Annual Report 2021
Research Institute of Electrical Communication
Tohoku University

Annual report of Research Institute of Electrical Communication 2021

Contents
1. Introduction-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1

2. Organization Chart -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -5

3. Research Activities -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -7

Research Divisions
・

Information Devices Division

・

Broadband Engineering Division・

Human Information Systems Division

・

Systems & Software Division--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -715------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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32

Laboratories and Centers
・Laboratory for Nanoelectoronics and Spintoronics

・--------------------------------------------------------------

41

Laboratory for Brainware Systems-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

45

・

Recognition and Learning Systems-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -47

・Research Center for 21st Century Information Technology

・Management Office for Safety and Health・

Flexible Information System Center・

Fundamental Technology Center・Ad-hoc research groups----------------------------------------------

48------------------------------------------------------------------------------

55-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

56------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

58------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

59

Related Organizations and Programs, etc.
・Division for the Establishment of Frontier Sciences -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 61・Center for Science and Innovation in Spintronics (CSIS)

・Center for Innovative Integrated Electronics Systems (CIES)---------------------------------------

64

・

Research Organization of Electrical Communication (ROEC)-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -66

・Center for Spintronics Research Network (CSRN)--------------------------------------------------------------

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・

Advanced Institute for Yotta Informatics-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -68

・Leading Graduate Program----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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・

Graduate Program in Spintronics (GP-Spin) -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 70

・

Advanced Graduate Program for AI Electronics

71-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -72-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

85

6. Study Groups on Electrical Communication
7. International Activities--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

86------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

88

8. Periodicals Published by the Institute
9. Staff, Budget

63-------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Nation-wide Cooperative Research Projects
5. Symposium Organized by the Institute--------------------------------------------------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -91--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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2021
１.

Introduction

It is the mission of Research Institute of Electrical Communication (RIEC) torealize a new paradigm of communications that enriches people’s lives.
Communication is important in various ways in human society. Information
communication technology (ICT) has been changing the way we deal withinformation drastically, overriding our biological limitations and expanding
the world of communication from among people to among things as well as
between people and things. Such ICT research is gathering attention for new
normal after the coronavirus pandemic. RIEC is determined to work for
future society with further advanced ICT, contributing to the welfare ofhuman beings by opening up a new era of academically rooted innovation
befitting a university.
The Japan’s Sixth Science and Technology Basic Plan aims to realize
Society5.0, which is a cycle of innovation toward a super-smart society. The
plan sets out policies for strengthening the fundamental technologies thatwill support this, including cyber security, the “Internet of Things (IoT),” bigdata, artificial intelligence, and devices. It goes without saying that theseresearch fields fall under the RIEC’s scope of expertise and that the institutemust play a leading role in furthering them. Meanwhile, universities are
expected to conduct basic researches, some of which would create innovations
that enriches the society. We have such examples in the history of ourinstitute, such as Professor Junichi Nishizawa's three elements of opticalcommunication and Professor Shunichi Iwasaki's perpendicular magnetic
recording. They started related basic researches at RIEC, which opened new
fields in ICT eventually. A more recent case is spintronics, which Professor
Hideo Ohno has led from basic science to application to new devices.
Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM) is a device that uses the
spintronics technology, and is attracting public attention as the promising
candidate of a critical and emerging device in the near future ICT. The
environment in which Tohoku University and RIEC operate is constantly
changing. Recognizing roles of university, RIEC must utilize resources
efficiently to execute its mission and develop the environment for the purpose.
Since 2004, the institute’s organizational structure has been organized into
three units: four research divisions (Information Devices Division, Broadband
Engineering Division, Human Information Systems Division, and Systems &

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2021
Software Division), two laboratories (Laboratory for Nanoelectronics andSpintronics, and Laboratory for Brainware Systems), and the ResearchCenter for 21st Century Information Technology. These units are engaged inresearch aimed at achieving fruition over different time scales (Research
Divisions: 20 years, Laboratories: 10 years, Research Center: 5 years). In
addition, we collaborate closely with Tohoku University's graduate schools insubjects relating to electrical engineering (School of Engineering, Graduate
School of Information Sciences, and Graduate School of Biomedical
Engineering) in order to cover a wide range of cutting-edge research fields
and foster the development of outstanding researchers and engineers.
RIEC has also been certified by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology (MEXT) as a Joint Usage/Research Center forcollaborative research in information science and technology. The fiscal year
2021 marked the final year of the program’s second term. After the evaluation,
RIEC has been certified again in the program’s third term by the MEXT. As
increase of importance of cooperation across different organizations, our rolein advancing the information and communication community―both in Japanand overseas ― will become increasingly important. To this end, we arecollaborating on joint research projects with external researchers andengineers from industry, government, and academia in a systematic manner.
Today, information and communication technology are an essential part of thesocial infrastructure. We must therefore realize faster, higher-capacity
telecommunications with greater energy efficiency performance, while theexperience of the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 reemphasized theimportance of ensuring that our social infrastructure has a high resilience todisaster. We are expected to contribute to a new paradigm of information
processing and communication methods that interconnect people in afundamentally different way. Developed by RIEC over more than 20 years,
Brainware has become increasingly important with current trends inartificial intelligence (AI) research. We will continue to address these social
needs by fully leveraging our strengths as a university-affiliated research
center. In doing so, we hope to forge the path to a new world of communication,and through these efforts continue to promote education going forward.
To contribute to the improvement of our research activities and support future
developments, we publish this Annual Report every year to make our

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activities relating to research, education, and social contribution widely
available for public scrutiny. This edition contains reports on a range ofactivities, including the research conducted by each of our departments andlaboratories, collaborative research projects, international activities, social
contributions, the RIEC symposia, activities of the engineering research
association, and RIEC lectures. The bibliography section also includes dataon the various activities we have conducted over the last five years.
We welcome your frank opinions regarding our activities, and look forward to
your continued guidance and support in the future.
May, 2022

Takahiro Hanyu
Director, Research Institute of Electrical Communication3

2021
2. Organization Chart
Director

Advisory Council

Information Devices Division

Deputy Director
Research Divisions

FacultyCouncilBroadband Engineering Division

Human Information Systems Division

Systems & Software Division

Research Facilities

Nano-Photoelectronics
Solid State Electronics
Dielectric Nano-Devices
Materials Functionality Design
Spintronics
Nano-Integration Devices and Processing
Quantum Devices
Magnetic Devices
Ultrahigh-Speed Optical Communication
Applied Quantum Optics
Advanced Wireless Information Technology
Information Storage Systems
Ultra-Broadband Signal Processing
Quantum-Optical Information Technology
Basic Technology for Broadband Communication
Electromagnetic Bioinformation Engineering
Advanced Acoustic Information Systems
Visual Cognition and Systems
Information Content
Real-World Computing
Nano-Bio Hybrid Molecular Devices
Multimodal Computing
Software Construction
Computing Information Theory
Communication Network Systems
Environmentally Conscious Secure Information System
Soft Computing Integrated System
New Paradigm VLSI System
Information Social Structure

Laboratory for
Nanoelectronics and Spintronics

Nano-Integration Devices and Processing
Spintronics
Nano-Bio Hybrid Molecular Devices

Laboratory for Brainware Systems

Recognition and Learning Systems
Soft Computing Integrated System
New Paradigm VLSI System
Real-World Computing

Research Center for21st Century Information Technology

Industry-Academia-Government-Collaboration
Research and Deveropment DivisionInterdisciplinary Collaboration Research Division
exploratory Division

Division for the Establishment of Frontier Sciences
Center for Science and Innovation in Spintronics

Multimodal Cognitive System
Spintronics/CMOS Hybrid Brain-Inspired Integrated Systems

Center for Innovative Integrated Electronic Systems
Research Organization of Electrical Communication
Center for Spintronics Research Network
Advanced Institute for Yotta Informatics

Management Office for Safety and HealthCommon Research
Facilities

Flexible Information System Center
Fundamental Technology Center

Administration
OfficeGeneral Affairs Section
Cooperative Research Section
Library
Accounting Section
Purchasing Section
Support Division52021
３.

Research Activities

Targets and achievements of the Information Devices Division
The main aim of the information devices division is to create advanced nano-information
devices utilizing physical phenomena. To accomplish this goal, we conduct research on subjects
related to material design, evaluation, process, device, and system. The research developed inthis division provides an important basis for achieving the purpose of foundation of thisresearch institute, and we aim to develop completely new functional information devices fornext-generation information processing and communication. Thus we study new functionalities
employing exotic materials and nanostructures, and apply such functionalities tonanophotoelectronic devices, new dielectrics-based nano-devices for information storage,
quantum electronics devices, spintronics devices, and next generation semiconductor devices.
To achieve the goal, the following 8 laboratories are carrying out researches anddevelopments.
1. Nano-Photoelectronics
2. Solid State Electronics
3. Dielectric Nano-Devices
4. Materials Functionality Design
5. Spintronics
6. Nano-Integration Devices and Processing
7. Quantum Devices
8. Magnetic Devices (Visitor Section)
The research target and the summary of activities of each sub-division in FY2021 aredescribed in the following pages.

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2021
Nano-Photoelectronics

Exploring optical and electronic properties of nanometer-sized structures
Nano photomolecular electronics Satoshi Katano, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
The research goal of the nano-photoelectronics laboratory is to elucidate the physical and chemical properties ofelectronic materials where the light and electrons interacted in the nanometer region. We are also interested in thebasic research issues to create new information device materials which are indispensable for the development ofadvanced optical information communication. By using atomic scale manipulation, we are promoting research toachieve next-generation optoelectronic devices with high functionality and efficiency. To elucidate thephotoelectronic properties of a single molecule and nanostructure, we utilize scanning tunneling microscopy (STM)
and STM-based spectroscopy. We are also interested in the methods for the fabrication of nanostructures using themolecular deposition and self-assembled monolayer techniques. Theoretical calculations are used complementary
to experiments. The summary of our achievements in 2021 is as follows.
(1) Nanoscale photoelectric spectroscopy of graphene oxide
The photoelectron characteristics of graphene oxide (GO) are dominated by nanostructures composed of aconductive sp2 domain and an insulating sp3 domain to which oxygen functional groups are connected. Note thatthe size and spatial distribution of sp2 domains are the main factors that determine the functionality of GO such as
electrical conduction and luminescence. In this research, we conducted research to elucidate the photoelectric
properties of GO by means of STM spectroscopy. STS revealed the electronic states localized in GO. The
structure and chemical state of the molecular film used as the sample substrate were also evaluated by HREELS.
(2) Evaluations of chemical states of molecular films using density functional theory
First-principles calculation has been used to evaluate the chemical state of the polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)
polymer thin film. Structural and vibrational energy analysis by the density function theory (DFT) revealed that
there is anisotropy in molecule-to-molecule and metal-to-molecule interactions, which are identified by thecorrelation between these chemical interactions and vibrational energy.
(3) Phase transition-induced structural change of Ge2Sb2Te5 surface
Reversible structural change between amorphous and crystalline states by the external stimulus has been reported
for chalcogenide semiconductors, such as Ge-Sb-Te (GST) alloys. It is known that such a structural phase transition
accompanies with the optical and electrical changes, which can be applicable to the non-volatile memories. In thisstudy, we used microscopy techniques to reveal the nanoscale surface structures of amorphous and crystalline GST.
Furthermore, we utilized the electric discharge technique to induce the phase transition.
[Staff]
Associate Professor

Satoshi Katano, Dr.

[Profile]
Dr. Satoshi Katano received his D. Sci. degree from Department of Electronic Chemistry, Tokyo Institute ofTechnology in 2003. He was a postdoctoral research fellow in RIKEN (2003-2006). He joined RIEC, Tohoku
University as an assistant Professor in 2006 and was promoted to an associate Professor in 2012. His researchinterests include surface science and nano-scale molecular optoelectronics.
[Papers]
1.

2.
3.
4.

8

T. Iwahori, A. Mizuno, A. Ono, Y. Uehara, and S. Katano*, "Thermally and photoinduced structural and chemicalchanges of a silver nanocube array on Au(111)", RSC Adv., 11, 15847-15855 (2021).
S. Morita, J. Sakai, M. Kuwahara, and S. Katano*, "Phase Transition-induced Structural Change of Ge2Sb2Te5
Surface", 29th Int. Colloquium on Scanning Probe Microscopy (ICSPM29), online, December 9th (2021).
S. Katano*, T. Sasajima, and R. Kasama, "Nanoscale Observation of Light Emission from Reduced and Unreduced
Graphene Oxide", 29th Int. Colloquium on Scanning Probe Microscopy (ICSPM29), online, December 9th (2021).
S. Katano*, Illustrated Handbook of Surface Analysis "STM light emission", Asakura shoten, (2021).

2021
Solid State Electronics Laboratory

Creating Next-generating Devices for contributing Society 5.0 with low
environmental load materials
Solid State Physics for Electroncis

Hirokazu Fukidome, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
To accomplish SDGs, Beyond 5G
devices, which are the infrastructure ofSociety 5.0, should be constructed with low
environmentalloadmaterials.
Unfortunately, however, the candidates of
Beyond 5G devices consist of rare and toxic
elements. To solve this issue, we makeefforts to create the Beyond 5G devices byusing low environmental load materials
with excellent electronic properties, such asgraphene and borophene that are 2D
materials of carbon and boron.
In FY2021, we tackled in socially
implementing a novel method of producing
a wafer-scale ultrahigh quality graphenewith an affordable cost, down to < 1/10 cost,and graphene transistors operating in THz
frequencies. Furthermore, we developed
spatiotemporal operando x-ray spectroscopy,
enabling
spatio-temporally
examining
electronic states of advanced devices.
Finally, we have tried in creating device informatics that bridges electronic properties andfunctionality of cutting-edge devices.
[Staff]
Associate Professor : Hirokazu Fukidome, Dr.
Technical Assistant : Fuminori Sasaki, Mr.
Technical Assistant : Kumi Namiiri
Technical Assistant : Misako Suzuki[Profile]
Prof. Hirokazu Fukidome received Ph.D on chemistry from Osaka University. After serving forBell Labs and RIKEN, he became assistant professor at RIEC in 2008. He has been associate
professor at RIEC since 2012. He has been engaged on two-dimensional Dirac electron systems andtheir operando-microscopy analysis. He was awarded the Best Paper Award from the Surface
Science Society of Japan (2011). M. Ishida Research Foundation Award (2015). RIEC Award (2016).
[Papers][1] Y. Fukaya, Y. Zhao, H.-W. Kim, J.-R. Ahn, H. Fukidome, and I. Matsuda, “Atomic
arrangements of quasicrystal bilayer graphene: Interlayer distance expansion”, PhysicalReview B, 104 (2022), pp. L180202-1-L180202-5.
[2] Y. Zhao, T. Suzuki, T. Iimori, H.-W. Kim, J.-R. Ahn, M. Horio, Y. Sato, Y. Fukaya, T. Kanai, K.
Okazaki, S. Shin, S. Tanaka, F. Komori, H. Fukidome, and I. Matsuda, “Environmental effects
on layer-dependent dynamics of Dirac fermions in quasicrystalline bilayer graphene”, PhysicalReview B, 105 (2022), pp. 115304-1-115304-8.
[3] T. Otsuji, S. A. Boubanga-Tombet, A. Satou, D. Yadav, H. Fukidome, T. Watanabe, T. Suemitsu,
A. A. Dubinov, V. V. Popov, W. Knap, V. Kachorovskii, K. Narahara, M. Ryzhii, V. Mitin, M. S.
Shur, and V. Ryzhii, “Graphene-based plasmonic metamaterial for terahertz laser transistors”,
Nanophotonics, (2022), accepted. Doi: 10.1515/nanoph-2021-0651.
Contact to Associate Professor FUKIDOME Hirokazu : hirokazu.fukidome.e7@tohoku.ac.jp

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2021
Dielectric Nano-Devices

Research on Dielectric Nano Science and Technology

Dielectric Nano-Devices Yasuo CHO, Professor
Dielectric Nanoscale Measurement Systems
Kohei YAMASUE, Associate Professor
Dielectric Materials Science and Engineering
Yoshiomi HIRANAGA, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
Our main area of interest is evaluation anddevelopment of dielectric materials, including
ferroelectric and piezoelectric materials and theirapplication to communication devices and ferroelectric
data storage systems. Our major contributions toadvancement in these fields are the invention and thedevelopment of “Scanning Nonlinear Dielectric
Microscope” (SNDM) which is the first successful purely Fig.1 Digital bit data written on
ferroelectric single crystal with theelectrical method for observing the ferroelectricareal recording density of 4 Tbit/inch2.
polarization distribution and it has already been put
into practical use. The resolution of the microscope has been improved up to atomic scale-order.
Therefore, it has a great potential for realizing the ultra-high density ferroelectric recording system. In
addition, SNDM can be used for the evaluation of various semiconductor materials and devices.
Major achievements of studies in 2021 are as follows: (1) A high-precision C-V mapping method
useful for revealing local ferroelectric polarization switching dynamics was developed based on a new
digitizer-based SNDM and post-signal analysis such as primary component analysis (2) Simultaneous
local DLTS and CV profiling methods by time-resolved SNDM were demonstrated for the evaluation ofsemiconductor insulator interfaces including SiO2/Si and SiO2/SiC interfaces (3) We developed a theory
for a novel boxcar averaging SNDM improving the S/N ratios of SNDM in a peak-force tapping mode.
[Staff]
Professor : Yasuo Cho, Ph.D.
Associate Professor： Kohei Yamasue, Ph. D.
Associate Professor: Yoshiomi Hiranaga, Ph.D.
[Profile]
Yasuo Cho graduated in 1980 from Tohoku University in electrical engineering department. In 1985 hebecame a research associate at Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University. In
1990, he received an associate professorship from Yamaguchi University. He then became an associate
professor in 1997 and a full professor in 2001 at Research Institute of Electrical Communication
Tohoku University. During this time, his main research interests included nonlinear phenomena inferroelectric materials and their applications, research on the scanning nonlinear dielectric microscope,and research on using the nonlinear dielectric microscope in next-generation ultrahigh density
ferroelectric data storage (SNDM ferroelectric probe memory).
Kohei Yamasue received the Ph. D degree in engineering from Kyoto University in 2007. He thenbecame a postdoctoral fellow in 2007 and an assistant professor in 2008 at Venture BusinessLaboratory, Kyoto University. In 2010, he joined Research Institute of Electrical Communication,
Tohoku University, as an assistant professor and, in 2016, became an associate professor. His maininterests include the development of atomic resolution scanning nonlinear dielectric potentiometry
and its applications to the evaluation of the next-generation electronic materials and devices.
Yoshiomi Hiranaga received the Ph. D degree in engineering from Tohoku University in 2006. He thenbecame a research associate in 2006 (2007- assistant professor) at Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication, Tohoku University, and became an associate professor in 2020. His main interests
include domain switching phenomena on ferroelectric materials in the nanoscale area and theirapplications for next-generation high-density data storage devices.

[Papers][1] Y. Hiranaga, T. Mimura, T. Shimizu, H. Funakubo and Y. Cho, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys, Vol. 60, SFFB09, 2021
[2] K. Yamasue and Y. Cho, Microelectron. Reliab., Vol. 126, 114284, 2021
[3] K. Yamasue and Y. Cho, Nanomaterials, Vol. 12, No. 5, 794, 2022

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Contact to Associate Professor YAMASUE Kohei : kohei.yamasue.a3@tohoku.ac.jp

2021
Materials Functionality Design

Computational Design of Functional Materials for Information Devices
Materials Functionality Design: Masafumi Shirai, Professor
Materials Science under Extreme Conditions: Kazutaka Abe, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
Our research targets are as follows: (1) theoretical analyses of quantum phenomena in materials foradvanced information devices, (2) computational design of new materials possessing novel
functionalities for improvement of device performance, and (3) development of new design
procedures based on large-scale computational simulation and data-driven approaches.
Our research activities in FY 2021 are as follows:(1) Ferromagnetism and giant magnetoresistance in FeAs/InAs superlattices
InAs is a semiconductor used in high-speed transistors and long-wavelength optical devices. We
have investigated the structural and magnetic properties of FeAs/InAs superlattices using thefirst-principles calculations with the experimental group in The University of Tokyo. As a result, wehave revealed that the high Curie temperature and large magnetoresistance up to 500%. Moreover,the magnetoresistance can be tunable by a gate voltage. Thus, FeAs/InAs superlattices arepromising materials for spintronics applications [1].
(2) Data-driven materials exploration combining first-principles calculation and machine learning
We explored highly spin-polarized materials for application to the electrodes of magnetic tunnel
junctions to improve the magnetoresistance at room temperature. As a result, we found new
Heusler alloys IrCrMnAl and IrCrMnGa, which are promising candidates as electrode materials of
MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions [2].
(3) Hydrides at high pressures
A new hydrocarbon compound, which consists of two-dimensional CH planes and is insulating, ispredicted by using ab initio methods. Unlike the graphene-like phases so far predicted, the new CH
phase has a diamond-like structure. The diamond-like CH is stabilized thermodynamically above
about 10 GPa. Yet, the structure is dynamically stable at much lower pressures and possibly exists
as a metastable phase even at one atmosphere.
[Staff]
Professor: Masafumi Shirai, Dr.
Assistant Professor: Masahito Tsujikawa, Dr.

Associate Professor: Kazutaka Abe, Dr.
Assistant Professor: Hikari Shinya, Dr.

[Profile]
Masafumi Shirai received the Doctor of Engineering degree from Osaka University in 1989. Since
2002, he has been a Professor at Tohoku University.
Kazutaka Abe received Doctor of Science degree from Osaka University in 1998. Since 2003, he has
been at Tohoku University as a Research Associate and currently as an Associate Professor.
[Papers][1] L. D. Anh, T. Hayakawa, Y. Nakagawa, H. Shinya, T. Fukushima, M. Kobayashi, H. Katayama-Yoshida, Y. Iwasa,
and M. Tanaka, “Ferromagnetism and giant magnetoresistance in zinc-blende FeAs monolayers embedded insemiconductor structures,” Nat. Commun., Vol. 12, No. 4201, pp. 1-10, 2021
[2] T. Roy, M. Tsujikawa, and M. Shirai, “IrCrMnZ (Z = Al, Ga, Si, Ge) Heusler alloys as electrode materials for
MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions: A first-principles study,” J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., Vol. 55, Article no. 125303,
pp. 1-12, 2022
[3] K. Abe, “Metallic silicon subhydrides at high pressures studied by ab initio calculations,” Phys. Rev. B, Vol. 103,
Article no. 134118, pp. 1-7, 2021

Contact to Professor SHIRAI Masafumi : masafumi.shirai.b8@tohoku.ac.jp

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2021
Spintronics

Advanced technology for spintronics-based devices

Nano-Spin Materials and Devices: Shunsuke Fukami, Professor[Research Target and Activities]
We aim to deepen the understanding of spin-related physics and todevelop new functional materials and devices in which electron and its
spin states are controlled. We are also working on research anddevelopment of advanced technology for spintronics-based devices andunconventional computing, which offer high-performance and lowpower information and communication technologies.
The outcomes in the last fiscal year include (1) development of artificial
neuron and synapse devices using an antiferromagnet/ ferromagnet
structure, (2) demonstration of probabilistic computing using developed
unconventional spintronics devices, and (3) realization of synthetic
antiferromagnetic skyrmions allowing current-induced motion without
skyrmion Hall effect.
[Staff]
Professor: Shunsuke Fukami, Ph. D.
Assistant Professor: Shun Kanai, Ph. D.

, Justin Llandro, Ph. D.

[Profile]
Shunsuke Fukami received Ph. D. degree from Nagoya University in 2012. He joined NEC Corp (2005). He moved
to Tohoku University as an Assistant Professor (2011) and then as an Associate Professor (2015). He received the
JSAP Paper Award (2012), the RIEC Award for Tohoku University Researchers (2013), the Funai Research
Incentive Award (2014), the JSAP Young Scientist Presentation Award (2014), the Young Scientists’ Prize of Scienceand Technology by the MEXT (2015), the Harada Young Research Award (2015), DPS Paper Award (2016),
ImPACT Symposium – Best Poster Award (2017), Aoba Foundation Award (2017), Asian Union of Magnetics
Societies, Young Researchers Award (2018), the Outstanding Research Award of the Magnetics Society of Japan(2018), Gold Prize of Tanaka Kikinzoku Memorial Foundation (2019), the JSAP Outstanding Paper Award (2019),
Marubun Research Encouragement Award (2021), and InaRIS Research Fellow (2022).
[Papers][1] G. Wolfowicz, F. J. Heremans, C. P. Anderson, S. Kanai, H. Seo, A. Gali, G. Galli, and D. D. Awschalom, "Quantum
guidelines for solid-state spin defects," Nature Reviews Materials 6, 906-925 (2021).
[2] Y. Takeuchi, Y. Yamane, J. Yoon, R. Itoh, B. Jinnai, S. Kanai, J. Ieda, S. Fukami, and H. Ohno, "Chiral-spin rotationof non-collinear antiferromagnet by spin–orbit torque," Nature Materials 20, 1364-1370 (2021).
[3] B. Jinnai, J. Igarashi, T. Shinoda, K. Watanabe, S. Fukami, and H. Ohno, "Fast Switching Down to 3.5 ns in Sub-5nm Magnetic Tunnel Junctions Achieved by Engineering Relaxation Time," 67th Annual IEEE International Electron
Devices Meeting (IEDM2021), pp. 2.6.1-2.6.4 (2021).

