[ Trade & Products > New Technology ] 

World's Smallest CDMA Handset

Inter-cube (www.inter-cube.co.kr), a Korea-based venture company manufacturing wireless handsets, has developed the world's smallest and lightest CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) mobile phone. The new model, the Khai Coco (CPD-500), measures 68×38.5×19 millimeters and weighs only 62 grams.

Installing a variety of functions into a matchbox-sized handset is an extremely difficult task even for a world-class cell phone manufacturer. To its credit, Inter-cube developed a new micro-design technology for this purpose and maximized spatial efficiency through innovative structural design. The core technology of the Khai Coco permits the arrangement of all parts on a small circuit board while preventing electromagnetic interference (EMI) from deteriorating the quality of wireless signals.

To design and build a small-sized handset, it is necessary to reduce the sizes of parts as well as the thickness of the plastic outer shell. Inter-cube successfully minimized the sizes of all parts such as the flip, motor, and battery terminals and wrapped them in slim plastic shell that is just 0.4 millimeters thick, half existing thicknesses of 0.8 millimeters. In the first month since its debut, the Khai Coco has attracted some 1,000 customers in Korea. Given Inter-cube's competitive edge in the CDMA handset market, the Khai Coco is expected to have strong appeal in overseas markets.

Inter-cube Co.
223-28, Sangdaewon-dong, Jungwon-gu, Sungnam City,
Gyunggi Province, Korea
Tel: 82-31-718-7300 Fax: 82-31-717-9954
http://www.inter-cube.co.kr, Email: leejk@inter-cube.co.kr

PS Ball

Ecomaister Co. (www.ecomaister.com) has developed a technology that converts electric arc furnace slag, a by-product of steelmaking, into an environment-friendly material known as PS Ball. The new technology is expected to provide a major breakthrough in reducing the exorbitant costs for slag disposal and curbing the attendant pollution. Under existing technology, metal is recovered from solidified electric arc furnace slag and the remnants are disposed of either into the sea or in landfills. However, the physical and chemical instability of slag often leads to soil and water pollution.

Ecomaister's Slag Atomizing Technology (SAT) changes the unstable molecular structure of slag into a solid spinel structure to produce the physically and chemically stable oxide compound, PS Ball. Through SAT, circular crystals are created by high-pressure air cooling of high-temperature (over 1600°C) slag.

PS Ball contains very little in alkaline compounds and heavy metals such as Pb, Zn, Cu, or Mo, and thus its effect as a pollutant is minimal.

PB Ball also has industrial applications. Containing three times more Al2O2 and less Fe2O3 than iron ore, it can substitute for iron ore as a raw material. In addition, PS Ball is extremely resilient and combines well with cement, urethane, and epoxy for use as a construction material. Ecomaister has acquired patents for the new technology in Korea, Japan, and the United States and is negotiating with European steelmakers on exporting the production technology.

Ecomaister Co
581-1 Gaja-dong, Seo-gu, Incheon City, Korea
Tel: 82-32-576-0501, Fax: 82-32-575-4762
http://www.ecomaister.com e-mail: swmal@chollian.net

Pass Bio-phone

PASS21 Co., Ltd., has created a world first in its state-of-the-art technology hand phone that can substitute for ID cards, credit cards, electronic money or even keys, and can relieve forever the line-ups at expressway toll gates by its fingerprint recognition capability.

The PASS (physical authentication security system) Bio-phone operates via biometric technology, which combines computer, Internet, cryptographic and telecommunication technologies into one. Its advantage lies in that it is based on biometric authentication "passwords," which are immune to hacking while anyone can perform the simple authentication procedures it involves without restrictions as to time and place. The PASS Bio Phone has a special chip which stores a person's fingerprints for use as the authentication key and features a credit card verification function in addition to serving as a regular wireless phone.

The built-in sensor chip capable of detecting blood flow, body temperature, and fingertip humidity ensures that only those fingerprints from a living, human body can be verified. The chip recognizes the fingerprint of the user, converts it into electronic signals, which are then sent to a black box loaded on a typical credit card reader by infrared data access. The PASS Bio-phone ID system processes the biometric data in real time within 0.5 seconds, irrespective of the angle or location of the fingerprint so impressed. There is no need to enter passwords or sign sales slips to complete a transaction.

PASS21 Co.
Pass21 Building, 1331, Seocho-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, Korea
Tel: 82-2-3489-2100 Fax: 82-2-3489-2101
http://www.pass21.co.kr E-mail: jjimm@pass21.co.kr

Information provided by
Korea Industrial Technology Association (KITA)
Tel: (82-2) 2185-8820, Fax: (82-2) 2185-8817

Updated January 3rd 2001, By Jang-Hee Lee ( asia@kotra.or.kr )