Annual Report 2015

2015

Research lnstitute of Electrical Communication Tohoku University

Annual report of Research Institute of Electrical Communication 2015

Contents
1.

Introduction ······················································································· 12.

Organization Chart ············································································· 53.

Research Activities ·············································································· 7
Research Divisions
・

Information Devices Division ···················································· 7・

Broadband Engineering Division ·············································· 13

・

Human Information Systems Division ······································· 20

・Systems & Software Division ··················································· 25

Laboratories and Centers
・Laboratory for Nanoelectoronics and Spintoronics ······················· 31

・Laboratory for Brainware Systems············································ 39

・

Research Center for 21st Century Information Technology ··········· 44

・Management Office for Safety and Health ·································· 47

・Flexible Information System Center ·········································· 48

・Fundamental Technology Center ·············································· 49

・Ad-hoc research groups ··························································· 50

Related Organizations and Programs, etc.
・Center for Spintronics Integrated Systems ································· 51

・

Research Organization of Electrical Communication ··················· 52

・Center for Innovative Integrated Electronics Systems ················· 53

・Spintronics Research and Education Promotion Office ················· 55

・Leading Graduate Program ····················································· 56

・Graduate Program in Spintronics (GP-Spin) ····························· 57

・Program for Key Interdisciplinary Research ······························· 58

4.

Nation-wide Cooperative Research Projects ············································ 59

5.

Symposium Organized by the Institute ·················································· 71

6.

Study Groups on Electrical Communication ··········································· 77

7.

International Activities ······································································· 81

8.

Periodicals Published by the Institute ··················································· 85

9.

Staff, Budget ····················································································· 87

2015 Introduction

1. Introduction
Ever since the RIEC was established in 1935 based on the research of
cutting-edge technologies such as Yagi-Uda antennas and magnetrons, a
succession of pioneering achievements from the institute have laid thefoundations of information science and communications technology. Today,
the RIEC continues to play a world-leading role. Last year we celebrated not
only the institute’s 80th anniversary but also the completion of constructionof the institute’s main building, with its six floors, basement, and 13,513
square meters of total floor space, with commemorative and opening
ceremonies. On this occasion, we reflected on the words of then institutedirector Junichi Nishizawa, spoken at the institute’s 50th anniversarycelebration: “Scholarship requires us to study phenomena that not even yet
have a name. This spirit shall form the foundation of the Research Instituteof Electrical Communication and the Electrical Engineering Group, Tohoku
University.” Building on this tradition, we will continue working to lead theworld in the advancement and evolution of science and technology to realize
new ways of communication that enrich people's lives.
The environment in which Tohoku University and the RIEC operate isconstantly changing. The current fiscal year marks the first year of theJapan’s Fifth Science and Technology Basic Plan, which aims to realize acycle of innovation toward a super-smart society. The plan sets out policies
for strengthening the fundamental technologies that will support this,including cyber security, the “Internet of things,” big data, artificial
intelligence, and devices. It goes without saying that these research fields
fall under the RIEC’s scope of expertise and that the institute must play aleading role in their furtherment. Meanwhile, the current fiscal year is also
the initial year of the Third Mid-term Planning Period for National
Universities. Operating grants have been reduced, reflecting Japan’s fiscal
circumstances, while the content has also shifted, with universities required
to make major reforms spanning education, research, and collaboration withindustry. It is in this environment that we must work to develop
communications technologies, including the aforementioned fundamental
technologies.

1

2015 Introduction

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 & Software Division), two laboratories (Laboratory for
Nanoelectronics and Spintronics, and Laboratory for Brainware Systems),
and the Research Center for 21st Century Information Technology. These
units are engaged in research aimed at achieving fruition over different timescales (Research Divisions: 20 years, Laboratories: 10 years, ResearchCenter: 5 years). In addition, we collaborate closely with Tohoku University's
graduate schools in subjects relating to electrical engineering (School ofEngineering, Graduate School of Information Sciences, and Graduate Schoolof Biomedical Engineering) in order to cover a wide range of cutting-edge
research fields and foster the development of outstanding researchers andengineers.
The RIEC has also been certified by the Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology as a Joint Usage/Research Center forcollaborative research in information science and technology. The current
fiscal year marks the initial year of the program’s second term. As
management expenses grants decrease, our role in advancing theinformation and communication community―both in Japan and overseas―
will become increasingly important. To this end, we are collaborating on joint
research projects with external researchers and engineers from industry,
government, and academia in a systematic manner.
Today, telecommunications are an essential part of the social infrastructure.
We must therefore realize faster, higher-capacity telecommunications withgreater energy efficiency performance, while the experience of the Great
East Japan Earthquake of 2011 reemphasized the importance of ensuringthat our social infrastructure has a high resilience to disaster. We are
expected to contribute to a new paradigm of information processing andcommunication methods that interconnect people in a fundamentallydifferent way. At the RIEC, we will continue to address these social needs byfully leveraging our strengths as a university-affiliated research center. In
doing so, we hope to forge the path to a new world of communication, andthrough these efforts continue to promote education going forward.

2

2015 Introduction

To contribute to the improvement of our research activities and support
future developments, we publish this Annual Report every year to make ouractivities 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 symposium, 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 1, 2016

Director, Research Institute of Electrical Communication

Hideo Ohno32015 Organization Chart
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

Ultrahigh-Speed Optical Communication
Applied Quantum Optics
Advanced Wireless Information Technology
Information Storage Systems
Ultra-Broadband Signal Processing
Basic Technology for Broadband Communication
Electromagnetic Bioinformation Engineering
Advanced Acoustic Information Systems
Visual Cognition and Systems
Multimodal Computing
Software Construction
Computing Information Theory
Communication Network Systems
Information Content
Information Social Structure

Laboratory for
Nanoelectronics and Spintronics

Nano-Integration Devices and Processing
Semiconductor Spintronics
Nano-Molecular Devices

Laboratory for Brainware Systems

Recognition and learning systems
Real-World Computing
New Paradigm VLSI System

Research Center for21st Century Information Technology

Project Planning Division
Technology Development Division:
Mobile Wireless Technology Group
Storage Technology GroupIntelligence Archive GroupManagement Office for Safety and HealthCommon Research
Facilities

Nano-Photoelectronics
Quantum-Optical Information Technology
Solid State Electronics
Dielectric Nano-Devices
Materials Functionality Design
Magnetic Dvices

Flexible Information System Center
Fundamental Technology Center

Administration
OfficeGeneral Affairs Section
Cooperative Research Section
Library Section
Accounting Section
Purchasing Section
Support Division
Center for Spintronics Integrated Systems
Research Organization of Electrical Communication
Center for Innovative Integrated Electronic Systems
Spintronics Research and Education Promotion Office52015 Information Devices Division

3.

Research Activities

Targets and achievements of the Information Devices Division
The main aim of the information devices division is to create new materials and devices fornext generation communication technology.
To accomplish this goal, we have the following 6 sub-divisions. The research fields include
nano-scale photoelectronic conversions, quantum-optical information technology, noveltransport properties in low-dimensional systems, new dielectrics-based nano-devices for
information storage, and design of new materials having exotic functionalities. We also have apartnership with Nano-Integration Devices and Processing section in the Laboratory for
Nanoelectronics and Spintronics.
1. Nano-Photoelectronics
2. Quantum-Optical Information Technology
3. Solid State Electronics
4. Dielectric Nano-Devices
5. Materials Functionality Design
6. Magnetic Devices (Visitor Section)
The research target and the summary of activities of each sub-division in 2015 are describedin the following pages. The summary of activities of Nano-Integration Devices and Processing
section is described in the chapter of Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics.