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Contact to Professor FUKAMI Shunsuke : shunsuke.fukami.c8@tohoku.ac.jp

2021
Nano-Integration Devices and Processing

Deepening of nano-integration technology and development of brain computer
Nano-Integration Devices

Shigeo Sato, Professor

Group I V Quan tum Hete rointegration

Masao Sakuraba, Associate Professor

Nano-Integration Neurocomputing Systems

Hideaki Yamamoto, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
In this laboratory, we focus on non-von Neumann computing, such as brain computing andquantum computing, and study their hardware technology. We conduct research on various topics
including device, process, circuit, algorithm, and neuroscience, and build revolutionary newcomputer technology by integrating our findings. In this year, following results have been obtained:(1) Toward the development of neuromorphic computation hardware, we fabricated a recurrent
neural network LSI composed of spiking neurons that can reproduce various neuron pulses withultra-low power consumption. We confirmed by electrical measurements that our analog MOS
circuit correctly operated in the weak inversion region and thatthe network showed various responses depending on input signal.
(2) Low-energy plasma chemical vapor deposition method enables
the formation of Si nitride film with a composition close to
stoichiometric ratio, and it is experimentally shown that ananometer-thick Si nitride film under the thermally oxidized
SiO2 dielectric film can suppress thermal oxidation of thesubstrate surface. (3) Toward the development of a dedicatedhardware for reinforcement learning, we investigated the
Towards the Realization
relationship between the bit-length of floating-point operationsof a Brain Computer
and the learning performance of the Q-learning algorithm.
[Staff]
Professor :Shigeo Sato, Dr.
Associate Professor : Masao Sakuraba, Dr.
Associate Professor : Hideaki Yamamoto, Dr.
Research Fellow:
Satoshi Moriya, Dr.
[Profile]
Shigeo Sato was received his B.E. and Ph.D. degrees from Tohoku University, in 1989 and 1994,
respectively. In 1996, he joined the Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku
University. Now, he studies brain computer and quantum computer as a professor.
Masao Sakuraba received his B.E. and Ph.D. degrees from Tohoku University in 1990 and 1995,
respectively. In 1995, he joined the Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku
University. Now, he studies group IV quantum heterointegration as an associate professor.
Hideaki Yamamoto received his B.E. and Ph.D. degrees from Waseda University in 2005 and 2009,
respectively. In 2020, he joined the Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku
University. Now, he studies neuronal network functions as an associate professor.

[Papers][1] S. Sato, S. Moriya, Y. Kanke, H. Yamamoto, Y. Horio, Y. Yuminaka, J. Madrenas, “A subthreshold spiking
neuron circuit based on the Izhikevich model”, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (ICANN 2021), 12895,
177-181 (2021).

Contact to Professor SATO Shigeo : shigeo.sato.e3@tohoku.ac.jp

13

2021
Quantum Devices

Electronic properties of nanostructures and device applications

Quantum Devices: Tomohiro Otsuka, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
In solid-state nanostructures, exotic phenomena like quantum effects occur. We are exploring
interesting properties of solid-state nanostructures utilizing precise and high-speed electricmeasurement and control techniques. We are also developing materials and devices using
nanostructures.
Our research activities in FY 2021 are the following.
(1) Development of local measurement and control techniques
We developed electronic measurement and control methods of
local
electronic
statesinnanostructuresutilizingsemiconductor quantum dots. We improved the methods withhigh-frequency techniques and data informatics approaches.
(2) Measurement of local electronic states in nanostructures
We measured local electronic and spin states innanostructures utilizing sensitive electronic measurement
techniques. We revealed the detail of local electronic states inquantum dot devices and new materials [3].
(3) Development of quantum devices and systems
We studied semiconductor quantum bits for future quantum
information processing. We worked on quantum bit operations
and readout and developed techniques for scale-up of quantum
systems [1, 2].

Figure:Scanning

electronmicrograph of a nanostructuredevice[Staff]
Associate Professor: Tomohiro Otsuka, Ph. D.
[Profile]
Tomohiro Otsuka received Ph. D. degree from the University of Tokyo in 2010. After working for the
University of Tokyo and RIKEN, he became an Associate Professor at Tohoku University in 2018.
He received Research Encouraging Prize from School of Science, University of Tokyo (2010), Young
Scientist Award of the Physical Society of Japan (2017), RIKEN Researcher Incentive Award (2017),
Yazaki Memorial Foundation for Science and Technology Research Encouraging Award (2018), andthe Young Scientists’ Prize of Science and Technology by MEXT (2018), Distinguished Researcher in
Tohoku University (2020).
[Papers][1] Y. Kojima, T. Nakajima, A. Noiri, J. Yoneda, T. Otsuka, K. Takeda, S. Li, S. D. Bartlett, A. Ludwig, A. D. Wieck,and S. Tarucha, “Probabilistic teleportation of a quantum dot spin qubit”, npj Quantum Information 7, 68 (2021).
[2] T. Otsuka, M. Shinozaki, Y. Muto, T. Kitada, T. Nakajima, M. R. Delbecq, J. Yoneda, K. Takeda, A. Noiri, T. Ito, A.
Ludwig, A. D. Wieck, and S. Tarucha, “Noise analysis of radio-frequency reflectometry for single spin and charge
detection in quantum dots”, 1st Online RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics, Online, Nov. 18, 2021.
[3] T. Abe, T. Kitada, N. Ito, T. Tanaka, K. Nakahara, and T. Otsuka, “Quantum dots formed in GaN/AlGaN FETs andchannel length dependence”, International Conference on Electronic Properties of Two-Dimensional Systems,
Online, Nov. 2, 2021.

14

Contact to Associate Professor OTSUKA Tomohiro : tomohiro.otsuka.a5@tohoku.ac.jp

2021
Broadband Engineering Division: Research Targets and Results
In order to establish future broadband communication systems and novel devices
that can be flexibly applied to future ubiquitous ultra-high capacity information
communications, research and development is being carried out over the wide
spectrum of microwaves, millimeter/submillimeter waves, terahertz waves, andlightwaves with regard to information generation, transmission, processing, andstorage technologies.
(1) Ultrahigh-Speed Optical Communication
We are engaged in research on ultrahigh-speed optical transmission, digital
coherent transmission, and high-speed and spectrally efficient optical transmission
by combining these two approaches. With a view to supporting innovative new ICT
services such as 5G and IoT, our goal is also to develop novel transmission schemes
integrating optical and wireless communications.
This year, we successfully achieved a 8 ch WDM transmission of 1.28 Tbit/s Nyquist
pulses with a total capacity of 10.2 Tbit/s over 2100 km, which is the longest
transmission distance at > 1 Tbit/s/ch. We also demonstrated 64 Gbit/s, 256 QAM
coherently-linked optical and wireless transmission, where the 64 Gbit/s data wereseamlessly transmitted over 10 km through an optical fiber and 40 m wirelessly inthe 60 GHz band.
(2) Applied Quantum Optics
Novel functional semiconductor photonic devices including photonic integrated
circuits are being investigated to explore next-generation photonic network systems.
A study on ultra-high-speed semiconductor laser introducing hybrid modulation
scheme was being continued. It was confirmed numerically that the modulation
bandwidth of the hybrid modulation semiconductor laser source we proposed can beenlarged up to 130 GHz by shortening its cavity length to 150 μm. It was also
confirmed that the short cavity hybrid modulation semiconductor laser can operateby 100 Gbit/s NRZ signal under dynamic-single-mode condition. Furthermore, thestudy on compact and narrow linewidth semiconductor laser sources was also being
proceeded by applying the optical negative feedback technology we proposed. It was
confirmed experimentally that high SNR FMCW LiDAR system with more than
30dB SNR beat spectra even for 450 m distance measurement can be realized byapplying the compact optical negative feedback laser.
(3) Advanced Wireless Information Technology
We are actively engaged in research work on wireless Internet of Things (IoT)
technologies for next-generation wireless systems, which include terrestrial /satellite communications. The covered areas of us are all technical fields from thelower to higher layers, i.e., digital signal processing, RF/Mixed-signal device,antenna, transceiver, and subsystem technologies. This year, we have successfully
developed a 20GHz-Band optical-fiber-feed 1-bit band-pass delta-sigma direct
digital RF transmitter using first image component of QSFP28 module output. We
also developed gain enhanced 130GHz-band CMOS amplifiers by employing a novel
positive feedback circuit and low loss matching circuits for sub-THz short-range
wireless communication system.

15

2021
(4) Information Storage Systems
Research on next-generation perpendicular magnetic recording is being carried out
to meet the strong demand for high density, high performance storage due to therapid growth of the internet and web services. To establish high performance dataintensive analytics, a computational storage analytics platform with unified
computing and storage is targeted in the research and development.
We have been investigating novel, three-dimensional, energy-assisted recording
technologies that enable selective recording on media with multiple, discrete
recording layers. The optimal conditions for heat assisted magnetic recording(HAMR) using near-field light to heat nanometer-sized areas of a medium have been
identified. The feasibility of realizing the technology that enables a doubling of thedata storage capacity has been confirmed. We have constructed a “computational
storage system” with unified PB-class storage and computation functions, andintegrated the object distributed storage Ceph. The data access performance for thereal application of three-dimensional visualization of neurons imaged by fluorescent
microscopy has been confirmed.
(5) Ultra-Broadband Signal Processing
We are developing novel, integrated electron devices and circuit systems operatingin the terahertz region. One of our major concerns is a new material called“graphene”, a single-layered honeycomb-lattice carbon crystal.
First, towards the creation of novel current-injection graphene THz lasers, wedeveloped a graphene laser-transistor featured with our original asymmetric dualgrating gates demonstrating coherent amplification of THz radiation with the
maximal gain of 9% at room temperature promoted by graphene plasmon
instabilities driven by dc-channel current flow (Press-released on July 2020). Second,
regarding the InGaAs-channel plasmonic THz detector, we demonstrated that the"3D rectification effect", where the diode current nonlinearity associated with theelectron tunneling is superimposed onto the plasmonic hydrodynamic nonlinearities,
can take place by applying a positive gate bias voltage in the gate-readoutconfiguration of the photovoltage and succeeded in drastic enhancement of thedetector responsivity by one order of magnitude.
(6) Quantum-Optical Information Technology
Our goal is to develop quantum information devices utilizing the quantum
interaction between photons and electrons in solids.
In 2021, we have achieved (1) nonlocal generalized quantum measurements ofbipartite spin products using entangled meter, (2) generation of spectrally factorable
photon pairs via multi-order quasi-phase-matched spontaneous parametricdownconversion, and (3) plasmon-enhanced single photon source directly coupled toan optical nanofiber.

16

2021
Research Laboratory of Ultrahigh-Speed Optical Communication

Toward Innovative Optical Transmission from Backbone to Access Networks
Research Area of Ultrahigh-Speed Optical Transmission Toshihiko Hirooka, Professor
Research Area of Lightwave Control System Keisuke Kasai, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
Advanced global ICT services such as ultrahigh-definition
video transmission and ultra-realistic communication cannot
be realized without high-speed and large-capacity opticaltransmission systems. At the same time, optical transmission
schemes with high spectral efficiency are crucial in terms ofthe maximum utilization of limited bandwidth resources. In
our laboratory, we are engaged in research on
ultrahigh-speed optical transmission using optical time
division multiplexing with a single-channel Tbit/s-classcapacity, digital coherent QAM optical transmission, andhigh-speed and spectrally efficient optical transmission by
combining these two approaches. With a view to supporting
innovative new ICT services such as 5G and IoT, our goal is Fig. 1. 10.2 Tbit/s (1.28 Tbit/s x 8 ch)
also to apply digital coherent transmission to access networks WDM Nyquist pulse transmission
over 2100 km.
and mobile fronthaul, and to develop novel transmission
schemes integrating optical and wireless communications. This year, we successfully achieved a
8 ch WDM transmission of 1.28 Tbit/s Nyquist pulses with a total capacity of 10.2 Tbit/s over2100 km by optimizing the roll-off factor, which is the longest transmission distance at > 1
Tbit/s/ch (Fig. 1). We also demonstrated 64 Gbit/s, 256 QAM coherently-linked optical andwireless transmission for next-generation RAN. 64 Gbit/s data were seamlessly transmitted over
10 km through an optical fiber and 40 m wirelessly in the 60 GHz band.
[Staff]
Professor: Toshihiko Hirooka, Dr. Associate Professor: Keisuke Kasai, Dr.
[Profile]
Toshihiko Hirooka received the Ph. D. degree from Osaka University in 2000. From 2000 to
2002, he was a Research Associate at University of Colorado at Boulder. He is currently aProfessor at the Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University. He
has been engaged in research on ultrahigh-speed optical communications and nonlinear
fiber optics.
Keisuke Kasai received the Ph. D. degree from Tohoku University in 2008. From 2009 to
2012, he was a JSPS Research Fellow. He is currently an Associate Professor at the
Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University. He has been engaged
in research on lightwave control techniques and coherent optical communications.
[Papers][1] K. Kasai, T. Sato, T. Hirooka, M. Yoshida, and M. Nakazawa, "64 Gbit/s, 256 QAM
Transmission Through Coherent Optical-Wireless Link at 61 GHz Using Simple and HighOSNR Carrier Frequency Converter," OFC 2021, Tu6E.2, June (2021).
[2] A. Watanabe, M. Yoshida, T. Hirooka, and M. Nakazawa, “Single-Channel 1.28 Tbit/s
Optical Nyquist Pulse Transmission over 3000 km with Roll-off Factor Optimization,”
OECC 2021, T4B.6.
[3] K. Kasai, T. Sato, K. Shirahata, T. Hirooka, M. Yoshida, M. Nakazawa, “Performancecomparison between injection-locked carrier frequency conversion and self-heterodyne
detection methods in coherently-linked optical and wireless transmission for 6G,” ICETC
2021, B1-3.

Contact to Professor HIROOKA Toshihiko : toshihiko.hirooka.a8@tohoku.ac.jp

17

2021
Applied Quantum Optics

Research on Innovative Highly Functional Photonic Semiconductor Devices

Highl y Functional Photonics
High a ccu ra cy op tical measuremen t

Hiroshi Yasaka, Professor
Masato Yoshida, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
Novel functional photonic devices including high function laser diode (LD) sources arebeing investigated to explore new-generation photonic network systems.
The study on ultra-high-speed semiconductor lasers is being continued. It was confirmed
numerically that the hybrid modulation semiconductor laser source we proposed can operate 100
Gbit/s NRZ signal under dynamic single-mode condition by shortening its cavity length andwidening its modulation bandwidth. Furthermore high SNR FMCW LiDAR system is realized byapplying compact and narrow linewidth optical negative feedback semiconductor laser sources we
proposed.

Schematic structure of short cavity hybrid modulation laser (left) and its 100 Gbit/s eye patternunder dynamic single mode operation (right).

[Staff]
Professor ：Hiroshi Yasaka, Dr.
Associate Professor :Masato Yoshida, Dr.
Assistant Professor ： Nobuhide Yokota, Dr.
[Profile]
Hiroshi Yasaka received M.S. degrees in physics from Kyusyu University in 1985, and Ph.D.
degree in electronic engineering from Hokkaido University in 1993. In 1985 he joined Nippon
Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Corporation. Since then, he has been engaging in research anddevelopment on semiconductor photonic devices for optical fiber communication systems. From2008 he has been a professor of Tohoku University.
Masato Yoshida received Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering from Tohoku University in 2001.
In 2001, he joined the Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University. He iscurrently an Associate Professor of the Institute. He has been engaging in research on fiber lasers
and their application to optical measurements.

[Papers][1]
N. Yokota, H. Kiuchi, and H. Yasaka, "Low-phase-noise optical negative feedback laser for
long-distance ranging with high signal-to-noise ratio," 27th International Semiconductor Laser
Conference (ISLC), WA1.3, 2020.
N. Yokota, H. Kiuchi, and H. Yasaka, "Directly modulated optical negative feedback lasers for long-range[2]
FMCW LiDAR," Optics Express, vol. 30, No. 7, pp. 11693-11703, 2022. (published 23 Mar 2022) / DOI
10.1364/OE.452284
N. Yokota and H. Yasaka, "Spin Laser Local Oscillators for Homodyne Detection in Coherent Optical[3]
Communications," Micromachines 12, 573 2021. (May, 18, 2021) / doi.org/10.3390/mi12050573

18

Contact to Professor YASAKA Hiroshi : hiroshi.yasaka.c4@tohoku.ac.jp

2021
Advanced Wireless Information Technology

For realization of the next generation mobile network

Advanced Wireless Information Technology

Noriharu Suematsu, Professor[Research Target and Activities]
We are actively engaged
Radio wave (UHF/microwave/mm-wave)
in research work on wireless
MIMO
Internet of Things (IoT)
Tx Mixer
Tx Signal
HPA
Multi(Digital)
Antennatechnologies
for
next
DAC
EncoderModulator
FilterFiltergeneration wireless systems,
Channel selector
Voltage controlled
Control
oscillator (VCO)
Tx/Rx
which include terrestrial /signalChannel measurement
Switchand estimation
Synthesizer
satellite
communications.
PLL
LNA
Frequency
domainThe covered areas of us are
DeDecoder
ADC
Filterequalizer
modulator
FilterRx Signal (FDE)
all technical fields from theRx Mixer
Beam(Digital)
Heterogeneous/Forming
lower to higher layers, i.e.,
Multi-band RF/mmWave CMOS IC
Channel Estimation
Beam-forming Transmitter/Receiver
digital signal processing,
Signal Processing
RF/Mixed-signal
device,Fig. The target system ofantenna, transceiver, andAdvanced Wireless Information Technology Laboratory.
subsystem technologies.
This year, we have successfully developed a 60GHz sample and hold (S/H) IC for direct RF
underfsampling receiver and a 20GHz-Band optical-fiber-feed 1-bit band-pass delta-sigma direct
digital RF transmitter using first image component of QSFP28 module output. We also developed gain
enhanced 130GHz-band CMOS amplifiers by employing a novel positive feedback circuit and low loss
matching circuits for sub-THz short-range wireless communication system. We received APMC2021
Prize which is the best paper award in Asia Pacific Microwave Conference (one of the top 3
international conference in microwave society.)[Staff]
Professor: Noriharu Suematsu, Ph. D
Research Fellow: Jean Temga, Ph.D
[Profile]
Noriharu Suematsu received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electronics and Communication
Engineering from Waseda University in 1987 and 2000. From 1987 to 2010, he had been with the
R&D center of Mitsubishi Electric, Japan. Since 2010, he has been a professor of Research Institute ofElectrical Communication (RIEC), Tohoku University. He received the OHM technology award fromthe promotion foundation for electrical science and engineering in 2002 and Prize for Science andTechnology, the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology in 2009.He is a fellow of IEICE[Papers][1] J. Zhang, M. Kazuno, M. Motoyoshi, S. Kameda, N. Suematsu, "Image Enhancement in 26GHz-Band 1-Bit Direct
Digital RF Transmitter Using Manchester Coding," IEICE Transactions on Communications, Vol. E104.B, No. 6, pp.
654-663, Jun. 2021.
[2] T. Machii, M. Motoyoshi, S. Kameda, N. Suematsu, "Gain Boosted D-Band CMOS Amplifier Using a Radial Stab for
Source AC Grounding," 2021 IEEE Asia Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC), pp.190-192, Nov.2021.
[3] T. Chida, S. Kameda, N. Suematsu, "Fundamental Investigation of Backoff Control Method for Fair Communication
Opportunity of mmW WBAN in Overcrowded Environment," 13th Asia Pacific Signal and Information Processing
Association Annual Summit and Conference (APSIPA), vol. 120, no. 405, pp. 1953-1957, Dec. 2021.
[4] T. Furuichi, N. Yoshino, M. Motoyoshi, S. Kameda, N. Suematsu, "A 60 GHz-band S/H CMOS IC for Direct RF
Undersampling Receiver," 2022 IEEE Radio and Wireless Symposium (RWS), Jan. 2022.
Contact to Professor SUEMATSU Noriharu : noriharu.suematsu.a3@tohoku.ac.jp

19

2021
Information Storage System Laboratory

High Density and High Speed Energy Assisted Magnetic Recording,and Computational Storage System ResearchInformation Storage・Computing Systems, Yoichiro Tanaka, Professor
Re cordin g Theory Computation, Simo n Greaves, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
Research on next-generation perpendicular magnetic recording is being carried out to meet thestrong demand for high density, high performance storage due to the rapid growth of the Internet
and web services. We use computer simulations to study recording systems and novel technologies
to realize high speed, high density data storage. To achieve high performance data-intensive
analytics, an intelligent computational storage platform is targeted.
We investigate novel, three-dimensional, energy-assisted recording technologies that enable
selective recording on media with multiple, discrete
recording layers. In this year, research was concentrated onheat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), with the aim of
doubling the storage capacity. A HAMR system has shown
the potential to record data on media with different Curie
temperatures [1][2]. We have constructed 2PB computational
storage system for visualization analytics of brain neuro
structures. Object based distributed storage Ceph has been
integrated in unified computational storage nodes thatenabled the fast three-dimensional visualization of neuron
structures captured by fluorescent microscopy.
Double-layer HAMR Structure[Staff]
Professor: Yoichiro Tanaka, Ph.D.
Associate Professor: Simon Greaves, Ph.D.
Laser

Read
sensorRecording Layer 2
Recording Layer 1

Write pole

Heatedspot
Recordingmedia[Profile]
Yoichiro Tanaka received his BE, MS, and Ph.D. from Tohoku University in 1981, 1983, and 2006,
respectively. He joined Toshiba Corporation in 1983. He has been at RIEC, Tohoku University since2019. His research focus has been on high density perpendicular magnetic recording and information
storage systems. He received the Japan Magnetic Society Achievement Award (2006) and Okochi
Memorial Prize (2007). He is a fellow of the Japan Magnetic Society.
Simon Greaves has been at Tohoku University since 2003. He developed micromagnetic simulation
software to model magnetic recording and to investigate the potential of magnetic, information
storage devices. He received his Ph.D. in 1993 from Salford University, UK.
[Papers][1] H. Yamane, S. Greaves, Y. Tanaka, “Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording on Dual Structure Bit
Patterned Media”, IEEE Trans. Mag. Vol. 57, No.2, pp.1-6, 2021
[2] H. Yamane, S. Greaves, Y. Tanaka, “Optimising the Thickness and Diameter of Dual Structure
Patterned Media Dots for Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording”, MMM-Intermag 2022, IPA-04,
2022[3] Yoichiro TANAKA, In-Storage/Memory Computing Platform for Brain Neuro Science, FY 2021
RIEC Annual Meeting on Cooperative Research Projects “Compass for Next-Gen ICT” Program,
2022[4] Yoichiro Tanaka, Data Storage Consideration in Brain Inspired Computing, Joint Seminar“Brain Inspired Computing; Physics, Architecture, Materials, Applications (BICPAMA)”, C-2,
December 2021
20

Contact to Professor TANAKA Yoichiro : yoichiro.tanaka.e1@tohoku.ac.jp

2021
Ultra-broadband Signal Processing

Novel Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Integrated Electron Devices and Systems
Ultra-Broadband Devices and Systems: Taiichi OTSUJI, Professor
Ultra-Broadband Device Physics: Akira SATOU, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
Top: Schematic and SEM images ofan asymmetric dual-grating gate
graphene-channelFET
andextinction/gain spectra measured atroom temperature demonstrating
coherent amplification of THz
radiation with a gain of up to 9%(negative value for gain).
Bottom: Schematic view of the 3D
rectification effect in the InGaAsbased plasmonic THz detector (left)
and a cross-sectional structural
drawing and experimental result ofphotovoltage enhancement by the
positivegate
bias
voltageapplication on THz-pulse detection
measurement at 0.8 THz (right).

We are developing novel, integrated electron devices and circuit systems operating in the terahertz(THz) region. First, towards the creation of novel current-injection graphene THz laser-transistors, wedeveloped a graphene laser-transistor featured with our original asymmetric dual-grating gates
demonstrating coherent amplification of THz radiation with the maximal gain of 9% at room
temperature promoted by graphene plasmon instabilities driven by dc-channel current flow (Pressreleased on July 2020). Second, regarding the InGaAs-channel plasmonic THz detector, wedemonstrated that the "3D rectification effect", where the diode current nonlinearity associated withthe electron tunneling is superimposed onto the plasmonic hydrodynamic nonlinearities, can take place
by applying a positive gate bias voltage in the gate-readout configuration of the photovoltage andsucceeded in drastic enhancement of the detector responsivity by one order of magnitude.

[Staff]
Professor: Taiichi OTSUJI, Dr. Eng.
Associate Professor: Akira SATOU, Dr. Comp. Sci.
Assistant Professor: Takayuki WATANABE, Dr. Eng.

