HOKURIKU ELECTRIC INDUSTRY CO., LTD

Established in 1943, Hokuriku Electric Industry Co., Ltd is a manufacturer of electronic components and devices. Headquartered in Toyama City, Japan, the company employs 2,040 employees worldwide and has offices throughout Asia and in North America. The firm maintains six factories in its home country, two in China, one in Malaysia, and another in Thailand. Hokuriku specializes in designing, developing, and manufacturing a range of chip fixed, metal plate chip, fixed metal, and variable resistors. The firm also offers high-quality attenuators, circuit boards, IC substrates, mechanical devices, module products, printed circuit boards, piezoelectric components, sensors, switches, terminators, thermistors, and varistors. The company primarily serves the appliance, automotive, home entertainment, and mobile device markets. Throughout its near 80 year history, Hokuriku has followed one guiding principle: anticipate change. The company understands technological advancement occurs rapidly and strives to predict how new concepts will shape the world. To keep pace with the speed of evolution, the firm is focused on pushing the electronic components sector forward. Because of its pioneering ethos, the manufacturer has created a catalog full of products suitable for the most ambitious design projects. One highlight of the firm’s portfolio is the SFB Sensor. The item is a noncontact, surface-mountable temperature detector that has an ultrasensitive measurement resolution of +/-0.3°C. The manufacturer also designed the line with a compact 2.2mm x 2.2mm x 0.9mm form factor, making it ideal for use in smartphones and wearables. Hokuriku teamed with the University of Tokyo, Department of Mechanical Engineering to develop its rotary electret energy harvester. Made with semi-permanently charged electret material, the device can collect energy from light movements. The 1-inch variety of the product has output voltage rating 20μW at one revolution per second so that it would make for a great addition in a new Internet of Things device. Because of its passion for breaking new ground, Hokuriku will likely stand at the forefront of the electronic components industry through its centennial.