Articles from Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.

OKI Circuit Technology (“OTC”; President: Masaya Suzuki; Head office: Tsuruoka City, Yamagata), the OKI Group printed circuit board (PCB) company, has successfully developed 124-layer PCB technology for wafer inspection equipment designed for next-generation high bandwidth memory, such as HBM (Note 1) mounted on AI semiconductors. This is a roughly 15% increase in the number of layers over conventional 108-layer designs. OTC is seeking to establish mass production technology by October 2025 at its Joetsu Plant in Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture, which has a proven track record and advanced development and production capabilities in the field of high multilayer, high-precision, large-format PCBs for semiconductor inspection equipment.

OKI (TOKYO: 6703) has acquired SBT certification for its FY2050 greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, which are among its mid- to long-term environmental targets: OKI Group Environmental Vision 2030/2050. These targets have been recognized as science-based by the international Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) (Note 1), to achieve the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement. OKI is working to achieve these targets by promoting decarbonization across its value chain, including its own sites, thereby contributing to resolving social issues as a company Delivering OK! to your life.

OKI (TOKYO: 6703) today published an English edition of OKI Technical Review (Note 1), Issue 243. The theme of this issue’s special feature is “Innovations utilizing Edge Platforms.” The coverage introduces specific examples of technologies and solutions suited to the field to address a wide range of social issues.

OKI (TOKYO: 6703) has entered into an agreement for investment in the ICMG Co-Creation Fund II Limited Partnership (“ICMG Co-Creation Fund II” hereinafter), newly established by the ICMG Group (Head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Group COO: Gen Funahashi) in January 2025. Managed by ICMG Ventures Pte. Ltd., an ICMG Group investment management company based in Singapore, this co-creation fund is funded by The 77 Bank, Ltd. (Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture; President: Hidefumi Kobayashi), Hokuriku Bank, Ltd. (Toyama, Toyama Prefecture; President: Hiroshi Nakazawa), and OKI. The ICMG Co-Creation Fund II seeks to resolve social infrastructure issues in the Global South (Note 1) by supporting startup businesses active in India, Southeast Asia, and other regions while collaborating with them as an equal partner to maximize fusion value. OKI will leverage this co-creation fund to actively engage in co-creation activities and accelerate its innovation activities toward global business expansion. Forecasts call for continued significant economic growth in the Global South, including regions like India and Southeast Asia. Nevertheless, these regions include many areas in which the pace of infrastructure development has failed to keep up with the economic growth, leading to the emergence of various social infrastructure issues, such as underdeveloped transportation infrastructures that hinder logistics and prevent the establishment of optimized distribution channels. Other issues include a lack of efficient maintenance and operation systems to respond to increasingly severe natural disasters. In response to such issues related to social infrastructures, OKI seeks to resolve social issues through co-creation by combining the strengths of individual startup businesses with OKI’s unique technological strengths, deepening collaboration through this co-creation fund. By resolving social issues in the Global South in this way, OKI will be putting into practical realization its key message: Delivering OK! to your life. By focusing on creating future businesses and restarting overseas businesses based on its Medium-Term Business Plan 2025, OKI aims to create new global businesses worth between 50 billion and 100 billion yen by 2031. Through its investments in this co-creation fund, OKI will build a co-creation ecosystem with social entrepreneurs and startup businesses, thereby promoting the global expansion of its existing businesses and the creation of new businesses. Additionally, having designated its overseas business sites as Global Innovation Hubs, which will serve as frontline innovation bases, OKI will draw on the co-creation fund to establish organic collaboration links among the hubs.

OKI (TOKYO:6703) will launch its SHO-XYZTM (pronounced “sho-zai”) location and inventory management system in the Japanese market from March 2025, for easy tracking of products, equipment, and other items stored indoors and outdoors from a smartphone. This system allows the centralized management of storage locations and inventory information via smartphones by attaching QR Codes® or RF tags to items, resolving on-site issues such as lost items while significantly reducing management workloads. This system is provided for SaaS service usage fees for easy adoption at small warehouses and factories where additional investment is often difficult to justify.

OKI (TOKYO: 6703), in collaboration with Nisshinbo Micro Devices Inc. (Head office: Tokyo; President: Keiichi Yoshioka), has successfully achieved three-dimensional (3D) integration (Note 1) of thin-film analog ICs (Note 2) using Crystal Film Bonding (CFB) technology (Note 3). This technology is applicable to heterogeneous integration (Note 4), which enables the integration of various types of semiconductor devices, such as analog ICs. The two companies plan to push ahead with product development based on this technology, targeting mass production by 2026.

