The electronica trade fair, widely considered a bellwether for the general state of health of the electronics industry (at least on the component end of the supply chain), had another successful showing in 2010. The 24th edition of the Munich exhibition saw 70 000 visitors pass through its doors, and boasted nearly 2600 international exhibitors. 59% of those exhibitors and 47% of visitors came from abroad, once again emphasising the show’s international prominence.
The mood at the fair was buoyed by the upturn in the industry over the last few months, with exhibitors banking on innovative future technologies and concurring that companies can expect stable growth in the near future.
Energy efficiency, renewable energies, medical technology and electromobility were hot topics at last year’s event and are touted to be driving forces behind the industry’s growth over the next few years.
A total of 1281 exhibitors presented their products and services in the automotive exhibition segment – 559 of them with products and services relating to electromobility. In addition to the exhibition segment and conference, the programme was supplemented by the automotive forum. Just like in all areas of the exhibition segment, the topics of vehicle safety, energy efficiency and sustainability also dominated the programme of the electronica automotive conference. The exhibition segment was characterised by a large number of components and systems for electric vehicles – from components for power electronics and charging stations through to electric scooters and electric cars. Special attention was also paid to energy-saving components and systems in regard to vehicle lights and vehicle control.
In the area of photovoltaics (PV) alone, a total of 518 exhibitors presented electronic products for the management and monitoring of PV systems. The topic of renewable energies also generally played an important role during the trade fair. Exhibitors showed storage technologies for wind and solar power plants, components for power electronics, inverters and energy harvesting solutions for building services and industrial applications. Numerous talks during the electronica forum also complemented the exhibition segment during the trade fair and provided information regarding the latest trends and developments on international markets.
Practicing what it preaches, energy efficiency also became part of the trade fair itself, with entire stands fitted with LEDs for the first time. The advantages compared with conventional lighting were that heat generation was reduced to a minimum and that energy consumption was also substantially lower.
Electronic applications in medical technology were also well represented with 1156 exhibitors who displayed many innovations. They presented, for example, electronic components for the latest generation of intelligent prostheses, portable medical devices such as blood sugar testers and pulse meters, implantable blood pressure sensors and remote monitoring and control systems for heart pacemakers, and therefore demonstrated the contribution which medical electronics now already makes to the quality of life of many people and can continue to do so in future.
In addition to the electronica automotive conference, the main features of the events programme included the Wireless Congress 2010 and CARTS Europe 2010 which were supplemented by the trade fair forums. A total of 237 talks were given during the supporting programme of electronica 2010.
One of the highlights was the traditional CEO round-table during the fair. The CEOs of Infineon Technologies, Freescale Semiconductor, STMicroelectronics and NXP Semiconductors discussed the economic crisis of 2008 and 2009, its background and the impacts on the semiconductor industry, in order to elucidate what lessons have been learnt from the crisis.
The participants agreed that, in particular, leading companies in the semiconductor industry had purposefully invested in research and development during the crisis in order to make sure that they now emerged from the crisis in better shape. However, the participants also conceded that there were still delivery bottlenecks at times due to the enormous upturn in the last few months. They put forward that, in future, these bottlenecks can only be avoided through closer cooperation between manufacturers and customers in order to match requirements at an earlier stage.
India going from strength to strength
Not to be outdone, electronica India (held in conjunction with productronica India) enjoyed substantial growth in 2010, with 869 exhibitors represented and over 12 200 visitors – an increase of 18% over the previous staging of the event. Last year’s exhibitors came from over 25 countries with a strong presence from Japan, Switzerland, USA, Italy, Spain, Korea, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Countries like Germany, UK, China, Singapore and Taiwan were represented with their own country pavilions.
The exhibition also witnessed extensive participation from international key companies. Among others, Agilent Technologies, ASYS Group, Bergen Systems, EMST Marketing, Epcos, iNetest Technologies, Infineon, Maxim SMT Technologies, NMTronics, NXP, RS Components, Tata Power, Tyco Electronics and Sony displayed their state-of-the-art technology and products.
The show featured a special focus area on LED. There were also two high-profile international conferences conducted at the fair. The 'Conference on Contract Manufacturing: The Indian Perspective' hosted delegates from companies like National Instruments, Indium, Atotech, Firan Technology and HCL Technologies, to name a few. They discussed various topics on trends, new technologies, opportunities and requirements of the Indian EMS/contract manufacturing industry.
The second conference, the 'Symposium on the Trends and Future Requirements in Automotive Electronics' featured talks by delegates from Freescale, Infineon, Tyco, First Sensor, Mahindra Satyam, Robert Bosch, AUTOSAR, NXP, Atrisys and Tata Motors. Over 145 delegates attended both conferences.
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