The largest exhibition dedicated to printed circuits was held June 4 at Tokyo Big Sight. Large Electronics Show, JIEP Micro Electronics Show, JISSO PROTEC and Wire Japan Show were held together at the three-day show.

At first, organizers were concerned whether the exhibition would draw enough interest to remain at the same size at last year’s. Business was soft for the Japanese electronics industry, but organizers decided to keep the same-size footprint. Happily, there were more exhibitors and more visitors than last year, and new events were added. Japanese companies remain active in promoting their new business ventures and while managing their existing portfolios.

There are several new trends I observed during the exhibition. The Wire Japan Show is unique but popular because wires and connections are staples in the electronic packaging industry. However, there was no specific show dedicated for the companies from this industry. There was not trade show for them to promote products until now. Cable manufacturers featured extremely thin coaxial cables (0.1mm diameter) and connector manufacturers displayed low height connectors (0.7mm) with fine pitches (0.25mm) for the SMT connections with high-density flexible circuits.

Material suppliers were very active with new product introductions. One of the common keywords in most of their pitches was low-loss insulation for high-speed printed circuits. There were multiple choices for both of rigid and flexible materials. Most of the sales presentations from chemical companies had to do with surface treatments. They featured new chemicals that improve bonding strength or plating qualities.

Printable electronics is still a popular topic at trade shows. Material suppliers introduced new printable inks for both conductors and insulations, and screen mask suppliers demonstrated very fine printing capabilities down to 10 micron line/space. There is now 30 micron silver conductor lines available for printing companies. They were trying to pitch the potential market opportunities for touch panel screen in mobile devices. Unfortunately, the Japanese market is not as strong as markets in other Asian countries.

Many circuit manufacturers including multilayer boards and flexible circuits highlighted their high frequency capabilities with low-loss and impedance control. They are not very new, but did show signs of improvement. A few manufactures tried to draw attention to embedded component technology, but few in the audience were interested.

There were many foreign companies in attendance this year. They included circuits, materials and manufacturing equipment manufacturers from Korea, Taiwan, China, North America and Europe. Presentations from the Chinese companies improved significantly from last year.

Previous JPCA shows felt like a festival for the printed circuit industry. It seems that the exhibitors buckled down this year, and were more serious about establishing some collaborative relationships and they left all the bells and whistles at home.

A unique part of the show is the open air seminars for visitors and exhibitors. JPCA organized more than 20 seminars featuring more than a hundred speakers. The seminars content ranged from introduction lectures on leading edge technologies up to advanced product design.


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 #1416, June 15, 2014. For the newsletter archives,  visit  dknresearchllc.com/DKNRArchive/Newsletter/Newsletter.html.

Headlines of the Week (Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for further information.)

1. Hitachi Maxell developed a nickel plating process on nylon resin. It eliminates wet chemical etching before plating.

2. Panasonic rolled out the industry first transparent electrode film (PET) with fine copper grid (3 micron wide lines) for touch panel screen.

3. Tohoku University codeveloped a 3D generation process of graphene structures on silicon wafers for hybrid devices of electronic and optical.

4. Konica Minolta will found a subsidiary in Malaysia for manufacturing and delivery of parts and consumables for office appliances.

5. Asada Mesh demonstrated the manufacturing process of current sensors by fine screen printing of silver ink.

6. Tohoku University developed a precious pattern etching technology of magnetic materials as the manufacturing process of MRAM devices.

7. NEC delivered the largest lithium ion battery system in Europe to Northern Powergrid in United Kingdom.

8. Murata commercialized the world smallest ceramic chip capacitor series with interposers. Size: 1005.

9. Chuo University demonstrated basic performances of NRAM device made of carbon nano tube. Higher speed, low power consumption and more.

10. Furukawa Electric unveiled a new superconductor wire of CuNb/Nb3Sn. It is available for coiling of super conductive magnet.

11. Panasonic developed a polypropylene resin for reflection panel of lighting LED devices.

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