OKI (TOKYO: 6703) has developed ‘ship classification AI system technology’ for the automatic classification of ship types through deep learning of underwater sounds. This technology makes it possible to continuously and automatically acquire ship classification data, even in environments such as busy ports with high ship traffic and at night, when visual identification using cameras is difficult. Internal verification experiments by OKI have demonstrated that the system can classify ships with 90% or better accuracy, even with only small amounts of learning data extracted from ship sound data.

OKI Electric Cable (President: Hideo Yamaguchi, Head office: Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture), the OKI Group’s electric cable company, has developed a coaxial cable with a FAKRA (Note 1) connector for use as an interface cable for machine vision systems (Note 2) such as image inspection equipment. Targeting robots and the industrial FA industry, OKI Electric Cable plans to begin supplying samples in January 2025, with the start of mass production and shipping set for March 2025.

The OKI Group printed circuit board (PCB) business company OKI Circuit Technology (President: Masaya Suzuki; Headquarters: Tsuruoka City, Yamagata Prefecture; “OTC” hereinafter) has successfully developed multi-layer PCB technology with stepped copper coin insertion (“stepped copper coin” hereinafter) to achieve 55 times better heat dissipation compared to conventional PCB (Note 1). The stepped copper coin is offered in two types, circular and rectangular, to suit the shape of the electronic component mounted on the PCB. OTC is working to develop mass-production technologies with the aim of introducing PCBs incorporating this new technology into markets for compact devices or devices used in outer space or other environments where air cooling technology cannot be used.

Using silicon photonics technology for semiconductor optical circuits, OKI (TOKYO: 6703) has successfully developed an ultracompact photonic integrated circuit chip with a broad range of potential applications, including optical fiber sensors, laser vibrometers, and optical biosensors. This makes it possible to achieve ultra-miniaturization and low power consumption similar to LSI (Note 1), as well as dramatically lower costs through mass production of optical sensor modules. Optical sensors are a technology that uses optical fibers and optical waveguides with low light loss to detect, process, and transmit physical phenomena such as vibration, strain, and temperature in the form of light, and are themselves a green technology that realizes sensing while saving energy. Silicon photonics technology is a technology that can broaden the scope of applications for optical sensors previously limited to localized use, and is expected to make a significant contribution to the advancement of GX (Note 2).

OKI (TOKYO: 6703) recently received an order to produce units for satellites developed by Astroscale Japan Inc. (“Astroscale Japan”), a subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings Inc. (“Astroscale”), a market leader in satellite servicing and long-term orbital sustainability across all orbits. After evaluating evaluation samples and test samples, OKI will deliver the units in stages for demonstration.

OKI (TOKYO: 6703) is adopting the venture client model (“VCM”), which is currently gaining traction in Europe and the US, to promptly provide solutions to increasingly complex social issues—an approach taken as part of OKI’s efforts to rapidly incorporate leading global technologies into its business operations. Having established processes and an internal organization to implement VCM, the company has now begun working with 27pilots Deloitte GmbH (Head office: Munich, Germany; CEO: Gregor Gimmy).

OKI (TOKYO:6703) today announced that the OKI Group’s printed circuit board (PCB) company OKI Circuit Technology (“OTC”; President: Masaya Suzuki, Headquarters: Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture) will participate in the PCB West 2024 Conference & Exhibition (“PCB West”), scheduled to take place from October 8 to 11 in Silicon Valley, USA. OTC will approach this event with the goal of expanding its customer base and sales in overseas markets, particularly in the United States.

The OKI Group PCB business company OKI Circuit Technology (President: Masaya Suzuki, Headquarters: Tsuruoka City, Yamagata Prefecture) has set up a new ultra-high-multilayer PCB line at the Joetsu Plant in Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture, with full-scale operations commencing in July. The PCBs produced are incorporated into equipment for manufacturing and testing semiconductors for applications involving AI, data centers, and next-generation communication networks. The new line enables high-precision and high-definition circuit formation which supports a via pitch (Note 1) of 0.23 mm, while increasing production capacity by approximately 1.4 times compared to previous levels and strengthening the capability for manufacturing of a wide variety of products in small quantities. The company aims to expand sales targeting manufacturers of semiconductor manufacturing and testing equipment.

OKI (TOKYO: 6703) has signed an Ecosystem Plus (Note 1) partnership agreement with a major US startup accelerator, Plug and Play, LLC (Founder & CEO: Saeed Amidi, Headquarters: Sunnyvale, California, USA), and commenced open innovation activities based in Silicon Valley in May. OKI plans to expand its activities centered in the US to other regions and promote collaborations with numerous startups. OKI aims to resolve increasingly serious social issues by incorporating technological innovations on a global scale and accelerating innovation.

