productronica Innovation Award 2025: The winners have been chosen

The decision has been made in the productronica Innovation Award 2025. An independent jury has selected the best innovations from among 80 submissions in six categories. The announcement was made right on time for the opening of productronica, the world’s leading trade fair for electronics development and production.

Messe München is already presenting the productronica Innovation Award for the sixth time since 2015. Interest remains unbroken as CEO Reinhard Pfeiffer emphasizes: “Almost 80 applications speak for themselves. The award has long been more than just a distinction. It sets the pace for new products and underscores the innovative power of the entire industry.”

Winner in the “Cables, Coils & Hybrids” Cluster: Komax
Matijas Meyer, CEO Komax Group: “In combination with other innovations that we are presenting at productronica this year, the AIC quality monitoring system is a further step in our efforts to continuously advance the automation of wire processing. This award confirms the innovative power of the Komax Group, which has characterized the company since it was founded 50 years ago and constantly provides our customers with new competitive advantages.”

Winner in the “Future Markets” Cluster: Xplain Data
Dr. Michael Haft, CEO Xplain Data: “This award is a great validation for our team and our customers’ trust. CausalDiscoverer YieldPro shows how AI in manufacturing should be: explainable and action-oriented. The award spurs us on to further innovations: analyzing even the most complex production processes holistically with Causal AI and optimizing them in a targeted manner.”

Winner in the “Inspection & Quality” Cluster: Palitronica
Florian Fischmeister, CEO and co-founder of Palitronica: “We are honored to take first place in the “Inspection & Quality” Cluster. This award reflects our commitment to pushing the boundaries of hardware cybersecurity and manufacturing integrity. We look forward to continuing this momentum while helping to ensure that you can trust every electronic component you buy or manufacture.”

Winner in the “PCB & EMS” Cluster: Schmid Group
Christian Schmid, CEO Schmid Group: “With the InfinityLine L+, the SCHMID Group has developed a CMP solution that enables the precision we are acquainted with from semiconductor manufacturing to be achieved on large format substrates. We are setting new standards with the InfinityLine L+ in terms of planarity, process stability, and automation. This key technology is an important step for future advanced packaging solutions and shows how consistency, engineering, and team spirit enable the SCHMID Group to create groundbreaking innovations.”

Winner in the “Semiconductors” Cluster: AP&S International
Tobias Bausch, CMO & CTO AP&S International: “We are proud and honored that our box cleaner “CleanSurF automated” received the productronica Innovation Award 2025 in the Semiconductor Cluster. This recognition once again confirms our commitment to setting new standards in semiconductor manufacturing with maximum precision, automation, and process reliability. My thanks go to our entire team—together, we are shaping the future of wet process technology.”

Winner in the “SMT” Cluster: Ersa
Rainer Krauss, General Sales Manager Ersa: “We are very proud and delighted about the productronica Innovation Award for Versafit One. Versafit One is a semi-automatic press-fit machine that meets the requirements of EMS and in-house manufacturers. It is Ersa’s entry into press-fit technology to manufacture printed circuit boards for high-performance electronics, which are then used, for example, in electromobility or in producing green electricity.”

The individual submissions were assessed by an independent jury comprising the following members:

• Dr. Sandra Engle, VDMA
• Sebastian Glatz, ZVEI
• Dr.-Ing. Udo Gommel, Fraunhofer IPA
• Dr. Maik Hampicke, Fraunhofer IZM
• Dr. Andrej Novikov, University of Rostock
• Helge Schimanski, Fraunhofer ISIT

The productronica Innovation Award is the first independent award in the electronics manufacturing sector and is organized in close cooperation with the trade journal productronic (Hüthig Medien).