7

2015 Information Devices Division
Nanophotoelectronics

Exploring optical and electronic properties of nanometer-sized structures andtheir applications in photoelectronic devices

Nanophotoelectronics Yoichi Uehara, Professor
Nano photomolecular electronics Satoshi Katano, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
Our main interest lies in studying the physical and chemical phenomena that take place innanometer-scale regions and their applications in nanophotoelectronic devices. The summary of
our achievements in 2015 is as follows. (1) Pump-probe STM light emission spectroscopy (P-P
STM-LE) with ps temporal resolution was carried out for several materials. Time evolution ofdielectric function of Au after stimuli by each pump pulse was described in terms of d-band holes
created by each pump pulse. Temporal behavior of vibrational modes of atomic hydrogen adsorbedon Ni(110) was observed in ps temporal and atomic spatial resolution.
Individual VO2nanostructures showed semiconducting-metallic phase transitions after 25 ps from stimuli by eachps pump pulse. To develop P-P STM-LE in the THz spectral range, THz STM LE from Sb2Te3
illuminated with ps laser pulses was measured as a function of laser power. The laser power
dependence of THz STM LE is ascribed to the ps temporal change of the band structure induced byeach ps laser pulse, which was found by P-P STM-LE of Sb2Te3 in the visible spectral range. (2)The electronic and optical properties of graphene oxide (GO) are governed by the relative fraction of
sp2- and sp3-hybridized domains. Although extensive efforts have been made to reveal and tocontrol the electronic states of GO, most of studies have paid little attention to the atomic scale
electronic properties so far. We have investigated local electronic structures of GO using STS.
The position-dependent STS measurement revealed the spatial distribution of sp2 domains in GO.
(3) We have investigated the creation and optical properties of a single Ag nanoparticle (AgNP) on
Si(111) using STM light emission spectroscopy. The peak intensity of STM light emission increases
with increasing the size of AgNP, accompanying the shift of the peak position. Obtained results
are well reproduced by the theoretical calculation.
[Staff]
Professor
Yoichi Uehara, Dr.
Associate Professor
Satoshi Katano, Dr.
[Profile]
Dr. Yoichi Uehara obtained his D. Eng. degree from the Department of Engineering, Universityof Osaka prefecture in 1986, after which, he was initially appointed as an Assistant Professor at the
Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University. He eventually became a Full
Professor at the institute in 2005. Dr. Uehara has worked on three main surface physics problems
at Tohoku University: (1) light emission from metal-insulator-metal and metal-oxide-semiconductor(MOS) tunnel junctions, (2) low-energy electron spectroscopy, and (3) light emission spectroscopy of
STM.
Dr. Satoshi Katano received his D. Sci. degree from Department of Electronic Chemistry, Tokyo
Institute of Technology 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 research interests include surface physical chemistry andnano-scale molecular optoelectronics.
[Papers][1] Y. Uehara, S. Katano, M. Kuwahara, and T. Suzuki, "Electromagnetic Properties of Scanning TunnelingMicroscope Tip-sample Gap in the Terahertz Frequency Range", Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 54, 08LB06 (2015).
[2] S. Katano, H. Fujita, T. Wei, and Y. Uehara, "Nanoscale Light Emission Spectroscopy of a Single Carbon
Nanotube Adsorbed on Au(111)", J. Vac. Soc. Jpn., 59, 92-95 (2016).

8

Contact to Professor Yoichi Uehara : uehara@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2015 Information Devices Division
Quantum-Optical Information Technology

Development of optoelectronic devices for quantum information andcommunication technology
Quantum-Optical Information Technology: Keiichi Edamatsu, Professor
Quantum Laser Spectroscopy: Yasuyoshi Mitsumori, Associate professor
Quantum Nanophotonics: Mark Sadgrove, Associate professor[Research Target and Activities]
Our goal is to develop the quantum information devices utilizing quantum interaction between photons and electrons insolids. In 2015, we have achieved (1) experimental demonstration of error-disturbance uncertainty relations in photon polarization measurement, (2) observation of local-field effects on
optical coherent transients of semiconductor quantum dots,and (3) fabrication of optical nanofibers along with the controlled introduction of single gold nanoparticles to the nanofiber surface.
[Staff]
Professor: Keiichi Edamatsu, Dr.
Associate Professor: Yasuyoshi Mitsumori, Dr.
Associate Professor: Mark Sadgrove, Dr.

Fig.

SEM image of a single gold

nanoparticle(nanorod)

intro-

duced to the nanofiber surface.

[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.
Yasuyoshi Mitsumori received B.S., M.S. and D.S. degrees in Applied Physics from Tokyo Institute ofTechnology. He was a Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, a Researcher
in NTT Basic Research Laboratories, a Postdoctoral Fellow in Tokyo Institute of Technology, a Postdoctoral Fellow in Communications Research Laboratory, a Research Associate in Research Instituteof Electrical Communication, Tohoku University.
Mark Sadgrove received B.S., M.S., and Ph.D degrees in science from University of Auckland. He wasa Postdoctoral Fellow in The University of Electrocommunications, a Postdoctoral Fellow in Gakushuin University, and an Assistant Professor (nontenured) in The Center for Photonic Innovations,
The University of Electrocommunications[Papers][1] J. Keloth, M. Sadgrove, R. Yalla, and K. Hakuta, “Diameter measurement of optical nanofibers using a composite
photonic crystal cavity,” Opt. Lett. 40, 4122-4125 (2015)[2] N. Matsumoto, K. Komori, Y. Michimura, G. Hayase, Y. Aso, and K. Tsubono, “5-mg suspended mirror driven bymeasurement-induced backaction,” Phys. Rev. A 92, 033825 (2015)[3] K. Edamatsu, “Quantum measurement and uncertainty relations in photon polarization,” Phys. Scr., in press.

Contact to Professor Keiichi Edamatsu : eda@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

92015 Information Devices Division
Solid State Electronics Laboratory

Paving a Way for Introducing SiC, Graphene, and 2DM into Si Technology
Solid State Electroncis Maki Suemitsu, Professor
Solid State Physics for Electroncis Hirokazu Fukidome, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
Graphene is a 2D honeycomb network of carbon atoms. Its extremely high carrier mobility,
which is ~100 times as high as that of silicon, makes graphene a dream material. We havedeveloped a method to form an epitaxial graphene onto silicon substrates for the first time, which
consists of 3C-SiC heteroepitaxy on Si and subsequent sublimation of surface Si atoms(graphene-on-Si, or GOS, technology). We are currently working on betterment of the GOS quality
as well as on the development of graphene devices centered on RF field-effect transistors andoptical devices.
In FY2015, we succeeded in growing extremely high quality epitaxial graphene on the C-face of
SiC crystals for the first time. We developed operando analysis methods to characterize the device
performance of 2D-material devices as well.
[Staff]
Professor : Maki Suemitsu, Dr.
Assistant Professor : Hirokazu Fukidome, Dr.
Visiting Professor : Hiroyuki Nagasawa, Dr.
Research Assistant : Sai Jiao, Dr.
Research Assistant : Goon-Ho Park, Dr.
Research Assistant: Venugopal Gunasekaran
Technical Assistant : Kumi Namiiri

SiC
SiliconGraphene＋

SiC

Graphene
SiC

GOS (Graphene on Silicon)[Profile]
Prof. Maki Suemitsu received Ph.D on electronic engineering from Tohoku University in 1980.
He started his service at Research Institute of Electrical Communication (RIEC) in 1980, became
associate professor in 1990, and became professor at Center for Inderdisciplinary Research, Tohoku
University in 2003. Since 2008, he has been professor at RIEC. He has been engaged mainly on
surfaces of semiconductor thin fims. He was awarded the 30 th Kumagai prize of the best paper
from the Vacuum Soceity of Japan (2005) and the Best Paper Award from the Surface Science
Society of Japan (2011).
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).
[Papers][1] Kohei Yamasue, Hirokazu Fukidome, Kazutoshi Funakubo, Maki Suemitsu, and Yasuo Cho,
“Interfacial Charge States in Graphene on SiC Studied by Noncontact Scanning Nonlinear
Dielectric Potentiometry,” Physical Review Letters, Vol. 114, 226103-1-5, 2015.
[2] Sai Jiao, Yuya Murakami, Hiroyoki Nagasawa, Hirokazu Fukidome, Isao Makabe, Yasunori Tateno,
Takashi Nakabayashi, and Maki Suemitsu, “High quality graphene formation on 3C-SiC/4H-AlN/Si
heterostructure,” Materials Science Forum, Vol. 806, No. , pp. 89-93, 2015.
[3] Hiroyoki Nagasawa, Ramya Gurunathan, Maki Suemitsu, “Controlling Planar Defects in 3C–SiC:
Ways to Wake it up as a Practical Semiconductor,” Materials Science Forum, Vol. 821-823,
pp.108-114, 2015.

