Nepcon Japan, the largest exhibition for the Asian electronic packaging industry, was held at the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition center Jan. 14-16.
The three-day show was the first major exhibition for the Japanese electronics industry this year. CEATEC Japan and SemiCon Japan are two large electronic shows held annually in Japan. Last year, both these shows saw declining attendance in the wake of a slowdown in the industry. Industry analysts kept a close eye on the turnout for Nepcon Japan since it may set the trend for trade shows this year.
The trade show started out as InterNepcon Japan 43 years ago. More and more exhibitions were added each year and the show evolved into Nepcon Japan. Listed below are the combined shows and exhibitions:
- 44th Internepcon Japan
- 32nd Electrotest Japan
- 5th Fine Process Technology Expo
- 16th Printed Wiring Board Expo
- 16th IC Packaging Technology Expo
- 16th Electronic Components & Materials Expo
- 7th International Automotive Electronics Technology Expo
- 1ST Automotive Component Processing Technology Expo
- 3rd Connected Car JAPAN
- 5th Automotive Weight Reduction Expo
- 3rd Tokyo Design Lighting Expo & Conference
- 5th LED/OLED Light Expo
- 7th LED/OLED Lighting Technology Expo
- 1st Wearable Device Technology Expo
More than 2,000 companies and organizations reserved booths this year. The entire convention center floor was booked, and the show may grow even more next year. There were more visitors this year, but not too many were from North America or Europe; most were from Korea and Taiwan.
“Wearable” technology is a hot topic this year. It was one of the main exhibits for people to visit. There were seminars, exhibitions and demonstrations dedicated to Wearable Technology. The technical seminars attracted a lot of people, and it was standing room only in the conference rooms. The overflow crowds were ushered into auxiliary rooms where big screen monitors broadcast the seminar.
More than 100 companies with new wearable technologies were represented in the wearable section of the exhibition hall. The first group of exhibitors demonstrated the types of wearable devices such as head mounted types, eye glass, goggle, bracelet and wrist watch types. They are many new companies in the wearable device industry. Some of the more well-known companies (Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics) did not present anything related to the wearable device industry this time. Google obviously did not show any products in this category either because of its recent business decision to discontinue Google Glass.
The second groups of exhibitors in the wearable device industry were material suppliers. These companies focused on advanced materials related to wearable electronics that includes conductive strings and fabrics, elastic conductive ink, transparent conductive compound, bendable thin battery and more. There were so many people at their booths that I could not spend as much time as I wanted to at each exhibit.
In my opinion, both exhibitors and visitors have no exact idea where the wearable electronics segment is going, but neither wants to miss a new business opportunity. Exhibitors are trying to demonstrate wearable electronic devices and customers are looking for wearable electronic devices to add to their current product lines. All I know for sure is that wearable technology is popping up in more and more areas of life. The uses of wearable technology can work its way into individuals’ daily lives. It could be a positive influence for the elderly, disabled, or almost any walk of life. I think this is going to be big!!
Dominique K. Numakura, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
DKN Research, www.dknresearchllc.com
DKN Research Newsletter #1502, Jan. 25, 2015 (English Edition)
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Headlines of the Week (Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for further information.)
1. Yamagata University developed a new organic EL device with multi-layer construction using printing process.
2. Oki Printed Circuits established the manufacturing process of 30 layer circuit boards with over thousand 0.35mm pitch interconnection pins.
3. Showa Denko developed a new packaging material for thin lithium ion batteries. A conductive aluminum laminate makes the thickness less than 100 microns.
4. Murata developed an SMT type small size (11 x 12 x 2.1mm) rotary sensor position sensor “SVK3 Series” for automobile applications.
5. Furukawa Electric will start volume production of new heatsink device “HYC Series” for LED lighting devices.
6. Hitachi Maxell developed a process technology with new master batch resin for MID (Molded Interconnect Devices).
7. Konica-Minolta developed a multilayer wide angle (180 degree) laser radar for automobile applications.
8. Fujitsu developed a ring-type wearable device with NFC (fewer than 10g) that can trace handwritten characters.
9. Riken developed a 3D engraving process for fine structures of bio-chip devices introducing bottle-ship type femto second laser.
10. Fujitsu commercialized a wearable EEG (electroencephalogram) sensor that support driver’s safety detecting how much sleepy.
11. Shibaura Mechatronics released a COG/FOG system “TTC-3000 Series” for small- and mid-sized LCD manufacturing processes.