Research Fellow: Victor RYZHII, Ph.D., Chao TANG, Ph.D.
Secretary: Kayo UENO

[Profile]
Taiichi OTSUJI: received the Dr. Eng. deg. from Tokyo Tech., Japan, in 1994. After working for NTT Labs.,
Japan, since 1984, he joined Kyutech in 1999, as an Assoc. Prof., being a prof. from 2002. Since 2005, he has
been a Prof. at RIEC, Tohoku Univ., Japan. Recipient of the 2019 Prizes for Science and Technology, theCommendation for Science and Technology, MEXT, Japan. A Distinguished Lecturer, Electron Device
Society, IEEE. A member of IEEE (Fellow), OSA (Fellow), JSAP (Fellow), IEICE (Senior), MRS, and SPIE.
Akira SATOU: received Dr. Comp. Sci. from Univ. of Aizu, Japan, in 2008. He was an Assistant Lecturer,
ISTC, Univ. of Aizu, in 2008 and CAIST, Univ. of Aizu, in 2009. He joined RIEC, Tohoku Univ., Japan,
in 2010 as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to an Associate Professor in 2017. He is a memberof IEEE (Senior), APS, JSAP, and IEICE.
[Papers][1] T. Otsuji, S.A. Boubanga-Tombet, A. Satou, D. Yadav, H. Fukidome, T. Watanabe, T. Suemitsu, A.A. Dubinov, V.V.
Popov, W. Knap, V. Kachorovskii, K. Narahara, M. Ryzhii, V. Mitin, M.S. Shur, and V. Ryzhii, Nanophoton., vol.
11(9), pp. 1677-1696, Feb. 2022. DOI: 10.1515/nanoph-2021-0651 (invited, review)[2] V. Ryzhii, M. Ryzhii, V. Mitin, M.S. Shur, and T. Otsuji, Phys. Rev. Appl., vol. 16(1), pp. 014001-1-12, July 2021. DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevApplied.16.014001[3] A. Satou, Y. Omori, K. Nishimura, T. Hosotani, K. Iwatsuki, and T. Otsuji, J. Lightwave Technol., vol. 39 (10), pp.
3341-3349, May 2021. DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2021.3060795

Contact to Professor OTSUJI Taiichi : taiichi.otsuji.e8@tohoku.ac.jp

21

2021
Quantum-Optical Information Technology

Development of optoelectronic devices for quantum information andcommunication technology
Quantum-Optical Information Technology: Keiichi Edamatsu, Professor[Research Target and Activities]
Our goal is to develop quantum information devices utilizing quantum interaction between photons and electrons
in solids. In 2021, we have achieved (1) nonlocal generalized quantum measurements of bipartite spin products
using entangled meter, (2) generation of spectrally factorable photon pairs via multi-order quasi-phase-matchedspontaneous parametric downconversion, and (3) plasmon-enhanced single photon source directly coupled to an Fig. 1. Schematic of nonlocal generalized
optical nanofiber.
quantum measurement of bipartite spin
[Staff]
Professor: Keiichi Edamatsu, Dr.

products using entangled meter.

[Profile]
Keiichi Edamatsu received B.S., M.S., and D.S. degrees
in Physics from Tohoku University. He was a Research
Associate in Faculty of Engineering, Tohoku University,
a Visiting Associate in California Institute of Technology,
and an Associate Professor in Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University.
Fig. 2. Joint spectral distribution of a photon pair produced via multi-order quasiphase-matched spontaneous parametricdownconversion.

[Papers][1] P. Vidil and K. Edamatsu, “Nonlocal generalized quantum measurements of bipartite spin products without maximal
entanglement”, New J. Phys. 23, 043004/1-10 (2021).
[2] M. Sadgrove, T. Yoshino, M. Sugawara, Y. Mitsumori, K. Edamatsu, “Optically Induced Sieve Effect for Nanoparticles
near a Nanofiber Taper”, Phys. Rev. Applied 16, 044034/1-9 (2021).
[3] F. Kaneda, J. Oikawa, M Yabuno, F China, S. Miki, H Terai, Y. Mitsumori, and K. Edamatsu, “Generation of spectrally
factorable photon pairs via multi-order quasi-phase-matched spontaneous parametric downconversion”, arXiv
2111.10981 [quant-ph] (2021).
[4] B.H. Le and K. Edamatsu, “Error-disturbance uncertainty relations in Faraday measurements”, arXiv 2112.14028[quant-ph] (2021), to appear in Phys. Rev. A.
[5] M. Sugawara, Y. Xuan, Y. Mitsumori, K. Edamatsu, and M. Sadgrove, “Plasmon-enhanced polarized single photon
source directly coupled to an optical fiber”, arXiv:2203.01591 [quant-ph] (2022).

22

Contact to Professor EDAMATSU Keiichi : keiichi.edamatsu.e3@tohoku.ac.jp

2021
Aims and Achievements of Human Information Systems Division
To realize advanced information communications systems, it is essential to understand andapply sophisticated information processing mechanisms of human being as well as toestablish communications environments in that human can communicate anywhere,anytime without recognizing the communications tools. The aim of this division is toresearch and develop core and system technologies essential to advanced human friendly
information and communications systems through understanding biological information
generation mechanisms, human information processing mechanisms focusing on acoustic
and visual inputs, and optimizing the communications environments.
To achieve the goal of the Division, six laboratories have been carrying out researches anddevelopments in the following areas: (1) Electromagnetic Bioinformation Engineering, (2)Advanced Acoustic Information Systems, (3) Visual Cognition and Systems, (4) Information
Content, (5) Real-world computing, (6) Nano-Bio Hybrid Molecular Devices, (7) Multimodal
Cognitive System Laboratory.
The goals and achievements in the fiscal year 2020 of each laboratory are described indetail below.
(1) Electromagnetic Bioinformation Engineering(Aims) This laboratory aims at obtaining the high accuracy sensor system for the signals
from the human body or electric devices and at obtaining the system for approaching action
to the human body by using the nano-scale controlled magnetic materials and by thedevelopment of the devices under the functions of the magnetics.
(Achievements) To develop a highly sensitive micro-vibration measuring system, we workedon the fabrication of high sensitive strain sensor itself and the design of detection circuitswith ultra-low noise. The obtained system shows extra-high sensitivity up to 20kHz. On thework of high frequency magnetic field measuring system, we have succeeded to visualize
the high-frequency current distribution in the circuit by measuring the magnetic field. We
proposed a new mechanism for micro-power generator with vibration. Using a phasetransformation of the magnetic materials, new power generation system was obtained.
(2) Advanced Acoustic Information Systems(Aims) To propose high-definition communication systems that convey a rich and naturalsense of presence. To this end, we are developing acoustic information processing
technologies based on well-grounded knowledge of the human auditory system and themultimodal perception processes related to hearing.
(Achievements) We have focused on the mechanism of auditory and multisensory
information processing. To enhance the perceptual reality induced by various multimodal
contents, full-body vibration information, as well as audio-visual information, is added
effectively. In this fiscal year, we investigated which physical characteristics of the vibration
23

2021
affect the perceptual reality from the multimodal contents. We also investigated the effect ofhead rotation on sound localization, which is known as the multisensory process. In addition,
we developed advanced acoustic systems, such as 3D virtual auditory displays, soundacquisition, and presentation systems. Although there are various realization methods ofbinaural synthesis, the accuracy of sound space information reproduced by the methods
depends on the relationship between the implementation and the hardware specification
using recording and reproduction. We proposed the design theory of the binaural synthesis
using the spherical microphone array and head-related transfer functions.
(3) Visual Cognition and Systems(Aims) To understand the vision-related brain functions in order to apply the knowledge torealize human oriented information communication systems.
(Achievements) Firstly, we revealed facilitation of visual processing near a hand withexperiments to isolate hand-related effects from top–down attention, proprioceptive
information from visual information, and the influence of response action. The results ofexperiment showed faster and more accurate processing of visual stimuli near a hand even
there was no visual cue of the hand. This indicates that proprioceptive information of a handcontributed to attention near a hand. Since top-down attention was fixed at a location, we
conclude that there is a process to facilitate vision around a hand independent fromtop-down attention. Secondly, we investigated collinear search impairment (CSI). Collinear
search impairment (CSI) is a phenomenon where a task-irrelevant collinear structure
impairs a target search in a visual display. Our experimental results showed the CSI
regardless of the luminance contrast levels, which disagree with interpretation of the effectby an early vision mechanism, where contrast level should change the perception.
(4) Information Content(Aims) As the Internet of Things (IoT) expands, everything around us coming online andjoining integrated networks. Even everyday items like furniture are going digital. We view all
artifacts, physical and digital, as content. Honoring the unique perspectives of people,
systems, and the environments they inhabit, we study the interactions between types ofcontent, with the ultimate goal of formulating cohesive, holistic, and intuitive approaches that
promote efficiency, ease of use, and effective communication, we focus on content design toenhance living.
(Achievements) In this year, we primarily worked on a robotic-assisted dead-angle-freemotion tracking system, a robotic office chair for manipulative posture guidance, areconfigurable VR head-mounted display enabling peripheral real-world interactions, and aredirection technique while door opening or jumping in room-scale VR, Drone pilotinginterface that allows control of drone flight by touch using mobile AR.

24

2021
(5) Real-world computing(Aims) This laboratory aims at understanding the mechanism underlying adaptive andresilient behavior of animals from the viewpoint of decentralized control schemes.
(Achievements) The main contributions achieved in 2021 are summarized as follows: (1) wehave proposed a mechanism for adjustment of limb movements during quadruped
locomotion; (2) we have proposed a decentralized control mechanism for the body-limb
coordination underlying sprawling locomotion; (3) we have proposed a local force feedback
mechanism for undulatory swimming; (4) we have proposed a decentralized control scheme
for adaptive locomotion of insects; (5) we have proposed a inter-limb coordination
mechanism of centipedes that exploits flexible body.
(6) Nano-Bio Hybrid Molecular Devices(Aims) Our research activities focus on the development of sophisticated molecular-scale
devices through the combination of well-established microfabrication techniques andvarious soft materials, such as biomaterials and organic materials.
(Achievements) This year, we developed a new system for bilayer lipid membranes, in whicha lateral voltage was introduced as a new input. We demonstrated that the new system
could effectively modulate the ion-channel activity and the transmembrane currents offullerene-doped bilayer membranes. We also launched Grant-in-Aid for Transformative
Research Area (B) "Multicellular Neurobiocomputing" whose core technology is based on
the control of the self-organized networks of neuronal cells. Finally, we utilized nanotube or
nanoporous structures for the fabrication of gas sensors for CO detection and nanobubbles
with bactericidal activity.
(7) Multimodal Cognitive System(Aims) This group aims to study the basic mechanisms underlying multimodal cognitive
systems, including vision, audition, tactile sensation, gustation and olfaction, together withthe related groups such as the Advanced Acoustic Information Systems and the Visual
Cognition and Systems groups.
(Achievements) In this year, we have done some studies about the followings; theinteraction between onomatopoeia description of food texture and kinetic sensation andauditory sensation evoked during mastication; an interactive effect of colors and odors on
evaluating the utilities of products. We have also started the cognitive studies about theeffect of audition on binocular rivalry, the differences of attentional system of vision and ofaudition, the interactive mechanisms of audition with somatosensation, and the comparisonof the effects of vision with audition on affection and arousal. We have published somearticles about the interaction between food texture and kinetic sensation of masticatory
muscle and the difference of gustatory evoked color-images with auditory evokedcolor-images

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Electromagnetic Bioinformation Engineering

Communication with human body
Ele ctroma gneti c Bioinforma tion En gineering, Kazushi Ishiya ma, Professor[Research Target and Activities]
To develop a highly sensitive micro-vibration measurement system, fabrication of high sensitive strain
sensors on Si wafer and the design of detection circuits with low noise were carried out. Imaging
sensitivity of high frequency magnetic field measuring system was promoted by applying newtechnologies. We revealed that super-elastic materials were useful for a power generator to convert
vibrational energy into electric energy.

SG

Figure 1 Vibration sensor using
magnetostrictive thin film (@ 20kHz)

terminator

Figure 2 High frequency field visualization of
the standing wave in microstrip line (@5GHz)[Staff]
Professor: Kazushi Ishiyama, Dr.
[Profile]
Kazushi Ishiyama received his MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Tohoku University
in 1986 and 1993, respectively. His research interests are magnetics and magnetic applications.
[Papers][1] Taku Okada, Shun Fujieda, Shuichiro Hashi, Kazushi Ishiyama, Shigeru Suzuki, Satoshi Seino, Takashi Nakagawa,Takao A. Yamamoto, Vibration Power Generation Property of U-Shaped Unimorph Device Using Grain-Oriented
Electrical Steel, MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS, 2021, vol. 62, no. 12, pp.1798-1801. doi:
10.2320/matertrans.MT-M2021079 .
[2] T. Mikami, S. Muroga, M. Tanaka, Y. Endo, S. Hashi and K. Ishiyama, "Estimation of Noise Suppression in MSL
With Co-Zr-Nb Film Considering Impedance Matching," in IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 58, no. 2, pp. 1-5,
Feb. 2022, Art no. 6100205, doi: 10.1109/TMAG.2021.3087257.

26

Contact to Professor ISHIYAMA Kazushi : kazushi.ishiyama.d8@tohoku.ac.jp

2021
Advanced Acoustic Information Systems

Towards high-level acoustic information communication systems
Advanced Acoustic Information Systems: Shuichi Sakamoto, Professor[Research Target and Activities]
Our research goal is to clarify how humans process
information through "hearing," which is one of themost important modalities in human perception. In
addition, we investigate the multimodal processing ofauditory and visual information, as well as
proprioception. Our findings are applied towards thedevelopment of advanced acoustic communication
systems and user interfaces, including the realistic
and comfortable expression of three-dimensional (3D)
sound spaces. One typical example is the developmentof new type of 3D auditory displays, which present
spatial sound images by simulating the transfer
functions for the sound paths from the sound sources Fig. 1 Application for the training ofto the listeners' external ears. Another example is the spatial cognition using a high-definition
proposal of 3D sound field information sensing systems. virtual auditory display
These systems are expected to convey a high-quality virtual sound space, which is keenly sought for
multimedia communications, cyberspace systems, and virtual reality systems.
In FY2021, we focused on how head-rotation affects sound localization. It is well known that soundlocalization is one of the multi-modal perceptual processes. We have reported that sound localization
accuracy is degraded from the microscopic view when the head is rotating, although head rotation
itself contributes to improving the sound localization. This year, we investigated that the reported
sound-localization accuracy degrades irrespective of the rotation speed, even at a very slow rotation
speed. Moreover, even during the very slow rotation or virtual head rotation induced by the change ofvisual information, degradation is observed [1,2]. These results suggest that a top-down process
induced by listeners’ conscious perception of the rotation may induce degradation.
[Staff]
Professor: Dr. Shuichi Sakamoto[Profile]
Shuichi Sakamoto graduated from Tohoku University in 1997 and received his Ph. D. degree in 2004
also from Tohoku University. His research interests include human auditory and multisensory
information processing and development of advanced multimodal information systems. From 2016 to
2019, he was serving as a board member of the Acoustical Society of Japan.
[Papers]
[1]

[2]
[3]
[4]

A. Honda, K. Maeda, S. Sakamoto and Y. Suzuki, “Effects of visually induced self-motion on soundlocalization accuracy,” Applied Sciences, 12(1), 173 (2022).
A. Honda, S. Tsunokake, Y. Suzuki, and S. Sakamoto, “Auditory subjective-straight-ahead blurs
during significantly slow passive body rotation,” iPerception, 13(1), 1-5 (2022).
A. Urviola, S. Sakamoto, and C. D. Salvador, “Ear centering for near-distance head-related transfer
functions,” Proc. International Conference on Immersive and 3D Audio (8 page manuscript) (2021).
S. Shiraki, T. Sato, R. Ikeda, J. Suzuki, Y. Honkura, S. Sakamoto, Y. Katori, and T. Kawase, “Loudness
functions for patients with functional hearing loss,” International Journal of Audiology, 61(1), 59-65(2022).
Contact to Professor SAKAMOTO Syuichi : shuichi.sakamoto.d5@tohoku.ac.jp

27

2021
Visual Cognition and Systems Laboratory

Understanding human visual system for the better communication
with visual information

Visual Cognition and Systems: Satoshi SHIOIRI, Professor
Cognitive Brain Functions: Ichiro KURIKI, Associate Professor
Attention and Learning Systems: Chia-huei TSENG, Associate Professor
0.30

Flash Lag effect(Z score)

M ore

Attention Less

[Research Target and Activities]
N= 16
Our target is to understand the visionrelated brain functions in order to apply theknowledge
torealizehumanoriented
information communication systems. We madeachievements in the fields of visual attention,
Right handers
VisionNear
Far
depth perception and color perception.
Proprioception
Firstly, we revealed facilitation ofvisual processing near a hand with experiments
to isolate hand-related effects from top–down
attention, proprioceptive information fromvisual information, and the influence of response
action. The results of experiment showed fasterand more accurate processing of visual stimuli(Left) Stimulus configurations. The display wasobserved through a half mirror so that one of thenear a hand even there was no visual cue of thediscs was perceived as being on the palm of thehand. This indicates that proprioceptive
hand, which was not visible during theexperiment. Information of the hand location is
information of a hand contributed to attention
transmitted to the brain through proprioception
while vision conveys stimulus information on thenear a hand. Since top-down attention was fixed
display. (Right) Flash-lag effect (FLE) for rightat a location, we conclude that there is a process
handers. Solid and dashed lines show the rightand left hand conditions, and red and blue
to facilitate vision around a hand independent
symbols show the right and left flash conditions,
respectively. The vertical axis indicates the FLEfrom top-down attention. Secondly, weaveraged over 16 observers after normalizing as
investigated collinear search impairment (CSI).
Z-scores.
Collinear search impairment (CSI) is aphenomenon where a task-irrelevant collinear structure impairs a target search in a visual display.
Our experimental results showed the CSI regardless of the luminance contrast levels, which disagreewith interpretation of the effect by an early vision mechanism, where contrast level should change
the perception.
[Staff]
Professor ： Satoshi Shioiri, Ph.D.
Associate Professor ： Chia-huei Tseng, Ph.D.
[Profile]
0.20
0.10
0.00

-0.10
-0.20
-0.30

Right hand
Left flash

Right hand
Right flash

Left hand
Left flash

Left hand
Right flash

Satoshi SHIOIRI Professor Shioiri graduated Tokyo Institute of Technology and received Dr. Eng in 1986. Then, he was a
postdoctoral researcher at University of Montreal until May of 1989. From June of 1989 to April of 1990, he was a research fellow
at Auditory and Visual Perception Laboratories of Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute. He moved to Chiba
University at May of 1990, where he spent 15 years as an assistant professor, an associate professor, and a professor of
Department of Image Sciences Department of Image, Information Sciences and Department of Medical Systems. In 2005, hemoved to Tohoku University. Since then, he has been a professor of Research Institute of Electrical Communication of Tohoku
University.
Chia-huei TSENG Dr. Tseng is an expert on visual attention, perception, and learning. She received her B.S. and B.M.S. from
National Taiwan University and PhD from The University of California, Irvine, U.S.A.. She was a post-doc researcher atLaboratory of Vision Research at the Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University, New Jersey. She has designed science
outreach activities to engage community participation in many Asian cities. She was the founder and director of Baby Scientist
Program and Infant Research Lab in Hong Kong. Before joining Tohoku University as associate professor in 2016, she was auniversity professor in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

28

Contact to Professor SHIOIRI Satoshi : satoshi.shioiri.b5@tohoku.ac.jp

2021
Information Content

Technologies for Interactive Content
Interactive Content Design
Human-Content Interaction

Yoshifumi KITAMURA,
Kazuki TAKASHIMA,

Professor
Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
As the Internet of Things (IoT) expands, everything around us coming online and joining integrated
networks. Even everyday items like furniture are going digital. We view all artifacts, physical anddigital, as content. Honoring the unique perspectives of people, systems, and the environments they
inhabit, we study the interactions between types of content, with the ultimate goal of formulatingcohesive, holistic, and intuitive approaches that promote efficiency, ease of use, and effective
communication, we focus on content design to enhance living.
In this year, we primarily worked on a robotic-assisted dead-angle-free motion tracking system (Fig.a),a robotic office chair for manipulative posture guidance (Fig.b, [2]), a reconfigurable VR head-mounted
display enabling peripheral real-world interactions (Fig.c, [1]), and a redirection technique while door
opening in room-scale VR (Fig.d)[Staff]
Professor: Yoshifumi Kitamura, Dr.
Associate Professor: Kazuki Takashima,
Dr.
Assistant Professor: Kazuyuki Fujita, Dr.
Assistant Professor: Kaori Ikematsu, Dr.
Assistant Professor: Miao Cheng, Dr.
[Profile]
Yoshifumi Kitamura: Since 2010, Yoshifumi Kitamura has been Professor in the Research Institute ofElectrical Communication, Tohoku University. Prior to arriving at Tohoku, he was an Associate
Professor at Graduate School of Engineering, and Graduate School of Information Science andTechnology, Osaka University. While working at ATR Communication Systems Research Laboratories,
he focused on sophisticated user interfaces in virtual environments. His first formal appointment wasin the Information Systems Research Center Canon Inc., where he was involved in research on
artificial intelligence, image processing, computer vision, and 3D data processing. His formal
education was obtained at Osaka University, B.Sc (1985); M.Sc. (1987); and Ph.D. (1996).
Kazuki Takashima: He received a Ph.D from the Information Science and Technology at Osaka
University in 2008. After working at Osaka University (2008 - 2011). He joined the Research Instituteof Electrical Communication, Tohoku University as an assistant professor in 2011, and became an
associate Professor in 2018.

[Papers][1] Isamu Endo, Kazuki Takashima, Maakito Inoue, Kazuyuki Fujita, Kiyoshi Kiyokawa, Yoshifumi
Kitamura, ModularHMD: A Reconfigurable Mobile Head-Mounted Display Enabling Ad-hoc Peripheral
Interactions with the Real World, Proc. Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology,
100-117, October 2021.
[2] Kazuyuki Fujita, Aoi Suzuki, Kazuki Takashima, Kaori Ikematsu, Yoshifumi Kitamura, TiltChair:
Manipulative Posture Guidance by Actively Inclining the Seat of an Office Chair, Proc. Conference on
Human Factors in Computing Systems, No. 228, 1-14, May 2021.
Contact to Professor KITAMURA Yoshifumi : yoshifumi.kitamura.b8@tohoku.ac.jp

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2021
Real-world Computing

Toward Understanding Design Principle for Life-like Resilient Systems

Real-world Computing, Akio Ishiguro, Professor[Research Target and Activities]
Living organisms exhibit surprisingly adaptive and versatile behavior in real time under
unpredictable and unstructured real world constraints. Such behaviors are achieved via
spatiotemporal coordination of a significantly large number of bodily degrees of freedom. Clarifying
these remarkable abilities enable us to understand life-like complex adaptive systems as well as toconstruct truly intelligent artificial systems. A prominent concept for addressing this issue is“autonomous decentralized control”, in which non-trivial macroscopic functionalities are emerged
via spatiotemporal coordination among vast amount of autonomous components that cannot be
explained solely in terms of individual functionality. We study the design principle of autonomous
decentralized systems that exhibit life-like resilient behaviors from the viewpoints of robotics,
mathematics, nonlinear science, and physics.

Fig.1: Legged robot that can coordinatebody and limb motions like sprawlingquadrupeds

Fig.2: Simple decentralized control
mechanism that enables limb
adjustment for adaptive quadruped
runningFig.3: Decentralised
control of multiple
mobile agents for quick,smooth, and safe
movement[Staff]
Professor: Akio ISHIGURO, Dr.
Associate Professor: Takeshi KANO, Dr.
Assistant Professor: Akira FUKUHARA, Dr.
Assistant Professor: Kotaro YASUI, Dr.
[Profile]
Akio ISHIGURO received B.E., M.E., and Ph.D. degrees from Nagoya University in 1987, 1989, and1991, respectively. From 1991 to 1997, he was with Nagoya University as an assistant professor.
From May 1997 to 2006, he was an associate professor, Nagoya University. From 2006 to 2011, he
was a professor of the Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University. Since April 2011, he has
been a professor of Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University. His main
research interests are in bio-inspired robotics, nonlinear dynamics. He received 2004 IROS Best
Paper Award, 2008 Ig Nobel Prize (Cognitive Science Prize), 2012 IEEE/RSJ JCTF Novel
Technology Paper Award for Amusement Culture Finalist, Living Machines 2012 Best Paper Award.
[Papers][1] Suzuki, S., Kano, T., Ijspeert, A. J., & Ishiguro, A. (2021). Spontaneous Gait Transitions of Sprawling
Quadruped Locomotion by Sensory-Driven Body–Limb Coordination Mechanisms. Frontiers in
Neurorobotics, 15.
[2] Fukuhara, A., Koizumi, Y., Baba, T., Suzuki, S., Kano, T., & Ishiguro, A. (2021). Simple decentralized
control mechanism that enables limb adjustment for adaptive quadruped running. Proceedings of
the Royal Society B, 288(1962), 20211622.
[3] Kano, T., Iwamoto, M., & Ueyama, D. (2021). Decentralised control of multiple mobile agents forquick, smooth, and safe movement, Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Application,572, 12,125898.

