Based on the concept of Lighting 5.0, the applicable range of lighting is expanding and evolving from devices that simply ensure brightness, into intellectual infrastructure systems which provide a variety of values, including safety, comfort, environmental friendliness, and data utilization.

Toshiba Lighting & Technology Corporation is responding by developing the following technologies which create new value with lighting fixtures: (1) technology to detect and notify of unsafe behaviors by combining artificial intelligence (AI) and a lighting fixture with a camera, (2) technology to improve the energy efficiency and construction performance of lighting fixtures via wireless communication, (3) technology to inactivate bacteria by irradiation with ultraviolet (UV) light, and (4) technology to remotely facilitate maintenance and adjust operations of lighting fixtures via a digital twin in cyber-physical systems (CPS). These technologies are expected to contribute to the solution of various social issues.

OTORI Kaira / TAKAYANAGI Yoshiyuki / NISHIGAKI Hidenori

To ensure safety at manufacturing sites, it is essential to prevent accidents and immediately respond to various situations in the event of an incident. However, safety initiatives dependent on visual inspections being carried out by safety managers at sites pose several problems, including overlooking unsafe behaviors associated with the risk of incidents and delayed responses after incidents.

Toshiba Lighting & Technology Corporation has developed an image processing system capable of automatically detecting and notifying of unsafe behaviors at manufacturing sites based on the results of analyzed images captured by ViewLED, a camera-equipped lighting fixture, using artificial intelligence (AI). This system makes it possible to detect and notify of whether workers are wearing adequate protective equipment such as safety glasses, gloves, etc., unsafe behaviors, and falls in real time.

ISHIZAKA Daisuke / FUJIWARA Kenichi / MINAMISAWA Akira

Energy conservation is attracting more attention every year as part of efforts to achieve carbon neutrality. In offices, however, it has become difficult to efficiently control lighting and air conditioning due to diversified work patterns and duties because of widely adopted remote work and flexible seating arrangements.

The Toshiba Group has developed technology to optimize lighting and air conditioning operations in response to changes in the number and location of occupants in offices to conserve energy. We have conducted energy-saving demonstration experiments in the offices at our research and development facility by using and linking various data collected from ViewLED camera-equipped light-emitting diode (LED) lighting fixtures and other equipment via a digital twin, confirming that it reduces electricity by about 46% for lighting and about 15% for air conditioning, respectively, compared with conventional technology at an in-office attendance rate of 60%. Furthermore, within the in-office attendance rate range of 10% to 50%, we confirmed that a lower in-office attendance rate tends to result in greater energy-saving effects. This optimal control allows us to make proposals that accommodate diverse office environments.

ONO Tomotsugu / MURAKI Kensuke / SUGITA Mizuki

Lighting control systems are being installed at more large-scale facilities than ever, including buildings, to improve the energy-saving performance of lighting. This has resulted in increased demand in recent years for lighting control systems that can be easily installed in small-scale facilities.

Toshiba Lighting & Technology Corporation released LinkLED Air, a wireless lighting control system for small-scale facilities, in April 2024, making it easy to introduce energy-saving lighting controls by eliminating the need for wiring when renovating existing lighting fixtures. We have developed the following two key elements to improve the reliability and responsiveness of LinkLED Air for automatically controlling lighting using sensor data: (1) a communication method that reduces data loss, and (2) control technology that prioritizes transmitting important data from a tablet which controls lighting and collects information from sensors, ensuring stable operations even in environments where many sensors operate simultaneously.

SAKOTA Riria / SAKAI Yoshimi / SUWA Tenrei

Modern theater operations face various challenges, such as fewer opportunities for site inspections, frequent inquiries about facilities and seating, complicated maintenance and management, etc. This has resulted in growing demand for advanced digital transformation (DX) technologies, including three-dimensional (3D) visualization and data utilization, in theater business operations.

Toshiba Lighting & Technology Corporation has developed Theatre Concierge, a virtual theater guidance service which provides a variety of theater-related information attached to interior theater images accurately reproduced using spatial 3D scanning technology. Introducing Theatre Concierge at theaters has shown it to be effective in streamlining seat guidance tasks, reducing complaints, and has reached an average of 4 000 uses per month. The service is also available in educational and remote support fields.

ITO Kei

Ultraviolet (UV) irradiation equipment is increasingly being used in various applications such as eliminating viruses and bacteria, curing resin in the manufacturing process, etc. On the other hand, a lack of experienced personnel to maintain such equipment on-site poses major challenges due to critical labor shortages in Japan.

Toshiba Lighting & Technology Corporation has developed a compact monitoring system for UV irradiation equipment which can be externally attached to and accurately identify the conditions of existing UV irradiation equipment at all times based on existing equipment sensors to address unexpected situations and gradual performance degradations. We are aiming to expand functionality, including predictive maintenance, and to offer value-added services by using our wealth of experience as a lighting company.

Feature Articles

OHNO Hiroshi / KANO Hiroya / OHNO Akifumi

An optical inspection technology capable of instantly and precisely detecting minute defects on the surfaces of products and measuring the three-dimensional (3D) shapes of defects is essential to judge whether products, including semiconductor devices, meet designated criteria in various manufacturing processes. However, it is difficult for conventional imaging technologies to detect extremely minute defects with nanoscale height differences due to decreases in brightness and contrast through slight surface inclinations.

To resolve this issue, Toshiba Corporation has developed a new optical inspection technology consisting of an optical imaging system which converts slight changes in the direction of reflected light from nanoscale defect surfaces into color information and an algorithm to reconstruct the 3D surface shapes based on an unsupervised deep neural network (DNN). We have confirmed the effectiveness of the technology via experiments on a prototype showing that it can reconstruct the 3D surface shapes of defects with a height difference of 32 nm from a single image.

YASUZUMI Takenori / YAMASHITA Hiroaki / KOSAKO Shuji

The Toshiba Group has developed simulation technology to predict noise in switching operations of silicon (Si) power devices, including metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) and insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), through detailed modeling of equivalent circuits to replicate actual device operations, thereby calculating the switching noise in the power device design phase.

We conducted simulation tests using prototype MOSFETs and IGBTs confirming that the technology can accurately estimate switching noise levels and clarify the noise generation mechanisms of each prototype device. This makes it possible to design low switching noise devices based on the noise generation mechanisms obtained through simulations and is expected to streamline power device development thanks to reducing design process retrogression.

ARAI Takuro / ZHANG Jiantao

Demand for highly efficient power converters used in storage batteries and air-conditioning systems continues to grow, as they contribute to reduced weight by downsizing and/or eliminating cooling devices, leading to decreased failure rates and enhanced energy conservation. However, introducing expensive dedicated semiconductor devices and control circuits to improve efficiency is hindered by the fact that low-voltage power converters are essential to reduce costs.

With this in mind, Toshiba Corporation has developed a low-voltage multilevel converter that is more efficient and economical by employing inexpensive low-voltage-rated devices commonly used in in-vehicle electronics and information and communication technology (ICT) equipment and incorporating a proprietary algorithm to suppress additional losses by means of a general-purpose microcontroller at low cost. Experiments applying this multilevel converter to a 200 V active power filter (APF) used in air-conditioning systems developed by Carrier Japan Corporation confirmed that it reduces device loss by about 70.6% and overall losses by about 38.6% without using cooling fans and heat sinks compared to conventional APFs.

Frontiers of Research & Development

Thermomechanical-Acoustic Coupled Analysis Technology to Predict Bonding Behavior in Ultrasonic Bonding Process

*Company, product, and service names appearing in each paper include those that are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Vol. 80, No. 6, November 2025

Index