The JSAE (Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan) held the Automotive Technology Exposition 2025 at Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, from 21 to 23 May. This was the 32nd exhibition, and 617 companies participated, including automobile and parts manufacturers, exhibiting electrification and autonomous driving technologies. The number of participants increased by about 27 companies compared to last year, making it the largest ever: about 1,470 expo booths, including joint exhibits. Approximately 76,000 visitors came through over the three days.
At the opening ceremony, JSAE Chairman Kunio Nakaguro said, “At the JSAE, we believe it is our mission to continue to create connections between the various people involved in the automotive industry and local communities, toward the further evolution of automotive and mobility technology and the realization of a mobility society of the future. This year’s exhibition had the largest number of participating companies ever. Hopefully this exhibition will connect us not only with the automotive industry, but also with colleagues in new fields, leading to further development”.
Unfortunately, Koito Manufacturing and Stanley Electric did not have exhibits, but several suppliers made interesting exhibits and presentations:
Heat Lab
The transparent film heater developed by Heat Lab, headquartered in Shizuoka Prefecture, has high transmittance and no heating wire in the heating area. So, it’s well-suited for heating areas where visibility is required. Unlike heaters with heating wires, the entire surface generates heat. It is highly efficient, and heats quite evenly. The film heater is flexible, about 0.1 to 0.3 mm thin, and can be attached to curved surfaces such as cylindrical shapes. It is expected to be used mainly for headlamps, tail lamps, lidar, and sensor cover lenses that require visibility, for anti-fogging, anti-condensation, anti-freezing, anti-snowing, and snow melting applications.
Mitsubishi Chemical
Mitsubishi Chemical have capability from optical analysis to mould creation and mass production, and they’ve developed ambient lighting as door illumination, for Lexus applications. The moulded prism pattern allows it to shine evenly from the tip to the end. It consists of a light body, reflector case, circuit board, and peripheral parts. The mass-produced exhibit is 60H × 700W × 30D mm, but even larger sizes are also possible.
Eska is a plastic optical fibre product that exploits the excellent light-transmission properties of acrylic resins. It possesses a number of important characteristics not found in glass optical fibre, including light weight, flexibility, and easy processability. Mitsubishi Chemical market Eska for a wide variety of applications, including ambient lighting for entire door panel surfaces.
Ichikoh
Ichikoh exhibited HD lighting in the form of their Advanced Safety Headlamp in the current Toyota Alphard. HD Lighting is a technology that divides the Headlamp irradiation area into 20,000 pixels and controls each one individually.
By precisely controlling the illumination range of both low and high beams, it improves the driver’s visibility and supports driving, increasing safety and comfort when driving at night. In the high beam range, high-definition glare-free high beams ensure maximum visibility. In addition, precise light distribution control reduces the light emitted on signs, reducing glare caused by reflections, and blocks light from pedestrians to prevent dazzling. In addition to controlling the light distribution of high beams, the high resolution of the low beam irradiation range makes it possible to depict road surfaces such as symbols, improving smooth communication and safety for road users in the future autonomous driving market.
Ichikoh introduced their lamps as part of Ichikoh’s 4R Philosophy of Robust Design, Recycle, Repair, and Remanufacturing, and introduced their efforts toward the circular economy.
Murata
Murata’s MEMS 6-axis inertial sensor combines gyro and accelerometer for automobiles. It is in serial production and now available for autodynamic headlight levelling applications.
Elmos
Elmos are a world leader in Ambient Light control, with over 400 million LIN RGB controller ICs in the field, and in dynamic rear light animations. They presented their LED Driver solutions for ambient and rear lighting, claimed as the highest flexibility for LED control in a dynamic animation. Specifically: their 48-channel high-side LED driver E522.96 with high-speed CAN/FD interface for fast automotive LED/OLED exterior lighting applications.
They also showed their bus-programmable 12-channel LED driver, E521.38, which is a multichannel PWM controller for RGB/W ambient light application. It provides integrated current sources controlled by PWM with 16-bit resolution. Each driver can be used to drive external loads with current up to 60mA. Target application is dynamic interior lighting.
Seoul Semiconductor
Seoul Semiconductor, № 3 in the global LED market (after Nichia and ams Osram) presented their automotive technologies.
Exhibits included their WICOP (wafer-integrated chip on PCB) technology which mounts the chip directly onto the substrate without using wires or a package. This method eliminates the traditional packaging steps, allowing for a slimmer design.