30

Contact to Professor ISHIGURO Akio : akio.ishiguro.b1@tohoku.ac.jp

2021
Nano-Bio Hybrid Molecular Devices

Development of novel bio-devices through the combination of nanotechnology
and biomaterials
Nano-Bio Hybrid Molecular Devices: Ayumi Hirano-Iwata, Professor[Research Target and Activities]
Our research activities focus on the development of sophisticated molecular-scale devices throughthe combination of well-established microfabrication
techniques and various soft materials.
１． Construction of a new measurement system for
artificial lipid bilayer membranes
We developed a new measurement system for artificial lipid
bilayer membranes, in which a lateral voltage wasintroduced as a new input in addition to the traditionaltransmembrane voltage. We demonstrated that the new
system could effectively modulate the ion-channel activity
and the performance of hybrid devices based on
New system for artificial lipid bilayer.
fullerene-doped bilayer membranes. [Faraday Discuss., 233,
244–256 (2022).]
２． In vitro reconstitution of neuronal network functions on
microfabricated substrates
In collaboration with a member of the newly launched
Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Area (B) “Multicellular
Neurobiocomputing” (MEXT KAKENHI), we developed a novel
microelectrode technology to deliver localized stimulation to
cultured neuronal networks grown on microfabricated substrates.
[Electrochemistry, 89, 348–354 (2021).]

Multicellular Neurobiocomputing.

３． TiO2 nanotube-based gas sensor / Bacterial activity of
nanobubbles generated using porous alumina films
We developed a TiO2 nanotube-based gas sensor for precisely
detecting trace amounts of CO in a gas mixture. We also
confirmed the bactericidal activity of nanobubbles generatedusing porous alumina films. [Sens. Act. B, 361, 131732 (2022);
Langmuir, 37, 9883–9891 (2021).]
TiO2 nanotube-based gas sensor.
[Staff]
Professor: Ayumi Hirano-Iwata, Dr.
[Profile]
Ayumi Hirano-Iwata 2016– RIEC, Tohoku University, Japan, Professor, Doctor of Science.
Memberships: The Japan Society of Applied Physics, The Japan Society of Vacuum and Surface Science.
[Papers][1]

T. Ma, M. Sato, M. Komiya, K. Kanomata, T. Watanabe, X. Feng, R. Miyata, D. Tadaki, F. Hirose, Y.
Tozawa, A. Hirano-Iwata, “Lateral voltage as a new input for artificial lipid bilayer systems”.
Faraday Discuss., 233, 244–256 (2022).
[2] K. Hattori, H. Kurakake, J. Imai, T. Hashimoto, M. Ishida, K. Sato, H. Takahashi, S. Oguma, H.
Yamamoto, A. Hirano-Iwata, T. Tanii, “Selective stimulation of a target neuron in micropatterned
neuronal circuits using a pair of needle electrodes”, Electrochemistry, 89, 348–354 (2021).
[3] K. Iwata, H. Abe, T. Ma, D. Tadaki, A. Hirano-Iwata, Y. Kimura, S. Suda, M. Niwano, “Applicationof neural network based regression model to gas concentration analysis of TiO2 nanotube-type gas
sensors”, Sens. Act. B: Chemical, 361, 131732 (2022).

Contact to Professor HIRANO Ayumi : ayumi.hirano.a5@tohoku.ac.jp

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Research Targets and Activities of Systems & Software Division
The goal of System & Software Division is to realize ideal ubiquitous environment where
everyone can freely communicate in real-time with anyone, anywhere, and at any timethrough any kind of information. With the reorganization of RIEC in FY2016, our division has
the following seven research fields related to such high-level ubiquitous systems, softwareand contents by integrating computer and communication:― Software Construction: Reliable and high-level software.
― Computing Information Theory: Fundamental theory of new software.
― Communication Network: Symbiotic computing.
― Environmentally Conscious Secure Information System: Embedded system security― Soft Computing Integrated System: Brainmorphic hardware.
― New Paradigm VLSI System: Post-binary CMOS-based VLSI computing.
― Structure of Information Society (Visitor Section).
An overview of research results from Apr. 2021 to Mar. 2022 of these fields except the visitor
section is described in this section.

(1) Software Construction
The Software Construction laboratory researches on foundations for flexible and reliable
programming languages as a basis for realizing innovated programming languages. In 2021,
the final year of the laboratory, in addition to foundational research, we have made special
efforts to complete SML#, a new statically typed polymorphic language that embodies thelaboratory's wide-range of research results from proof theory for compilation to low-level
memory management. Compared with conventional functional languages, SML# realizes
important practical features that have not been well supported in existing functional
languages, including seamless integration of SQL and direct interface to C. In this year, we
have

set

up

SML#

GitHubrepository

and

SML#

GitHubpage(https://smlsharp.github.io/en/about/features/) for releasing and developing SML# as open
source software. We have also published textbooks (in Japanese) on learning SML#
programming and on studying compiler structures and principles through SML#.

(2) Computing Information Theory
Continuing on from last year, we have studied formal language theory, which is thetheoretical basis for software verification, as well as bidirectional transformation techniquesapplied to data synchronization and data sharing. One of the results of our research is therelationship between classes of tree transducers, which we discovered last year. In FY2021,
we continued our research on the relationship between classes of different types of treetransducers. We improved the proof of equivalence of expressive power between different
classes of tree transducers and succeeded in clarifying the position of this research bysystematically summarizing the results of previous research. We also discovered acomputational model for idempotent functions, which is one of the basis of a bidirectionaltransformation. This computational model, which adds syntactic constraints to the Turingmachine, exactly covers all computable idempotent functions, and we have succeeded in
32

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proving its universality. Combined with the computation model for involutory functions
discovered in the previous fiscal year, this computation model is expected to be applied to thecharacterization of programming languages specialized for bidirectional transformations.

(3) Communication Network Systems
We promoted the following research on information networking technologies that support
various human activities and their application. In the area of Internet congestion control, we
proposed a novel method to maintain per-flow throughput fairness by estimating the behavior
of competing flows with machine learning-based algorithms. For energy optimization in thedigital twin system, we formulated the power consumption of the edge-cloud computing
system for constructing the digital twin from massive information from sensors and cameras,
and proposed an optimizing framework for minimizing the power consumption. Furthermore,in the research on agent-based IoT and its applications, we prototyped and evaluated a mobile
agent framework for small IoT devices. We also conducted a study of a data reduction method
for using LPWA for out-of-band management of network equipment.

(4) Environmentally Conscious Secure Information System
We are studying future secure information communication systems from theories toimplementation technologies for constructing advanced information and communication
infrastructures in a safe and secure manner. In this year, we developed a novel technology toimplement tamper-resistant post-quantum cryptography (PQC) software and hardware which
is known to be resistant to quantum computers. The developed technology is effective for 8
out of 9 types of PQC international standard candidates, and will contribute to improving thesecurity of PQC-equipped products in the future. We also developed a technology to detectmalicious functions (hardware trojans) inserted in hardware in a fast and complete manner,and demonstrated that it can be applied to large-scale and complicated IC design data thatwas difficult until now. Furthermore, we showed the threats that the structure andparameters of machine learning hardware could be estimated from side-channel information(e.g., power consumption and radiated electromagnetic waves), and clarified effective
countermeasures against them.

(5) Soft Computing Integrated System
We are working on a novel high-performance, highly-efficient, flexible, and robust
brain-inspired brainmorphic computer hardware system, in particular, through physicalcomplex-networked dynamical process using an analog VLSI as a core component. Results ofthis year include the followings. (i) We proposed a network construction technique for the
chaotic neural network reservoir with mutual connections using only two layers byintroducing a cyclic updating scheme of neuronal states. We then implemented a proof ofconcept chip of a TSV/bump 3D stacked cyclic chaotic neural network reservoir LSI. The
experiments of the chip and emulations of networks confirmed the validity the chip. (ii) We
improved our mathematical model of neuron-like and synapse-like spintronics devices for
integrated circuit and learning neural network designs. (iii) We proposed 6 online learningalgorithms for real-time additional learning of reservoir neural networks. Performances of
33

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these algorithms were compared through simulations. (iv) We clarified the effects of local
memory (refractoriness) and max-gain of the neuron in the chaotic neural network reservoir
on word recognition performance through simulations.

(6) New Paradigm VLSI System
Our research activity is to solve the several limitations such as power dissipation,
performance and reliability due to the present binary-CMOS-based VLSI computing. The key
approach to breaking through such limitations is primarily the following two ways: thelogic-in-memory architecture based on nonvolatile logic, and the brainware LSI (BLSI)
computing, which would open up a novel VLSI chip paradigm, called a “new-paradigm VLSI
system.” In FY 2020, we have preliminarily achieved the following two activities. (a) First, wehave succeeded in realizing a high-performance non-volatile memory based on a
spintronics/semiconductor-hybrid LSI fabrication technology. The world's first dual-port
structure for a memory that uses a 3-terminal spintronics device (called SOT-MTJ device) as anext-generation memory that has no volatility, high endurance, and high-speed data
read/write accessibility. It has demonstrated 60MHz-write and 90MHz-read operations due toits simultaneous parallel data-access operation. (b) We have also succeeded that the problem
size solved by our method in the combinatorial optimization problem is about 16 times larger
than that of the quantum-annealing machine in D-Wave Systems. This is the method basedon stochastic logic which is known as a kind of probabilistic-computing techniques. Our
method is an algorithm that can be used in a general classical computer, but it is the result of
succeeding in relatively increasing the rate of convergence to the optimum solution, comparedwith the D-wave machine. As a result, our stochastic-logic-based method is practical for
realization against the D-wave machine that requires ultra-low temperature operation, andits performance is significantly higher than that of the conventional ones. The results of thisyear's research, including the above, are 12 academic journal papers, 4 peer-reviewed
international conference papers, and 3 invited lectures (including 3 international conference),
which includes IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, one of the highest international
academic journals on cutting-edge integrated circuit technology, and IEEE Transactions on
Neural Networks and Learning Systems (published online at March 30, 2022), one of thehighest academic journals in the field of neural-network circuits and systems (IF: 10.451).

34

2021
Software Construction Laboratory

Foundations for Developing High-level and Reliable Programming Languages

Software Construction Atsushi Ohori, Professor
Reliable Software Development Katsuhiro Ueno, Associate Professor (until September 2021)
Type Inference[Research Target and Activities]
Today's software systems are becoming more and more complicated
SML# Program
due to the need of integrating various computation resources available
in the Internet. A key to control the complexity and to enhance thereliability of such a system is to develop a high-level programming
Type-safe FFIPolymorphic Records
language that can directly represent various resources andautomatically detect potential inconsistencies among the components
OS, C Libraries
in a system. Based on this general observation, our research aims at
Databases
establishing both firm theoretical basis and implementation method
for flexible yet reliable programming languages for advanced
SML#: a high-level and reliable language
applications. Research topics on theoretical foundations include:
logical foundations for compilation and type-directed compilation for polymorphic languages. We arealso developing a new practical ML-style programming language, SML#, which embodies some of ourrecent results such as record polymorphism, direct C interface, and seamless integration of SQL.
In 2021, the final year of the laboratory, in addition to the above and other theoretical research, wehave made special efforts to complete and disseminate SML#. We have set up SML# GitHub repository
and SML# GitHub page (https://smlsharp.github.io/en/about/features/) for releasing and developing
SML# as open source software. We have also published textbooks (in Japanese) on learning SML#
programming [2] and on studying compiler structures and principles through SML# [3].

[Staff]
Professor ： Atsushi Ohori, Ph.D.
Associate Professor ： Katsuhiro Ueno, Dr. (until September 2021)
Assistant Professor ： Kentaro Kikuchi, Dr.
[Profile]
Atsushi Ohori. He was born in 1957. He received his BA degree in Philosophy from University of Tokyo,
1981; Ph.D. degree in Computer and Information Science from University of Pennsylvania, 1989. Heworked for Oki Electric Industry from 1981 until 1993. In 1993, he joined RIMS, Kyoto University as
an Associate Professor. In 2000, he joined Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology as a
Professor. In 2005, he moved to RIEC, Tohoku University as a Professor.
Katsuhiro Ueno. He was born in 1981. He received the Doctor of Philosophy (Information Sciences)
degree from Tohoku University, 2009. He joined Research Institute of Electrical Communication(RIEC), Tohoku University as an assistant professor in 2009. Since 2016 until September 2021, he
had been an associate professor at the same institute.

[Papers (conference presentations) and books][1] Atsushi Ohori, Katsuhiro Ueno: A Compilation Method for Dynamic Typing in ML. In Proceedings of the 19th Asian
Symposium on Programming Languages and Systems (APLAS'21), LNCS 13008, pp. 140-159, 2021, DOI:
10.1007/978-3-030-89051-3_9.
[2] Atsushi Ohori, Katsuhiro Ueno: Practical ML Programming with SML# (in Japanese), April 2021, 242 pages, Kyoritsu
Shuppan Co Ltd., ISBN:9784320124714.
[3] Atsushi Ohori: Compiler: Principles and Structures (in Japanese), September 2021, 196 pages, Kyoritsu Shuppan Co
Ltd., ISBN:9784320124783.
Contact to Professor OHORI Atsushi : atsushi.ohori.e8@tohoku.ac.jp

35

2021
Computing Information Theory

Filling the Gap between Humans and Computers

Computing Information Theory

Keisuke Nakano, Professor[Research Target and Activities]
Notwithstanding that programming is one of themost typical methods for a human to communicate
with a computer, there is a significant gap between
programs that are recognizable for humans and thosethat are efficiently executed by computers. Programs
described as humans think are highly readable but
are not always efficient. On the other hand, programs
described with carefully considering the behavior ofcomputers show much better performance in timeand space but are very complicated and hardly
maintainable. Our ultimate goal is to fill the gap between humans and computers in programming.
More specifically, our research topics include program transformation and program verification.
Program transformation is to automatically derive well-tuned and efficient programs fromhuman-readable ones; Program verification is to statically (that is, without running) check ifhuman-written but well-tuned complicated programs behave as the programmers expect for any
input. To this end, we deeply study the theory of formal tree languages, such as tree automata andtree transducers, which has a close relationship with the program transformation and verification.
Besides that, we are working on formalizing relevant results in mathematics and theoreticalcomputer science on a proof assistant to make our theory more robust.
[Staff]
Professor ： Keisuke Nakano, Dr.
Assistant Professor ： Kazuyuki Asada, Dr.
[Profile]
Keisuke Nakano received his Ph.D. from Kyoto University in 2006. He worked as a researcher at
the University of Tokyo from 2003 to 2008. He has been an assistant professor from 2008 to 2012
and an associate professor from 2012 to 2018 at the University of Electro-Communications. Since
2018, he has been a professor at the Research Institute of Electrical Communication. His researchinterests include formal language theory, programming language theory, and functional
programming. He is a member of ACM, JSSST, and IPSJ.
[Papers]
[1]

[2]
[3]
[4]

36

Keisuke Nakano. Time-symmetric Turing machines for computable involutions, Science of Computer
Programming, Volume 215, 1 March 2022, 102748.
Idempotent Turing Machines, 46th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science(MFCS 2021), Tallin, Estonia (hybrid), August 2021.
Keisuke Nakano. A Tangled Web of 12 Lens Laws, Proc. of 13th International Conference on Reversible
Computation (RC 2021), Nagoya, Japan Online, July 2021.
Kazuki Watanabe, Clovis Eberhart, Kazuyuki Asada, and Ichiro Hasuo. A Compositional Approach to Parity
Games, Proc. 37th Conference on the Mathematical Foundations of Programming Semantics (MFPS 2021),
Salzburg (online, hybrid), EPTCS 351, 2021, pp. 278-295

Contact to Professor NAKANO Keisuke : keisuke.nakano.a3@tohoku.ac.jp

2021
Communication Network Systems

Information Network Architecture for the IoT Society

Information Network Architecture: Go Hasegawa, Professor
Intelligent Network: Gen Kitagata, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
In this year, the following studies had been done. (a) Research on mobile network architecture foro
accommodating a large number of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT)
terminals (b) Research on function placement problems in the mobile networks with edge
computing (c) Research on new network architecture for future beyond-5G networks, that is basedon a fine and heterogeneous resolution of network slicing and introducing sub-slice provider andnetwork slice broker for efficient and scale-free network slice construction. (d) Research on Internet
congestion control for fairness and throughput improvement (e) Research and development ofessential technologies for an autopoietic computing platform which is autonomously formed by IoT
devices in a distributed manner utilizing software agent technology.
Service generation

Disaster/evacuation
information

Internet

Disaster
info service

Large-scale disruption

Security
service

Disaster
info service

Watch overserviceCooperative security cameras
Wireless security buzzer

Personsearch service

Regional
services
Autopoiesis
computing infra.

Network slicing architecture for beyond-5G networks.

[Staff]
Professor： Go Hasegawa, Dr.
Associate Professor： Gen Kitagata, Dr.

Sandals with wireless beacon

Autopoiesis
network

An image of autopoietic networking.

[Profile]
Go Hasegawa received the M.E. and D.E. degrees in Information and Computer Sciences from
Osaka University, Japan, in 1997 and 2000, respectively. From July 1997 to June 2000, he was
Research Assistant of Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University. From 2000 to 2018, he wasan Associate Professor of Cybermedia Center, Osaka University. He is now a Professor of ResearchInstitute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University. His research work is in the area of
information network architecture. He is a member of the IEEE and IEICE.
Gen Kitagata is an associate professor of the Research Institute of Electrical Communication of
Tohoku University, Japan. He received a doctoral degree from the Graduate School of Information
Sciences, Tohoku University in 2002. His research interests include agent-based computing,intelligent networking, and resilient networking. He is a member of IEICE, IPSJ.

[Papers][1] Satoshi Utsumi and Go Hasegawa, Refining Calculation Algorithm for Packet Pacing Rate of BBR, Proceedings of IEEE CQR
2021, May 2021.
[2] Go Hasegawa, Satoshi Hasegawa, Shin-ichi Arakawa, and Masayuki Murata, UONA: User-Oriented Network slicing Architecture
for beyond-5G networks, Proceedings of IEEE ICC 2021, June 2021.

Contact to Professor HASEGAWA Go : go.hasegawa.a6@tohoku.ac.jp

37

2021
Environmentally Conscious Secure Information System

Advanced information security technology
Environmentally Conscious Secure Information System, Naofumi Homma, Professor[Research Target and Activities]
We are studying future secure information
communication
systemsfromtheories
to
implementation
technologies
forconstructing
advanced
information
andcommunication
infrastructures in a safe and secure manner. In thisyear, we have discovered and reported a power
analysis attack on post-quantum cryptography (PQC).
The attack that we found is applicable to most PQC
schemes, as it exploits a common structure among
PQCs. We have developed its countermeasure, andconfirmed the effectiveness through an experiment. In
addition, we have also evaluated RISC-V processor
security, reported a physical vulnerability of its
security scheme called isolated execution, and Fig. 1: Experiment for security evaluation ofdeveloped
its
low-overheadcountermeasure.
cryptographic hardware
Furthermore, we have developed technologies forrealizing secure information systems, including automatic verification/synthesis system of tamperresistance cryptographic hardware, hardware architectures for efficient PQC computation, security
evaluation method for cryptographic modules based on deep learning, and formal (mathematical)
proof system for functional verification of cryptographic hardware.
[Staff]
Professor: Naofumi Homma, Ph. D
Assistant Professor: Rei Ueno, Ph. D[Profile]
Naofumi Homma received the PhD degrees in information sciences from Tohoku University, Sendai,
Japan, in 2001. Since 2016, he has been a Professor in the Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication, Tohoku University. In 2009-2010 and 2016-2017, he was a visiting professor at
Telecom ParisTech, Paris, France. He received a number of awards including the IACR CHES Best
Paper Award in 2014, the JSPS Prize in 2018, and the German Innovation Award in 2018.
[Papers][1] K. Xagawa et al., “Fault-Injection Attacks against NIST’s Post-Quantum Cryptography Round 3 KEM Candidates,”
In ASIACRYPT, pp. 33—61, 2021.
[2] R. Ueno et al., “Curse of Re-encryption: A Generic Power/EM Analysis on Post-Quantum KEMs,” IACR
Transactions on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems, Vol. 2022, Issue 1, pp. 296–332, 2021.
[3] S. Nashimoto et al., “Bypassing Isolated Execution on RISC-V using Side-Channel-Assisted Fault-Injection and Its
Countermeasure,” IACR Transactions on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems, Vol. 2022, Issue 1, pp. 28–
68, 2021.
[4] A. Ito et al., “Imbalanced Data Problem in Deep-Learning Based Side-Channel Attacks: Analysis and Solution,”
IEEE Transactions on Forensics & Security, Vol. 16, pp. 3790–3802, 2021.
[5] R. Ueno et al., “A Systematic Design Methodology of Formally-Proven Side-Channel-Resistant Cryptographic
Hardware,” IEEE Design & Test, Vol. 38, Issue 3, pp. 84–92, 2021.
[6] A. Ito et al., “Efficient Formal Verification of Galois-Field Arithmetic Circuits Using ZDD Representation ofBoolean Polynomials,” IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, Vol. 41, Issue
3, pp. 794–798, 2021.

38

Contact to Professor HOMMA Naofumi : naofumi.homma.c8@tohoku.ac.jp

2021Soft Computing Integrated System

Brainmorphic Computing Hardware System
Soft Computing Integrated System

Yoshihiko Horio, Professor[Research Target and Activities]
We are working on a novel high-performance, highly-efficient, flexible, and robust “brainmorphic”
computing hardware system through physical complex-networked dynamical process using novel
nano-scale devices. Toward the final goal, we are developing integrated circuit and device
technologies suitable for the brainmorphic computer systems, ultra-low-power asynchronous neuralnetwork systems, neuron-like and synapse-like spintronics devices, and a brainmorphic systemarchitecture. During the FIY 2021; 1) We implemented a proof-of-concept chip for a cyclic-updating
chaotic neural network reservoir (CNNR) integrated circuit using TSV/bump 3D stacked IC
technology; 2) We improved device models for neuron-like and synapse-like spintronics devices for
IC and neural network designs; 3) We proposed six online learning algorithms for reservoir neuralnetworks; and 4) We clarified theeffects of the local memory
parameters on the word recognition
performance of CNNR.
[Staff]
Professor ： Yoshihiko Horio, Ph.D.
[Profile]
Yoshihiko Horio received the B.E., M.E., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Keio
University, Japan, in 1982, 1984, and 1987, respectively. He is currently a Professor with the
Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University, Japan. From 1987 to 2016, he
was with Department of Electronic Engineering, Tokyo Denki University, Japan, being a Professor
from 2000. From April 1992 to March 1994, he was a Visiting Professor at Center for
Telecommunications Research, Columbia University, U.S.A. His current research interests are in
the area of neuromorphic and brainmorphic hardware systems based on complex physical dynamics,
mixed analog/digital VLSI circuit design, and high-order brain-inspired VLSI systems withconsciousness, self, and embodiment. Dr. Horio received the 3rd Hiroshi Ando Memorial Young
Engineer Award (1990), the IEEE Myril B. Reed Best Paper Award (1991), NCSP Best Paper
Awards (2005, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2020), IEEE NDES Best Paper Awards (2005, 2007), ISCS-ISISBest Paper Award (2008), JSAP Outstanding Paper Award (2019), NOLTA2020 Best Paper Award(2020), IEICE NOLTA Lifetime Achievement Award (2016), Fellow, IEICE (2018), and Emeritus
Professor of Tokyo Denki University (2020). .
[Papers][1] K. Fukuda and Y. Horio, "Analysis of dynamics in chaotic neural network reservoirs: Time-series prediction
tasks," Nonlinear Theory and Its Applications, IEICE, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 639-661, DOI: 10.1587/nolta.12.639,
October 1, 2021.
[2] K. Fukuda, Y. Horio, T. Orima, K. Kiyoyama, and M. Koyanagi, "Cyclic reservoir neural network circuit for 3D IC
implementation," Nonlinear Theory and Its Applications, IEICE, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 309-322, DOI:
10.1587/nolta.12.309, July 1, 2021. (Invited Paper).
[3] Y. Horio, T. Orima, K. Kiyoyama, and M. Koyanagi, "Implementation of a chaotic neural network reservoir on a
TSV/μ bump stacked 3D cyclic neural network integrated circuit," in Proc. 2021 IEEE International 3D System
Integration Conference, paper number 5b (4 pages), Online, November 16-19, 2021.

