It doesn’t seem possible, but we are now a few short months away from the next instalment of the electronics industry’s marquee event, electronica. The great and the good will soon be descending on Munich Messe from 13th-16th November and here we look ahead to what’s new in 2018.
The electronica show is continuing to grow and, for the first time, will take up 17 halls at the Messe München exhibition grounds in 2018. The new halls C5 and C6 will also be integrated into the hall structure. Furthermore, halls C2 and C3 will be used for the first time.
Angela Marten, Exhibition Director for the trade fair, explained the layout of the exhibition areas and the process that led to the changes. “The exhibition grounds were already expanded for electronica 2016. Demand far exceeded the space available. At the time, hall C4 was then added to the exhibition space. After the event, however, it was obvious that the layout needed to be changed fundamentally if we wanted to give the trade fair a hall structure that can meet future needs.”
With the new layout, semiconductors will be in halls A4, B4, C4 and the adjacent halls B5, C5 and C3. As a co-located event, SEMICON Europa will take up part of hall A4. The automotive and embedded systems segments and, directly adjacent to them, displays and sensors will also move closer to the centre.
Electromechanics/system periphery, relays and casing technology are another segment that take up more than two halls, which is why a north to south arrangement has been chosen on the grounds for this as well. From 2018, exhibitors from these areas will be in halls A2, B2 and C2 at electronica. Circuit carriers and EMS will move to halls A1 and B1, and passive components to A6 and B6. As a result, the remaining areas will move also.
Conferences
electronica is staging no less than four conferences this year, focussing on the challenges of electronics and its applications – The Automotive Conference, Embedded Platforms Conference, the Wireless Congress and the new Medical Electronics Conference.
Electronics is the driving factor in all new functions within the automotive sector. The electronica Automotive Conference will show what the future of mobility could look like. Among other things, the focus will be on emission-free driving and its effects on the automotive industry. The organisation of transportation in cities will also play an important role.
The Embedded Platforms Conference will be dedicated to current buzzwords in the embedded sector during two days. The conference will cover embedded processors, MCUs, multi-core, FPGA and SoCs, operating systems, tools and software for safety and security, embedded boards and smart modules for short development times, and embedded vision, machine learning and adaptive systems.
In the wake of digitalisation of almost all areas of life, the use of high performance electrical devices in medicine will go far beyond high resolution imaging methods and digital patient records in the future. Operation robots do not tire, and microsystem technology devices enable quick on-site diagnoses. New materials, sensors and battery solutions enable the realisation of novel body prostheses.
To support and promote this development, this separate conference is being dedicated to the highlight topic of medical electronics. It is aimed at all those involved in the digital transformation process in the healthcare sector. The goal is to bring together practitioners from everyday medical treatment with specialists from the electronics industry.
The focal points of the Wireless Congress include technology trends such as the Internet of Things, Bluetooth standards and RF technologies. These will be supplemented by security aspects, market opportunities, and applications of current and future wireless technologies for industrial use.
Embedded Systems
Embedded systems are the most widely used ‘computers’ worldwide. Without them, the IoT, autonomous vehicles, smart city and Industry 4.0 would not be possible. They are product moulding components in the strongest sectors of automobile manufacturing and automation technology as well as machine and plant construction.
In addition to the Embedded Platforms Conference, there will also be talks and panel discussions that will take place on all four exhibition days at the electronica Embedded Forum. Design engineers, specialists and technical management can obtain information in the middle of exhibition Hall B5 about all important trends and discuss current market and technology topics with experts and colleagues.
The Embedded exhibition in Hall B5 covers the entire embedded spectrum of chips and components to tools and software and all the way to boards, modules and services.
Sensor technology
The digital world depends on data and that data increasingly comes from networked, intelligent sensor technology. As one of the key technologies for the future developments in IoT, autonomous driving, Industry 4.0, smart healthcare and smart cities – visitors will find the highest concentration of sensors in sensor technology, micro and nanosystems (Hall B3) and measuring and checking (Hall A3) areas.
The VDE (a German electronics industry association) believes that the sensor market has enormous potential for growth. It predicts the number of sensors on the market will rise from ten billion currently, to one hundred trillion by 2030. According to a survey by Germany’s Association for Sensors and Measurement (AMA), the German sensor industry, which is overwhelmingly made up of SMEs, is particularly eager to embark on new research and investment programmes.
Alongside the conferences, manufacturers, specialists and technical managers can take a look at the latest trends in sensor technology and discuss the latest market and technological developments with experts and colleagues on all four days of the Automotive Forum (Hall B4), Embedded Forum (Hall B5) and IoT Forum (Hall C5). A new addition this year is ‘TechTalks’ – a format focusing on technical depth and explicitly targeted at engineers and developers. Entry to all electronica forums is included in the ticket price.
Automotive
Electronics and software already account for over 90% of all ‘automotive’ innovations. And these developments are not only being driven by autonomous and connected driving alone, but also the electrification of roads for example. In addition, the growing demand for driving performance, safety, comfort and environmental compatibility can only be achieved using the latest electronically managed vehicle functions.
Alongside the Automotive Conference the electronica Automotive Forum will feature presentations from expert speakers and panel discussions will be taking place across all four days of the trade fair. Sales engineers, electronics developers, system designers, project leaders, supply chain managers and anyone that works on automotive development projects should make their way to exhibition hall B4 where they can find out more about important trends and speak to experts and colleagues about the latest market and technology news.
