Development of Revolutionary All-Printed Flexible Pressure Sensor
AIST in collaboration with Ajinomoto Co., Inc. has successfully developed a polyamino acid material which exhibits piezoelectricity. Based on this the research group has fabricated a sensor array which is printed on a flexible substrate by forming the material into ink with a structure that reduces current leakage. The new development uses the printed fabrication technology in producing the sensor array which helps by increasing the sensor array size, which would allow affordable sensors to be supplied in large quantities. Read more
Development of Thermoelectric Conversion Devices Manufactured by way of Printing
Group of Japanese researchers at AIST have developed a novel fabrication technology for printing thermoelectric conversion devices onto flexible substrates such as plastic films and papers. The new technology provides a high flexibility to the thermoelectric conversion devices allowing them to be installed taking the form of the objects that are being installed on. In addition to this the printing technology would provide a cost reduction in the manufacturing process. The printable composite material was made by way of dispersing carbon material into a resin matrix at a nanometer level. Read more
Development of Ceramic Electrolyte Sheet for Lithium-Air Storage Batteries using a New Sintering Process
The lithium-air batteries are consider to be the next generation high performance storage batteries for use in multitude of application ranging from transportation equipments such as automobiles to power storage system, Load leveling as well as industrial machines and machine tools to name few. However the application of sulfide-based ceramic electrolytes in such batteries proved to be difficult due to low water resistance. In light of this, Japanese researchers at AIST have successfully developed ceramic electrolyte sheet showing high conductivity of 0.001 S/cm at room temperature. Read more
Development of Clay-type Heat Resistance Film based on Roll to Roll Manufacturing Process
Group of Japanese researchers at AIST have successfully developed a heat-resistance film made of clay and polyimide, showing an excellent thermal dimensional stability and heat resistance. The new film can be produced based on roll to roll production process, allowing it be produced at lower cost. The new film’s dimension does not change after heating it making it ideal to be used as printable electronic substrates. Read more
Development of Novel Instrument for Easy Measurement of Refractive Index of High-temperature Molten Materials
High temperature molten states are basically liquid states which occur during refining process of the material as well as optical disk writing and reading processes. The high temperature melting process is essential for refining material, and in particular it is used in rewritable optical disk field, where the process of melting the materials making up the thin film on the disk through the irradiation of laser light and rapidly cooling them which is essential during writing or reading disk. Based on this evaluation of materials at very high temperature is essential for efficient control of process and products structural design. The most important evaluation method so far is evaluation of the refractive index of material which is essential for the calibration of the radiation thermometers which is used in refining process as well for determining how well an optical disk responds to laser light. However, it is very difficult to measure the refractive index of a molten material at a high temperature for various reasons including the fact that high temperature makes it impossible to touch the material during measurement adjustment, not to mention the high temperatures cause the materials to evaporate or react with its surrounding air. Due to this difficulty up to now, these sort of measurements have been conducted under extremely limited conditions with a supervision of highly trained individual with experience in using highly specialized instruments. Based on this, group of researchers at AIST have developed a instrument which is capable of measuring refractive index of molten materials at a very high temperature. Read more
Achieving High-Speed Optical Communication based on New “Quantum Receiver” Technology
Performance of optical communications is determined by its bit error rate otherwise known as BER, in discriminating the signals “0” and “1”, which consequently can be lowered by eliminating noises in the system. By elimination of these noises face a certain boundary which is known as quantum noise. At the same time the BER can be lowered to a certain limit which is called “the short noise limit”, or SNL. In theory at least a BER can be reduced below the SNL level through simple controlling of quantum noise. However, controlling quantum noise in an optical receiver has sought to be a formidable task. To face this challenge group of researchers at NICT has developed a new quantum receiver which is capable of suppressing the effect of quantum noise through introduction of new technology which controls the particle nature of light (photons), to conventional optical communication which controls the wave characteristic of light. Read more
World’s First Demonstration of High-performance III-V/Ge CMOS Transistors by Japanese Researchers
Group of Japanese researchers in AIST along with University of Tokyo, UT, Sumitomo Chemical, SC, and NIMS have successfully demonstrated for the first time in the world, the III-V/Ge CMOS transistors with InGaAs n-channel and Ge p-channels integrated on the one wafer through direct wafer bonding (DWB), an important step in achieving the development of next generation high-performance III-V/Ge CMOS transistors. Read more
Development of Industry’s First Ultra-Small High-Speed All-Semiconductor Optical Gate Switching Device
Group of researchers at AIST have successfully developed world’s first integrated all-semiconductor ultra high speed optical gate switch by monolithically integrating semiconductor all-optical phase modulation device on an indium phosphide (InP) substrate. The new development paves the way for development of 160 Gbit/s optical transceivers capable of simultaneously send and receive ultra high definition images. This modulation device controls the phase of light by using light based on a new principle. Read more
Discovery of a New Recyclable Green Catalyst for Oxidation Reaction Process of Organic Compounds in Water
Group of researchers at AIST have discovered a nickel-complex type organic nanotubes (Ni-ONT) capable of accelerating oxidation reaction of organic compounds in water at room temperature. The new catalyst will eliminate any needs for noble metal, heating as well as an organic solvent. Ni-ONT can be synthesized through simple mixing of inexpensive amphiphilic molecules, glycylglycine connected with fatty acid, and nickel salt in a solvent. Read more
Development of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Strain Sensor for Detecting Human Motion by Japanese Researchers
Group of Japanese researchers at AIST have successfully developed a strain sensor with oriented single-walled carbon nanotubes (single-walled CNT) films. The sensor films are bonded to a stretchable polymer substrate which can measure strains by detecting changes in the electrical resistance of the films. The CNT stain sensor is capable of detecting of up to 280%, around 50 times of what can be detected by conventional metal strain sensors. Read more