Contact to Professor HORIO Yoshihiko : yoshihiko.horio.a3@tohoku.ac.jp

39

2021
New Paradigm VLSI System Research Group

Realization of a New-Paradigm VLSI-Computing World

New Paradigm VLSI System: Takahiro Hanyu, Professor
Ne w Pa radigm VLSI Design: Masanori Natsui, Asso ciate Professor
Ne w Paradigm VLSI Computing: Naoya Onizawa, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
Rapid progress in recent deep submicron regime has led the capability to realize giga-scaled embedded
systems on a chip (SoC), while performance degradation of SoCs due to wiring complexity, power
dissipation and device-characteristic variation are increasingly getting serious problems in the recent
Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) chip. Our research activity is to solve the above problems primarily
by the following two ways: the logic-in-memory architecture based on nonvolatile logic, and thebrainware LSI (BLSI) computing, which would open up a novel VLSI chip paradigm, called a “newparadigm VLSI system.”This year, we have succeeded to design and implement the 3-terminal magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ)based nonvolatile memory (MRAM) (Fig. 1), and the fast-converging simulated annealing of
combinational optimization problems based on integral stochastic computing (Fig. 2).
[Staff]
Professor ： Takahiro Hanyu, Dr.
Associate Professor ： Masanori Natsui, Dr.
Associate Professor ： Naoya Onizawa, Dr.
[Profile]
Takahiro Hanyu received the D.E. degrees in Electronic engineering from Tohoku University, Sendai,
Japan, in 1989. His general research interests include multiple-valued current-mode logic and its
application to high performance and low-power arithmetic VLSIs.
Masanori Natsui received the Ph.D. degrees in information Sciences from Tohoku University, Sendai,
Japan, in 2005. His research interest includes automated circuit design technique, nonvolatile-based
circuit architecture and its application, and design of high speed low-power integrated circuits.
[Papers][1] N. Onizawa, et al., "Fast-Converging Simulated Annealing for Ising Models Based on Integral Stochastic Computing,"
IEEE Trans. on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, 2022 (to appear)．
[2] N. Onizawa and T. Hanyu, "CMOS Invertible Logic: Bidirectional Operation Based on Probabilistic Device Model andStochastic Computing," IEEE Nanotechnology Magazine, vol. 16, issue 1, pp. 33-46, Feb. 2022.
[3] M. Natsui, et al., "Dual-Port SOT- MRAM Achieving 90-MHz Read and 60-MHz Write Operations under FieldAssistance -Free Condition" IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 56, no. 4, pp.1116-1128, April 2021.

40

Contact to Professor HANYU Takahiro : takahiro.hanyu.c4@tohoku.ac.jp

2021
Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
The Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics of the Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication (RIEC) was established in April of 2004. Its purpose is to develop andestablish the science and technology of nanoelectronics and spintronics for information
technology. Utilizing the facilities installed in the Nanoelectronics-and-Spintronics building
and under collaboration between RIEC and related laboratories of the Graduate Schools ofEngineering, Information Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, of Tohoku University, R&D on
nanotechnologies of materials and devices in Nanoelectronics and Spintronics are continued
extensively. Furthermore, nation-wide and world-wide collaboration research projects are
conducted to build a systematic database in electrical communication research.
The Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics mainly consists of laboratories ofNano-Integration Devices and Processing, Spintronics, and Nano-Bio Hybrid Molecular
Devices; together with the project office of the Center for Innovative Integrated Electronic
Systems, and the groups of Ultra-Broadband Signal Processing, Soft Computing Integrated
System and Quantum Devices. These groups cooperatively carry out the research aimed at
establishing a world-wide Center of Excellence (COE) in the research area of nanoelectronics
and spintronics.

Highlights of our research activities in 2021 are shown below.

41

2021
Nano Integration● Nano-Integration Devices and Processing (S. Sato, M. Sakuraba, and H. Yamamoto)(1) Toward the development of neuromorphic computation hardware, we fabricated arecurrent neural network LSI composed of spiking neurons that can reproduce various
neuron pulses with ultra-low power consumption. We confirmed by electrical measurementsthat our analog MOS circuit correctly operated in the weak inversion region and that the
network showed various responses depending on input signal.
(2) Low-energy plasma chemical vapor deposition method enables the formation of Si nitride film with acomposition close to stoichiometric ratio, and it is experimentally shown that a nanometer-thick Si nitride
film under the thermally oxidized SiO2 dielectric film can suppress thermal oxidation of the substratesurface.
(3) Toward the development of a dedicated hardware for reinforcement learning, weinvestigated the relationship between the bit-length of floating-point operations and thelearning performance of the Q-learning algorithm.
● Soft Computing Integrated System (Y. Horio)
We are working on a novel high-performance, highly-efficient, flexible, and robust
brain-inspired brainmorphic computer hardware system, in particular, through physicalcomplex-networked dynamical process using an analog VLSI as a core component. Results ofthis year are summarized as follows:(1) We implemented a proof-of-concept chip for a cyclic-updating chaotic neural network reservoir(CNNR) integrated circuit using TSV/bump three-dimensional stacked IC technology. The experimental
results from the chip confirmed the validity and efficiency of the proposed technique. We also developed afull circuit level emulator based on the measurement results to evaluate learning CNNR networks.
(2) We improved our mathematical model of neuron-like and synapse-like spintronics devices
to be applicable to integrated circuit and learning neural network designs. Some novel
spintronics-based neural networks were proposed using the improved model.
(3) We proposed six online learning algorithms for real-time additional learning of reservoir
neural networks. Performances of these algorithms were compared through simulations on
discrete word recognition tasks.
(4) We clarified the effects of local memory (refractoriness) inside the neuron, and the
maximum gain of the neuronal output function in the CNNR on word recognition
performance through simulations. As a result, we found that suitable exponential decay of theinternal state improves the performance.
Spintronics and Information Technology● Spintronics (S. Fukami)
Our research activities focus on realizing low-power functional spintronic devices. The
outcomes in the last fiscal year are as follows: (1) Summarizing physical properties and

42

2021
potential materials for qubit applications with spin centers, (2) proposing double-free-layer
stochastic magnetic tunnel junction for probabilistic bit applications and clarifying thephysical mechanism governing the time-domain and time-averaged properties, (3) discoveringa persistent rotation of chiral-spin structure in non-collinear antiferromagnet driven by
current-induced spin-orbit torque, (4) demonstrating the energy harvesting of Wi-Fi bandsignal using series connected spintronic oscillators, (5) elucidating the critical factors thatgovern the topological properties of non-collinear antiferromagnetic Mn3Sn thin film througha systematic measurement of the crystalline structure, magnetic properties andmagnetotransport properties, (6) revealing a missing factor in the analysis of current-induced
hysteresis loop measurement that is used to quantify the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction,(7) clarifying the physical mechanism governing the time-averaged response of the stochastic
magnetic tunnel junction with respect to magnetic field and current, (8) demonstrating a
nonvolatile control of oscillation properties in an artificial structure consisting of spin Hall
nano-oscillators as an artificial neuron and memristors as an artificial synapse, (9)establishing a device technology to extend nonvolatile magnetic tunnel junction to angstromsemiconductor generation while keeping high performance, and (10) demonstrating
Boltzmann machine learning using a probabilistic bits with stochastic magnetic tunnel
junctions.
● Ultra-Broadband Signal Processing (T. Otsuji and A. Satou)
The goal of our research is to explore the terahertz frequency range by creating novel
integrated electron devices and circuit systems. III-V- and graphene-based active plasmonic
heterostructures for creating new types of terahertz lasers and ultrafast transistors are major
concerns.
developing

By making full use of these world-leading device/circuit technologies, we are
futureultra-broadband

wireless

communication

systems

as

well

as

spectroscopic/imaging systems for safety and security. The followings are the majorachievements in 2021FSY.
1. Creation of graphene-based current-injection terahertz lasers
Graphene, a monolayer sheet of honeycomb carbon crystal, is expected to break through thelimit on conventional device operating speed/frequency performances. Towards the creation ofnovel current-injection graphene THz lasers, we developed a graphene laser-transistorfeatured with our original asymmetric dual-grating gates demonstrating coherent
amplification of THz radiation with the maximal gain of 9% at room temperature promoted bygraphene plasmon instabilities driven by dc-channel current flow (Press-released on July2020).
2. Development of plasmonic terahertz detectors
For future ultrahigh-speed wireless communications, we have developed plasmonic
terahertz detectors with original metallic diffraction-grating structures, which utilizehydrodynamic nonlinearities of two-dimensional plasmons in the channels of InGaAs
high-electron-mobility transistors (InGaAs-HEMTs). This fiscal year, we demonstrated that
43

2021
the "3D rectification effect", where the diode current nonlinearity associated with the electron
tunneling is superimposed onto the plasmonic hydrodynamic nonlinearities, can take place byapplying a positive gate bias voltage in the gate-readout configuration of the photovoltage andsucceeded in drastic enhancement of the detector responsivity by one order of magnitude.
● Quantum Devices (T. Otsuka)
We are exploring interesting properties of solid-state nanostructures utilizing precise andhigh-speed electric measurement and control techniques. We are also developing materials
and devices using nanostructures. Our research activities in FY 2021 are the following.
(1) We developed electronic measurement and control methods of local electronic states innanostructures utilizing semiconductor quantum dots. We improved the methods withhigh-frequency techniques and data informatics approaches.
(2) We measured local electronic and spin states in nanostructures utilizing sensitiveelectronic measurement techniques. We revealed the detail of local electronic states inquantum dot devices and new materials.
(3) We studied semiconductor quantum bits for future quantum information processing. We
worked on quantum bit operations and readout and developed techniques for scale-up ofquantum systems.
Nano-Bio Hybrid Molecular Devices● Nano-Bio Molecular Devices (A. Hirano-Iwata)
Our research activities focus on development of sophisticated molecular-scale devices
through the combination of well-established microfabrication techniques and various soft
materials, such as biomaterials and organic materials.
(1) We developed a new measurement system for artificial lipid bilayer membranes, in whicha lateral voltage was introduced as a new input in addition to the traditional transmembrane
voltage. We demonstrated that the new system could effectively modulate the ion-channel
activity and the performance of hybrid devices based on fullerene-doped bilayer membranes.
(2) In collaboration with a member of the newly launched Grant-in-Aid for Transformative
Research Area (B) “Multicellular Neurobiocomputing” (MEXT KAKENHI), we developed anovel microelectrode technology to deliver localized stimulation to cultured neuronal
networks grown on microfabricated substrates.
(3) We developed a TiO2 nanotube-based gas sensor for precisely detecting trace amounts of
CO in a gas mixture. We also confirmed the bactericidal activity of nanobubbles generatedusing porous alumina films.

44

2021
Research Targets and Activities of Laboratory for Brainware Systems
The Laboratory for Brainware Systems of the Research Institute of Electrical Communication wasestablished in 2004 and renewed in 2014. Its purpose is to contribute to the research and developmentof advanced information science and technology for Brainware systems which realize a seamless fusionof the changeable and complex real world and the cyber space.
We aim at establishing scientific and technological foundations and at exploring human-likebrainware computing applications for Adaptive Cognition and Action Systems Division (Recognition
and Learning Systems Group), Autonomous Decentralized Control Systems Division (Real-World
Computing Group), Brainware LSI Systems Division (New Paradigm VLSI System Group and Soft
Computing Integrated System Group), and Brain Architecture Division. The Laboratory for Brainware
Systems consists of the above four divisions which cooperatively carry out the research. At the sametime, they serve as a laboratory for nation-wide cooperative research in the field of Brainware systems.
The technology developed in the Laboratory is expected to enhance the research carried out in thefour Divisions of the Institute, and the research conducted in the Divisions, in turn, is expected toprovide scientific basis for the information technology developed in the Laboratory.

[Research Target]
The goal of this facility is to develop fundamental technologies and their applications that willlead the world to the next-generation information system that seamlessly integrates thecyber-physical world and the ever-changing real world. In order to realize this goal, eachlaboratory participating in this facility has set the following individual goals and promotes
research activities as follows:
Real-World Computing Section: Animals exhibit adaptive locomotion under unpredictable andunstructured environments by coordinating their large number of bodily degrees of freedom inreal time. We aim to understand the design principle of such adaptive locomotion by focusing on
autonomous decentralized control wherein macroscopic behaviors emerge from local interactions
among each individual components. Moreover, we aim to develop artificial agents (e.g. robots) that
Contact to Professor HANYU Takahiro : takahiro.hanyu.c4@tohoku.ac.jp

45

2021
function like animals by implementing the obtained design principle.
New Paradigm VLSI System Section: Rapid progress in recent deep submicron regime has led
the capability to realize giga-scaled embedded systems on a chip (SoC), while performancedegradation of SoCs due to wiring complexity, power dissipation and device-characteristic
variation are increasingly getting serious problems in the recent VLSI chip. Our research activity
is to solve the above problems primarily by the following two ways: the use of logic-in-memoryarchitecture based on nonvolatile logic, and the use of asynchronous data-transfer schemes basedon multiple-valued current-mode logic, which would open up a novel VLSI chip paradigm, called a“new-paradigm VLSI system.”
Recognition and Learning Systems Section: Humans can perform various actions based on therecognition of the outside world that is constructed through multiple sensory inputs such as visionand touch, even though they frequently move their own body parts in the environment. Here we
investigate the adaptive-process and functions of the human cognitive system for action throughpsychophysical experiments. On the basis of the experimental evidence, we aim to createcomputational models of the recognition and learning processes in the human brain.
Soft Computing Integrated System Section: We are working on a novel high-performance,
highly-efficient, flexible, and robust brain-inspired brainmorphic computer hardware system, inparticular, through physical complex-networked dynamical process using an analog VLSI as acore component. Toward the final goal, we are developing integrated circuit and device
technologies suitable for the brainmorphic computer systems. We further intend to realize an
autonomous brain-inspired computer with a sense of self and consciousness based on dynamic andcomplex changes in spatiotemporal network state and structure.
[Research Activities]
Aiming at the seamless integration of the cyber-physical world and the real world, which is thegoal of Laboratory of Brainware Systems, the following research results were obtained. In
particular, the following research results in fiscal year 2021 are an important step towards thegoal as:--Real-World Computing Section demonstrates " Spontaneous Gait Transitions of Sprawling
Quadruped Locomotion by Sensory-Driven Body–Limb Coordination Mechanisms” reported in
Frontiers in Neurorobotics.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbot.2021.645731/full--New Paradigm VLSI System Section has succeeded in demonstrating that the problem size
solved by our stochastic-logic-based method in the combinatorial optimization problem is about
16 times larger than that of a typical quantum annealer, called D-wave machine .
https://doi.org/10.1109/TNNLS.2022.3159713
https://doi.org/10.1109/MNANO.2021.3126094--Recognition and Learning Systems Section reported "Quali-informatics in the society with yotta
scale data" in IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), 1-4 (2021)
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9401161--Soft Computing Integrated System Section develops "Preliminary experimental results of a
stacked 3D cyclic chaotic neural network reservoir integrated circuit" reported in Nonlinear
Theory and Its Applications, IEICE.
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/nolta/13/2/13_306/_article/-char/en
The more detailed research results of each section (laboratory) are shown as follows:
Real-World Computing Section:(refer to Real-World Computing Laboratory in Human Information Systems Division)
New Paradigm VLSI System Section:(refer to New Paradigm VLSI System Laboratory in Systems & Software Division)
Recognition and Learning Systems Section:(refer to Visual Cognition and Systems Laboratory in Human Information Systems Division)(refer to Advanced Acoustic Information Systems Laboratory in Human Information Systems
Division)
Soft Computing Integrated System Section:(refer to Soft Computing Integrated System Laboratory in Systems & Software Division)
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2021
Recognition and learning systems laboratory

Understanding the human recognition and learning systems(Visual Cognition and Systems, Satoshi Shioiri, Professor)(Advanced Acoustic Information Systems, Shuichi Sakamoto, Professor)[Research Target and Activities]
To create computational models of the process that the human brain integrates multiple sensory
inputs from the outside world, we are investigating the visual and auditory functions in the humanbrain for implementing these functions in hardware under biologically plausible settings. Our
approaches include psychophysics, brain wave measurements, and computer simulations.
This year, first, weinvestigated method of value
estimated of images based onhuman preference judgments.
Accumulation of information
is essential for humanknowledge production, andinformation technology has
accelerated the speed of data
Figure. Schematic diagram of the image preference evaluation experiment and the analysis of image
accumulation. The increase
preference estimation.
in quantity of information
with high speed does not promise high quality knowledge production and possibly does cause
problems. One big problem is lack of storage for such big data. Another critical problem in
information usage is information overload, that is, deterioration of productivity by too muchinformation. Decision accuracy decrease with amount of information beyond a certain point while it
increases at the beginning. We introduce an approach for solution of these problems with an
example of research along the approach.
Second, we investigated how humans extract target sounds from distractor sounds byusing auditory selective attention. We have especially focused on the effect of auditory selective
attention in the spatial domain and measured the shape of the spatial window of auditory spatialattention in the horizontal plane. The experiment results revealed that the observed spatial patternof the auditory selective attention depends on the direction. The shape of the spatial window of theauditory selective attention was broader in the side direction than that in the frontal direction. The
results imply a relationship between the shapes of the spatial window of auditory selective
attention and the accuracy of sound localization.
[Staff]
Professor: Satoshi Shioiri, Ph.D.
Professor: Shuichi Sakamoto, Ph.D.
[Papers][1] 1. S. Shioiri, T. Sasada, R. Nishikawa, Visual attention around a hand location localized by proprioceptive
information. Cereb Cortex Commun 3, tgac005 (2022).
[2] 3. S. Shioiri, K. Matsumiya, C. H. Tseng, Contribution of the slow motion mechanism to global motion
revealed by an MAE technique. Scientific reports 11, 3995 (2021).
[3] S. Tomimatsu, S. Sakamoto, T. Kawase, & M. Chait, "Directional dependency of auditory spatial attention in
the horizontal plane," IEICE Technical Report, SP2021-37, 66-70, 2021. (in Japanese)

47

2021
Research Center for 21st Century Information Technology
Research and Development of the IT-Based Practical Technology
by the Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration[Research Target and Activities]
The purpose of the IT-21 center is development of practical technologies for IT based on theadvanced technologies of RIEC with the partnership among Industry, Government and University.
The term of development is limited less than 5 years. The projects are planned on matching withboth basic technologies in the University and application in the Industry. Combination of thetechnologies of the University and Industry makes practical technologies with availability for thecommercial products. The center actively accelerates to obtain the intellectual properties generated
from the development of practical technology to the Industry. Last year, the center was reformed andtwo divisions are newly established. One is “Interdisciplinary Collaboration Research Division” andit consists of two projects, “Research project of human value estimation of multimodal information
based on informatics paradigm to manage both quality and value” and “Research project of
spintronics/CMOS-hybrid brain-inspired integrated system”.
Another is “Challenging andExploratory Research Division” and it consists of two projects, “Interactive drone content forentertainment / wildlife symbiosis” and “Wireless IoT Technology for a safe & secure mediciation
management system”. Former “Technology Development Division” was renamed to“Industry-Academia-Government-Collaboration Research and Development Division” and it consistsof one group, “Wireless ICT platform project”. Presently, following projects are carried out in thisgroup.

・R&D on Adaptive Media Access Control for Increasing the Capacity of Wireless IoT Devices
in Factory Sites
From 2019, the mobile wireless technology group has started a project “R&D on Adaptive Media
Access Control for Increasing the Capacity of Wireless IoT Devices in Factory Sites” supported by the
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. In this project, we have successfully developed a5GHz-band simplified beam forming wireless IoT communication system using Wi-Fi backscatterand have completed this project.
・R&D Project for Enhancement of the Bases for Post-5G Information and Communication
Systems
From 2020, the group has started a new project “R&D Project for Enhancement of the Bases for
Post-5G Information and Communication Systems” supported by the supported by the New Energy
and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). In this project, we are going todevelop Silicon(Si) Radio Frequency (RF)IC and 1-bit delta-sigma modulation direct digital RFtransmitter for post 5G base stations

48

2021
[Staff]Director: Noriharu Suematsu, Professor
Industry-Academia-Government-Collaboration Research and Development Division(Wireless ICT platform project)
Noriharu Suematsu, Leader, Professor
Takashi Shiba, Specially Appointed Professor
Suguru Kameda, Visiting Professor
Yasunori Suzuki, Visiting Professor
Kenichi Maruhashi, Visiting Professor
Mizuki Motoyoshi, Visiting Associate Professor
Takashi Mehata, Visiting Associate Professor
Interdisciplinary Collaboration Research Division
Satoshi Shioiri, Project Leader, Professor
Takahiro Hanyu, Project Leader, Professor
Challenging and Exploratory Research Division
Yoshifumi Kitamura, Project Leader, Professor
Noriharu Suematsu, Project Leader, Professor

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2021
IT21 Center Industry-Academia-Government-Collaboration Research and Development
Division, Wireless ICT Platform Project

Dependable Air

Noriharu Suematsu, Professor (Project Leader)Takashi Shiba, Specially Appointed Professor
Quasi-Zenith Satellite
Communication

100000km

Location &Short Message

Universal Clock

Dependable AirSpace(Heterogeneous Air Interface)

10000kmDependable
Network Control
physical distribution

CDMA

TDMA

distance

PDC cdmaOne

1000m

OFDMA

W-CDMA

car/ITS

Dependable
Air Interface

HSPA

cdma2000

Multi-mode/Multi-band
Module802.16e802.20

Cellular

Surface

Wide area
802.11 802.11b

PHS

100m

Wireless LAN

ZigbeeShort range 802.15.4

Non IEEEIEEE (IP friendly)

medicalfarming/fishery/
forestryHighthrouput

802.11a/g

Mobile Internet
smart grid
plant control

LTEhome network

LTEAdvanced
VHT SG
802.11nUltra highthroughput

10mStandard

broadcast/communication
network

Bluetooth802.15.1

UWB

mmWave802.15.3c
802.11ad

RF-ID

10
Sea

100

10k

100k
10M
1M
Broadband
Narrowband

100M

1G
10G
throughput [bit/s]

Fig. Dependable Air.

[Research Target and Activities]
Mobile wireless communication technology is one of the significant communication technologies that
support the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) society, connected with the high-speed
backbone network using optical fiber. Evolution of the mobile wireless communication technology inJapan is indispensable to keep the leadership in this technology area in the world. The mobile
wireless technology group has been proposing the concept of “Dependable Air,” which is aheterogeneous and highly-reliable wireless network. The Dependable Air is able to work even in theevent of a big disaster.
After finishing the set of R&D projects related to disaster relief, the group has started the project
named “wireless ICT platform” which is the digital rich transceiver hardware technologies suitable for
Dependable Air, software radio and wireless Internet of Things (IoT) in B5G/6G era. The groupfinished a R&D project “R&D on Technologies to Densely and Efficiently Utilize Radio Resources of
Unlicensed Bands in Dedicated Areas” supported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs andCommunications (MIC) from FY2017 to FY2020. The group proceeded R&D project “R&D on Adaptive
Media Access Control for Increasing the Capacity of Wireless IoT Devices in Factory Sites” supported
by MIC from FY2019. The group also started “Research and Development Project for Enhancementof the Bases for Post-5G Information and Communication Systems” supported by the New Energy andIndustrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) from FY 2020.
[Staff]
Professor: Noriharu Suematsu, Ph.D
Specially Appointed Professor: Takashi Shiba, Ph.D

50

Contact to Professor SUEMATSU Noriharu : noriharu.suematsu.a3@tohoku.ac.jp

2021[Papers][1] N. Suematsu, K. Edamatsu, T. Machii, J. Temga, M. Motoyoshi, S. Kameda, T. Shiba, " 5 GHz-Band Simplified Beam
Forming Wireless IoT Communication Using Wi-Fi Backscatter," IEICE Transactions on Electronics, Vol. J105-C, No.
1, pp. 2-10, Sep. 2021.
[2] T. Shiba, T. Furuichi, M. Motoyoshi, S. Kameda, N. Suematsu, "A Spectrum Regeneration and Demodulation Method
for Multiple Direct Undersampled Real Signals," IEICE Transactions on Communications, Vol. E104-B, No. 10,
pp.1260-1267, Oct. 2021.
[3] N. Suematsu, K. Edamatsu, T. Machii, M. Motoyoshi, S. Kameda, T. Shiba, "5GHz Simplified Beam Forming
Wireless IoT Communication using Wi-Fi Backscatter," 2021 IEEE International Symposium on Radio-Frequency
Integration Technology (RFIT), Aug. 2021.
[4] J. Temga, M. Motoyoshi, T. Shiba, N. Suematsu, "A 5.5GHz Band 2-D Beamforming Network Using Broadside
Coupled Stripline Structure," 2021 IEEE International Symposium on Radio-Frequency Integration Technology(RFIT), Aug. 2021.
[5] J. Temga, T. Machii, T. Shiba, N. Suematsu, "28GHz-Band 2x2 Patch Antenna Module Vertically Integrated with aCompact 2-D BFN in Broadside Coupled Stripline Structure," 2021 IEEE Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference(APMC), pp.73-75, Nov. 2021.
[6] J.Temga, M. Motoyoshi, T. Shiba, N. Suematsu, "A 5.5GHz-Band 2x2 Array Antennas Module Based on Compact
2-D Beamforming Network in Broadside Coupled Stripline," 2022 16th European Conference on Antennas andPropagation (EuCAP), Mar. 2022.

51

2021
Interdisciplinary Collaboration Research Division

Research project of human value estimation of multimodal information basedon informatics paradigm to manage both quality

Satoshi Shioiri, Dr. Professor
Nobuyuki Sakai, Dr. Professor[Research Target and Activities]
Human facial expression is related to emotion, perception, cognition, decision and so on. We
attempted to predict preference judgments of images from facial expression while evaluating
images using machine learning methods. We performed preference estimation for images andcompared performance of three models, and found that facial expression proves useful informationfor estimating human judgments.
Fig. 1 Estimation of humanpreference judgments fromfacial expressions andimage features.
(a) Subjective judgmentsfor preference of images
evaluation.
(b) Analyses of facial
expression and image
features for prediction of
the preference judgements.