10

Contact to Professor Maki Suemitsu : suemitsu@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2015 Information Devices Division
Dielectric Nano-Devices

Research on Dielectric Nano Science and Technology

Dielectric Nano-Devices

Yasuo CHO, 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 Fig.1 Digital bit data written on ferroelectric
single crystal with the areal recording
purely electrical method for observing the ferroelectric
density of 4 Tbit/inch2.
polarization distribution without the influence of theshielding effect by free charges 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.
Major achievements of studies in 2015 are as follows: (1) Graphene on 4H-SiC(0001) was
observed using noncontact scanning nonlinear dielectric potentiometry (NC-SNDP) with an atomic
resolution. Additionally, we proposed a novel method for observing surface spontaneous polarization
using NC-SNDP. (2) SiO2/SiC interfaces were characterized using super-higher-order nonlinear
dielectric microscopy. Additionally, we developed local DLTS as a novel method for characterization ofinterfaces in semiconductor devices. (3) Nanoscaled domain inversion on yttrium doped HfO2 thinfilms was studied using SNDM for developing novel recording media of ferroelectric probe data storage
technology. (4) We proposed a novel method for nanoscale linear permittivity imaging based on SNDM.
[Staff]
Professor ： Yasuo Cho, Dr.
Assistant Professor ： Yoshiomi Hiranaga, Dr.

Assistant Professor ： Kohei Yamasue, Dr.

[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).
[Papers]
[1]

[2]
[3]

K. Yamasue, H. Fukidome, K. Funakubo, M. Suemitsu and Y. Cho, “Interfacial Charge States in Graphene on SiC
Studied by Noncontact Scanning Nonlinear Dielectric Potentiometry”, Phys. Rev. Lett., Vol. 114, p. 226103, 2015
M. Suzuki, K. Yamasue, and Y. Cho, “Experimental study of electric dipoles on an oxygen-adsorbed Si(100)-2×1
surface by non-contact scanning nonlinear dielectric microscopy”, Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 107, p. 031604, 2015
K. Yamasue and Y. Cho, “Scanning nonlinear dielectric potentiometry”, Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 86, p. 093704, 2015

Contact to Professor Yasuo Cho : yasuocho@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

112015 Information Devices Division
Materials Functionality Design

Computational Design of Functional Materials for Spintornics
Materials Functionality Design: Masafumi Shirai, Professor[Research Target and Activities]
Our research targets are as follows: (1) theoretical analyses of quantum phenomena which appear
in materials and nanostructures for advanced information devices, (2) computational design ofmaterials and nanostructures which possess new functionalities for improvement of device
performance, and (3) development of new design procedures based on large-scale computational
simulation techniques.
Our research activities in FY 2015 are as follows:(1) Theoretical design of electrode materials for magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ)
We investigated the magnetic properties of D022-Mn3Ga doped with Ti, V, and Cr, by using
first-principles calculations. While the magnetization is increased by the doping, the uniaxial
magnetic anisotropy energy Ku is slightly decreased (see Fig. 1). The Ti- or V-doped Mn3Ga alloy ispromising candidates for electrode materials of MgO-based
MTJ since the Δ1 band is completely spin-polarized.
(2) Electronic structure of shape memory alloys
We investigated electronic structure of shape memory
alloys Ni-Mn-In by means of hard x-ray photoelectron
spectroscopy and first-principles calculations. We found a
sharp drop in the density of states near the Fermi-level
below the structural transformation temperature. The
structural transformation is related to a competition ofmagnetic coupling between Mn atoms in Ni-Mn-In [2].
[Staff]
Professor: Masafumi Shirai, Dr.
Assistant Professor: Kazutaka Abe, Dr.
Assistant Professor: Masahito Tsujikawa, Dr.

Fig. 1[Profile]
Masafumi Shirai received the Doctor of Engineering degree from Osaka University in 1989. From1988 to 1996, he was a Research Associate, and then, from 1996 to 2002, an Associate Professor at
Osaka University. From 2002 to the present, he has been a Professor at Tohoku University. Now his
research interest is focused on computational design of functional materials for spintronics devices.
[Papers]
[1]

[2]

[3]

12

V. R. Singh, V. K. Verma, K. Ishigami, G. Shibata, A. Fujimori, T. Koide, Y. Miura, M. Shirai, T.
Ishikawa, G.-f. Li, and M. Yamamoto, “Electronic and magnetic properties of off-stoichiometric
Co2MnβSi/MgO interfaces studied by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism,” J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 117, No.
20, Article No. 203901, pp. 1-6, 2015
S. Zhu, M. Ye, K. Shirai, M. Taniguchi, S. Ueda, Y. Miura, M. Shirai, R. Y. Umetsu, R. Kainuma, T.
Kanomata, and A. Kimura, “Drastic change in density of states upon martensitic phase transision
for metamagnetic shape memory alloy Ni2Mn1+xIn1-x,” J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, Vol. 27, No. 36,
Article No. 362201, pp. 1-6, 2015
Kazutaka Abe and N. W. Ashcroft, “Stabilization and highly metallic properties of heavy group-V
hydrides at high pressures,” Phys. Rev. B, Vol. 92, No. 22, Article No. 224109, pp. 1-5, 2015

Contact to Professor Masafumi Shirai : shirai@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2015 Broadband Engineering Division

Broadband Engineering Division: Research Target and Results
In order to establish the future broadband communication systems and novel devices
that are flexibly applied to the future ubiquitous ultra-large capacity information
communication, research and development are carrying out over the wide bands ofmicrowaves, millimeter/submillimeter waves, terahertz waves, and lightwaves withregard to the information generation, transmission, processing, and storage
technologies.
(1) Advanced Wireless Information Technology
We are actively engaged in the research work on the dependable wirelessinformation technologies for the next generation wireless systems which include
terrestrial / satellite communications. We cover the whole technical fields from thelower to higher layers, i.e., signal processing, RF/Mixed signal device, antenna,
MODEM and network technologies.

We have developed location-based interference

control method for heterogeneous wireless networks. The virtual sector method was
proposed to solve the hidden and exposed node problems. We have also developed RF-IC
and modules like sample-hold circuit for high speed and low power wirelesscommunication system.
(2) 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”, asingle-layered honeycomb-lattice carbon crystal.
First, towards the creation of novel current-injection graphene THz laser-transistors,
we developed an ultrafast graphene laser-transistor device process technology
demonstrating extremely high electric-field carrier mobility around 200,000 cm2/Vs anorder of magnitude larger than conventional data. Another important achievement is on
high-speed, high-power, high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) based on InGaAsand

GaN-based

quantum-wellheterostructures.

Improved

breakdown-voltage

performances were verified in GaN-based HEMTs by introducing a unique slant field
plate structure integrated with the gate electrode.
(3) Ultrahigh-Speed Optical Communication
To achieve a global high-capacity optical network, we have been engaging in the
research on ultrahigh-speed Optical Time-Division Multiplexing (OTDM) transmission
and highly spectral-efficient coherent Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)
transmission.
This year, we successfully demonstrated a single-channel 2.56 Tbit/s transmission

13

2015 Broadband Engineering Division

over 500 km using non-coherent Nyquist pulses. In addition, we realized asingle-channel 1.92 Tbit/s, 64 QAM transmission using coherent Nyquist pulses with aspectral efficiency as high as 10.6 bit/s/Hz. Furthermore, we proposed a new quantum
noise cipher transmission technique based on QAM, and achieved a 40 Gbit/s-480 km
digital coherent transmission with extremely high security.
(4) Applied Quantum Optics
Novel functional semiconductor photonic devices including photonic integrated
circuits are being investigated to explore new-generation photonic network systems.
The study on ultra-high-speed semiconductor laser with external cavity is being
continued. It was confirmed that the frequency response characteristic of a laser diodecan be controlled by introducing a hybrid modulation scheme which modulates cavity
loss and injection current simultaneously. The scheme will contribute to enhance a laser
diode response bandwidth drastically by collaborating with photon-photon resonanceeffect from external cavity. For the study of narrow linewidth semiconductor laser, it
was confirmed that the phase noise of the semiconductor laser can be reduced up tosome GHz by applying the optical negative feedback we proposed. Furthermore, it was
confirmed that very flat (< 0.5 dB) 13-ch optical frequency comb was able to begenerated by harmonic superposition of RF signals to the LN Mach Zehnder modulator.
(5) Information Storage Systems
Research on next-generation perpendicular magnetic recording is carrying out forhigh density data storage to meet the strong demand of rapid information increase in
the Internet, and storage system technology as well.
We have unveiled that areal density of 5 Tbit/inch2, which is five times of thecurrent density, is achieved by the novel perpendicular recording with bit-patterned
media in association with thermal assist recording technique. Storage systemtechnology to enhance the data transfer rate was also developed. Multi-track recordingwith an array head is investigated from the viewpoint of fast data transfer and highareal densities. Two-dimensional magnetic recording is developed to read two tracks
simultaneously with a reader to double the data transfer rate.

