An SAO-based approach to technology evolution analysis using patent information: Case study—graphene sensors

Purpose: This paper introduces an approach to technology evolution analysis using patent information based on Subject-Action-Object(SAO) structures.Design/methodology/approach: First, SAO structures were extracted from patent documents and were cleaned. Second, several dimension-reduction techniques were used to generate technology topics. Then, the hierarchical relationships between technology topics were calculated based on patent clustering. Finally, technology evolution maps were drawn by adding a timeline.Findings: This approach can reveal technology evolution processes from multiple perspectives than other approaches.Research limitations: The semantic annotation of an SAO type is not very accurate and the semantic types of technology topics need to be enriched.Practical implications: The approach can be applied to draw technology evolution maps using different types of technology topics such as problem or solution.Originality/value: This approach offers an analytical dimension and more details than existing techniques, and it helps identify fundamental and emerging technologies more accurately and comprehensively.

BACKBONE OF TECHNOLOGY EVOLUTION IN THE MODERN ERA AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY: AN ANALYSIS BY THE PATENTS CITATION NETWORK

In the automobile industry, especially in its modem era, large amount of technologies have been generated to produce automobiles. The technological evolution in this industry is formed by complicated effects of the emergence of some milestone inventions and interaction, integration, and succession among diverse technologies. It＇s a big challenge to sort out crucial inventions and technologies progresses that mainly form this industry＇s technological evolution. We use patent citation data and apply network analytical techniques to reveal characteristics of the ＂backbone＂ in the automobile industry＇s technological evolution. We employ three algorithms respectively to explore the main path of the technological evolution, the most important subnetwork which outlines the main characteristics of the industry＇s technological evolution, and the most important technological inventions （act as authorities and hubs of the technological evolution） in the industry. Main results are reported in detail by tables, figures and interpretations to disclose the most influential technologically developing path, pivotal transfers in technological trajectories, and important technological convergences and divergences over time, of the modem era automobile industry.

Endogenous Innovation in Chinese IC Firms:A Case Study Based on the Technology Strategy Evolution of NSBIC

It is a common sense that enterprise is the principal of endogenous innovation, but why many firms do not innovate actively？ What kind of difficulty will enterprises suffer in endogenous innovation？ What can the government do for the endogenous innovation？ These questions are very crucial to realize endogenous innovation. This paper tries to answer the questions mentioned above from the perspective of technology evolution. The industrial environment of emerging technology is emphasized for analyzing the endogenous innovation in Chinese enterprises. The process of endogenous innovation in NanShanBridge Co. Ltd （NSBIC）, which is an IC design firm, is analyzed as a case. From the case study, we can answer the questions above in certain extent, give some suggestions to the enterprises as a later-comer, and present some advice to government.

Research on Technology Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine Extraction Based on Patent Information

Objective To understand the development status of traditional Chinese medicine extraction technology,so as to provide a reference for enterprises and scientific research institutions to determine the direction of technological innovation.Besides,the government can formulate scientific and technological innovation strategies.Methods Based on patent information,statistical methods were applied to analyze the development of traditional Chinese medicine extraction technology.Then,the core technology was identified by constructing a patent citation network.Finally,the main path analysis method was applied to discover the technological evolution path.Results and Conclusion The extraction technology of traditional Chinese medicine is still in the growth stage.At present,its R&D is based on enterprises,supplemented by scientific research institutions.The core technologies are ultrasonic extraction and enzymatic extraction.The main path represented by enzymatic extraction technology reveals the evolution process of traditional Chinese medicine extraction technology.Based on this,relevant suggestions are put forward.Firstly,technological innovation cooperation should be strengthened to explore new models of achievement transformation and cooperation.Secondly,key enterprises of technology clusters should be cultivated to accelerate breakthroughs in core technologies.Thirdly,combined technologies can achieve high-efficiency enzyme-assisted extraction and open up new ways of extracting traditional Chinese medicine.Fourthly,traditional techniques should be improved to develop innovative modern techniques.

Progress of 3G Evolution Technology Standardization

The challenges brought by broadband wireless access technologies to cellular mobile communication technologies speed up the study and standardization of 3G evolution technologies that support higher data rates. Both the 3GPP and the 3GPP2 have launched research programs on the study and standardization of the emerging 3G evolution technologies. The Long Term Evolution (LTE) program of 3GPP has made progress in key technical indexes of air interface, wireless network architecture and high-level protocols. At the same time, the Air Interface Evolution (AIE) program of 3GPP2 has made study achievements in the formulation of air interface standards for Layer 2 and upper layers, as well as for the physical layer.

TRIZ TECHNOLOGY FORECASTING AS QFD INPUT WITHIN THE NPD ACTIVITIES

As a result of the fierceness of business competition, companies, to remaincompetitive, have to charm their customers by anticipating their needs and being able to rapidlydevelop exciting new products for them. To overcome this challenge, technology forecasting isconsidered as a powerful tool in today's business environment, while there are as many successstories as there are failures, a good application of this method will give a good result. Amethodology of integration of patterns or lines of technology evolution in TRIZ parlance ispresented, which is also known as TRIZ technology forecasting, as input to the QFD process to designa new product. For this purpose, TRIZ technology forecasting, one of the TRIZ major tools, isdiscussed and some benefits compared to the traditional forecasting techniques are highlighted. Thena methodology to integrate TRIZ technology forecasting and QFD process is highlighted.

Evolution of Key Technologies for WiMAX Physical Layer

Despite the rapid development in Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) technologies,key technologies for the Physical Layer (PHY) still need to be further improved so as to achieve highly efficient and reliable communication performance,as well as to support a mobile environment with a higher transmisison rate. As an amendment to IEEE 802.16d (for fixed broadband wireless access systems),IEEE 802.16e (for mobile broadband wireless access systems) introduces the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technologies into the PHY,doubling the transmission rate while supporting a certain degree of mobility. In the future,more advanced Air Interface (AI) technology is to be applied in the IEEE 802.16m standard.

Hotspots and trends of biological water treatment based on bibliometric review and patents analysis

In order to reveal the hotspots and trends of biological water treatment from the perspectives of scientific and technological innovation, both of the bibliometric review and patents analysis were performed in this study. The Web of Science Core Collection database and Derwent Innovation Index database recorded 30023 SCI papers and 50326 patents, respectively were analyzed via information visualization technology. The results showed that China ranked the first in both papers and patents, while the United States and Japan had advantages in papers and patents, respectively. It was concluded through literature metrology analysis that microbial population characteristics, biodegradation mechanism,toxicity analysis, nitrogen and phosphorus removal and biological treatment of micropolluted wastewater were the research hotspots of SCI papers. Activated sludge process and anaerobic-aerobic combined process were the two mainstream technologies on the basis of patent technology classification analysis. Technology evolution path of biological water treatment was also elucidated in three stages based on the citation network analysis. Furthermore, the future directions including research on the law of interaction and regulation of biological phases and pollutants and the technology innovations towards the targeted biotransformation or selective biodegradation of pollutants and resource reuse of wastewater were prospected.