A New Rolling process for Manufacture of AZ31 Magnesium Alloy by AIST
Magnesium alloys are inherently light weight structural materials, all due to their high specific strength, high specific stiffness, and not to forget their abundance of resources. Their utilization is expanding into areas of automobiles and consumer electronics industries such as laptop PC and mobile phones, however, rolled magnesium alloy sheets exhibit poor room temperature formability, forcing the press-forming process to be carried out at an elevated temperature above 250 degrees Celsius, where installation of additional equipment for heating the magnesium sheet and dies are required, resulting in significant cost increase in manufacturing. In response to lowering manufacturing cost of magnesium alloy sheet, AIST (Advanced Industrial Science and Technology) in Japan has developed a new rolling process for commercial magnesium alloy sheet with high room temperature formability. Read more
Development of Diamond based LED with Improved Output Power for Sterilization of Viruses by AIST
With increase in epidemic diseases caused by viruses such as H1N1 at a global level sterilization is becoming a critical necessity for society in their daily life. Up to now, sterilization has been carried out using heat, chemicals and UV light, where UV light posses many advantages such as being effective against thermotolerent bacteria, while not having any adverse chemical effects, and at the same time it directly acts on the bacterial DNA to inhibit the viruses proliferation. In this case, light with wavelength of around 260nm at which DNA absorbs light is capable of significantly sterilizing bacterial. Currently, mercury lamps that emits 254 nm UV light are being used to fulfill this task, however use of mercury in these lamps make them environmentally unfriendly, leaving researchers and manufacturers alike to develop semiconductor LEDs in achieving this task. So far, the development of UV LEDs has been focused in using LEDs that are composed of widely used gallium nitride, but the use of this material will make it difficult to fabricate LEDs capable of emitting light of shorter wavelengths. For this reason LEDs that emit light of wavelength 350 nm or shorter are not available commercially. Read more
Mitsubishi Electric Breaks Two World Records in Solar Cell Conversion Efficiency
The global production of Photovoltaic (PV) cells is expected to reach 8,000 MW by 2012 from its current level of 5,500 MW. At the same time photovoltaic cell manufacturers are constantly trying to achieve more output power through higher conversion efficiency which is the rate the sunlight energy is converted into electricity, while reducing the thickness of PV cells. In addition to this the manufacturer of PV is looking for a way to reduce their dependence on silicon and their market sharp price fluctuation. One such manufacturer that is working toward achieving higher cell conversion efficiency is Mitsubishi Electric. The company made an announcement in achieving two world records in solar cell conversion efficiency in polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, done through reducing loss in the cells. Read more
Development of Software Platform for Efficient Development of Robotic Systems by AIST
Robotic research and development has been labeled as being highly inefficient, all due to the isolated nature of development, where each organization has developed all its related software from scratch. To make the matter worst, lack of compatibility and standard interfaces among systems prevents compatibility between developed resources without an explicit design, requiring a lot work for previously developed software reuse, which has resulted in an increased in overall cost of robotic system development, making it a major factor in dampening robots commercial viability. To address this issue major research program in many industrialized countries around the world are focusing on software platforms for robotic development. One such effort has been taken by AIST (Advance Industrial Science and Technology), by developing OpenRTM-aist. Read more
Development of a Mask Pattern Optimizing Technology for Improving Accuracy of Lithography for LSIs
Currently, the accuracy of the resolution and critical dimension (CD) of the main circuit patterns in mask pattering are enhanced through application of a sub pattern, the Sub Resolution Assist Feature (SRAF), which modulates printed images of the main pattern.
Today’s lithography employs ArF laser sources through application of high resolution technologies, which includes a phase shifting mask employing light phase modulation and immersion lithography that uses water to increase the refractive index. The ArF laser technique has extended the lithography to the 30-nanometer generation. Read more
Development of a Method for High Purity Separation of SWCNT by AIST
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) come in two main forms,one being the single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) and the other is the multi-walled nanotubes (MWCNT). The structure of a SWCNT is a one-atom-thick layer of graphite which is called graphene, wrapped into a seamless cylinder with open or closed ends. Depending on the arrangement of the carbon atoms, SWCNT exhibits metallic or semiconducting properties. Normally, the synthesis of SWCNTs yields a mixture of these two types. However, if the these two types can be separated in high purity, they can be utilized in many potential applications. For instance, metallic SWCNTs can be used as transparent electrodes in production of liquid crystal displays or solar cells instead of the transparent conductive materials which is prepared using rare metals, also the metallic SWCNTs can be used in wiring ,in development of high-integration high-speed SWCNT computers. On the other hand semiconducting SWCNT can be employed as transparent and flexible transistors. Read more
Development of Perovskite Thin-Film EL Device by AIST
Paving the way for a new optical application of perovskite materials, AIST has successfully developed a perovskite thin film electroluminescent device. Through this development AIST (Advanced Industrial Science and Technology) has obtained the complete epitaxial growth of all of the layers as well as very flat interface with monoatomic steps. Read more
World’s First Commercial Plant of Microwave-Assisted Polymer Synthesis Process
Manufacturing of industrial chemicals like organic compounds and polymeric materials usually involves procedures which are done at high temperature for an extended period of time requiring large amounts of organic solvents which results in producing harmful wastes as by-products forcing the manufacturer of such chemicals to develop energy saving production process that do not generate wastes. In response to this need, AIST (Advance Industrial Science and Technology) in Japan has developed a first commercial plant for mass production of lactic acid polymer using a microwave heating. Read more
Development of High Performance Micro-Tubular SOFCs by AIST
In recent years in aiming to achieve high power generation efficiency and at the same time to greatly reduce CO2 emissions numerous type of fuel cells have been developed. One such fuel cells are SOFCs which comprised of ceramic components exhibiting the highest efficiency. Since SOFCs are operated at high temperatures of between 800 to 1000 degrees Celsius, exhaust heat can be used for fuel reforming as well as hot water storage resulting in overall high energy efficiency of the system. However, the high temperature operability of SOFCs has limited their application to power generation systems where the thermal cycle and load variation can be kept small. Read more
Development of a System that Automatically Responds to Living Behavior by AIST
In spite of energy-saving features of many house hold equipments such as air-conditioning, televisions and boilers have greatly improved, the energy consumption for each home in Japan in 2007 has increased by factor of 1.4 times in comparison to year 1973 according to the FY2008 report by Agency for National Resources and Energy. Yes, the total energy consumption at home at least in Japan in continuously increasing due to demand for large appliances with greater number of them. In order to overcome this issue AIST has developed an energy saving system “BeHomeS” capable of automatically responds to living conditions at home. The system automatically presumes living conditions via information from operating equipment in a house which is obtained through an in-home network. Read more
