productronica Innovation Award 2025
The productronica Innovation Award 2025 will challenge the innovative strength of the electronics manufacturing industry for the sixth time! The prestigious award will be presented on the first day of productronica 2025 in cooperation with trade fair organizer Messe München and the trade journal productronic. The award recognizes the most innovative new products and manufacturing processes in six categories. Since 2023, the runners-up and third-place winners have also been honored.
In which categories is the award presented?
It's that time again from November 18 to 21, 2025! The world's leading trade fair, productronica, reflects the entire spectrum of innovative electronics manufacturing. The award addresses the segmentation of the trade fair and thus also the hall layout: The six categories for the productronica Innovation Award have proven their worth and will be back again this year. The award recognizes the most innovative new products and manufacturing processes. The clusters in detail are:
PCB & EMS Cluster
Printed circuit board and circuit carrier manufacturing, electronic manufacturing services (EMS).
SMT Cluster
Assembly, soldering technology, product finishing, production subsystems, production logistics, and material flow technology
Inspection & Quality Cluster
Measurement and testing technology, quality assurance, and inspection solutions
Semiconductor Cluster
Semiconductor manufacturing, display manufacturing, LEDs and discrete components, photovoltaic manufacturing, micro-nano production, clean room technology, materials processing
Cables, Coils & Hybrids Cluster
Manufacturing technologies for cables and connectors, winding goods and hybrid component manufacturing
Future Markets Cluster
IT to production, Industry 4.0, digitalization, manufacturing of batteries and electrical energy storage devices, organic and printed electronics, 3D printing, additive manufacturing
The jury
An independent jury of industry experts will award prizes in six categories for the most innovative new products and manufacturing processes. The jury is composed of the following individuals:
- SMT cluster: Dr. Maik Hampicke, Head of Department Marketing & Business Development, Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM
- Cluster PCB & EMS: Dr. Andrej Novikov, Institute for Device Systems and Circuit Technology, University of Rostock IEF/IGS
- Cluster Inspection & Quality: Helge Schimanski, Group Manager, Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology ISIT
- Cluster Semiconductor: Dr. Udo Gommel, Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA
- Future Markets Cluster: Dr. Sandra Engle, Productronic Department, VDMA Electronics, Micro and New Energy Production Technologies
- Cable, Coils & Hybrids Cluster: Sebastian Glatz, ZVEI Managing Director, Cable and Insulated Wires Association in Cologne
Registration closed
Online registration for the productronica Innovation Award 2025 is now closed!
Conditions of participation
Only exhibitors at productronica 2025 are eligible to apply for the productronica Innovation Award. All exhibiting companies are invited to apply.
Only innovations/new products or innovative manufacturing processes that are presented at the productronica 2025 exhibition stands and are no more than 12 months old at that time are eligible for an award. The product must be exhibited at the trade fair booth and be ready for demonstration!
Development projects will only be considered in the Future Markets Cluster.
The innovations/new products must already be available for purchase at the time of presentation. (Exception: Future Markets Cluster)
Each exhibitor may submit several innovations/new products to the competition.
The winners of the 5th productronica innovation award 2023 are:
Review: On the first day of productronica 2023, the winners of the 5th productronica innovation award were announced: After thorough evaluation, the high-caliber, independent jury selected the respective winners in the six clusters from nearly 70 submissions.
Winner in the Future Markets cluster: The ASYS Performance Monitor
The ASYS Performance Monitor is an analysis tool for determining and displaying important performance parameters of SMD lines. It calculates and displays the OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) based on current performance, availability, and quality indicators.
Second place went to the start-up Speedpox for its SpeedPox Conductive series with conductive inks and adhesives. Third place went to F&S Bondtec as a second entry in this cluster with its digital ultrasonic generator D-USG X.
Winner in the PCB&EMS cluster: SUSS with the JETxSM24
The electronics industry is constantly evolving, and with it, the demand for innovative PCB fabrication technologies. Inkjet solder mask coating is a promising new technology that has the potential to revolutionize the PCB manufacturing process. Inkjet solder mask coating is a digital additive manufacturing process that uses inkjet print heads to apply solder mask material directly to the PCB substrate. This process offers a number of advantages over traditional photolithographic solder mask coating methods.
Second place goes, as it did two years ago, to Gebr. Schmid GmbH for its ET process, a novel method for embedding conductor tracks in PCBs using a plasma etching process. Third place goes to Haprotec GmbH with T2020, a material supply system.
Winner in the Semiconductor cluster: AP&S International with NexAStep
By efficiently arranging chemical supplies, drains, storage tanks and control cabinets in the module footprint, a compact design with optimal use of the clean room was achieved. The integration of a robot-supported storage system with automatic loading and unloading of the system ensures fully automated operation with high throughput. The new geometry of the process chamber has been designed to create a chimney effect for optimum fume extraction.
Second place went to Nordson Test & Inspection with MXI Quadra 7 Pro, a 3D/2D inspection system for back-end semiconductor applications. Third place went to F&S Bondtec for its D-USG X digital ultrasonic generator.
Gewinner im Cluster SMT: SmartTec mit smartProLog
Five times right – the right material, in the right quantity, at the right time, in the right place, and with the right traceability. The concept is characterized by high modularity, stability, and flexibility. All materials – including refrigerated solder pastes and cartridges as well as MLS components – can be stored and controlled. Storage and retrieval can be adapted to the customer's needs in various modular stages – up to full automation with MIR robots. Special attention was paid to the multifunctional gripper, the pick rate, and the avoidance of potential disruptions. It is a concept that can be scaled for everything from standard SMT components such as rolls, snippets, rods, etc. to a large-volume magazine station. The software and hardware modules take over the entire material management, production control, and traceability at the product and component level in a modular manner.
globalPoint ICS GmbH & Co. KG took second place with horus, a measuring electronics system for solder profile creation. Third place went to the Asys Group for VEGO AES 03 Speed, a line loader for the fully autonomous feeding of PCB stacks to the SMD line.
Winner in the Inspection & Quality cluster: budatec with the HFTS320 heat flow test system
The contact thermography presented here is a novel method for assessing the quality of primarily soldered or sintered power modules with regard to thermal bonding. By applying a defined thermal pulse to the power semiconductor and observing and documenting both the heating and cooling processes, the behavior of the semiconductor DCB composite is simulated exactly as it should be in operation.
Göpel electronic GmbH took second place with FlashFOX 8, a production programmer for programming non-volatile memories. Third place went to Mirtec GmbH with its ART (Anti-Reflection Technology) Hybrid 3D AOI system.
Winner in the Cable, Coils, and Hybrids cluster: Frisimos – Automated modular production line for cable assembly
The goal of the innovation is to transform the cable assembly industry into a fully automated domain, in order to increase final product quality, and enable manufacturer to increase their capacity. The main technology is miniature robotics that use a machine vision system which is based on machine vision algorithms and AI algorithms that enable the robot to sort the wires on a comb. This was the missing link to enable the robot to do the labor intensive task of wire sorting. Another technology that was developped, is a laser based device that enable to remove aluminum foils from a cable. The system is using a laser source and mirrors that locate on a carousel and move around the cable and adjust its focus during the rotation in order to get a clean cut of the foil although it has a non defined shape.
StoneShield Engineering took second place in the Cables and Coils cluster with RoFHA (Robotic Full Harness Automation), an automated production system for wiring harnesses. Third place went to Schleuniger (Komax) with Strip Series B340, a semi-automated stripping machine.
The productronica Innovation Award 2025 in cooperation with the trade journal productronic