14

2015 Broadband Engineering Division
Research Laboratory of Ultrahigh-Speed Optical Communication

Advanced optical communication technologies approaching the Shannon limit

Research Area of Optical Transmission
Masataka Nakazawa, Professor
Research Area of Optical Signal Processing
Toshihiko Hirooka, Associate Professor
Research Area of High Accuracy Measurements using Optical Fibers
Masato Yoshida, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
1.2
Single polarization
1
With the vast growth of Internet traffic, it has become
Polarization multiplexing
10
0.8
increasingly important to realize a high-capacity and
0.6
0.4
10
high-speed network. This laboratory aims to achieve a
525 km0.2
0global ultrahigh-speed optical network by engaging in the
10-0.2-4.68-3.12-1.56 0 1.56 3.12 4.68
Time [ps]research of ultrashort pulse and coherent transmission.
10
This year, we successfully demonstrated a single-channel
10
300 km2.56 Tbit/s transmission over 500 km using non-coherent
10
Back to back10
Nyquist pulses with polarization-multiplexed DQPSK at
10640 Gbaud (Fig. 1). In addition, we realized a 160 Gbaud,-31 -29 -27 -25 -23 -21 -19 -17 -15
Received Optical Power [dBm]
64 QAM coherent Nyquist pulse transmission, in which(a)(b)
single-channel 1.92 Tbit/s data were transmitted over 150 Fig. 1 2.56 Tbit/s-500 km transmission
result. (a) Nyquist pulse waveform andkm with a spectral efficiency of 10.6 bit/s/Hz.
spectrum, (b) BER characteristics.
[Staff]Distinguished Professor: Masataka Nakazawa, Dr. Associate Professor: Toshihiko Hirooka, Dr.
Associate Professor: Masato Yoshida, Dr.
Assistant Professor: Keisuke Kasai, Dr.
[Profile]
Masataka Nakazawa received the Ph. D. degree from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1980. He
joined the Ibaraki Electrical Communication Laboratory, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Public
Corporation. He was a visiting scientist at MIT in 1984-1985. In 2001, he became a Professor of the
Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University, where he has been engaged inresearch on ultrahigh-speed optical communication including soliton transmission, nonlinear
effects in fibers, mode-locked lasers, and photonic crystal fibers.
Intensity [a.u]-3

Bit Error Rate

-4

10Power [dBm]

0

-10

-6
-7
-8

-20

-9

-30

-40
1525

-5

-10

1535
1545
Wavelength [nm]1555

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 an Associate
Professor at the Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University. He has been
engaged in research on ultrahigh-speed optical communications and nonlinear fiber optics.
Masato Yoshida received the Ph.D. degree from Tohoku University in 2001. In 2001, he joined the
Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University, where he is currently an
Associate Professor. His research interests include mode-locked fiber lasers, coherent opticalcommunication, and photonic crystal fibers.
[Papers][1] K. Kasai, Y. Wang, S. Beppu, M. Yoshida, and M. Nakazawa, “80 Gbit/s, 256 QAM coherent
transmission over 150 km with an injection-locked homodyne receiver,” Opt. Express, vol. 23, no. 22,
pp. 29174-29183, 2015
[2] K. Harako, D. Suzuki, T. Hirooka, and M. Nakazawa, “2.56 Tbit/s/ch (640 Gbaud)
polarization-multiplexed DQPSK non-coherent Nyquist pulse transmission over 525 km,” Opt.
Express, vol. 23, no. 24, pp. 30801-30806, 2015[3] D. O. Otuya, K. Kasai, T. Hirooka, and M. Nakazawa, “Single-channel 1.92 Tbit/s, 64 QAM
coherent Nyquist orthogonal TDM transmission with a spectral efficiency of 10.6 bit/s/Hz,” J.
Lightwave Technol. vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 768-775, 2016

Contact to Professor Masataka Nakazawa : nakazawa@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

15

2015 Broadband Engineering Division
Applied Quantum Optics

Research on Innovative Highly Functional Photonic Semiconductor Devices

Highly Functional Photonics

Hiroshi Yasaka, Professor

6
0

1

-6

0.64
0.51
0.39
η= 0

-12
0.1

1
10
100
Modulation frequency [GHz]Free run

10-2

A′ = 0.12
0

-10

Under
feedback

10-4
10-10

Normalized power (dB)

100

12

-18

Phase error variance [rad.2]

Norm. response [dB][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 laser with external cavity is being continued.
It was confirmed that the frequency response characteristic of a LD can be controlled by introducing
a hybrid modulation scheme where cavity loss and injection current of the laser are modulated
simultaneously. The modulation scheme will contribute to the drastic bandwidth enhancement of asemiconductor laser by collaborating with the photon-photon resonance effect from external cavity.
The study on compact and narrow linewidth semiconductor laser sources is also being
proceeded. It was confirmed that the phase noise of the semiconductor laser can be reduced up tosome GHz by applying the optical negative feedback method we proposed.
Furthermore, the study on a flat-top optical frequency comb generation is being carried out
by using a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM). It was confirmed that very flat (< 0.5 dB) 13-ch opticalfrequency comb was able to be generated by harmonic superposition of RF signals to the modulator.

10-8
10-6
Measuring time [sec.]

-20
-30

Ā = 2.4
1549.51550.01550.5
Wavelength (nm)Results for hybrid modulation laser (left), compact narrow linewidth semiconductor laser(middle), and flat optical frequency comb generation using MZM (right).

[Staff]
Professor ：Hiroshi Yasaka, 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.
[Papers][1]

S. Mieda, S. Shiratori, N. Yokota, W. Kobayashi, and H. Yasaka, “Intra-cavity Loss Modulation for
Ultra-High-Speed Direct Modulation Lasers Based on Photon-Photon Resonance,” Applied Physics Express, vol. 8,
No. 8, 082701, July, 2015. - DOI:10.7567/APEX.8.082701[2]
N. Yokota, T. Miki, K. Abe, and H. Yasaka, “Nonlinearity of Semiconductor Mach-Zehnder Modulator for Flat
Optical Frequency Comb,” IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, vol. 27, No. 21, pp. 2219-2221, Nov., 2015. - DOI
10.1109/LPT.2015.2457429[3]
N. Yokota, K. Abe, S. Mieda, and H. Yasaka, “Harmonic superposition for tailored optical frequency comb
generation by Mach-Zehnder modulator,” Optics Letters, vol. 41, No. 5, pp. 1026-1029, Mar., 2016. - DOI
10.1364/OL.41.001026

16

Contact to Professor Hiroshi Yasaka : yasaka@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2015 Broadband Engineering Division
Advanced Wireless Information Technology

For realization of the next generation mobile network

Advanced Wireless Information Technology Noriharu Suematsu, Professor
Advanced Wireless Network Technology
Suguru Kameda, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
Toward the realization ofRadio wave (UHF/microwave/mm-wave)
a ubiquitous and broad-band
MIMO
wireless network, we areTx Mixer
Tx Signal
HPA
Multi(Digital)
Antenna
actively engaged in the
DAC
EncoderModulator
FilterFilterresearch work on dependable
Channel selector
Voltage controlled
Control
oscillator (VCO)
Tx/Rx
and low power consumption
signalChannel measurement
Switchand estimation
Synthesizer
advanced wireless IT. We
PLL
LNA
Frequency
domaincover the whole technical
DeDecoder
ADC
Filterequalizer
modulator
FilterRx Signal (FDE)
fields from the lower to
Rx Mixer
Beam(Digital)
Heterogeneous/Forminghigher layers, i.e., signal
Multi-band RF/mmWave CMOS IC
Channel Estimation
Beam-forming Transmitter/Receiverprocessing, RF/Mixed signal
Signal Processing
device, antenna, MODEM
Fig. The target system ofand network technologies.
Advanced Wireless Information Technology Laboratory.
We
havedeveloped
location-based interference control method for heterogeneous wireless networks. The virtual sector
method was proposed to solve the hidden/exposed node problems. We have also developed RF-IC andmodules like sample-hold circuit for high speed and low power wireless communication system.
[Staff]
Professor: Noriharu Suematsu, Ph. D
Associate Professor: Suguru Kameda, Ph. D
Assistant Professor: Mizuki Motoyoshi, 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.
Suguru Kameda received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electronics Engineering from Tohoku
University in 1997, 1999 and 2001, respectively. From 2001, he was an assistant professor of the
RIEC. From 2012, he has been currently an associate professor.

