oh.S.M

Volume 2014 - Issue 4 - Fall, 2014

https://scholar.rose-hulman.edu/rose_echoes/1086/thumbnail.jp

A wave pipeline-based WCDMA multipath searcher for a high speed operation

The multiplexing technique of the Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) is widely applied in the third generation (3G) of cellular systems. The WCDMA uses scrambling codes to differentiate the mobile terminals. In a channel, multipaths may occur when the transmitted signal is reflected from objects in the receiver's environment, so that multiple copies of the signal arrive at the antenna at different moments. Thus, a wideband signal may suffer frequency selective fading due to the multipath propagations. A Rake receiver is often used to combine the energies received on different paths, and a multipath searcher is needed to identify the multipath components and their associated delays. Correlating some shifted versions of the scrambling code with an incoming signal results in energy peaks at the multipath locations, when the locally generated scrambling sequence is aligned with the scrambling sequence of the incoming signal. A path acquisition in such a process requires a speed of millions of Multiply-Accumulate (MAC) cycles per second. The performances of the multipath searcher are mainly determined by the resolution and the acquisition time, which are often limited by the operation speed of the hardware resources. This thesis presents the design of a multipath searcher with a high resolution and a short acquisition time. The design consists of two aspects. The first aspect is of the searching algorithm. It is based on a double-dwell algorithm and a verification stage is introduced to lower the rate of false alarms. The second aspect in the design is the circuit of the searcher. This circuit is expected to operate at the chip rate of 3.84 MHz and the search period is chosen to be equal to the time interval of 5 slots, which requires a high operation speed of the computation units employed in the circuit. Moreover, in order to reduce the circuit complexity, only one Complex Multiplier-Accumulator (CMAC), instead of several ones in many existing searcher circuits, is employed to perform all the computation tasks without extending the search period, which make the computation time in the circuit more critical. Aiming at this challenge of the high speed requirement, a structure of the CMAC cell is designed with the technique of the wave pipeline, which permits the signal propagation through the circuit stages without constraints of clocks. For a good use of this technique, the circuit blocks are made to have equalized delay, by means of pass transistor logic cells, and by keeping such a delay short, the total computation time of the CMAC can be made within the required time limit of the searching. A complete circuit of the CMAC has been developed. It has two versions, with the Normal Process Complementary Pass Logic (NPCPL) and the Complementary Pass-Logic Transmission-Gates (CPL-TG), respectively. The structures of the arithmetic units have been chosen carefully so that the fan-in/fan-out constraints of the NPCPL and the CPL-TG logics are taken into consideration. The results of the simulation with a 0.18 om models have shown that this wave pipelined CMAC can process four inputs of 8 bits at a rate of 830 Mb/s. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the searching algorithm, a Matlab simulation of the searcher circuit has been conducted. It has been observed that the proposed multipath searcher can lead to low probabilities of misdetection and false alarm for the test cases recommended by the 3 rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard. A test chip of the CMAC circuit has been fabricated in a CMOS 0.18 om technology process. The circuit is currently under test

Impact of poor utilization of quality management system in a South African foundry

Abstract: The South African foundry industry is faced with a high number of foundry closures. When Castings industries directory was released in 2011,twenty nine foundries were reported to have closed down (Castings Industries Directory, 2011).The main factors leading to these closures has been identified in literature as the inability of South African foundry companies to compete with emerging countries such as China, India and Brazil (National Foundry Technology Network, 2009). A lack of skilled personnel, a high scrap rate, a lack of quality management system, and technology transfer all contribute to South African foundries not being able to compete with these countries (National Foundry Technology Network, 2009). Foundry companies experience a high scrap rate due to a high number of defects occurrence. Casting defects are characteristics that create deficiency or imperfection to quality specifications as a result of design and service requirements. In casting, defects occur due to deviation from the metallurgical processes and poor pattern design. A quality management system is implemented to ensure that the proper process procedures are followed. It also provides a company with an opportunity to document any problems arising during the process. This documentation is used for improvements and future reference. This study investigates the impact of poor utilization of quality management system. The objectives of the study include identifying factors affecting quality in the foundry and identifying defects that contribute to high monetary losses in sand casting. The study, which was conducted at a South African foundry company over a period of one year, followed the mixed research methods to conduct the research. The quantitative and qualitative methods were used respectively to collect numerical data and secondary data. Direct observations and interviews were carried out to explore the whole sand casting process as to examine the procedures and documentation used. The observations began in patternmaking. It was observed that a drawing was not issued, resulting in the patternmaker making his own sketch. The defects of cross jointed and core fault occur due to inaccurate dimensions from the patternmaker’s sketch. The patternmaking department also lacks supervision. In an interview with the human resource manager, it was revealed that patternmakers are a scarce skill in the foundry industry. The major finding in sand casting was the lack of adherence to procedures. The standard temperature set for melting metal is not adhered to by operators. Also, very poor pouring practices are followed. The resulting defects from poor pouring practices are shrinkage and gas porosity. When the production v manager was interviewed, he raised concerns about lack of supervision on the production floor. Ten departmental managers were interviewed. The managers were asked questions related to planning for their departments. Only 20% of managers responded positively when asked if they set goals for their respective departments. Eighty percent said they did not set goals. The crucial finding from the interviews was that some of the managers did not value the importance of the quality management system. Five defects were identified as recurring defects. These defects are cross jointed, core fault, bad mould, shrinkage and gas porosity. The standard multiple regression analysis method was used to analyse the data and answer the research questions. The model was used to explore the relationship between defects (independent variables) and also to find out the correlation between the monetary loss and productivity (dependent variable) and defects (independent variable). The results showed a strong relationship between core fault and cross jointed, with a correlation coefficient of 0.748. This result indicates that as core fault increased so did the cross jointed. If core fault is reduced, cross jointed is also likely to be reduced. There was also a negative correlation of -0.64 between shrinkage and gas porosity. The negative correlation indicates that as shrinkage increases, gas porosity decreases and vice versa. The results of the study demonstrate that the higher the defects the company has, the higher the financial losses. According to the results, core fault had a strong correlation of 0.683 with monetary loss. It might be an indication that the castings affected by core fault were of a high value or their weight was high. The overall model gave the R (0.752) and Adjusted R square showing 0.513, thus predicting 51% of the variance in monetary losses, which indicates a good model. It also presented F = 10.700 showing a huge significance (p<.05). Three models, namely stepwise, forward and backward regression were used to determine the statistical correlation between defects and productivity. All three models predicted significant results. Mallow’s Cp value was used to determine the best model. Backward regression model was the best model and was therefore selected to present the results. The defect making statistical significant unique contribution to the prediction of productivity was core fault with coefficient of 0.353 and a Sig. value of 0.006. The overall variance in productivity explained by the model was 23% indicating a good model.M.Tech. (Industrial Engineering