The Power of Technology to Support Innovation in Mobility, Energy, and Information and Communications - Sumitomo Electric Industries' Fundamental Strength in Research and Development - Akira Nishimura(Sumitomo Electric Industries)
ODAIBA IX Core/Industrial Transformation (IX) Leaders
Leaders Transforming Industrial Technology (No. 9)

Sumitomo Electric Industries (Sumitomo Electric) is a leading Japanese nonferrous metals manufacturer whose core business is wire harnesses for automobiles. Of the company's approximately 290,000 consolidated employees, more than 80% are engaged in the automotive business, many of whom work overseas. More than 60% of its sales come from overseas markets, and the company has built a system to provide uniform quality products to automakers around the world. Mr. Yo Nishimura, Senior Managing Director and General Manager of R&D Division, says, "Wire harnesses are products made by people. Our competitive advantage lies in our ability to unify the quality of these products on a global scale.

Akira Nishimura, Senior Managing Director and General Manager, Research and Development Division

Sumitomo Electric Industries is currently focusing on three business domains: "Mobility," "Energy," and "Information and Communication. All of these areas are currently undergoing major changes," says Nishimura.

For example, as the placement of electronic control units (ECUs) in automobiles is being redesigned as a result of the shift to EVs, the company is now working on the design of control units as a set with wiring harnesses. In the area of next-generation communications, where high-speed, high-capacity communication is required, the company is also focusing on the development of optical fiber, optical devices, and wireless-related technologies. In the mobility field as well," said Mr. Kurokawa, "there is a strong relationship between information and communications in the area of connectedness, and the shift to EVs is deepening the relationship between energy and information communications. Energy and information and telecommunications are also becoming increasingly related, for example, through smart grids," said Nishimura. In addition to expanding existing businesses, the company is looking to the future to further grow its business by interacting with each other's technologies through research and development.

Originally, Sumitomo Electric Industries' business originated from Sumitomo's copper business, which started with stretching copper to make electric wires and attaching sheathing materials to make cables. Using such wire technology, the company has expanded its business to include wire harnesses, which are said to be circuits inside automobiles, and electronic component materials. Furthermore, in response to optical communication, which has been the focus of attention as a transmission technology since around 1970, the company has expanded its business to include optical fibers, devices, and materials. Although it appears that we have expanded into a variety of business fields, including new businesses, you can see that the foundation of our business is related to wires and cables. This is both our aim and our strength" (Nishimura).

So what kind of initiatives are underway in the respective focus areas of "mobility," "energy," and "information and communications?

Mobility expanding to ECUs, etc., and energy from electric wire and battery technology

First, in the mobility field, as mentioned above, wire harnesses will be the company's main products. In addition, Sumitomo Electric Industries is also involved in system products such as traffic control systems supplied to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Sumitomo Electric Industries is also involved in ECUs that control automobiles, as they are closely related to wiring harnesses.

In the energy field, the company will focus on the ultra-high-voltage direct current cable business. There are two types of power transmission, AC and DC, and demand for DC power cables is increasing, especially in Europe, because DC power cables are more efficient in transmitting power. There are only a few manufacturers in the world, including Sumitomo Electric, that can produce ultra-high voltage power cables, and we are working on this," said Nishimura. Sumitomo Electric Industries is responding to demand in Europe by participating in inter-national power transmission lines such as Nemolink between the UK and Belgium. The company is strengthening its local production system by building a new plant in Scotland and acquiring an existing plant in Germany.

Another project that has attracted attention is the joint verification of hydrogen carrier technology that is being undertaken with a domestic energy company. Sumitomo Electric Industries' flow cell electrolyzer is playing an active role in this scheme, in which hydrogen produced overseas, such as in Australia, is converted into a liquid carrier, methylcyclohexane, which can be transported at room temperature, and the hydrogen is extracted in Japan. Mr. Nishimura points out the potential of applying the structure of Sumitomo Electric's redox flow cell to a hydrogen carrier synthesizer, saying, "The cost of hydrogen transportation and storage could be greatly reduced.