[Papers][1] D Banda, et al., "1/2fs Direct RF Under Sampling Receiver for Multi-Channel Satellite Systems," IEICE Transaction,
vol.E98-C, No.7, pp.669-676, July 2015.
[2] T. Koizumi, et al., "A CMOS Series/Shunt Switching Type S/H IC for Ka-Band Direct RF Under Sampling Receive,"2015 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC) , Dec. 2015.
[3] N. Suematsu, et al., "Direct RF undersampling receiver for high-SHF band digital beam forming," MTT-S
International Microwave and RF Conference (IMaRC), 2015 IEEE , pp.133-135, Dec. 2015.
[4] N. Suematsu, et al., "QZSS SS-CDMA Location and Short Message Communication System," The 18th International
Symposium on Wireless Personal Multimedia Communications (WPMC'15), Dec. 2015.

Contact to Professor Noriharu Suematsu : suematsu@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

17

2015 Broadband Engineering Division
Information Storage System

Research on Large Capacity Information Storage System using High Density
Perpendicular Magnetic Recording
Information Storage Systems: Hiroaki Muraoka, Professor
Recording Theory Computation: Simon Greaves, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
The amount of digital information is rapidly growing year by year, which isestimated to reach to 40 Zetta-byte in 2020. High areal density magnetic
recording is the key technology to store the extremely large capacity
information. Next-generation perpendicular magnetic recording is explored inorder to continuously develop the areal density of hard disk drives beyond theconventional density limit, i.e., a near-future target of 1 Tera-bit/inch2 andultimately exceeding 5 Tera-bit/inch2. Theoretical studies including a
micromagnetic computer simulation in association with an experimental
approach are carried out to develop the next generation of high density
perpendicular recording devices.
As we have proposed, the magnetic nano-structure of recording media is
the most essential parameter to achieve high density perpendicular recording.
Bit-patterned medium (Fig 1) is a promising candidate. We have revealed thepossibility of an areal density of 5 Tera-bit/inch2 in conjunction with heatassisted recording. We revealed that the thermal stability of the bit-patterned
media is observed as the write error rate, not only the amplitude reduction of
the written bits.
Research on information storage systems (Fig. 2) is being carried out.
High data transfer rate by distributed file system with grouped disk drives
was investigated. It was experimentally demonstrated that the data transfer
rate of properly designed system was proportional to the number of drives.
[Staff]
Professor: Hiroaki Muraoka, PhD (since 2000)
Associate Professor: Simon Greaves, PhD (since 2003)
Secretary: Chie Watanabe[Profile]
Hiroaki Muraoka joined Tohoku University in 1991. Since then, he has been engaged in research on
high-density magnetic recording devices, systems and recording theories, mainly for perpendicularmagnetic recording. He received PhD degree in 1981. He is a Fellow of IEEE.
Simon Greaves has been at Tohoku University since 2003. He uses micromagnetic simulations atmagnetic recording to investigate the potential of future storage devices. He received his Ph.D in 1993
from Salford University, UK.
[Papers][1] Simon John Greaves, Yasushi Kanai, and Hiroaki Muraoka, “Microwave-Assisted Shingled
Magnetic Recording,” IEEE Trans. Magn., Vol. 51, No. 11, 3001204, Nov 2015.
[2] Hiroaki Muraoka and Simon John Greaves, “Two-Track Reading With a Wide-Track Reader for
Shingled Track Recording,” IEEE Trans. Magn., Vol. 51, No. 11, 3002404, Nov 2015.
18

Contact to Professor Hiroaki Muraoka : muraoka@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2015 Broadband Engineering Division
Ultra-broadband Signal Processing

Novel Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Integrated Electron Devices and Systems
Ultra-Broadband Devices and Systems: Taiichi OTSUJI, Professor
Ultrafast Electron Devices: Tetsuya SUEMITSU, Associate Professor
Ultra-Broadband Device Physics: Stephane BOUBANGA TOMBET, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]

S; source electrode, G: gate electrode, D:drain electrode
Gate length: 180nm、Gate width: 100µm

Left: schematic view of graphene FET and optical microscope image of fabricated device (top), DC characteristic withfitting curve and extracted intrinsic mobility (bottom), right: Gallium-nitride-based high-electron-mobility transistor and its
output characteristics. A slant field plate integrated with gate electrode enhances the breakdown voltage.

We are developing novel, integrated electron devices and circuit systems operating in the terahertz(THz) region. This fiscal year, toward creation of graphene-based terahertz lasers, we have fabricatedgraphene FETs with high-quality graphene channels on SiC and with SiN gate dielectrics, and wehave shown carrier intrinsic mobilities of the FETs around 200,000 cm2/Vs, an order of magnitudelarger than conventional data, extracted from their DC characteristics by an originally developed
fitting model. Another important achievement is on microwave and millimeter-wave
high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) based on compound semiconductor materials such as
indium-gallium arsenide (InGaAs) and gallium-nitride (GaN). Improved breakdown voltage in these
HEMTs are achieved by a unique slant field plate integrated with a gate electrode.
[Staff]
Professor: Taiichi OTSUJI, Dr. Eng.
Visiting Professor: Victor RYZHII, Ph.D.
Associate Professor: Tetsuya SUEMITSU, Dr. Eng.
Associate Professor: Stephane Albon BOUBANGA TOMBET, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor: Akira SATOU, Dr. Comp. Sci.
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow: Adrian DOBROIU, Ph.D.
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow: Takayuki WATANABE, Dr. Eng.
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 Outstanding Paper Award of
the 1997 IEEE GaAs IC Symposium. Distinguished Lecturer, Electron Device Society, IEEE, since2013. Member of IEEE (Fellow), OSA (Senior), MRS, SPIE, IEICE, and JSAP.
Tetsuya SUEMITSU: received Dr. Eng. from Waseda Univ., Japan, in 2000. Research Scientist, NTT
Labs., Japan (1994- 2006); Visiting Scientist, MIT, USA (2002-2003); Assoc. Prof., Tohoku Univ., Japan(2006-). Recipient of the Best Paper Award, IEICE (2003), and the ELEX Best Paper Award, IEICE(2007). Member of IEEE(Senior), APS, JSAP, and PSJ.
Stephane BOUBANGA TOMEBET: received Ph.D. from Montpellier 2 Univ., France, in 2008. JSPS
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Tohoku Univ., Japan (2009-2010); Postdoctoral Researcher, Tohoku
Univ., Japan (2011); Physics Consultant, University of Rouen, France (2011); Postdoctoral Researcher,
Los Alamos National Lab., USA (2012-2013). Associate Professor, Tohoku Univ., Japan (2013-present).
[Papers][1] T. Otsuji, "Trends in the Research of Modern Terahertz Detectors: Plasmon Detectors," IEEE Trans. Thrz. Sci.
Technol., Vol. 5, No. 6, pp. 1110-1120, 2015.
[2] T. Suemitsu, K. Kobayashi, S. Hatakeyama, N. Yasukawa, T. Yoshida, T. Otsuji, D. Piedra, and T. Palacios, "A newprocess approach for slant field plates in GaN-based high-electron-mobility transistors," Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 55,
pp. 01AD02-1-6, 2015.
[3] P. Faltermeier, P. Olbrich, W. Probst, L. Schell, T. Watanabe, S.A. Boubanga Tombet, T. Otsuji, and S.D. Ganichev,"Helicity sensitive terahertz radiation detection by dual-grating-gate high electron mobility transistors," J. Appl. Phys.,Vol. 118, Iss. 8, pp. 084301-1-6, 2015.
Contact to Professor Taiichi Otsuji : otsuji@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