[Staff]
Professor ： Satoshi Shioiri, Dr.
Professor ： Nobuyuki Sakai, Dr.
Assistant Professor : Kosuke Yamamoto, Dr.
[Profile]
Satoshi SHIOIRI Professor Shioiri graduated Tokyo Institute of Technology and received Dr. Eng
in 1986. In 2005, he joined Tohoku University and he has been a professor of Research Institute ofElectrical Communication of Tohoku University since then.
Nobuyuki Sakai graduated from Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University in 1998.
Then he worked at Hiroshima Shudo University and National Institute of Advanced and Industrial
Science and Technology (AIST) , Kobe Shoin Women’s University. He, then, moved to Sendai in
October 2011, and he is a professor of Graduate School of Arts and Letters of Tohoku University
now.

[Papers][1] T. Hasegawa and N. Sakai, "Comparing Meal Satisfaction Based on Different Types of Tableware:
An Experimental Study of Japanese Cuisine Culture", Foods, 10, 1546, 2021
[2] A. Saita, K. Yamamoto, R. Takei, H. Washio, S. Shioiri, N. Sakai "Crispness, the Key for the
Palatability of "Kakinotane": A Sensory Study with Onomatopoeic Words", Foods, 10, 1724, 2021
[3] S Shioiri, Y Sato, Y Horaguchi, H Muraoka, M Nihei, "Quali-informatics in the society with yotta
scale data", 2021 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), 1-4, 2021

52

2021
Exploratory Research DivisionInteractive Drone Content for Entertainment / Wildlife Symbiosis

Yoshifumi KITAMURA, Professor[Research Target and Activities]
This project aims to develop core technologies of interactive drone content for real industrial use
including entertainment and wildlife symbiosis, through close industry/academia/government
cooperation. It is expected to support continuous development of drone technologies through thisinnovation, and produce new industry and services in response to societal needs.
The followings are current research projects:(1) Development of intuitive user interface for a drone pilot(2) Development of crow-type-drone to communicate with crows.
[Staff]
Professor: Yoshifumi Kitamura, Dr.
[Profile]
Yoshifumi Kitamura: Since 2010, Yoshifumi Kitamura has been Professor in the Research Instituteof Electrical Communication, Tohoku University. Prior to arriving at Tohoku, he was an Associate
Professor at Graduate School of Engineering, and Graduate School of Information Science andTechnology, Osaka University. While working at ATR Communication Systems ResearchLaboratories, he focused on sophisticated user interfaces in virtual environments. His first formal
appointment was in the Information Systems Research Center Canon Inc., where he was involved
in research on artificial intelligence, image processing, computer vision, and 3D data processing. His
formal education was obtained at Osaka University, B.Sc (1985); M.Sc. (1987); and Ph.D. (1996).
[Papers][1] Linfeng Chen, Kazuki Takashima, Kazuyuki Fujita, Yoshifumi Kitamura, PinpointFly: An
Egocentric Position-control Drone Interface using Mobile AR, Proceedings of the 2021 CHI
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), Article 150,13 pages, May 2021.

53

2021
IT21 Center
Exploratory Research Division
Wireless IoT Technology for a Safe & Secure Medication Management System

Safe & Secure Medication Management System using Wireless IoT Technology
Noriharu Suematsu, Professor (Project Leader)
Takahiro Hanyu, Professor
Kazushi Ishiyama, Professor
Naofumi Homma, Professor
Qiang Chen, Professor
Suguru Kameda, Visiting Professor (Hiroshima University)
Mizuki Motoyoshi, Visiting Associate Professor (Shizuoka Institute of Science and Technology)
Sensor IC

1mm

Controller,
TX/RX, etc.

Tablet & Capsule

Fig.1 Battery-less tablet-

Fig.2 Safe medication management system

pasting-type sensor[Research Target and Activities]
Medical costs that continue to increase with progress in aging society and medical advances are serious
social problems on the worldwide scale. In order to reduce medical expenses, it is indispensable toconstruct a medication management system that enables inventory control and confirmation ofingestion.
This division conducts exploratory research on establishing a safe medication management systemusing wireless IoT technology. The goal of this research is the realization and practical implementationof system construction that allows patients to take medication management just by taking tablet-type
medicine. In this research, we are now studying for the battery-less tablet-pasting-type sensor by
applying wireless IoT technology.
In this year, we evaluated low power ASK transmitter using SOI-process with high impedance
substrate to increase the efficiency of antenna. In addition, the reflector under the loop antenna wasemployed to increase the radiated power toward the chip surface. The transmitter was evaluated andcompared to a transmitter using bulk-CMOS process under the same power consumption andcommunication distance conditions. The power output from the circuit core through the source follower
type buffer amplifier increase by 4 dB compared to the circuit using bulk CMOS. Moreover the radiatedpower increased by 9 dB when the proposed antenna is used. The proposed antenna is expected toextend the communication distance to 27 cm.

54

2021
Management Office for Safety and HealthRealizing and Maintaining a Safe and Comfortable Environment to Support
Research[Research Target and Activities]

Safety and health seminar (Online)

High pressure gas safety seminar (Online)

1. Outline of the Management Office for Safety and Health
The Management Office for Safety and Health is established to maintain the safety and health ofstudents and staff working at the institute. The use of chemicals, high-pressure gas and radiation in
research activities at the institute entails many risks. The Management Office for Safety and Healthprovides support for safety and health management in research laboratories, experimental facilities
and the Fundamental Technology Center through various activities to ensure safe and smooth
research activities within the institute.
2. Activities by the Management Office for Safety and Health
For the actual management of safety and health at the office, the Safety and Health Committee firstpresents the basic policies of safety management at the institute, and the Management Office for
Safety and Health then plans and executes activities based on them. At the institute, laboratories andother individual sections are highly independent of each other; unlike a general corporate organization,
top-down safety management is not suitable and measures appropriate for independent sections need
to be taken. Various considerations are also necessary for students, researchers, and other members
engaged in research activities as well as faculty staff. At this institute, extremely hazardous materials
and facilities are used, including chemicals, high-pressure gas, and X-ray devices. Since there is also aclean room and other special workplaces, safety management should be extended by considering them.
In these circumstances, the Management Office for Safety and Health will monitor situations andcharacteristics in each section at the institute, plan and recommend practical management methods
and improvement measures, and support their implementation for the efficient and effective
management of safety and health. The main activities in this fiscal year are as follows:○ Holding safety and health seminar and high-pressure gas seminar for staff and students at theinstitute○ Inspection of and assistance in improving the safety and health management system and working
environment within the institute○ Holding first aid training course○ Investigation of laws related to safety and health and collection of information regarding safety
and health management○ Providing advice and information to safety and health personnel in each department[Staff]
Manager: Kazushi Ishiyama, Professor

Deputy Manager: Shigeo Sato, Professor
Nobuyuki Sato, Assistant Professor
Maho Abe, Technical Staff

Haruka Takahashi, Clerk

anzen-riec@grp.tohoku.ac.jp

55

2021
Flexible Information System Center
Development and Management of Flexible Information System[Summary and Role of the Flexible Information
System Center]
The existing information systems are inflexible,
meaning that they only provide processing functions
predetermined in their design phase.

The objective of

this center is to introduce, operate, and maintain
information networks and systems to support research
activities in RIEC, based on the concept of flexible
information processing that reflects human intentions
and the environment.
Moreover, utilizing know-how obtained throughFigure 1 RIEC network system

practical experiences of the information networks and systems, this center designs and constructs
the state-of-the-art systems for advanced organization, utilization, management and operation, anddispatch of scientific information.
1. Information collection, organization, dispatching, utilization, and research support environment.
2. Advanced maintenance, management, and operation of the network.
3. Technical support for information networks and systems in the institute.

[Status Report of the Flexible Information System Center]
Management and operation of the RIEC network information system.
At the Flexible Information System Center, we manage and operate the server system and theinformation network underlying the academic research conducted throughout the ResearchInstitute of Electronic Communication (hereafter RIEC).
・Maintaining and monitoring the server and network hardware.
・Responding to information security crises.
・Advising and answering problems on the use of network services raised by individual researchgroups.
・Conducting seminars to network managers of research groups.
・Managing the information system accounts.
・Constructing and renewing the official RIEC website.
・Developing and publishing videos containing the events and conferences associated with RIEC
activities.
・Improving on the security measures of mobile devices checked out of the RIEC premises.
・Operating the system with backup power sources under scheduled power shutdowns.

56

fir@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2021[Staff](1) Steering Committee
Professors: Go Hasegawa, Dr., Masafumi Shirai, Dr., Takuo Suganuma, Dr., Hiroshi Yasaka, Dr.,
Akio Ishiguro, Dr.
(2) Staff
Director (Professor): Go Hasegawa, Dr.
Professor*: Takuo Suganuma, Dr.
Associate Professor*: Gen Kitagata, Dr.
Technical Official: Kenji Ota
Technical Official*:Yuko Maruyama
Technical Support Member: Mutsumi Shuto, Riho Ooizumi

57

2021
Fundamental Technology Center

Supporting research with high-level specialized knowledge and technology

Overview of the Fundamental Technology Center[Research Target and Activities]
The Fundamental Technology Center provides a wide range of technical support for research anddevelopment through four divisions: Machine Shop Division, Evaluation Division, Process Division, andInformation Technology Division. The following is a summary of the activities of the divisions of theFundamental Technology Center for the current year.
1. Machine Shop Division
Following requests from researchers, the Machine Shop Division supplied 103 machining products.
About 8% of the requests were from outside the institute.
2. Evaluation Division
23 laboratories utilized the evaluation and measurement apparatuses for shared usage (theutilization time was 2,048 hours). Technical assistance on the use of liquid helium was provided for 3
laboratories, and 58 liters of liquid nitrogen were supplied. In cooperation with the administration andthe management offices for safety and health, this division also engaged in safety maintenance of theinstitute.
3. Process Division
In cooperation with the technical office, a section of the Laboratory for Nanoelectronics andSpintronics, 271 Electron-beam lithography products, 27 photomasks and 5 focused-ion-beam micro
products were supplied.

Technical supports and maintenance were provided for operating the clean

rooms of the Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics.
4. Information Technology DivisionThis division operated the in-house network at the institute and maintained shared-useinformation-equipment, in cooperation with the Flexible Information System Center. This division also
engaged in the contracting aspects of collaborative research based on intellectual property rights andgave advice to researchers who tried to apply for the grant of patents.

[Staff]Director (Professor): Shigeo SATO.
Assistant Professor: Nobuyuki SATO.
Technical Officials:

Tamotsu SUENAGA, Kento ABE, Yasuaki MAEDA, Kana SEKIYA, Maho ABE,
Takenori TANNO, Hiroyuki YAGYU, Iori MORITA, Rikima ONO,

Michimasa MUSHA, Yuko MARUYAMA, Kenji OHTA, Koichi SHOJI.

58

eac-riec@grp.tohoku.ac.jp

2021
Ad-hoc research groups
Taking advantage of the wide range of expertise in the institute, ad-hoc research groups areformed outside of the formal organizational structure to investigate challenging exploratory topics
and needs-based, cutting-edge subjects.

[Group of multimodal attention]
Selecting information obtained through sensory organs by attention is inevitable to live thecomplicated world with dynamic changes. A number of studies have investigated the mechanisms ofattention related to cognitive processes, and little is known about attention effect on action. This
research group investigates representation of space in the brain, which expresses the outside space
based on multiple sensory information. We hypothesize that attention in the multi-sensory spatial
representation is crucial to select action. We investigated interaction between visual and auditory
attention and found the effect of visual attention on auditory perception. We also started toinvestigate method to measure self-initiated attention as the KAKENHI (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific
Research (A)) project entitled 'Control of audiovisual attention by spontaneous attention,' which
was accepted in 2019.

[Cyber-Physical Security Research Group]
For the next-generation information and communication infrastructures such as IoT, M2M, and
CPS, we aim to developing advanced information security technologies to ensure security andreliability at the level of vast and diverse information sources (i.e., embedded devices such as sensor
terminals) in a vertically integrated manner by various researchers from the viewpoints of software
constitutive theory, system security, hardware security, circuit architecture, next-generation
microprocessor, and so on. In 2021, we continued discussion about our goal and research direction
with several seminars and meetings.

59

2021
[Brainmorphic Nano-Devices and Circuits Research Group]
Brain-inspired hardware systems have been actively developed recently. However, a big
break-through to the true brain-like system has not been reached yet. This research group aims at
development and implementation of novel brainmorphic computational hardware that reproduces
the bio-physics and dynamics in the brain directly through dynamics and physics of nano-devices
and ultra-low-power integrated circuits based on the latest physiological knowledge. Our activities,
in this year, to propel collaborative researches on brainmorphic computing from broad perspective
including brain science, spintronics, analog/digital integrated circuits, cultured neurocyte, andnonlinear complex dynamics, are illustrated as follows. We supported the JST Sato CREST project,
and the Yamamoto project of Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (B), which this groupthoroughly supported for application. In addition, we organized and participated in a special
session of the 2021 Nonlinear Science Workshop. We also collaborated with the thematic program“Designing the Human–Centric IoT Society” of Tohoku Forum for Creativity.

[Group of developing the AI clone system]
The aim of the group is to adopt knowledge of the cognitive science to AI (artificial intelligence)and AR (augmented reality) technology. Specifically, we develop "AI clone", which is the model ofrecognition and action characteristics of a person. AI clone enables others to re-experience thetarget person's recognition and action with AR interface. Our goal is to establish the newcommunication technology that improves mutual understanding among people with differences in avariety of aspects, using AI clone and AR interface. We applied KAKENHI (Grant-in-Aid for
Challenging Research) and other research grant to investigate action property of person with visual
deficits.

60

2021
Division for the Establishment of Frontier Sciences
Multimodal Cognitive System Division

Research project on multimodal information integration based on foodperception.
Integration

Classical Bottom‐Up model for perception of foodExpectation for Taste

Top‐down model for perception of food in this research

Fig. 1 The model adapted in this research is shown in right panel. The perception of food is based on interactive
top-down processing of multimodal sensory inputs, not on simple integration of sensory inputs.
Nobuyuki Sakai, Dr. Professor[Research Target and Activities]
In this year, we have done some experiments about the followings; the interaction of olfaction andvision, and gustation and vision; the effect of knowledge by dental education on aesthetic evaluationof human faces, and its brain mechanisms investigated by fMRI and fNIRS, etc. We have also
started the cognitive studies about the effect of audition on binocular rivalry, the differences ofattentional system of vision and of audition, the interactive mechanisms of audition withsomatosensation, and the comparison of the effects of vision with audition on affection and arousal.
[Staff]
Professor ： Nobuyuki Sakai, Dr.
Assistant Professor : Kosuke Yamamoto[Profile]
Nobuyuki Sakai graduated from Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University in 1998.
Then he worked at Hiroshima Shudo University and National Institute of Advanced and Industrial
Science and Technology (AIST) , Kobe Shoin Women’s University. He, then, moved to Sendai in
October 2011, and he is a professor of Graduate School of Arts and Letters of Tohoku University
now.
[Papers][1]

A. Saita, K. Yamamoto, A. Raevskiy, R. Takei, H. Washio, S. Shioiri, and N. Sakai, Crispness, the Key for the
Palatability of “Kakinotane”: A Sensory Study with Onomatopoeic Words, Foods, 10, 1724, 2021, doi:
10.3390/foods10081724[2] T. Hasegawa and N. Sakai, Comparing Meal Satisfaction Based on Different Types of Tableware: An Experimental
Study of Japanese Cuisine Culture. Foods, 10, 1546, 2021, doi: 10.3390/foods10071546[3] Raevskiy A., Sakai N. Japanese onomatopoeic words: psychological view of the linguistic phenomenon. MSU
Vestnik. Series 13. Oriental Studies, № 3, pp. 84-97, 2021.

61

2021
Spintronics/CMOS Hybrid Brain-Inspired Integrated Systems

Ultralow-power Spintronics/CMOS hybrid Brain-inspired VLSI for Edge Devices
Spintronics/CMOS Hybrid Brain-Inspired Integrated Systems Tetsuo Endoh, Professor
Spintronics/CMOS Hybrid Brain-Inspired Integrated Systems Yitao Ma, Assistant Professor[Research Target and Activities]
The purpose of our research activity is tobreak ground for a new AI hardware
approach across from the fundamental
science of material and information to thedevices, circuits, architectures and software
technologies to develop the novel highefficient and low power brain-inspired
computing hardware system for precise andreal-time processing of information value
judgment, choice, and refusal. This year, we
completed building the verification platform
Realization of ultralow-power nonvolatile brain-inspired
for Spintronics/CMOS hybrid BrainVLSI based on novel Spintronics/CMOS hybrid approachinspired chips based on software and FPGA
demonstration system. Moreover, leveraging our well-equipped CMOS/MTJ hybrid VLSI
measurement environment built-up by the last academic year, in the “von Neumann” approach, we
successfully completed the evaluation of our nonvolatile adaptive K-means unsupervised learning
processor and nonvolatile 16-bit FCNN object detection processor under 55nm-CMOS/ 5Xnm-pMTJ
hybrid technology, and also completed the demonstration of a 8bit/16bit hybrid CNN circuit moduleusing FPGA. On the other hand, in the “non-von Neumann” approach, we focused on SNN
architecture and finished the evaluation of our novel nonvolatile 32K-Synapse/512-Neuron
8-core/8-layer SNN recognition processor with pulse-driven self-directed power management
technique for ultralow-power object recognition accelerators in battery-driven edge devices.
[Staff]
Professor ： Tetsuo Endoh, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor: Yitao Ma, Ph.D.
[Profile]
Tetsuo Endoh received the Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering from Tohoku University in 1995.
He joined Toshiba Corporation in 1987 and became a Lecturer at the RIEC, Tohoku University, in
1995, an Associate Professor in 1997, and a Professor in April 2008. From 2012, he has been a
Professor at the Graduate School of Engineering and director of CIES and CSIS, Tohoku University.
He is a JSAP Fellow. He was the recipient of the LSI IP Design Award (2001), the JJAP Paper
Award (2009), the 6th Fellow Award of the JSAP (2012), and the SSDM Paper Award (2012), 2020
VLSI Test of Time Award (2021), the 14th Prime Minister’s Award for its Contribution to
Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration (2017), and National Invention Award (2018).
Yitao Ma received the Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering from The University of Tokyo, in
2011. He works in Tohoku University as an Assistant Professor of the Graduate School ofEngineering from 2018, and then an Assistant Professor of the RIEC since 2019. He has been the
key member of many projects such as JST-CREST, CSTI-FISRT, JST-ACCEL, CSTI-ImPACT,
JST-OPERA, and CSTI-SIP.
[Papers][1] Yitao Ma, et al., 5th Symposium of The Core Research Clusters for Materials Science and Spintronics, (Virtual),
October 2020.
[2] Tao Li, Yitao Ma, Ko Yoshikawa, Osamu Nomura and Tetsuo Endoh, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics,
Vol. 16, Issue 5, pp. 3055 – 3065, August 2021.
[3] Li Zhang, Yitao Ma and Tetsuo Endoh IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, (Early Access), January 2022.
[4] Tetsuo Endoh, Asia-Pacific Workshop on Fundamentals and Applications of Advanced Semiconductor Devices,(Virtual), August 26 2021.
[5] Tetsuo Endoh, The 32nd Magnetic Recording Conference, (Virtual), August 17 2021.

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Center for Science and Innovation in Spintronics (CSIS)＜About the Center＞＞
Establishment：January 30, 2018
Organization：Director: Yoshio Hirayama (Professor, Graduate School of Science)
Number of academic members: 43 (concurrent members from Grad. School of Science,
Grad. School of Engineering, IMR, RIEC, IMRAM, AIMR, FRIS, CSIS, CIES, and CSRN,
Tohoku University)
Research Target：Creation of world-leading research center pioneering in so-called “Spin-Centered Science”
by strategic consolidation of excellent researchers from foreign leading universities infundamental and applied fields.
Research Activities：Spin-centered fundamental science, advanced spintronic materials, spintronic devices,
and integration technology of spintronic devices.
＜Major Achievements in 2021＞＞
・Promotion of world-leading research in spintronics
Excellent 9 proposals were adopted to the cooperative research projects in CSIS were adopted to promoteinternational collaborations as well as those beyond the organizations at Tohoku University.
・Fostering excellent early-career researchers
Excellent early-career researchers, 5 persons from foreign countries, were employed as assistantprofessors or posdoc researchers to promote collaborations beyond the organization at Tohoku University.
・Promoting international academic exchange
Most international workshops to promote academic exchange between CSIS and foreign leading
universities were cancelled or postponed in FY2021 due to the influence of COVID-19. The 5th International
Symposium for the Core Research Clusters for Materials Science and Spintronics was held via online in
October, 2021 and the registrants were about 360 persons. The 1st Online RIEC Workshop on Spintronics
was held in November, 2021. The workshop was attracted much attention due to its new style combining
on-demand videos of invited talks and a live session.

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Center for Innovative Integrated Electronic Systems (CIES)＜Overview＞＞
Establishment: The CIES was established in October 2012 to enhance industry-academia collaborations
and contribute to further development of the electronics industry. The building of the CIES wasconstructed in March 2013 as the first Science Park in this country by a private donation locatedin Aobayama New Campus at Tohoku University.
Organization: Director: Tetsuo Endoh (Professor, Graduate School of Engineering)Number of staff: 78 (including appointments across Graduate School of Engineering, Graduate
School of Information Sciences, RIEC etc.)
Mission: The CEIS researches and develops integrated electronic technologies with various research seeds
that Tohoku University has and abundant results of industry-academia collaboration as centripetal
force. And the CIES pursues to contribute to the enhancement of global competitiveness in thefield of next generation integrated electronics systems by establishing an international industryacademia collaboration base. Further, the CIES aims for practical use of the technologies in thisfield and is aiming to create new industries.
Research topics: Under the framework of industry-academia joint research, national projects, regional
collaboration projects, the CIES has expanded from the world's most advanced spintronics
technology, which has been developed at CIES, to AI hardware technology and power electronics
technology. While promoting research and development of these three core technologies, we areaiming to develop an innovative integrated electronics system that realizes dramatic power-saving
operation that is indispensable for the realization of carbon neutrality and AI / IoT / DX.
＜Major activities in FY2021＞＞
CIES has managed the “CIES consortium” which consists of industry–academic collaborations, major
national projects (JST OPERA, JSPS Core-to-Core, JAXA Space Exploration Innovation Hub, NEDO, METI
Tohoku Supporting Industry, MEXT Power Electronics) and regional collaboration projects from material,
equipment, devices and system in cooperation with various international and domestic companies aiming forthe practical applications of innovative core technologies created by Tohoku University. Our center was
selected as the 1st base of the " J-Innovation HUB Initiative", a new project of the METI in 2020. The
research and development field has been expanded from spintronics to 3D memory, AI hardware and powerelectronics, and the industry-academic collaborations have been significantly expanded to twenty. Here, thesecompanies utilized “a special private-sector investment promotion zone system (for information servicerelated industries)” under a joint application from Miyagi prefecture and local municipalities, and “financial
assistance according to the amount of property tax paid (created under an agreement between Tohoku
University and Sendai City)”. In June 2021, Tohoku University established the Tohoku University
Semiconductor Technology Co-creation to contribute to Japan's semiconductor strategy and, by extension, theworld's energy-saving society. In addition to this co-creation, CIES is positioned as a spintronics power-saving
logic semiconductor development base in Japan's semiconductor strategy, and we are further strengthening our

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efforts to promote industry-academia-government co-creation and social implementation.
CIES has developed a variety of innovative technologies with world-first 300mm wafer process line andfacilities operated by the university for prototype manufacturing and characterizing spintronics integrated
circuits compatible with world-class companies, and has made progress in developing IoT and AI systems that
require ultra-low power consumption. Specifically, we have succeeded in developing a low power consumption
MRAM technology that has data retention for more than 10 years and rewrite tolerance that reaches 1 trillion
times with the integrated technology of the single digit nanometer generation. The fusion of cutting-edge Xnm
semiconductors and spintronics technology paves the way for expanding IoT / AI / environment-tolerance
application areas with ultra-low power consumption and high-performance edge devices. In addition, it has
been adopted by the NEDO Post 5G Information and Communication Systems Infrastructure Reinforcement
R&D Project and NEDO AI Computing R&D Project related to semiconductor strategy, and we are enhancing
the development of this technology. In the field of power electronics, we are working to improve thefunctionality, size and weight of motor drive inverters and DC-DC converters by taking advantage of the low
loss and high frequency operation of GaN on Si power devices. It has been adopted by the MEXT innovative
power electronics creation basic technology R&D project, and we are accelerating the R&D of integrated
power electronics. Utilizing the three core technologies of spintronics technology, AI hardware technology andpower electronics technology, which are the world's most advanced technologies that have been researchedand developed at CIES, we aim to develop IoT/AI system, which is indispensable for realizing carbon
neutrality and requires ultra-low power consumption.
Aiming to contribute to the development of the innovative integrated electronics business and further
advancement of industry-academia collaboration, Power Spin Inc., a startup company from Tohoku University,
is now in its fourth year, and it has been put into practical use based on the technology and know-how of thiscenter. In addition to Miyagi Prefecture, the Miyagi Advanced Electronics and Machinery Industry Association,
the Miyagi Automotive Industry Promotion Council, Iwate Prefecture, Iwate Semiconductor and Electronics
Industries Promotion Conference, local and local companies in Yamagata Prefecture was added, and regional
cooperation was expanded with cooperation of the METI Tohoku.
In order to establish world leading R&D base for integrated electronic systems and AI hardware, we willcontinue to create innovative core technologies and contribute to the industry and the enhancement of global
competitiveness by the practical applications, and “new creation and innovation” through global and regional
partnership.