OKI (TOKYO: 6703) has revised its FY2050 targets for global warming prevention in the OKI Group Environmental Vision 2030/2050 (“Environmental Vision” hereinafter) which sets forth medium- to long-term environmental goals. As a company committed to helping to resolve social issues under the key message “Delivering OK! to your life,” OKI aims to achieve net zero by eliminating CO2 emissions from its entire value chain, including its own sites.

OKI Electric Cable (President: Hideo Yamaguchi, Head Office: Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture), the OKI Group’s cable business company, has developed a new product called the High-Durability CoaXPress 2.0 Cable for use as an interface cable for robot vision, the “eyes” of industrial robots. In addition to the same sliding performance, a strength of the conventional product, this new product offers enhanced movement durability against bending and twisting (Note 1) to support industrial robots which repeat bending and twisting motions, as well as high-speed transmission performance. Sales start in March 2024, with a sales target of over 100 million yen for fiscal 2025.

OKI (TOKYO:6703) today published the English-language version of issue 242 of OKI Technical Review (*1), OKI’s technical journal. This issue’s special feature is "OKI’s Exponential Technologies towards the Future". It describes technologies intended to advance the Edge Platform, the main concept of OKI’s technology strategy for the years up to 2031 which was announced in November 2023.

OKI (TOKYO: 6703) has obtained SBT certification for the FY2030 greenhouse gas emission reduction targets set in OKI Environmental Vision, its medium-to-long-term environmental vision, from the international “Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) (Note 1)” as scientifically valid targets for achieving the 1.5°C target aimed at by the Paris Agreement. As the company committed to helping resolve social issues in accordance with its key message of “Delivering OK! to your life”, OKI seeks to achieve these targets not only at its own sites but also by promoting decarbonization during product use and at its suppliers.

OKI (TOKYO: 6703), in collaboration with Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Tokyo; President: Yasuhiko Saitoh; "Shin-Etsu Chemical"), has announced the successful development of a technology that uses OKI's CFB (crystal film bonding) technology (Note 1) to lift off only the GaN (gallium nitride) functional layer from Shin-Etsu Chemical's uniquely improved QST® (Qromis Substrate Technology) substrate (Note 2) and bond it to a different material substrate. This technology enables the vertical conduction of GaN and is expected to contribute to the realization and commercialization of vertical GaN power devices capable of controlling large currents. The two companies will work further together to develop vertical GaN power devices that can be implemented in society by partnering with companies that manufacture these devices.

OKI (TOKYO:6703) has released Issue 241 of the OKI Technical Review (Note 1). The theme of this special feature is “OKI’s Contributions toward Green Society and Environment.” Based on the OKI Group’s recognition that the environment is both a social issue and business opportunity, we’re promoting environmental management by reducing the CO2 emissions generated in our business activities and concurrently by creating and expanding our range of environmentally contributing products. This special feature introduces specific initiatives and the underlying concepts.

OKI Electric Cable (President: Hideo Yamaguchi, Head office: Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture), the OKI Group’s electric cable company, has developed two new types of environment-proof FPC (flexible printed circuit) products (Note 1) capable of use under harsh conditions, including the conditions found in high-temperature and high-pressure steam environments: a heat-proof FPC and a high-pressure steam-proof FPC. Global sales will commence in June for applications involving equipment and devices that require high-temperature heat treatment or high-pressure steam sterilization. Sales of at least JPY100 million are expected for this fiscal year.

OKI (TOKYO: 6703) today announced that, at its meeting held on February 1, 2022, the OKI Board of Directors decided on a change in the presidency of the company.

OKI Electric Cable (President: Hideo Yamaguchi, Headquarters: Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture), the OKI Group’s electric cable business subsidiary, has developed the OH Cable (*1) for use with food manufacturing equipment. The product offers high resistance to cleaning fluids, disinfectants, and the edible oils and fats used in food manufacturing facilities. Sales began on September 28, 2021, for made-to-order cables whose conductor size, number of cores, and other aspects can be customized to suit the characteristics of specific food manufacturing equipment. The sales target for fiscal 2023 is a minimum of JPY 50 million.

On September 9, OKI Electric Cable (President: Hideo Yamaguchi, Headquarters: Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture), a subsidiary of the OKI Group, launched sales of the Ultrafine diameter robot cable “ORP-30F Cable” and Ultrafine diameter cable “OFV-30F Cable”. Both offer industry-leading fineness (*1) for wiring in confined spaces inside industrial robots and machine tools.