Denso, Toyota partner for semiconductor development

Kariya, Japan – Denso Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. will form a joint venture in April 2020 to develop semiconductors for future vehicles. The Mobility Innovative Research Institute for Semiconductors (Mirise) gets its name from the acronym and the Mirai, the Japanese word for future that Toyota also uses for its hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.

Mirise will accelerate development of next-generation in-vehicle semiconductors that play a key role in electric vehicles (EVs) and automated driving vehicles by combining Toyota's knowledge on mobility with Denso's knowledge on in-vehicle components.

Mirise will work on three technology development fields:

• Power electronics – develop in-house production (including contract manufacturing) by leveraging semiconductor material technologies as well as manufacturing and design technologies accumulated by Toyota and Denso in electrification technologies, mainly in hybrid vehicles
• Sensing – develop in-house production and cooperation with joint development partners
• System-on-a-Chip (SoC) – determine specifications of optimal SoCs for mobility

Mirise plans to work with universities, research institutes, start-ups, and semiconductor-related companies to develop technologies.

Yoshifumi Kato, a Denso senior executive officer, will serve as the venture’s president. The companies expect to invest about $460,000 to establish the venture which will be 51% owned by Denso, 49% owned by Toyota.