Ceramics for electronic components, which exhibit a wide range of electrical characteristics, are excellent materials that support the electronics industry. This paper introduces the author's experiences and failures in the development of electronic ceramics through 40 years of work at Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. The author learned many lessons from many failures in the development of ceramic materials over the years. Based on these experiences and failures, author's personal opinion on the development and manufacturing of electronic ceramics in the New Normal Era will be described.

Because of growing demands for thermal expansion control in a local region, typically inner components of electronic devices, there is currently a great deal of interest in negative thermal expansion (NTE) fine particles. The spray-drying method without grinding produced micrometer-scale fine particles of pyrovanadate Cu_1.8Zn_0.2V₂O₇ showing a large negative coefficient of linear thermal expansion α_L ~ –14 ppm/K equivalent to that of the bulk body. The solid-solution system Cu_1.8Zn_0.2V_2–xP_xO₇ maintains the NTE functionality in a wide x compositional range. Phosphorus substitution contributes to cost reduction and to improvement of electrical insulation. Control of the structural phase transition in the phosphate analog Zn₂P₂O₇ by substituting Mg for Zn realized a huge negative α_L exceeding –60 ppm/K over a wide temperature range including room temperature. Because small particles are obtainable even with the conventional solid-phase reaction, the 1 μm level fine particles were obtained successfully using the pulverization method without degrading the function. It has high practicality because it is composed only of inexpensive and environmentally friendly elements such as Zn, Mg, and P. These NTE fine particles are expected to support great progress in thermal expansion control engineering.

Negative thermal expansion (NTE) materials are expected to be utilized to compensate for the thermal expansion of structure materials. Giant NTE stemming from polar-nonpolar transition in electron doped PbVO₃ and that from intermetallic transition in BiNiO₃ derivatives are overviewed. Systematic charge distribution changes in Pb-3d transition metal perovskites will also be discussed.

Relaxor-type lead-perovskite piezoelectric single crystals (SCs) are ABO₃-type piezoelectric materials with lead (Pb) at the A site and composite oxides such as magnesium (Mg), zinc (Zn), indium (In), niobium (Nb), and titanium (Ti) at the B site. The development and application of these materials have been pursued in earnest since the 1980s. The piezoelectric constant d₃₃ and electromechanical coupling coefficient k₃₃ of these SCs are much higher than those of conventional PZT ceramics. Currently, eight companies around the world are mass producing and selling these SC transducers, and in particular, more than 1 million units of this SC transducers have already been put into practical use for medical ultrasound probes, and in recent years, the range of its use has been further expanded. In this article, the history, current status, and future progress of lead-perovskite piezoelectric SCs are chronologically introduced, including not only published papers but also patents. In particular, the major topics of the past few years, low-cost solid state crystal growth (SSCG) process, textured ceramics process, and innovative AC poling technology are discussed in detail.

Introducing technological trends in small case size metal type power inductors, according to the higher switching frequency, the required inductance value has become lower and the replacement of materials from ferrite to metal has progressed. The small metal type power inductors have various types of metal magnetic materials (resin composite type, oxide layer bounded type) and structures (wire winding, thin film and multi-layer type), and each type has been developed actively. The directions of development are higher current and lower loss. Therefore, the developments of the structures and the magnetic materials, such as high packing of magnetic powders, specific performances of magnetic powder materials and particle size reduction, have been in progress.