Innovation Kyoto 2016 Investment Limited Partnership ("KYOTO-icap No.1 Fund"), with Kyoto University Innovation Capital Corporation ("Kyoto iCAP") (Head Office: Sakyo-ku, Kyoto; Representative Director: Kimi Kusumi) as unlimited liability partner, has made an investment in Saki Corporation, a venture company that utilizes Kyoto University's research results. (Head office: Koto-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Norihiro Koike), a venture company that utilizes the results of research at Kyoto University.

Outline of this investment
Saki Corporation is a venture company that develops, manufactures, and sells automatic inspection equipment for electronic module manufacturing. The manufacturing process of electronic modules is becoming more and more automated, and the inspection method is also changing from visual inspection to automatic inspection equipment. Saki Corporation has a wide variety of inspection algorithms that enable in-line inspection, and contributes to the realization of smart factories by proposing optimal automatic inspection solutions for each user.

In recent years, the number of components in electronic modules for EVs and 5G has been increasing, making it difficult to inspect the appearance of components without being able to see the solder joints. In addition, there is a growing need for full inspection using automatic inspection equipment to ensure safety. Saki Corporation has realized internal transmissive inspection (3D volumetric inspection) using its original X-ray inspection method "Planar CT" and AI engine, which detects minute defects with industry-leading accuracy and automatically determines the degree of defects using AI for immediate feedback to operators. This helps build manufacturing lines with higher productivity while maintaining a high quality assurance system.

Saki Corporation has invited Professor Takashi Sato of Kyoto University's Graduate School of Informatics as a scientific advisor to provide ideas and advice on elemental technologies for optimizing substrate and semiconductor manufacturing processes, and is developing next-generation inspection equipment. Kyoto iCAP has decided to underwrite 100 million yen of the total 300 million yen third-party allocation of new shares, based on its evaluation of Saki Corporation's future potential, including the existence of a high need for automated inspection equipment in light of "Beyond 5G".

Outline of Saki Corporation

Establishment	April 1994
Business	Development, manufacture, and sales of automatic visual inspection systems and automatic X-ray inspection systems for mounted circuit boards
Head Office Location	Koto-ku, Tokyo
President & CEO	Norihiro Koike

 

Takashi Sato, Professor at Kyoto University's Graduate School of Informatics, who serves as Saki Corporation's Scientific Advisor, commented: "Semiconductors and electronic modules constitute the infrastructure of our digital society. Semiconductor and electronic modules constitute the infrastructure of the digital society, and quality inspection at their manufacturing sites plays a role in protecting the quality of the social infrastructure. We are very pleased that Saki Corporation's business value, which contributes to the realization of smart factories around the world through automated inspection, has been highly evaluated. With this investment, Saki Corporation and Kyoto University will continue to work towards the practical application of academic research results in the joint development of next-generation X-ray inspection systems."