19

2015 Human Information Systems Division
Aims and Achievements of Human Information Systems Division
To realize advanced information communications systems, it is essential to understandand apply 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, three laboratories have been carrying out
researches and developments in the following areas: (1) Electomagnetic Bioinformation
Engineering, (2) Advanced Acoustic Information Systems, (3) Visual Cognition and
Systems.
The goals and achievements in the fiscal year 2014 of each laboratory are described indetail below.
(1) Electomagnetic 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) We obtained highly sensitive strain sensor utilizing the method of
inverse-magnetostriction. The sensor shows 10000 times greater sensitivity compare withthe conventional strain gage. New method to obtain nano-composite materials byelectro-chemical technique was found. This method realizes the high-energy thin film
magnet. New mechanism to reduce the iron loss of the magnetic core materials was studied.
Collaborating research with steel companies has been started. The study about themagnetic actuator was carried out for tiny pump which can set in blood tube with amanufacturer of medical equipment.
(2)Advanced Acoustic Information Systems(Aims) To realize future high-definition communications systems with rich and natural senseof presence, this laboratory aims at developing acoustic information processing
technologies based on good knowledge of human auditory system as well as multimodal
perception relating to hearing.
(Achievement) We are devoting in deepening of the understanding human spatiotemporalperceptual processes of audio-vestibular information. Moreover, We also study how thesense of presence and verisimilitude are affected by physical factors involved in multimodal
content consisting of auditory, visual and vestibular information. These studies are20

2015 Human Information Systems Divisionparticularly important to realize future multi-modal sensory information processing andcommunication systems. Moreover, we continued to develop advanced acoustic systems.
These inlude 3D virtual auditory displays based on our accumulated knowledge of human
auditory space perception, sensing and reproduction system based on High-order
Ambinonics consisting of over 100 channels, and 252-ch real-time binaural spatial soundsensing technique (SENZI), which can comprehensively record 3D sound space information.
They are keenly required to realize super-definition audio-visual communications in near
future.
(3) Visual Cognition and Systems(Aims) This laboratory aims at understanding the mechanisms of human visual perception in
our brain to improve the design of visual information display in the information &communication technologies.
(Achievements)
Firstly, we investigated coordinated movements of eyes and head in vision for action underlittle restriction of body movements and the used the knowledge to improve a model of thegaze prediction in given images. Secondly, we investigated object based attention using
SSVEP (steady state visual evoked potential) and found that attention spreads over within
object area independently of probe presentations, which participants are asked to detect.
This revealed that object attention is a static phenomenon rather than a dynamic
phenomenon such as a prioritization of attention shift.

21

2015 Human Information Systems Division
Electromagnetic Bioinformation Engineering

Communication with human body
Electromagnetic Bioinformation Engineering, Kazushi Ishiyama, Professor
Electromagnetic Biomaterial Engineering, Shuichiro Hashi, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
We studied the mechanism of obtaining the magnetic anisotropy of the magnetic thin films for thesensitive magnetic sensors. We obtained a non-metal probe for high frequency magnetic field, andconfirmed the probe can measure the high frequency magnetic field with its phase information. In
addition, 3D position detecting system using magnetic markers was studied to improve its position
accuracy. The study about the magnetic actuator driven by the external magnetic field was carried out
for biomimetic robots using the rotational magnetic field, and small wireless pumps were obtained andclarified for their application for an artificial heart-support pump.
Signal generator
λ : 670 nm

Ref.
Lock-in amplifier
OutputObjective lensHalf mirror
Differential
Garnet XY electrical stage
detector

1.0[Staff]
Professor: Kazushi Ishiyama, Dr.
Associate Professor: Shuichiro Hashi, Dr.

Y [mm]

0.0
-0.35
-0.70
Magnetic
field [Oe]

-0.5

-0.5

0.0
0.5
X [mm]

Magnetic field [Oe]

0.35

0.0

-1.0
-1.0

0.7

0.70

0.5

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of high sensitive
vibration sensor

DUT

MirrorPulsed laser

0.35

Meas. (10 m)
Simulation (10 m)
Simulation (20 m)

0
-0.35

1.0

-0.7
-1

-0.5

0
Y [mm]

0.5

1

Fig. 2 High frequency magnetic field imaging
system using magneto-optical crystal probe[Profile]
Kazushi Ishiyama received his MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Tohoku University
in 1986 and 1993, respectively. His research interests are in the area of magnetics and magnetic
applications.
Shuichiro Hashi received the DE degree in Electrical Engineering from Tohoku University in 1998. His
research interests are in the area of magnetic measurement and magnetic materials.
[Papers][1] Y. Hayashi, S. Hashi, H. Kura, T. Yanai, T. Ogawa, K. Ishiyama, M. Nakano, H. Fukunaga,"Electrochemical fabrication of nanocomposite films containing magnetic metal nanoparticles,"Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 54, p. 075201, June (2015).
[2] K. Iwata, M. Suzuki, M. Hashimoto, M. Ueda, Y. Matuoka, T. Yasue, T. Koshikawa, M. Kotsugi, T.
Ohkochi, T. Kinoshita, Y. Watanabe, K. Ishiyama, "Temperature dependence of lancet domains in
grain-oriented Fe-3%Si steels," IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 51, No. 11, 2002504, November(2015).
[3] J. Huang, T. Mori, K. Takashima, S. Hashi, Y. Kitamura, "IM6D: Magnetic Tracking System with
6-DOF Passive Markers for Dexterous 3D Interaction and Motion," ACM Transactions on Graphics, Vol.
34, No. 6, 217, November (2015).

22

Contact to Professor Kazushi Ishiyama : ishiyama@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2015 Human Information Systems Division
Advanced Acoustic Information Systems

Development of next generation communication systems
Advanced Acoustic Information Systems: Yôiti Suzuki, Professor
Auditory and Multisensory Information Systems: Shuichi Sakamoto, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
The main interest of this laboratory is the study of
information processing by the human auditory system.
At the same time, we aim to realize a 'comfortable'sound environment by exploiting digital signal
processing techniques. One example is thedevelopment of three-dimensional auditory displays,
which present sound images by simulating thetransfer functions for the sound paths from the soundsources to the listeners' external ears. Anotherexample is the proposal of 3D sound field information
sensing systems. These systems are expected to convey
a high-quality virtual sound space, which is keenly
sought for multimedia communications, cyberspacesystems and virtual reality systems. Moreover, in 2015, Fig. 1 Application for the training of
we put a lot of effort to develop systems to acquire 3D spatial cognition using a high-definition
virtual auditory display
sound-space
information
capableofsaving,transmitting, and reproducing accurate sound-space
information at a distant place. In regards to three-dimensional sound space information recording
using microphone arrays, we realized a real-time system using a spherical microphone array and
FPGAs. From a psychoacoustical point of view, we also investigated the effect of self-motion, including
head rotation, on the auditory space perception.
[Staff]
Professor: Yôiti Suzuki, Dr., Associate Professor: Shuichi Sakamoto, Dr.,
Assistant Professor: Zheng Lie Cui, Dr., Jorge Treviño, Dr.,Technical Staff: Fumitaka Saito[Profile]
Yôiti Suzuki graduated from Tohoku University in 1976 and received his Ph. D. degree in electricaland communication engineering in 1981. His research interests include psychoacoustics and digital
signal processing of acoustic signals. He served as president of the Acoustical Society of Japan from ’05
to ’07. He is a fellow of the Acoustical Society of America.
Shuichi Sakamoto graduated from Tohoku University in 1997 and received his Ph. D. degree inelectrical and communication engineering in 2004. His research interests include human auditory andmultisensory information processing and development of advanced multimodal information systems.
[Papers]
[1]
[2]
[3]

S. Sakamoto, S. Hongo, T. Okamoto, Y. Iwaya and Y. Suzuki, “Sound-space recording and binaural presentation
system based on a 252ch microphone array,” Acoustical Science and Technology, 36(6), 516-526 (2015).
T. Shimizu, J. Trevino, S. Sakamoto and Y. Suzuki, “A multi-zone approach to sound field reproduction based on
spherical harmonic analysis,” Acoustical Science and Technology, 36(5), 441-444 (2015).
A. Honda, T. Kanda, H. Shibata, S. Sakamoto, Y. Iwaya, J. Gyoba and Y. Suzuki, “Senses of presence andverisimilitude of audio-visual contents: Effects of sounds and playback speeds on sports video,” Interdisciplinary
Information Sciences Journal, 21(2), 143-149 (2015).

