Members’ Profiles

Kyocera Corporation
Established in 1959, Kyocera is a manufacturer
specializing in fine ceramics. Over the years, the company
has expanded its applications of fine ceramics into a wide
range of industries and has developed diverse
enterprises, from the production of fine ceramic materials
and ceramic components, such as industrial machineryparts, electronic components, and semiconductor
packages, to solar power generating systems, cutting
tools, jewelry, medical products, mobile phones, anddocument imaging equipment, as well as network systems
and other services.
Kyocera began with twenty-eight employees nearly
half a century ago. Today, the company has expanded its
operations into more than thirty countries worldwide,with more than 180 affiliate companies. The Kyocera
Group has grown into a global corporation with some
68,000 employees and a trillion yen in annual sales.
Kyocera has espoused the managerial philosophy ofenabling each employee to pursue material and spiritual
happiness, by which we hope to contribute to theadvancement of society and humankind. Our goal is togrow continually as a creative-based company, honing acompetitive edge in each business division. To accomplish
this, we practice our own management system, called
Amoeba Management, based on our corporate philosophy,
and continuously strive to develop new technologies andnew quality high-performance products for our customers.
Kyocera also aggressively engages in environmentalactivities. Recognizing that our business activities canimpact the global environment and human life, we haveadopted a clear vision for environmental preservation,
promoting “green management” aimed at finding a balance
between eco-friendly practices and economic
development to assure sustainable growth within thecompany. As a leader of green management, it is our social
responsibility as a manufacturer to reduce the impact ouractivities have on the environment. Even during the earlyyears, the company has rigorously practiced
environmental management, establishing stricter internal
standards than public regulations.
Kyocera adheres to the tenet that the customer comes
first, with the aim of supplying products and services at a
price and quality that our customers have come to expect,while continuously delivering new value to the global
market.

major issue in today’s electronic devices, and the demand
for noise reduction components is likely to increase.
AVX Corporation, which is part of the Kyocera Group,
is one of the largest manufacturers of capacitors in theworld, particularly tantalum capacitors. AVX also
produces ceramic capacitors, electric double-layer
capacitors, film capacitors, and numerous others fordiverse applications.
The production of RF modules is also an essential
business today, and Kyocera specializes in modules
formed of multilayer substrates fired at low temperatures.
We supply miniature low-profile Bluetooth modules andRF modules for mobile telephones. The modules havefilters and other functions built into the multilayer
substrates.
The piezoelectric property of fine ceramics is also
applied to a product lineup including oscillators, shock
sensors, and piezo buzzers. Piezoelectric ceramics convert
electric signals into mechanical vibrations, or vice versa.
This property has been applied to acoustic components,actuators, and power generating elements, with more
applications anticipated. SAW (surface acoustic wave)
devices also employ this piezoelectric property. SAW
filters, commonly used in mobile devices, have comb
electrodes formed on the surface of a monocrystalline
material that convert mechanical vibrations propagating
across the surface of the crystal into electric signals.
Kyocera Elco supplies numerous connectors forelectronic equipment to meet the demands for higher
circuit density, lower profiles, smaller footprints, andgreater functionality.
Our product lineup includes numerous other highperformance electronic devices, such as thermal print
heads produced with thin film technology, LCDs forindustrial use, and amorphous silicon photoreceptor
drums.
Kyocera Kinseki produces various timing devices andother crystal products that utilize the piezoelectric
property of crystals, such as crystal units and oscillators.
As mobile phones and other electronic products become
increasingly smaller in size, there is continuous demand toreduce the size of components. For example, temperaturecompensated crystal oscillators (TCXO), which areconsidered the heart of mobile phones, are now 1/150th thesize of those produced fifteen years ago. To produce suchcompact oscillators, the ceramic packages and crystal
units had to be greatly reduced in size. We are nowe x p l o r i n g
ultraprecision
micromachining
based on MEMS
technology
inorder to achieveevengreaterminiaturizationand manufacturing
p r e c i s i o n ,particularly withcrystal units.

Electronic Components and Devices
Kyocera produces a wide variety of electronic
components using fine ceramic technologies, including
multilayer ceramic capacitors and EMI filters formed ofdielectric ceramic materials. The smallest of the multilayer
ceramic capacitors is currently a mere 0.4x0.2 mm, andthe trend toward miniaturization is expected to continue.
To manufacture such miniature components, innovative
micromachining techniques are required in material
formation, printing, laminating, and other steps of theprocess. EMI filters designed for reducing noise areanother component produced by laminating sheets ofdielectric material. Reducing electromagnetic noise is aMICRONANO No. 65
MICRONANO is published quarterly by Micromachine Center (MMC) to promote the international exchange of
information related to micromachines, R&D and other technical topics, and is circulated free of change. Please send
your comments about MICRONANO to the publisher :Keiichi Aoyagi, Executive Director, Micromachine Center (MMC)
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Tel : +81-3-5835-1870, Fax : +81-3-5835-1873
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