What makes AKM different?

The widespread use of EVs and automated driving has expanded the ways for people to spend time in a cabin such as entertainment that is available while they are travelling and video phones with another person at a remote end and, in the future, the aspect of a vehicle cabin as a private space will become more prominent.

There is a need for further comfort and safety in the vehicle's cabin. For example, in the EV and autonomous driving era, it is necessary to design an audio and voice system that is suitable for this purpose, such as cancelling environmental noise that has never been noticed before, providing an audio experience with a greater sense of reality, and establishing a communication system with an external party in an emergency.

Meanwhile, information and computations such as image processing and communication for automatic driving continue to become complex and optimization of the entire system of automobiles is required. In order to meet consumers' needs for a sound environment in private spaces, we need a device solution that is ideal for building audio and voice systems.

Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM) has accumulated hands-free calls and in-vehicle communication technologies that have been developed over more than 15 years in the automotive field. There are a variety of noise sources in the cabin environment, which is far from ideal for carrying out conversations. To achieve the environment that enables natural conversations, a high level echo cancellation/noise cancellation technology is required. 

A deep understanding and experience of an in-vehicle sound environment are necessary, including not only the technology of the device itself, but also the tuning of microphones and speakers, as well as the knowledge of solutions developed by a sophisticated combination of software and devices.

AKM products has been adopted by a wide range of customers, mainly for car infotainment. Nowadays, approximately 20 million DSP solutions for AKM products have been shipped per year, which is approximately 20% of the number of cars shipped per year. AKM also provides voice DSPs suitable for emergency reporting systems. We have earned the confidence of our customers through our achievements over many years in the automotive field, where high reliability is required.

We are also developing advanced DSP solutions, such as active road noise cancellation, audio effects and engine sound synthesis tailored to the cabin environment, and cabin karaoke. We are pursuing audio and voice technologies with a view to the ways of spending time in a vehicle cabin as a private space.

We will continue to contribute further to comfort and safety of automobiles in the audio & voice field in the future.