Japan’s Rohm sets up R&D Centre in Bangalore, eyes major biz in auto electronics

Japanese auto electronics parts maker Rohm Semiconductor has set up its new R&D Centre in Bangalore. With this, the company has chalked out plans to play a major role in the Indian automotive electronics market.

Talking to Autocar Professional, Akihito Tomii, managing director, Rohm Semiconductors India, said the company is considering India as one of its potential markets.

The company manufactures auto electronic parts in the areas like integrated circuits (ICs), discrete semiconductor and passive electronic components. Currently the company has a workforce of around 35 employees in India, of which 25 engineers will work in the R&D Centre, which commenced is operations in May this year.  

Without disclosing about the company’s Indian investment, Tomii said the company has been supplying its products to almost all top Tier 1 and Tier 2 auto electronic component manufacturers in India.

Although Rohm has been catering to multiple sectors like smartphone and set-top box operators, the company’s focus in India would be in the areas like automotive electronics and industrial equipment.

 Although the company entered India with its representative office in 2006, it had established its 100 percent owned subsidiary in 2011 and now R&D in order to grow its footprint into the Indian market.

At present, the company has three R&D centres in Japan, two in China, one each in Taiwan, Korea, Canada, the US and Germany. The new Indian R&D centre in Bangalore will support its global operations while also researching on India specific projects, he added. Further the company has set up its R&D in Bangalore on the back of strong engineering talent pool here.

Currently it has manufacturing operations in 19 locations across the world. Its notable automotive electronics parks are LED light source modules, custom power modules, LED drivers for headlamps and rear lamps, surveillance video decoders and earth leakage detector ICs.  A majority of its products are used in instrument clusters, digital instrument panel. Infotainment, telematics and Electronic Control Unites (ECUs) used in various parts of a vehicle.