Contact to Professor Yôiti Suzuki : suzuki@ais.riec.tohoku.ac.jp23

2015 Human Information Systems Division
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[Research Target and Activities]
Our target is to understand the vision-related brain functions in order to apply theknowledge to realize human oriented information communication systems. We made achievementsin the fields of visual attention, depth perception and color perception.
Firstly, we investigated coordinated movements between eyes and head in relation tovisual cognitive processing. We found that patterns of eye-head coordination differed those observedin single gaze shift studies, and that the distribution peak of eye position was biased in the same
direction as head direction. Secondly, we proposed a gaze prediction method based on head direction.
We used a probability distribution of eye position based on head direction and added thisinformation to a model of saliency-based visual attention.
Our model improved the accuracy of gaze prediction.
Thirdly, we investigated the neural mechanisms ofobject-based attention by using steady-state visualevoked potentials.
[Staff]
Professor ： Satoshi Shioiri, Ph.D.
Associate Professor ： Ichiro Kuriki, Ph.D.
[Profile]
Satoshi SHIOIRI Professor Shioiri graduated Tokyo Institute of Technology andreceived Dr. Eng in 1986. Then, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Universityof Montreal until May of 1989. From June of 1989 to April of 1990, he was a

Figure. Measurements of eye and head movements during avisual search using six displays. We found that there are
multiple saccades during one head movement.

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 ofMedical Systems. In 2005, he moved to Tohoku University. Since then, he has been a professor of Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication of Tohoku University.
Ichiro KURIKI Dr. Kuriki received Ph.D. degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1996. After then, he worked at Imaging Science andEngineering Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology as a research associate until October, 1999. He worked as a research associate at
the Department of Mathematical Engineering and Information Physics, Graduate School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo until
March, 2001. He worked as a researcher in Communication Science Laboratories of NTT Corporation until December, 2005. He joined the
Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University as an Associate Professor in January, 2006.

[Papers]
1.

Fang Y, Nakashima R, Matsumiya K, Kuriki I, Shioiri S: Eye-head coordination for visual cognitive processing.
PLoS ONE 10(3): e0121035. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0121035, 2015.

2.

Nakashima R, Fang Y, Hatori Y, Hiratani A, Matsumiya K, Kuriki I, Shioiri S: Saliency-based gaze prediction
based on head direction. Vision Research 117, 59-66, 2015.

3.

Kuriki I, Omori N, Kashiwase Y, Matsumiya K, Tokunaga R, Shioiri S: Measurement of object-based attention
using

steady-statevisualevokedpotentials.

Japanese

JournalofPhysiologicalPsychophysiology (in press)

24

Contact to Professor Satoshi Shioiri : shioiri@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

Psychology

and2015 Systems & Software Division
Research Targets and Activities of Systems & Software Division
The goal of System & Software Division is to realize Ubiquitous environment. In an ideal
ubiquitous environment, everyone can communicate with anybody, anywhere, with any kindof information, at any time, freely and in real time. Our division has the following fiveresearch fields related to such high-level system, software and content by integrating
computer and communication:― Software Construction: Reliable and high-level software.
― Computing Information Theory: Fundamental theory of new software.
― Communication Network: Symbiotic computing.
― Information Content: Technologies for interactive content.
― Structure of Information Society (Visitor Section).
An overview of research results from Apr. 2013 to Mar. 2014 of these fields except the visitor
section is described in this section.

(1) Software Construction
We have been researching on theoretical foundations for flexible and reliable programming
languages, and have been developing SML#, a new programming language in the ML family
embodying our research results. The major results of the 2015 academic year include thefollowing. (1) We have developed a type theory and compilation method for high-level andtype-safe access to key-value stores and have showed that an ML-style programming
language can be extended to high-level and type-safe key-value stores. (2) Development of the
SML# compiler includes the following. (i) We have developed and implemented a fully
concurrent garbage collection algorithm. (ii) Based on the concurrent GC, we have developed
64 bit native-thread support.

(2) Computing Information Theory
Rewriting systems are mathematical formalisms which can offer both flexible computing
and effective reasoning with equations. Our research focuses on theoretical features ofrewriting systems and applications to automated theorem proving, algebraic specifications,and functional and logic programming languages. The main results of this year are as
follows. (i) We propose context-moving and context-splitting transformations for term
rewriting systems, and develop a new automated theorem proving system which incorporates
these transformations into rewriting induction. (ii) We continued to develop an automatedconfluence prover ACP for term rewriting systems based on various proof techniques. In the
4th confluence competition (CoCo 2015), ACP has won first place.

(3) Communication Network Systems
In this year, we have done the following studies. (a) Application of Active Information
Resources: A concept of AIR-based personal knowledge base system is proposed and an
AIR-based memory recall function was developed to support various human creative activities.

25

2015 Systems & Software Division(b) Personalization of Secure Service: A personalization method of user-oriented secureservices was proposed using agent-based sandbox mechanism. The effectiveness of the
proposed mechanism was demonstrated by experiments. (c) Agent-based Internet of Things(AIoT) framework: A new concept of AIoT was proposed based agent/multiagent technologies.
A cooperation method based on plan knowledge and the adaptive control functions for AIoT
had been developed and verified using experiment systems.

(4) Information Content
We are conducting comprehensive research on a variety of technologies rerated tointeractive content which creates new value through interactions with humans. This year wefirstly proposed a novel magnetic 3D tracking system for dexterous 3D interactions. Secondly,
we explored a series of interactive robotic displays such as TransformTable, MovementTable
and Shape-shifting wall display which dynamically affect and guide user’s physicalworkspace according to varying contexts. Thirdly, we established a model of Anshin as aconcept of subjective well-being between humans and robots.

26

2015 Systems & Software Division
Software Construction Laboratory

Foundations for Developing High-level and Reliable Programming Languages

Software Construction Atsushi Ohori, Professor
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, verification of low-level code, and type-directed compilation forpolymorphic languages. We are also developing a new practical ML-style programming language,
SML#, which embodies some of our recent results such as record polymorphism, rank-1 polymorphism,and high-degree of inter-operability with existing languages and databases.
The major results of the 2015 academic year include the following. (1) Developments in theoreticalfoundations: we have developed a type theory and compilation method that allow us to seamlessly
integrate JSON data in a typed polymorphic programming language, and have implemented in SML#
compiler. The result is to appear in Proceedings of ECOOP 2016 (See [3] below). (2) Development of the
SML# compiler. We have developed an algorithm and implementation techniques for a fully concurrent
garbage collection method, and have implemented it in the SML# compiler. This result enables us to
support native threads on multicore CPUs.

[Staff]
Professor ： Atsushi Ohori, Dr.
Assistant Professor ： Katsuhiro Ueno, Dr.
[Profile]
Atsushi Ohori. Professor Atsushi Ohori was born in 1957. He received his BA degree in Philosophy
from University of Tokyo, 1981; received his MSE degree in Computer and Information Science from
University of Pennsylvania, 1986; and received his Ph.D. degree in Computer and Information Sciencefrom University of Pennsylvania, 1989. He worked for Oki Electric Industry as a programmer, aresearcher and a senior researcher from 1981 until 1993. From 1989 until 1990, he spent one year in
University of Glasgow as a postdoctoral research fellow funded by Royal Society Research Fellowship.
In 1993, he joined Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences, 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.
[Papers][1] Katsuhiro Ueno, Atsushi Ohori. A Type Safe Access to Key-value Stores from Functional Languages.
Journal of Information Processing, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp.141-151, 2016.
[2] Katsuhiro Ueno, Atsushi Ohori: A foreign language interface from ML to shell. New Generation
Computing, to appear.
[3] Atsushi Ohori, Katsuhiro Ueno, Tomohiro Sasaki, Daisuke Kikuchi: A Calculus with Partially
Dynamic Records for Typeful Manipulation of JSON Objects. In Proceedings of the 30th European
Conference on Object Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2016), 24 pages, to appear.

Contact to Professor Atsushi Ohori : ohori@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

27

2015 Systems & Software Division
Computing Information Theory

Towards a New Software Paradigm Arising from Computation and Proof

Computing Information Theory Yoshihito TOYAMA, Professor[Research Target and Activities]
We are working on the development of a new software paradigm that arises from computation and proof. For
this, we focus on a rewriting formalism which offers both flexible and effective reasoning with equations. In therewriting formalism, proofs by equational reasoning and computations by rewriting systems can be combined ina unified framework (see the figure above). We aim at applying our new paradigm to the development of formal
techniques for construction and verification of reliable software. We are currently working on rewriting theories
for termination, confluence, program transformation, and program verification. Recent research activities
include higher-order rewriting systems, automated inductive theorem proving, combination of functional-logic
languages and automated theorem proving systems.

