2024.07.12
History of Technologies Created by the Panasonic Group
If These Technologies Had Not Been Invented…
Technologies Making an Impact on the World

The Panasonic Group has been manufacturing wiring fixtures for over 100 years, and it has continuously expanded and upgraded its product line to meet the needs of the times. The improved attachment plug of 1918 was the company's first product, marking a pioneering achievement in safe, comfortable, and convenient products.

Rechargeable batteries store energy so that it can be used as electric power whenever necessary. The technologies of Matsushita Electric and SANYO Electric, once fierce rivals in the battery business, have been integrated, thus accelerating efforts to contribute to people's lifestyles and society.

Rechargeable batteries have evolved along with the increase in cordless home appliances in Japan, and they continue to evolve with advances in technologies that make them more miniature, lightweight, and higher capacity. In the late 1950s, the two companies each launched its own development of nickel-cadmium batteries and carried on research and development to improve reliability as well as ensure a sealed structure, which eventually contributed to the miniaturization of video cameras. Following the development of nickel-metal hydride batteries with a higher energy density, they were adopted in laptop computers and mobile phones in the 1990s, providing reassurance that devices could last longer without having to recharge. In the late 1990s, lightweight, higher-energy density lithium-ion batteries emerged, dominating the rechargeable battery market. Due to increased concerns over environmental and energy issues with the coming of the 2000s, the focus shifted from consumer to automotive batteries. In the EV battery market, the Panasonic Group is pursuing technological innovation to maintain a presence in the North American market, where there is a particularly high need for higher-capacity batteries to achieve a longer driving range. This evolution was backed by the discovery of new materials, providing higher capacity and energy density, as well as higher levels of technological capabilities to promote the relentless pursuit of product improvement.

In the 1970s, Panasonic’s radio business had stagnated due to competition from Southeast Asian products. However, the 1977 release of the Pepper R-012, an innovative 12.7-mm thin radio, changed all that.

While Konosuke Matsushita had high expectations for Pepper, he insisted that the development team be mindful of cost and time to market and, moreover, that basic performance not be compromised by its thinness. Therefore, company-wide efforts were made to innovate the technology for mounting components on printed circuit boards while automating this mounting process. At the same time, the team also developed ultra-small and thin components, such as a 9.5-mm-thick miniature speaker, a synthetic resin speaker diaphragm, a rectangular chip resistor, and a flexible wiring board that could be bent. As a result, the Pepper was born, introducing a small, thin, and reliable radio that could fit into the breast pocket of a shirt. It was a huge hit, with more than one million units sold in the series, and it also became the technological foundation for a variety of subsequent products. Furthermore, the technology was the starting point for Group’s avionics business which began by equipping radios in airline seats and now has evolved to full screen In-flight Entertainment Systems and Wi-Fi connectivity services. Today, the company is a world leading supplier of in-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) solutions for the aviation industry.

Image stabilization technology is a standard feature of today's digital cameras. In fact, Panasonic invented this technology and was the world's first company to implement it. This invention was inspired by a discovery during a trip to Hawaii.

Around 1980, an engineer traveled to Hawaii with a colleague. While driving, the colleague tried to film the scenery with a large video camera he held on his shoulder. Observing the colleague's physical movement made to prevent images from blurring, the engineer noticed that it was a rotational movement at the waist and thought that a gyro sensor, which he was considering using in a car navigation system, could solve this problem. Back in Japan, he succeeded in miniaturizing gyro sensors, which were previously difficult to use inside a camera, and in developing an image stabilization mechanism and algorithm. In 1988, Panasonic released the world's first video camera with image stabilization. When showcased at an exhibition in the US, it amazed and impressed visitors. This technology was also highly regarded scientifically, with the original research paper being recognized as novel and unique at an academic conference. A patent was also filed, making Panasonic both in name and in fact the world's first manufacturer to install an image stabilizer in a camera.

Countermeasures against heat are crucial for smartphones. High-performance CPUs installed in mobile devices, which have been miniaturized to the smallest possible size, produce high heat that requires measures to prevent functional decline. The Graphite Sheet significantly contributes to dissipating this heat.

When it's used, hydrogen does not emit CO₂, raising expectations for it as a next-generation energy source. The fuel cell generator is a system that generates electricity and heat by causing chemical reactions between hydrogen and oxygen. The well-known ENE FARM is a household fuel cell generator that Panasonic put on the market for the first time in the world.

Basic research into fuel cells was launched in the late 1950s, and research on polymer electrolyte fuel cells^* began in 1991. Both projects were halted in midcourse due to the circumstances surrounding them. Nevertheless, as the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol^** in 1997 rapidly raised the public's environmental awareness, Panasonic began research on household fuel cell generators under the slogan "From Energy Conservation to Energy Creation." Because this product development required a variety of technologies, in 2001, a group-wide team of engineers from different fields of expertise assembled to launch the Fuel Cell Generator Commercialization Project. The initial prototype could generate power for only 72 hours. Two years later, in 2004, Panasonic achieved power generation of 2,000 hours, and then spent three more years to eventually achieve 40,000 hours. Meanwhile, in 2005, a large-scale demonstration of the generator was conducted in the official residence of the Japanese Prime Minister, as well as in other houses. In 2008, Panasonic completed the technology development, which led in the next year to the release of the world's first household fuel cell generator under the name ENE FARM.
^＊ Polymer electrolyte fuel cell: A fuel cell using a polymer membrane as its electrolyte. Panasonic uses this type of fuel cell for its effective use of heat.
^＊＊ Kyoto Protocol: The international treaty adopted at the third session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP3), held in Kyoto, for promoting international efforts to address global warming.

The nano-sized particulate ions enveloped in water, called nanoe, are far smaller than water vapor, and they are effective in suppressing bacteria, viruses, pollens, and molds, as well as in deodorization and beauty care.

In 1997, Panasonic launched research into nanoe, a unique technology for generating nanoe ions by applying high voltage to condensed water extracted from the atmosphere. A nanoe device was added to air purifiers for the first time in 2003, expanding the range of applications from consumer electronics to trains, cars, hospitals, hotels, and offices. By leveraging the power of water to dissolve contamination and odor, Panasonic has provided clean and comfortable spaces throughout the world. In 2021, Panasonic modified the counter electrode plate from the conventional four-needle shape to a dome shape that forms countless discharge points in a conical shape, thus completing the development of the new nanoe X device. This expanded the area for generating OH radicals,^* achieving a 100-fold increase (to 48 trillion per second) in the number of OH radicals contained in an ion compared to the original nanoe. As one of Panasonic's core technologies, nanoe is still evolving.
^＊ The source element exerting nanoe effects. The larger the number, the higher and quicker the expected effects.