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Research Organization of Electrical Communication（（ROEC））
Towards Construction of Disaster-Resistant Information Communication Network[Purpose of our establishment]
Many serious problems have become clear as a result of the Great East Japan Earthquake, which exposed theweaknesses of the most advanced information communications network in the world by severing the mobile phone andoptical fiber lines thus cutting off essential telecommunications services. To solve these problems, Tohoku
University’s Disaster Reconstruction and Regeneration Research Project includes an ICT Reconstruction Project for
restoring information communication. The mission given to the researchers in the Electrical Engineering andInformation Sciences group after the disaster was to achieve a disaster-resistant information communication network
through the ICT Reconstruction Project, taking the needs of the disaster areas into consideration.
To realize this network, we needed to employ the combined strength of our problem-solving abilities by linking
researchers in electrical engineering and the information sciences across multiple faculties, including the School ofEngineering, the Graduate School of Information Sciences, the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, theCyberscience Center, and the Research Institute of Electrical Communication. These faculties and schools came
together to form a new organization that could create close and flexible links between researchers and organizations,and on October 1, 2011 we established the Research Organization of Electrical Communication (ROEC) (Fig.1). The
ROEC intends to take an all-Japan approach based on collaboration between industry, academia and government, andassemble expertise from the university with the participation of related local governments, private companies, publicresearch organizations, and other universities with the goal of developing the most advanced disaster-resistantinformation communication network in the world (Fig.2).
[Main Activities]
Since 2012, we have been promoting 12 disaster-resilient ICT projects supported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs andCommunications. In 2020, six ongoing projects were promoted. We have also been engaged in project supported by
OPERA, JST. As a result of resilience ICT research and development, we gave a lecture on Beyond 5G research
results at Next Generation Safe and Secure ICT Forum. The research results produced by the promoted projects were
presented in ROEC Homepage.

Fig.1 Research Organization of Electrical Communication.

Fig.2 Overview of ICT Reconstruction Project.

[Staff]Prof. Hirohito Yamada (Executive Director)
Prof. Taiichi Otsuji (Vice Executive Director)
Specially Appointed Prof. Hiroyuki Ogawa (Vice Executive Director)
Specially Appointed Prof. Katsumi Iwatsuki (Research Administrator)
Mr. Yoichi Mikami (Office Manager)
Ms. Ayako Murakami (Manager)[Papers][1] Ryo Takahasi, Hidenori Matsuo, and Fumiyuki Adachi,“Joint multi-layered user clustering and scheduling forultra-dense RAN using distributed MIMO,”IEICE Trans. Communications, Vol.E104-B, No.9, pp.1097-1109, Sept.
2021.
[2] Kozo Sato, Takashi Kan, Masato Yoshida, Keisuke Kasai, Toshihiko Hirooka, and Masataka Nakazawa, “Chromatic
dispersion dependence of GAWBS phase noise compensation with pilot tone,” Opt. Express, vol. 29, no. 7, pp.
10676-10687 (2021).
[3] Liu Ke, Hirohito Yamada, Katsumi Iwatsuki, and Taiichi Otsuji, " A study for stable operation of battery loaded DC
bus based on autonomous cooperative control", 2021 The 6th International Conference on Power and Renewable
Energy, DOI:10.1109/ICPRE52634.2021.9635250, September 25 (2021).

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Center for Spintronics Research Network（（CSRN））＜About the Center＞＞
Establishment：April 1, 2016
Organization：Director: Koki Takanashi (Professor, IMR)
Number of academic members: 62 (including 1 full-time member and the other concurrent
members from Grad. School of Science, Grad. School of Engineering, IMR, RIEC, IMRAM,
AIMR, CSIS, CIES, and FRIS, Tohoku University)
Research Target：The center will be the hub of a network to promote collaborations with other research
institutions within Japan and overseas, aiming to (1) improve competitiveness ofworld-leading spintronics research in Japan, (2) create new branches and enhanceexisting areas of industry, and (3) foster the next- generation human resources.
Research Activities：[Spintronics Device Creation Division]
We develop advanced systems and devices for energy creation and energy saving byusing spintronics technology to provide eco-friendly infrastructure and to innovate
conventional information and communication technology.
[Spintronics Device Characterization Division]
We develop advanced measurement techniques to characterize the behavior of spins in
integrated spintronics devices. We also clarify the physical mechanism of the behaviorof spins in spintronics devices theoretically to propose innovative spintronics devices.
＜Major Achievements in 2021＞＞
・Cooperative Research Project
We adopt 65 cooperative research projects to promote collaborations with other spintronics researchers.
The collaborators belong 41 institutions in Japan and 36 overseas institutions (in 16 countries). For detail,see the following URL: http://www.csrn.tohoku.ac.jp/
・Share of Experimental Facilities and Equipment
We offer 23 facilities and equipment for sharing with researchers in spintronics. The list of sharedfacilities/equipment is open to the public at the above URL.
・Academic Meetings
For promoting exchange and fostering human resources of spintronics researchers, CSRN jointly hosted 5international conferences, 2 domestic workshops, and 2 seminars/schools.
CSRN was reorganized and integrated as a division of the Center for Science and Innovation in Spintronics(CSIS), Tohoku University on April 1, 2022.

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Advanced Institute for Yotta Informatics＜About the Center＞＞
Establishment：April 1, 2018
Based on research activities as a Program for Key Interdisciplinary Research of Tohoku
University from 2015 to 2017, Yotta Informatics Research Center is granted by MEXT in
2018.
Organization：Director: Satoshi Shioiri (Director, Professor, RIEC)
Number of members: 34 (RIEC, Graduate School of Engineering, AIMR, Graduate Schoolof Arts & Letters, Graduate School of Information Sciences, Graduate School of Economics
and Management, Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Graduate School of
Education, Graduate School of Life Sciences)
Research Target：Novel science and technology to manage both quantity and quality of yotta-scale
information, in order to establish the future ICT technology and new humanics bycollaborative work of engineering and human and social science.
Research Activities：The amount of information is rapidly increasing, which is projected to reach to theamount of one yotta (1024 ) bytes. Ordinary extension technology of the conventional ICT
cannot cope with such gigantic amount of information, therefore essential paradigm change
for the information processing is indispensable. In this institute, we aim at the new
information science, which can manage the quality of information as well as the information
amount. For the sake, experts of information engineering, human and social science fromdepartments are discussing about interdisciplinary collaborating works to understand thequality and value of information, as well as the quantity. The value information is the key
properties for the future informatics to receive the full benefit of the information in theupcoming “beyond the big data” era.
＞
＜Major Achievements in 2021＞
1. We have started 9 interdisciplinary projects that lead the new information science, which can manage thequality of information as well as the information amount and select important information appropriately.
We published 107 papers and 208 presentations (including 46 invited talks), and executed 79 projects
supported by external grants.
2. We organized an international symposium “Symposium of Yotta Informatics – Research Platform for
Yotta-Scale Data Science 2019” and co-organized a RIEC international symposium “Tohoku U - NTU
Symposium: When AI Meets Human Science," and invited many researchers from inside and outside ofJapan. We also conducted an IEEE ISCAS special session and three special sessions of IEICE meetings.
3. We edited a special section of Interdisciplinary Information Sciences (IIS), “New informatics paradigm tomanage quality and value of information.”

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Leading Graduate Program “Interdepartmental Doctoral Degree Program for
Multi-Dimensional Materials Science Leaders”＜Overview＞＞
Establishment：October, 2013This program was adopted as a Program for Leading Graduate Schools of JSPS.
(The financial support from JSPS was finished in FY2019.)
Organization：Program manager: Masahiro Yamaguchi(Vice President for Educational Reforms and International Strategy)
Program coordinator: Tetsuya Nagasaka (Professor, Grad. School of Engineering)
Program members: 59 academic staffs in Tohoku University
Mission：Fostering human resources through creating leaders who have a firm grasp of the fundamentals ofmaterial science and extensive research experience. The term “multi-dimensional” (MD) refers to
the extensive, panoramic perception of materials through dimensions such as functionalities,
characteristics, processes, environmental compatibility, economics, safety, and assessment
techniques.
＜Major Achievements in 2021＞＞
The Qualifying Examination 2 (QE2) was held via online on May 26, 2021 and from November 30 to
December 1, 2021. As a result, 10 students in total of the MD program passed QE2. An alumni of the MD
program, who is a researcher in National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), received the L’OréalUNESCO “For Women in Science” Japan Fellowships on November 4, 2021.

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Graduate Program in Spintronics (GP-Spin)＜Overview＞＞
Establishment：April 1, 2015
Organization：Head of the Division for International Joint Graduate School Programs: Masahiro Yamaguchi(Vice President for Education Reform and Global Engagement)
Graduate Program in Spintronics (GP-Spin) Program Director: Yoshiro Hirayama (Professor,
Graduate School of Science)
Program members: 21 academic staffs in Tohoku University
Foreign organization: Johannes Gutenberg Univ. Mainz (Germany), Univ. Regensburg(Germany), Tech. Univ. Kaiserslautern (Germany), Tech. Univ. München (Germany), Univ.
Lorraine (France), Univ. Chicago (USA), Tech. Univ. Delft (The Netherland), Univ.
Groningen (The Netherland), University of York (UK), University of Leeds (UK), Polish
Academy of Sciences (Poland), Tsinghua University (Chaina)
Mission：Education of world-class leaders in spintronics from fundamental to applications
Activities：(1) Education by world-leading professors from all departments and institute in Tohoku
University with participation from all over the world(2) Joint education with foreign organization including joint supervised degree/joint degree,
mutual visit and long-term internship, international school/workshop, qualifying examination toguarantee the educational quality＜Major Achievements in 2021＞＞
Although most seminars and lectures were cancelled or postponed due to COVID-19 in FY2021, theStudents’ Workshop on “Spintronics with Quantum Beams” was held via online on November 5, 2021. The
workshop contains 5 invited talks and poster presentations by the students of GP-Spin. The workshop to
improve the students’ skills of presentation in English was held at Advanced Institute of Materials Research,
Tohoku University on December 7, 2021.

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Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan
WISE Program (Doctoral Program for World-leading Innovative & Smart Education)
Advanced Graduate Program for AI Electronics＜About the Center＞＞
Establishment：Adopted October, 2018.
It has been adopted by the WISE Program (Doctoral Program for World-leading Innovative& Smart Education) of MEXT. This program is a new education program that starts fromFY 2018.

Organization：Chief executive: Hideo Ohno (President of Tohoku University)
Program leader: Masahiro Yamaguchi (Vise-President of Tohoku University (Education
Reform / International Strategy))
Program coordinator: Toshiro Kaneko (School of engineering, Professor)
Program manager: Approximately 70 people (including managers and a coordinator)

Target of Program：In this Graduate School Program, we will foster world-class talented doctors who canmake an innovation continuously through the learning of “an practical ability”, “solving ofsocial problems”, “creation of novel value”, and “an ability that can see real space andcyberspace in Society 5.0 with wide perspectives”.

＞＜Major Achievements in 2021＞
The program has launched a PBL (Project Based Learning) course, which is an originalcourse of the WISE program. This PBL course was jointly developed and implemented by
12 sponsoring companies and university faculty members and forms the core ofindustry-academia collaborative education. After completing the course, a symposium washeld and students made presentations on the results of their studies in the course. As aninternship program at the COVID-19 disaster, students of the program participated ininternships at overseas and domestic companies by combining on-site and online training.
In addition, five AIE lectures and a two-day international symposium were held, in which
prominent professors from Japan and abroad gave lectures on a wide range of topics, frombasic technologies to applications and issues in the social practice of artificial intelligenceelectronics. All students in the program presented their research in English at theinternational symposium. We recruited and selected students for the fourth term, and 26
new students (11 new M1 students, 11 new M2 students, and 4 new D1 students) wereselected.

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４.

Nation-wide Cooperative Research Projects

The Institute has a long history of fundamental contributions in many fields of engineering andscience that include the fields of semiconductor materials and devices, magnetic recording, opticalcommunication, electromagnetic technology, wireless communication, applications of ultrasoniccommunication and acoustic communication, non-linear physics and engineering, and computer
software. On the basis of this rich historical background the Institute was designated as a National
Center for Cooperative Research in 1994. Accompanying Tohoku University’s transformation to “anational university juridical entity” in April, 2004, this institution plays a leading role on the worldstage, as its researchers, both domestic and foreign, continue the task of “investigating the theory
and application of universal science and technology to realize communication, to the enrichment of
humanity.”
With this background, the Institute organizes Nation-wide Cooperative Research Projects bycoordinating its activities with research workers. The main themes for Cooperative Research are
selected annually by the Committee for Cooperative Research Projects. Then invitations for project
proposals and participation are extended to university faculties and government laboratories aswell as industrial research groups. Each project approved by the Faculty Council of the Institute iscarried out by a team of researchers that include members of the Institute as well as outside
participants.
The Advisory Council which includes members from other institutions has an advisory function to
the Director in defining the general direction of the research at the Institute and its Nation-wide
Cooperative Research Projects.
The Project Selection Committee that includes members from outside of Tohoku University has a
Judging function for project proposals. The purpose of the Project Steering Committee is the proper
operation of approved projects.

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Nation-wide Cooperative Research Projects List 2021
Grant
NumberTitle of Research

Japan-USA International
Collaborative Research on Terahertz
H31/A01 Devices based on GraphenePhosphorene van der Waals
Heterostructures

Principal Investigator

Research
Collaborator
of RIEC

MITIN, Vladimir
Department of Electrical Engineering, OTSUJI
University at Buffalo, The State
Taiichi
University of New York

Formation of Self-Aligned Si-Ge based MIYAZAKI Seiichi
H31/A04 Quantum Dots and Characterization Graduate School of Engineering,of Their Electrical Properties
Nagoya University

SATO
ShigeoQuantifying the role of crystal and
TRETIAKOV/Oleg
magnetic structure to spin-orbit torque
H31/A05
School of Physics,
induced switching of metallic
University of New South Wales
antiferromagnetic heterostructures

FUKAMI
Shunsuke

ISOGAMI Shinji
Research Center for Magnetic andDevelopment of efficient
H31/A06 magnetization-switching devices using Spintronic Materials,
National Institute for Materials
transition-metal compounds
Science

SHIRAI Masafumi

Development of high Q microwave
H31/A07
resonators for quantum detection

INOMATA Kunihiro
Nanoelectronics research institute,
Advanced Industrial Science andTechnology

SATO
ShigeoDevelopment of non-volatile phase
H31/A09 transition oxide elements targeting
application for optoelectronics

SAKAI Joe
Materials system division,Toshima
Manufacturing Co.,Ltd

KATANO Satoshi

KODA Tetsunori
Study of magnetization dynamics
General Education Division,induced by the spin orbit torque andH31/A10the phase locking via spin waves for dc National Institute of Technology,
Oshima College
drive microwave oscillators

ISHIYAMA
KazushiHigh-Speed Driver for Optical
H31/A11 Modulators using InGaAs HEMTs
with Slant Field Plates

UMEDA Yohtaro
Faculty of Science and Technology,
Tokyo University of Science

SATOU
Akira

Study of the open environment for
H31/A12sharing vision models

SAKAI Ko
Faculty of Engineering Informationand Systems,
Tsukbua University

SHIOIRI Satoshi

Communication system for controlling TANAKA Akihiro
H31/A13 human cognition and behavior from
Department of Psychology,
kansei information speech
Tokyo Woman's Christian University

SAKAMOTO
Shuichi

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Grant
NumberTitle of Research

Principal Investigator

Development of compact quantum
H31/A18 light source using a gain-switchinglaser diode

MATSUDA Nobuyuki
Graduate School of Engineering,Tohoku University

EDAMATSU
Keiichi

Exploration of a new electricaldetection method of magnetization
H31/A19 dynamics in CoFeB-MgO magnetic
tunnel junction structure withperpendicular anisotropy

Eli Christopher Inocencio Enobio
Department of Physics,
Mindanao State University-Iligan
Institute of Technology

FUKAMI
Shunsuke

YAMADA Yoji
A Study on Phase Alignment Accuracy Department of Electronics andInformation Engineering,
H31/A21 of Software Defined Radio for Rapid
National Institute of Technology,
Prototyping
Ishikawa College

SUEMATSU
Noriharu

Development of re-experiencing
H31/A23
system for learning supports

SHIOIRI Satoshi
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University

Performance Analysis for
H31/A24 Heterogeneous Environment ofInternet Congestion Control

UTSUMI Satoshi
Faculty of Symbiotic Systems Science, HASEGAWA Go
Fukushima University

H31/A26

Study of 2D nanomaterial devices forterahertz applications

SHIOIRI Satoshi

AMINE El Moutaouakil
OTSUJI
Department of Electrical Engineering,Taiichi
United Arab Emirates University

Wireless Propagation Channel for
H31/A28
Body Area Network

AKIMOTO Kohei
Department of Intelligent
Mechatronics,
Akita Prefectural University

SUEMATSU
Noriharu

Development of graphene based
devices for terahertz applications

MEZIANI Yahya Moubarak
Dept. Fisica Aplicada,Salamanca University

OTSUJI
TaiichiTANII Takashi
Faculty of science and engineering,
Waseda university

YAMAMOTO
Hideaki

R02/A01

Analyses and mathematical modeling
R02/A02 of the function of artificial neuronal
circuitUCHINO Takashi
Development of optoelectronic devices Department of Electrical andR02/A03based on two-dimensional materials
Electronic Engineering,Tohoku Institute of Technology

74

Research
Collaborator
of RIECOTSUJI
Taiichi

2021

Grant
NumberTitle of Research

Principal Investigator

Research
Collaborator
of RIEC

Spin transport and magnetism in 2D
R02/A04 van der Waals ferro andantiferromagnets

Singh Ravi PrakashDepartment of Physics,
Indian Institute of Science Education
and Research Bhopal

FUKAMI
Shunsuke

New Group-IV Semiconductor
R02/A05 Materials and Highly-Integrated
Device Process

SAKURABA Masao
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University

SAKURABA
Masao

Development of piezoelectric constant
R02/A06 distribution measurement system in
micrometer area

ODAGAWA Hiroyuki
Innovative Research Center,
National Institute of Technology,
Kumamoto College

CHO
Yasuo

Beta-Ga2O3 thin film and device
fabrication by the sputtering process

IMAIZUMI Fuminobu
Department of MechanicalEngineering,
National Institute of Technology,
Oyama College

SUEMATSU
Noriharu

Study on Electromagnetic Crosstalk
Suppression in Mobile Devices Using
R02/A08
Negative Magnetic Permeability
Materials

MUROGA Sho
Graduate School of Engineering
Science,
Akita University

ISHIYAMA
Kazushi

R02/A07

SHIBATA Kenji
Control of quantum transport in metal
Department of Electrical andR02/A09 nanojunctions and its application toElectronic Engineering,
functional devices
Tohoku Institute of Technology
Investigation of physical structure
R02/A10 model of high-k/Ge interface affectedby fabrication processes

R02/A11

Single-crystal graphene functional
deviceJapan-Russia International
collaborative research on a large-area
R02/A12
photoconductive terahertz detector for
high-speed imaging

R02/A13Ultra-low-latency video coding for 8K
high-resolution image sensing

OTSUKA
Tomohiro

OTANI Yohei
Department of Mechanical andElectrical Engineering,
Suwa University of Science

SATO
ShigeoNAGASE Masao
Institute of Post-LED Photonics,
Tokushima University

OTSUJI
Taiichi

DMITRY Ponomarev
Laboratory of high-power microwave
and mm-wave applications,Institute of OTSUJI
ultra high frequency semiconductor
Taiichielectronics of Russian academy ofsciences
MATSUMURA Tetsuya
College of Engineering,
Nihon University

OTSUJI
Taiichi

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Grant
Number

R02/A14

Title of Research

Development of Wireless Massive
Connect IoT

Principal Investigator
OGUMA Hiroshi
Department of Electronics andComputer Engineering,
National Institute of Technology,
Toyama College

SUEMATSU Noriharu
A study on over 100GHz-band/optical Research Institute of Electrical
R02/A15
fiber feed direct digital RF transceiver Communication,
Tohoku University

R02/A16

Study on development of millimeterwave antenna using 3D printerDevelopment of device modules that
R02/A19 embed sensors onto objects and its
application

R02/A2076

Understanding and reconstruction ofminimal brain

Research
Collaborator
of RIECSUEMATSU
Noriharu

SUEMATSU
Noriharu

ITOH Keiichi
Department of Electrical andInformation Engineering,
National Institute of Technology,
Akita College

SUEMATSU
Noriharu

MANABE Hiroyuki
Department of Computer Science andEngineering,
Shibaura Institute of Technology

TAKASHIMA
KazukiKAMIYA Haruyuki
Graduate School of Medicine,
Hokkaido University

HIRANO Ayumi

ITO Masashi
The shape variation of human pinna
R02/A21 and its effect on the acoustical transfer Faculty of Engineering,
function.
Tohoku Institute of Technology

SAKAMOTO
Shuichi

ZABIR Salahuddin Muhammad
Salim
Research on the development of a new
R02/A22
Department of Creative Engineering,
generation IoT platform
National Institute of Technology,
Tsuruka College

KITAGATA Gen

Exploring and Understanding Touch
R02/A23 Interaction using a Slidable-Sheet on
Smart Devices

SAYAN Sarcar
Faculty of Library, Information andMedia Science,
University of Tsukuba

FUJITA
Kazuyuki

Investigating cultural issues for the
R02/A24 design of touch-based interactive DFLIP photo management system

CHINTAKOVID/Thippaya
Department of Library Science,
Faculty of Arts,
Chulalongkorn University

KITAMURA
Yoshifumi

Multimodal Data Flow Processing
R02/A25 Platform for Enhancing Human
Abilities

MINENO Hiroshi
Faculty of Informatics,
Shizuoka University

KITAGATA Gen

2021

Grant
NumberTitle of Research

Principal Investigator

Research
Collaborator
of RIEC

R02/A27

Multilingual research of cultural andindividual differences in color lexicon

TOKUNAGA Rumi
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,
Chiba University

HATORI Yasuhiro

R02/A29

Cultural background and auditory
selective attention

KIM Sungyoung
ECT Engineering Technology,
Rochester Institute of Technology

SAKAMOTO
Shuichi

ISHII Kei
Research for feedforward regulation of Automotive Human Factors ResearchCenter,R02/A30 the visual and sensory systems via
National Institute of Advanced
cardiovascular regulation
Industrial Science and Technology

HATORI Yasuhiro

Constructive research on nonlinear
R02/A31 complex systems and development of
their theories

HORIO Yoshihiko
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University

HORIO Yoshihiko

Determinants of multisensory
R02/A32
auditory space perception

HONDA Akio
Faculty of Informatics,
Shizuoka Institute of Science andTechnology

SAKAMOTO
ShuichiResearch for In-Storage/Memory
R02/A33 Computing Platform for Brain NearScience

TANAKA Yoichiro
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University

TANAKA Yoichiro

A study of the radiation effect on
R03/A01 spintronics devices for space
application

WATANABE Kyota
Research and Development
Directorate,
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

FUKAMI
Shunsuke

Development of Multi-Functional
R03/A02 Integrated Circuit on Si/Ge Hybrid
Platform

YAMAMOTO Keisuke
Faculty of Engineering Sciences,
Kyushu University

SAKURABA
Masao

Control of spin dynamics in nonR03/A03
magnetic materials

ISHIHARA Jun
Department of Applied Physics,
Faculty of Science,
Tokyo University of Science

KANAI
Shun

Creation of Bio-Medical Devices
R03/A04 Utilizing Non-Equilibrium PlasmaProducing Reactive Species

KANEKO Toshiro
Graduate School of Engineering,Tohoku University

HIRANO Ayumi

77

2021

Grant
NumberTitle of ResearchElectric-field control of magnetic
R03/A05 topological materials for non-volatilemagnetic memories

R03/A06

78

R&D on radiation response ofquantum devices

Principal Investigator
CHIBA Takahiro
General Education,
National Institute of Technology,
Fukushima College

Research
Collaborator
of RIECTSUJIKAWA
Masahito

KISHIMOTO Yasuhiro
OTSUKA
Research Center for Neutrino Science,
Tomohiro
Tohoku University

Development of Quantum Device
R03/A07 based on Atomically Thin Layered
Materials

KATO Toshiaki
Graduate School of Engineering,Tohoku University

OTSUKA
Tomohiro

Elucidation of nano-photoelectronic
R03/A08 properties of nanocarbons for optical
functionalizations

