2001 Volume 69 Issue 6 Pages 397-406
In terms of general social trends and technical trends in the electronic components industry, environmental problems and safety have caught attention and are progressing the acquisition of ISO-9000 and ISO-14000, lead-free soldering, dehalogenation, and the adoption of other environmental countermeasures. Technically, reduction in the voltages and costs of CMOS IC and LSI chips has rapidly increased new products related to mobile communications, such as mobile phones and electronic notebooks, and the tendencies towards more lightweight and more compact design of electronic components and towards their cost reduction are also progressing. Also, typical examples of new technical trends are cost reduction and functional enhancement of electronic components and the use of organic electrolytes, low-molecular-weight organic electrolytes, liquid-crystal polymers, and other new polymer materials, in electronic components as environmental protection measures. These tendencies and trends are significant in the capacitor field as well. The authors intend to give an overview of these tendencies and trends.