Cable and material technology utilized in the latest information and telecommunications

In the field of information and telecommunications, in addition to wired communications such as optical fiber, the scope is expanding to wireless communications. In wired communications, for example, in recent years, the company has been focusing on the development of multi-core fiber (MCF) as part of its efforts to achieve high-density optical communications through the use of multi-core fiber. As of 2022, we have successfully demonstrated 3,000 km-class optical submarine cable transmission using 4-core fiber, and by 2023 we will have succeeded in mass-producing extremely low-loss 2-core fiber that can be applied to transoceanic submarine optical cables. We believe that Sumitomo Electric's MCFs will be the choice for fields that require extremely high-density communications, such as submarine cables and inter-data center communications," said Nishimura.
GaN (gallium nitride) devices, which excel in low-power consumption performance, will be increasingly used in communications, and 5G will see the use of not only macro base stations that cover a wide area, but also Massive MIMO base stations that create pinpoint areas by beamforming using phased array antennas. Masahiro Kobayashi, Senior Fellow and Chief Engineer, R&D Headquarters, says, "Sumitomo Electric offers compact and low power consumption (high efficiency) devices suited to each through its GaN device product lineup. The GaN business is a technology developed by Sumitomo Electric Device Innovation, a subsidiary of Sumitomo Electric, and now The GaN business is a technology developed by Sumitomo Electric Device Innovation, a subsidiary of Sumitomo Electric, and is now being utilized globally in many places.

Masahiro Kobayashi, Senior Fellow, Chief Engineer, Research and Development Division

In addition, the company is also promoting efforts to spread the use of 5G millimeter wave. Millimeter wave has a narrower cell range and more base stations. For high-density installations, it is essential to reduce the size and power consumption of base stations. Kazutaka Kawamoto, Director of the Information Network R&D Center, says, "When considering a distributed antenna system, existing technology passes digital signals through optical fiber between the receiving station side and the overhanging millimeter wave antenna device. By adopting analog RoF (Radio over Fiber) technology, digital-to-analog conversion on the antenna device side becomes unnecessary. We believe that this technology can contribute to the spread of millimeter wave antennas by enabling ultra-compact millimeter wave antenna devices with one-tenth the size and low power consumption with one-third the size," he explains.

In millimeter wave, where a large number of antenna devices need to be installed, cost advantages can be created if small, low-power antennas can be provided. Millimeter-wave antennas using analog RoF were dynamically exhibited and attracted a large audience at MWC Barcelona 2025 in March 2025.

Kazutaka Kawamoto, Director, Information Network R&D Center

Pointy analytical technology and the power of materials light up the future

Materials technology and analysis technology support Sumitomo Electric Industries' business, which has expanded from wires and cables to a wide variety of fields. Mr. Nishimura explains, "Based on our wire and cable technologies, we have developed material technologies for metals, resins, and compound semiconductors in a variety of fields. At the foundation of this development is analysis technology that enables visualization of materials and processes and clarification of the essence of issues. The main point is that we have our own in-house analysis technology, rather than outsourcing analysis," he says.

One such technology is analysis using synchrotron radiation. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) using synchrotron radiation is an advanced analysis technology that can reveal the state of elements and chemical bonds by controlling arbitrary depth with nanometer precision. Sumitomo Electric Industries has access to a large synchrotron radiation facility (SPring-8) in Hyogo Prefecture and also owns a Sumitomo Electric beamline in SAGA-LS, a synchrotron radiation facility in Saga Prefecture. Utilizing these facilities, the company conducts nano-scale material evaluation and process analysis in an in-house complete manner. For example, "It was known empirically that bandwidth can be expanded by adding a trace amount of a certain element to an optical fiber, but why is this so? By clarifying the reason using synchrotron radiation, we have found a way to achieve the same effect with materials other than the element in question," Nishimura says, referring to one of his achievements.

The company is also working on DX for R&D to promote faster development and higher precision. By changing the modeling required when designing GaN devices from conventional mathematical models to AI-utilized models using neural networks (ANN models), we have been able to significantly reduce the discrepancy between actual measurements and model values. This method has been highly evaluated at international conferences as a method that can be utilized for high-precision design," said Kobayashi.

Sumitomo Electric Industries is making effective use of such R&D to develop various businesses and technologies that originate from wires and cables. The company's technological exploration, which extends to wireless communications, is likely to contribute to 5G millimeter wave and 6G in the future.

(TeleGraphic Editorial Board)