KATANO Satoshi
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University

KATANO Satoshi

Research of on-chip THz array
R03/A09 antenna for ultra-wideband
communication

KANAYA Haruichi
Graduate School of Information
Science and Electrical Engineering,
Kyushu University

SUEMATSU
Noriharu

High frequency chaos circuits using
R03/A10
RTDs and their applications

MAEZAWA Koichi
Graduate School of Science andEngineering,
University of Toyama

OTSUJI
Taiichi

Millimeter-wave large-scale array
R03/A11 antenna for wireless terminal
application

YOSHIDA Satoshi
Research Field in Engineering,
Science and Engineering Area,
Research and Education Assembly,
Kagoshima University

SUEMATSU
Noriharu

MARUYAMA Tamami
Department of Production Systems
Study on energy harvesting and metaEngineering,
R03/A12surface applied for 5G /IoT
National Institute of Technology,
Hakodate College

SUEMATSU
Noriharu

Study of delay-sensitive and seamless
access networks using widely
R03/A13frequency selectable optoelectronics
integrated devices

YOSHIMOTO Naoto
Faculty of Science and Technology,
Chitose Institute of Science andTechnology

OTSUJI
TaiichiMixed Reality for IoT and Robotics:
R03/A14 Opportunities and Challenges for
Immersive Human-Robot Interaction

SUZUKI Ryo
Department of Computer Science,
University of Calgary

KITAMURA
Yoshifumi

2021

Grant
NumberTitle of Research

Principal Investigator

Research
Collaborator
of RIEC

Reconfigurable Head-Mounted
R03/A15 Displays Enabling Real-world
Interactions

KIYOKAWA Kiyoshi
Graduate School of Science andTechnology,
Nara institute of science andtechnology

KITAMURA
Yoshifumi

An investigation on spatio-temporal
R03/A16 characteristics of auditory selective
attention

TERAOKA Ryo
Graduate School of Humanities andSocial Sciences,
Kumamoto University

SAKAMOTO
Shuichi

MORIKAWA Daisuke
Faculty of Engineering,
Toyama Prefectural University

SAKAMOTO
Shuichi

R03/A17

Study on sound space perception
under limited binaural cue condition

OMATA Masaki
Basic research on mental state
Graduate Faculty of Interdisciplinary
R03/A18 recognition based on physiological andResearch,
psychological data of online learners
Yamanashi University
Assessing the effectiveness of sittingR03/A19 standing interventions for cognitive
performance improvement

Tag Benjamin
Melbourne School of Engineering,
School of Computing and Information
Systems,he University of Melbourne

KITAMURA
Yoshifumi

KIMURA Mutsumi
Faculty of Science and Technology,
Ryukoku University

HORIO Yoshihiko

R03/A20

Neuromorphic Systems using ThinFilm Memcapacitors

R03/A21

SATOH Akihiro
A Classification System for Encrypted
Information Science Center,
Communications Caused by Malware
Kyushu Institute of Technology

R03/A22 IoT security technologies

KITAGATA Gen

OGUMA Hiroshi
Kyushu Institute of Technology,
National Institute of Technology,
Toyama College

R03/A23

UCHIYA Takahiro
Development of Advanced Harmonized
Information Technology Center,
Agent Platform
Nagoya Institute of Technology

R03/A24Development of a sensitive CO gas
sensor with TiO2 nanotube

KIMURA Yasuo
School of Engineering,Tokyo University of Technology

KITAGATA Gen

HOMMA Naofumi

SAKAMOTO
Shuichi

HIRANO Ayumi

79

2021

Grant
NumberTitle of Research

Research
Collaborator
of RIEC

Creation of device informatics and its
R03/A25
application to Beyond 5G devices

FUKIDOME Hirokazu
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University

FUKIDOME
Hirokazu

Quantum research based on
R03/A26 integration of experimental,
theoretical and data science

SHIGA Motoki
Faculty of Engineering,
Gifu University

OTSUKA
Tomohiro

Investigation of contactless power
R03/A27transmission in a long distance

INAMORI Mamiko
Department of Electrical andElectronic Engineering,
Tokai University

SUEMATSU
Noriharu

Embodiment of space perception:
R03/A28
anisotropy and individual difference

TERAMOTO Wataru
Graduate School of Social andCultural Sciences,
Kumamoto University

SAKAMOTO
ShuichiSUZUKI Shigeru
Micro System Integration Center,
Tohoku University

ISHIYAMA
Kazushi

CUI Zhenglie
Media Informatics,
Aichi University of Technology

SAKAMOTO
Shuichi

R03/A29

Application of high-performance soft
magnetic alloys to advanced devices

Effects of body vibration generated
R03/A30 from audio-visual signal on perceived
reality in multimodal contents

Research on the formation of a gravity
ARAYA Akito
observation network using optical
R03/A31
Earthquake Research Institute,communication technologies and the
The University of Tokyo
monitoring of volcanic activities

KASAI Keisuke

SATO Shigeo
Hardware Technology for Brain
Research Institute of Electrical
R03/A32 Computing and its Application to Edge
Communication,
ComputingTohoku University

SATO Shigeo

Animating characters for virtual
reality

KOMURA Taku
Department of Computer Science,
University of Hong KongKITAMURA
Yoshifumi

Information-related Functional
H31/B01 Expression in Hybrid Plasmas ofPhysical and Chemical Systems

KOGA Kazunori
Faculty of Information Science andElectrical Engineering,
Kyushu University

SATO
ShigeoR03/A33

80

Principal Investigator

2021

Grant
NumberTitle of ResearchPrecise understanding and function
H31/B02 development of non-equilibrium
dynamics in solid state devices

Principal Investigator

KOBAYASHI Kensuke
Graduate School of Science,
The University of Tokyo

Research
Collaborator
of RIEC
FUKAMI
Shunsuke

Studies on Elemental Technologies for KONNO Keisuke
H31/B03 Development of The Next Generation Graduate School of Engineering,
Wireless Communication Systems
Tohoku University

SUEMATSU
Noriharu

Development of next-generation
academic community that applies
H31/B04
human-computer interaction
researches

SAKAMOTO Daisuke
Graduate School of Information
Science and Technology,
Hokkaido University

KITAMURA
Yoshifumi

Visual KANSEI mechanisms for
H31/B06
SHITSUKAN and color perception

OKAJIMA Katsunori
Faculty of Environment andInformation Sciences,
Yokohama National University

HATORI Yasuhiro

Study group on UAV
application/technology and its social
H31/B08
implementation for regional
revitalization

SUEDA Koh
Smart System Institute,
National University of Singapore

KITAMURA
Yoshifumi

New development of practical research KOGI Yuichiro
H31/B09 on microwave and laserbased
Department of Engineering,
synthetic aperture radar
Fukuoka Institute of Technology

H31/B11

A study on static analysis for a
dynamic language and its realization

User Interface for Viewing andH31/B12
Editing Complex Graph Contents

YASAKA Hiroshi

MATSUMOTO Yukihiro
Ruby Association

UENO Katsuhiro

FUJITA Kazuyuki
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University

FUJITA
Kazuyuki

H31/B13spin-orbit dynamics and its control insolid states

KOHDA Makoto
Graduate School of Engineering,Tohoku university

KANAI
Shun

H31/B15

Studies on Generative Technology for
Enriched Multimedia

SONODA Kotaro
Graduate School of Engineering,Nagasaki University

SAKAMOTO
Shuichi

81

2021

Grant
NumberTitle of Research

Research
Collaborator
of RIEC

Efficient Reliable Software
H31/B16 Construction by Type-directed
Compilation

MORIHATA Akimasa
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, UENO Katsuhiro
The University of Tokyo

PSDL2+: Advanced Physical Security
H31/B17of Deep Learning 2

BHASIN Shivam
Temasek laboratories,
Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore

HOMMA Naofumi

Study of Dynamic Service
H31/B18 Orchestration for Mobile Edge
Computing

SHAO Xun
Division of Information andCommunication Engineering,
Kitami Institute of Technology

HASEGAWA Go

Coherent Communication andR02/B02 Measurement Systems Incorporating
Lightwave and Microwave

INOUE Takashi
Electronics and Photonics ResearchInstitute,
National Institute of Advanced
Industrial Science and Technology

HIROOKA
Toshihiko

R02/B03

Layerless Design of Future WirelessCommunications and Its Applications

ISHIBASHI Koji
Advanced Wireless andCommunication Research Center,
The University of ElectroCommunications

SUEMATSU
Noriharu

R02/B04

KUKI Takao
Research on Wireless Technologies for
School of Science and Engineering,the Beyond-5G System
Kokushikan University

SUEMATSU
Noriharu

YAMAMOTO Goshiro
Spatial User Interface by
R02/B06 Understanding Human's Physical and Kyoto University Hospital,
Spatial Behaviors
Kyoto University

TAKASHIMA
Kazuki

OKABE Yasuo
Human / Social Sensing Infrastructure Academic Center for Computing and
R02/B07
by Heterogeneous Data Fusion
Media Studies,
Kyoto University

OTSUJI
Taiichi

Development for automation of crows'
TSUKAHARA Naoki
R02/B11 behavior control method using vocal
CrowLab Inc
communication

KITAMURA
YoshifumiInternational Research Collaboration
R02/B12 of Brainware LSI and Its Emerging
Technologies

82

Principal Investigator

HANYU Takahiro
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University

HANYU Takahiro

2021

Grant
NumberTitle of Research

R02/B14

Self-motion perception andmultisensory integration in 3D space

Principal Investigator

Research
Collaborator
of RIEC

SAKURAI Kenzo
Faculty of Liberal Arts,
Tohoku Gakuin University

SAKAMOTO
Shuichi

Measurement and control of thefunctions of lipid bilayer membrane
R02/B15 and membrane proteins based on
microfabrication technology andnanomaterials

TERO Ryugo
Department of Environmental andLife Sciences,
Toyohashi University of Technology

HIRANO Ayumi

Development of new physicalphenomena at interfaces brought on
R03/B01
by electron spins, orbitals andmultipoles

MIURA Yoshio
Research center for magnetic andspintronic materials,
National Institute for Materials
Science

SHIRAI Masafumi

HAMAMOTO Kiichi
Research and Development on Precise
Faculty of Engineering Sciences,
Optical Mode Control
Kyushu University

YOSHIDA Masato

R03/B02

A method for modeling of intellectual
productivity and computational
R03/B03
intervention for productivity
enhancement

ITOH Yuichi
Graduate school of Information
Science and Technology,
Osaka University

TAKASHIMA
KazukiHIROSE Fumihiko
Functionalization of oxide surfaces
Graduate School of Science and
R03/B04
and its application to biosensor devices Engineering,
Yamagata University

HIRANO Ayumi

High-dimensional and spatiotemporal HIROSE Akira
R03/B05 neurodynamics and its system
Graduate School of Engineering,
applications
The University of Tokyo

SATO
ShigeoTheory and implementation for
R03/B06 control-less wireless power supply
systems

SEKIYA Hiroo
Graduate School of Engineering,
Chiba University

HORIO Yoshihiko

A Study on Adaptive Workspaces in
R03/B07
the After-Corona Era

FUJITA Kazuyuki
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University

FUJITA Kazuyuki

83

2021

Grant
NumberTitle of Research

Principal Investigator

JINNO Kenya
Faculty of Knowledge Engineering,
A Study of the Application of
R03/B08 Evolutionary Computation to Machine Department of Information andCommunication Engineering,
Learning
Tokyo City University

HORIO Yoshihiko

Study of perceptual, motor, cognitive,and emotional human characteristics
R03/B09
towards the understanding of theneural mechanisms of social behavior

TSUTSUI Ken-Ichiro
Graduate School of Life Sciences,
Tohoku University

SHIOIRI Satoshi

Measurement of subjective discomfort
for VR sickness assessment using core
R03/B10body temperature fluctuation
detection

YUDA Emi
Center for Data-driven Science andArtificial Intelligence,
Tohoku University

KITAMURA
Yoshifumi

Mental imagery processing in people
R03/B11
with aphantasia

TAKAHASHI Junichi
Faculty of Human Development andCulture,Fuskushima University

SAKAMOTO
Shuichi

ISHIDA Shigemi
Empirical Research on dic Ubiquitous Faculty of Information Science and
R03/B12
Electrical Engineering,Computing Systems
Kyushu University

R02/S01

Establishment for innovative coherent MIMURA Hidenori
wave technology
Research Institute of Electronics,
and its applications
Shizuoka University

R03/SIIn English: Human sciences with AI
technologies

Investigating usage of nonverbal
R02/U01 information for online
classes

R03/U01

The Effects of Network Delay in
Ensemble Performance

Modeling the Japanese-Taiwanese
R03/U02 racial effect in facial
expression recognition

84

Research
Collaborator
of RIECKITAGATA GenYASAKA
Hiroshi

Su-Ling Yeh
AI and Advanced Robotics Center,
Institute Graduate School National
Taiwan University

SHIOIRI
SatoshiSHIOIRI Satoshi
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University

SHIOIRI
SatoshiTOIDA Koichi
Graduate School of Arts and Science,
The University of Tokyo

YAMAMOTO
KOSUKECHEN Chien-Chung
Department of Psychology,
National Taiwan University

Chia-huei Tseng

2021
５.

Symposium organized by the InstituteThis Symposium is planned to exchange relevant information on current important topics
concerning Electrical Eng., Electrical Communications, Electronic Eng., and Information Eng.
Many related researchers inside and outside Tohoku University participate the Symposium
and stimulate discussion.
No

International symposium organized by the Institute（Symposiums held in FY2021）
Title

110 2021 Spintronics Workshop on LSIRIEC International Symposium：The 9th Russia-Japan-USA-Europe
111 Symposium on Fundamental & Applied Problems of Terahertz Devices& Technologies (RJUSE TeraTech-2021)

Date

Jun. 13,2021
Nov. 1-4,2021

112 1st Online RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics

Nov. 18,2022

113 RIEC International Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction
The 10th RIEC International Symposium on Brain Functions and114
Brain Computer

Feb. 11,2022

115

The 12th International Workshop on Nanostructures andNanoelectronics

Feb. 18-19,2022
Mar. 14-15,2022

116 International Symposium on Yotta Informatics

Mar. 17-18,2022

117 6th & 7th CIES Technology Forum

Mar. 22-23,2022

85

2021
6.

Study Groups on Electrical Communication

Study Groups on Electrical Communication are organized to solve scientific and technologicalproblems and to promote research and development through the collaboration of the ResearchInstitute of Electrical Communication, Group of ECEI（Electrical Engineering, Communication
Engineering, Electronic Engineering, and Information Engineering ) in Graduate Schools ofEngineering, Information Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, related scientists and engineers insideand outside Tohoku University. The Study Groups on Electrical Communication consist of 15
Sub-Groups as listed, to deal with specific subjects. Each Sub-Group holds workshops and theabstracts of the workshops are published annually in The Record of Electrical and Communication
Engineering Conversazione Tohoku University.
Many scientists and engineers not only from universities but also from government laboratories
and industries attend the workshops, present papers, and discuss issues actively. We are pleased toprovide information on these activities upon request. Please contact the General Chairman or each
Sub-Group Chairman for general information or more specific questions.

Electromagnetic and Optical Waves Engineering
Chair

Prof.

Qiang ChenManager

Associate Prof.

Keisuke Konno

Acoustic Engineering
Chair

Prof.

Shuichi Sakamoto

Manager

Associate Prof.

Takashi Nose

Tohoku Plasma Forum
Chair

Prof.

Toshiro Kaneko

ManagerProf.

Akira Ando

Sendai Seminar on EMC
Chair

Prof.

Masahiro Yamaguchi

ManagerProf.

Masahiro Yamaguchi

Computer Science
Chair

Prof.

Manager

Associate Prof.

Eijiro Sumii
Kazutaka Matsuda

Systems Control

86

Chair

Prof.

Manager

Associate Prof.

Takashi Watanabe
Norihiro Sugita

2021
Information-biotronics
Chair

Prof.

Manager

Associate Prof.

Ayumi Hirano
Koichiro Miyamoto

Spinics
Chair

Prof.

Manager

Associate Prof.

Yasushi EndoManager

Associate Prof.

Tomoyuki Ogawa

Kazushi Ishiyama

New Paradigm Computing
Chair

Prof.

Manager

Associate Prof.

Masanori Hariyama
Masanori Natsui

Ultrasonic Electronics
Chair

Prof.

Manager

Associate Prof.

Hiroshi Kanai
Mototaka Arakawa

Brainware
Chair

Prof.

Manager

Assistant Prof.

Akio Ishiguro
Kotaro Yasui

Mathematical Physics and its Application to Information Sciences
Chair

Prof.

Kazuyuki Tanaka

ManagerProf.

Masayuki Ohzeki

Manager

Assistant Prof.

Manager

Project Assistant Prof.

Manaka Okuyama
Madoka Kobayashi

Biocyber netics and Bioinformatics
Chair

Prof.

Manager

Associate Prof.

Takeshi Obayashi

Manager

Assistant Prof.

Yasuhiro Hatori

Satoshi Shioiri

Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
Chair

Prof.

Shigeo SatoManagerProf.

Syunsuke Fukami

87

2021
7. International Activities
Many of the staff in RIEC contribute to the development of technology and science in theworld by serving as editors of referees of international journals or by chairing or
programming international conferences. In some fields in electronics, electricalcommunications, or information engineering RIEC serves as a Center of Excellence(COE), which attracts researchers and students from all over the world every year.
Several academic exchange programs with foreign colleges or institutes are in operation.
International academic exchange programs
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88

University of California, Santa Barbara (U.S.A.)
University of California (U.S.A.)
Purdue University (U.S.A.)
National Taiwan University (Taiwan)
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (Swiss)
The University of York (U.K.)
National Chiao Tung University (Taiwan)
The Technische Universität Dresden (Germany)
Berlin Institute of Technology (Germany)
National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan)
Harvard University (U.S.A.)
Technische Universität München (Germany)
The University of Kaiserslautern (Germany)
Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz (Germany)
Chemnitz University of Technology (Germany)
The University of Melbourne (Australia)
University of Regensburg (Germany)
Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (Germany)
University of Salamanca (Spain)
St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University (Russia)
Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
IHP-Innovations for High Performance Microelectronics (Germany)
The Interdisciplinary Center on Nanoscience of Marseille,
National Center of Scientific Research (France)
Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences (China)
WINLAB, Rutgers University (U.S.A.)
Research and Educational Center "Photonics and Infrared Technology" and Institute of RadioElectronics and Laser Technology, Bauman Moscow State Technical University(BMSTU)(Russia)
Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)(U.S.A.)
Telecom ParisTech (France)
Faculty of Physics, M.V.Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia)
Center for Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Robotics, National Taiwan University(Taiwan)
V.G. Mokerov Institute of Ultra High Frequency Semiconductor Electronics of the Russian
Academy of Sciences, and Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of
Sciences (Russia)

2021International journals in which a staff in RIEC participates as an editor
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Applied Physics Express
Auditory Perception and Cognition
Bioinspiration & Biomimetics
Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds
Frontiers in Neuroscience
IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I
Japanese Journal of Applied Physics
Nonlinear Theory and Its Applications, IEICE
Scientific Reports
Soft Robotics

Recent international conferences programmed by a staff in RIEC
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25

10th 2021 IEEE International Conference on Communications, Network, andSatellite (IEEE Comnetsat 2021)
11th International Workshop on Nanostructures & Nanoelectronics (IWNN-11)
15th International Symposium on Functional and Logic Programming (FLOPS 2020)
17th EuroVR International Conference (EuroVR 2020)
2020 IEEE International Symposium on Radio- Frequency Integration Technology(RFIT 2020)
2020 International Conference on Advanced Technologies for Communications (ATC2020)
2020 International Symposium on Nonlinear Theory and Its Applications(NOLTA2020)
26th IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC 2021)
29th International Workshop on Post Binary ULSI Systems
39th ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021)
50th IEEE International Symposium on Multiple-Valued Logic (ISMVL 2020)
7th International Workshop on Rewriting Techniques for Program Transformations
and Evaluation (WPTE 2020)
IEEE Asia Pacific Conference on Wireless and Mobile 2021 (APWiMob 2021)
IEEE International Workshop on Computer Aided Modeling and Design ofCommunication Links and Networks (CAMAD 2021)
IEEE The International Magnetics Conference (INTERMAG 2020)
IEEE The International Magnetics Conference (INTERMAG 2021)
IEEE The Magnetic Recording Conference (TMRC 2020)
IEEE The Magnetic Recording Conference (TMRC 2021)
IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Quality of Service 2021 (IwQoS 2021)
International Symposium on Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines 2021,
Program committee
INTERNATIONAL TELETRAFFIC CONGRESS ITC 32
The 11th International Conference on ICT Convergence (ICTC 2020)
The 2020 IEEE 5G World Forum (5GWF’20)
The 2021 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM 2021)
The 2021 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC 2021)

89

2021
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34

90

The 2021 International Workshop on Pervasive Information Flow (PerFlow'21)
The 2nd International Symposium on Designing Human-Centric IoT Society
The 35th International Conference on Information Networking (ICOIN 2021)
The 65th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (MMM 2020)
The 8th International Conference on Information and Communication Technology(ICoICT 2020)
The 9th RIEC International Symposium on Brain Functions and Brain Computer(9th BFBC)The Eighth International Symposium on Computing and Networking (CANDAR'20)
The IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC 2021)
The Symposium on Emerging Topics in Computing and Communications(SETCAC'20)

2021
8. Periodicals Published by the Institute
The Institute publishes the following two periodicals to inform readers on recent research results of theInstitute.
1. The Record of Electrical and Communication Engineering Conversazione Tohoku University
This journal aims at providing an opportunity to publish research results of the Institute as well as theresult of the Graduate Schools of Engineering, Information Sciences, Biomedical Engineering. Since thejournal also aims at publishing general research activities of the Institute and of the Graduate Schools
such as records of the final lectures of retiring professors, records of the Institute Symposium, and reviews.
The name of the Journal `Conversazione´ is attributable to the `Tuesday Conversazione´ at the
Department of Electrical Engineering, which had been held once a week on Tuesday since around 1920.
Minutes of the meetings had been distributed to researchers outside of the University via various routes
and therefore some of them had been referred to as `Records of Tuesday Electrical Engineering
Conversazione Tohoku University´ with the result that they came to be treated as official publications.
Though the meeting was once interrupted by World War Two, it was restarted in 1947. In 1952, thepublication of the records was succeeded by the Institute and the records have been published asperiodicals, two times a year recently, since No. 1 Vol. 21 was published in July, 1952.
2. The Annual Report of Research Activity at the Research Institute of Electrical Communication,
Tohoku University
Published annually since 1995. This report details the activities of each research division and researchfacility. Also included are reports on nation-wide cooperative research projects, international symposium
and seminars organized by members of RIEC, and the reports and evaluation on the RIEC advisory board
members. English version is also available since 2007.
3. RIEC NewsAs a part of RIEC’s publication service, “RIEC News” is published.
With the 75th anniversary of the establishment of RIEC, RIEC News introduces cutting-edge’s researchand the vision of the future from RIEC’s contributions to the progression of science and technology inJapan. RIEC News was first launched in March 2011. Every issue introduces special topics such as large
scale projects and Specially-Promoted Research, etc. RIEC News also includes current information about
each laboratory and center, all kinds of RIEC events, research exchange meetings, laboratories open to the
public (RIEC Open Day), etc. English version was also launched in March 2014. Further, RIEC News offers
a notification service by mail whenever a new issue is released and an electronic version of every issue
published so far can be downloaded by following the link below.
http://www.riec.tohoku.ac.jp/riecnews/

With the 26th issue of RIEC News, it has finished multi-monthly publication style as before. From April
2020, in order to bring you the latest research results and event information as quickly as possible, RIEC
News was renewed to a new web-based publication style. The new RIEC Newsweb is published by thefollowing link.
http://www.riec.tohoku.ac.jp/riecpr/
91

2021

9.

Staff, Budget

1. Faculty & Staff
as of May 1, 2021
Professors

22

Associate Professors

19

Assistant Professors

19

Research Fellows

7

Specially Appointed Professors

2

Specially Appointed Assistant Professors

2

Administrative Staff（Including Limited Regular Employees）

33

Technical Staff（Including Limited Regular Employees）

16

Total

120

2. Researchers (FY2021)
Foreign Researchers

Visiting Professors

0

Visiting Asociate Professors

0

Cooperative Researchers of Private Company etc

10

JSPS Research Fellowship for Young Scientists

8

JSPS Postdoctral Fellowship for Overseas Researchers

2

Invitation Fellowship for Research in Japan

0

Contract Researchers

1

Contract Trainees

1

Total

22

3. Students
as of May 1, 2021
School ofEngineering

Graduate School ofGraduate School ofInformation Science Biomedical Engineering

Total

Undergraduate Students

60 (0)

60 (0)

Master Course Students

96 (9)

42 (5)

8

146 (14)

Doctor Course Students

12 (6)

10 (6)

4

26 (12)

Institute Reserch Students
Total

92

RIEC

168 (15)52 (11)

12

1 (1)

1 (1)

1 (1)

233 (27)

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2-1-1 Katahira,Aobaku,Sendai 980-8577, Japan
Tel. +81-(0)22-217-5420 Fax.+81-(0)22-217-5426
http://www.riec.tohoku.ac.jp/en/