Tomy RUNNE
General Manager MEMS Sensors Product Engineering
Department Murata (China) Investment Co., Ltd.
Runne joined the former VTI Technologies Oy in 1998 and was appointed to a customer service position. He was responsible for Asia-Pacific area sales from 2000 to 2004 and managed sales in Japan and South Korea while staying in Japan between 2004 and 2012. Since 2013 he has been staying in China with the responsibility for the development of Asian regional business. Runne loves swimming and running.
At the former VTI Technologies Oy, I had been responsible for its business with Japanese and South Korean automakers and Tier 1 suppliers. I spearhead the development of the Chinese market and other markets from Shanghai.
Murata Electronics Oy has a rich experience in helping ensure safety by supplying its components to the promising automotive industry. What can we do to have customers understand our leadership in emerging markets where demand is expected to increase rapidly? We face the new challenge of winning over customers with our short technology-intensive value chain.
New Growth Strategies with a Focus on MEMS Technology
Murata Electronics Oy's core products include accelerometers, gyro sensors, and inclinometers, all of which are used to perform a broad range of vehicle control functions. Based in Finland, the former VTI Technologies Oy, founded in 1991, joined the Murata Group in January 2012. It boasts over 20 years of experience in the development, production, and marketing of various silicon-based MEMS sensors. The company's unique 3D MEMS technology is highly regarded by customers in the markets for automotive, industrial, and medical equipment. Products incorporating this technology are used to measure acceleration, inclination, impact, vibration, pressure, etc. I hope that VTI's business focus on the automotive market will combine with Murata's development and marketing power to ensure sustainable growth. In their efforts to reduce the weight of their vehicles for better fuel efficiency, automakers now need to minimize the number of components in a vehicle. Murata's material design technology, developing components right from the material design phase, and packaging technology will meet this need. I am convinced that combining VTI technologies with Murata's unique technologies will bring our customers multiple benefits. I hope to serve as a bridge here in various ways.
MEMS Products Find Use in Vehicle Safety Systems Such as ESC and TPMS
Our technology is utilized in a broad range of automotive fields. For example, Electronic Stability Control (ESC) detects skidding during sudden steering operations or while driving on slippery surfaces, and automatically maintains the correct vehicle position. As a component of this system, we design and produce accelerometers that decide in tenths of a second whether in bends, the vehicle shows an understeer tendency (front wheels skidding to the outside) or an oversteer tendency (rear wheels skidding to the inside) . Pressure sensors are used to measure air pressures in tires for vehicles and aircrafts. Here, sensor modules in tires and a receiver in the vehicle's interior are used to inform the driver of tire pressures while in motion. In the automotive market, the use of tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) was mandated in North America in 2007. Since November 2012, it has also been a legal requirement to incorporate this system in new vehicles sold in Europe. Japanese and Chinese authorities have begun studying the possibility of mandating the use of this technology in vehicles. These developments are expected to increase the market size for our products. In the future, pressure sensors are also expected to find use under more demanding conditions such as those for engine injection pressure and hydraulic pressure.