Then from small companies searching for ways to improve thermal performance without adding excessive complexity.
One of those companies was founded by Chen Yu-han.
Yu-han was thirty-two, quiet, and extraordinarily determined.
She grew up in Taichung, where her parents ran a small electronics repair business.
As a teenager, she helped her father organize components and learned how difficult it could be for small manufacturers to compete against larger companies.
She studied electrical engineering.
Worked in product development.
And spent several years helping manufacturers improve the reliability of compact electronics.
She wasn't interested in publicity.
She disliked networking dinners.
And the idea of giving a speech about her achievements made her visibly uncomfortable.
But when she believed in an engineering solution, she could explain its value with remarkable clarity.
We met at a technical seminar in Taipei.
I presented preliminary research on passive thermal transport.
Yu-han approached afterward.
She waited until the crowd around me had thinned.
Then asked, in Mandarin, whether I had investigated the effect of manufacturing tolerances on the internal channel structure.
I stared.
Most people at the conference asked about efficiency numbers.
Or whether the technology could reduce costs.
Yu-han asked the question I'd spent the previous month trying to answer.
I smiled.
“Not sufficiently.”
She nodded.
“I thought so.”
I laughed.
Then she showed me a notebook filled with sketches of compact electronic modules.
For nearly an hour, we discussed manufacturing challenges.
At one point, she looked toward me.
“I think this could be useful.”
I nodded.
“So do I.”
She hesitated.
“But only if it can be manufactured consistently.”
I smiled.
“Exactly.”
That was the beginning of our friendship.