[Staff]
Professor ：Toyama, Yoshihito Dr
Assistant Professor ：Kikuchi, Kentaro Dr[Profile]
Professor TOYAMA Yoshihito Toyama was born in 1952. He received his B.E. from Niigata University in 1975,
and his M.E. and D.E. from Tohoku University in 1977 and 1990. He worked as a Research Scientist at NTT
Laboratories from 1977 to 1993, and as a Professor at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology(JAIST) from 1993 to 2000. Since April 2000, he has been a professor at the Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication (RIEC) of Tohoku University. His research interests includes term rewriting systems, program
theory, and automated theorem proving.
[Papers]［1 ］Takaki Suzuki, Kentaro Kikuchi, Takahito Aoto and Yoshihito Toyama,Critical pair analysis in nominal
rewriting,EPiC Series in Computing, Vol.39, pp.156-168, 2016.
［2］Koichi Sato, Kentaro Kikuchi, Takahito Aoto and Yoshihito Toyama,Correctness of context-moving transformations
for term rewriting systems, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol.9527, pp.331-345, 2015.
［3］Takaki Suzuki, Kentaro Kikuchi, Takahito Aoto and Yoshihito Toyama, Confluence of orthogonal nominal rewriting
systems revisited, Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, Vol.36, pp.301-317, 2015.

28

Contact to Professor Yoshihito Toyama : toyama@nue.riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2015 Systems & Software Division
Communication Network Systems

Support for Cooperation and Communication between Human and Systems

Intelligent Communication: Tetsuo Kinoshita, Professor
Intelligent Network: Gen Kitagata, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
In this year, the following studies had been done. (a) Application of Active Information Resources:
An AIR-based memory recall function was developed to support various human creative activities.
(b) Personalization of Secure Service: A personalization method of secure services using agent-based
sandbox mechanism was proposed and its effectiveness was also demonstrated by experiments. (c)Agent-based Internet of Things (AIoT) framework: A cooperation method based on plan knowledge
and the adaptive control functions had been developed and verified using prototype systems.
LED Ceiling light(ECHONET Lite)

Agent workplace based on
sandboxInvader

RFID
Receiver

Personalized
menu
in a restaurant

The menu is automatically customized considering allergies
without exposing any sensitive information.

Secure personalized system using mobile agent[Staff]
Professor： Tetsuo Kinoshita, Dr.
Associate Professor： Gen Kitagata, Dr.
Assistant Professor： Hideyuki Takahashi, Dr.
Assistant Professor： Kazuto Sasai, Dr.

Watching for a
suspicious
personUGVUAV(a) UGV moves closer to theinvader.

Chasing the invader(b) UAV takes off and chases
the invader.

Home security system using AIoT devices[Profile]
Tetsuo Kinoshita received his B.E. degree in electronic engineering from Ibaraki University, Japan,
in 1977, and M.E. and Dr.Eng. degrees in information engineering from Tohoku University, Japan,
in 1979 and 1993, respectively. He received the IPSJ Research Award, the IPSJ Best Paper Awardand the IEICE Achievement Award in 1989, 1997 and 2001. Dr. Kinoshita is a member of IEEE
(SM), ACM, AAAI, IEICE (Fellow), IPSJ (Fellow) and JSAI.
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,network middleware design, and symbiotic computing. He is a member of IEICE and IPSJ.

[Papers][1] T. Kinoshita, “Basic Characteristics of a Macroscopic Measure for Detecting Abnormal Changes in a
Multiagent System,” Sensors, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp.9112-9135, Apr. 2015.
[2] K. Kalegele, K. Sasai, H. Takahashi, G. Kitagata, T. Kinoshita, “Four Decades of Data Mining in
Network and Systems Management,” IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, Vol.27,
No.10, pp.2700-2716, Oct. 2015.
[3] K. Sasai, Y.-P. Gunji, T. Kinoshita, “Extremely Local Interaction in the Market Model,” Proc. of The
Twenty-First International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics 2016, pp.625-630, Jan. 2016.

Contact to Professor Tetsuo Kinoshita : kino@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

29

2015 Systems & Software Division
Information Content

Technologies for Interactive Content
Interactive Content Design

Yoshifumi KITAMURA,

Professor[Research Target and Activities]
Good media content has the power to enrich our lives. The effectiveness of content delivery is becoming
more and more important in a wide variety of fields, such as industry, education, culture,entertainment, and so on. Expectations of its use in the general public are also increasing. We focus on
non-traditional contents other than movies, music and games, conducting comprehensive research ona variety of interactive content which creates new value through interactions with humans. This year
we firstly proposed a novel magnetic 3D tracking system for dexterous 3D interactions. Secondly, we
explored a series of interactive robotic displays such as TransformTable, MovementTable andShape-shifting wall display which dynamically affect and guide user’s physical workspace according tovarying contexts. Thirdly, we established a model of Anshin as a concept of subjective well-being
between humans and robots.
[Staff]

A novel magnetic 3D tracking system (left), Robotic displays (center), Modeling robot behaviors (right)

Professor: Yoshifumi Kitamura, Dr.
Assistant Professor: Kazuki Takashima, Dr.
Assistant Professor: Hiroko Kamide, Dr.
[Profile]
Yoshifumi KITAMURA received B.Sc., M.Sc. and PhD. degrees in Engineering from Osaka University
in 1985, 1987 and 1996, respectively. From 1987 to 1992, he was at the Information Systems ResearchCenter of Canon Inc. From 1992 to 1996, he was a researcher at the ATR Communication Systems
Research Laboratories. From 1997 to 2002, he was an Associate Professor at the Graduate School ofEngineering and Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University. Since
April 2010, he has been a Professor at the Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku
University. He is a fellow of the Virtual Reality Society of Japan.

[Papers][1] Jiawei Huang, Tsuyoshi Mori, Kazuki Takashima, Shuichiro Hashi, and Yoshifumi Kitamura,
IM6D: magnetic tracking system with 6-DOF passive markers for dexterous 3D interaction andmotion, ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) - Proceedings of ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2015,
Volume 34, Issue 6, pp. 217:1-217:10, November 2015.
[2] Kazuki Takashima, Yusuke Asari, Hitomi Yokoyama, Ehud Sharlin, and Yoshifumi Kitamura,MovemenTable: The Design of Moving Interactive Tabletops, In Proceedings of Human-Computer
Interaction - INTERACT 2015, pp. 296-314, September 2015.
[3] Hiroko Kamide, Koji Kawabe, Satoshi Shigemi, and Tatsyi Arai, Anshin as a concept ofsubjective well-being between humans and robots in Japan, Advanced Robotics, Vol. 29, Issue 24,
PP. 1624-1636, November 2015.

30

Contact to Professor Yoshifumi Kitamura : kitamura@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2015 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
The Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics of the Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication was established on April of 2004. Its purpose is to develop and establish thescience and technology of nanoelectronics and spintronics for information technology.
Utilizing the facilities installed in the Nanoelectronics-and-Spintronics building and undercollaboration between the RIEC and electro-related laboratories of the Graduate Schools ofEngineering, Information Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Tohoku University, R&D of
nanotechnologies of materials and devices in Nanoelectronics and Spintronics will be
continued extensively. Furthermore, nation-wide and world-wide collaboration research
projects will be conducted to build a systematic database in the electrical communication
research area.
The Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics mainly consists of research groups
which promote following sections: Nano-Integration Devices and Processing, Semiconductor
Spintronics and Nano-Molecular Devices; together with the group of Ultra-Broadband Signal
Processing. These groups cooperatively carry out the research aimed at establishing aworld-wide COE in the research area of nanoelectronics and spintronics.

31

2015 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
Highlights of Research Activities in 2015
Nano Integration● Nano-Integration Devices and Processing (S. Sato and M. Sakuraba)(1) Toward the development of computation algorithms utilizing quantum parallelism, we
have introduced a quantum version of Hebb learning, by which qubit interaction is enhanced
in proportion to correlation between qubits, to neuromorphic quantum computation inspiredby the computational method realized with artificial neural networks. We have simulated the
proposed learning method and confirmed its effectiveness successfully.
(2) Electrical Properties of Si/strained SiGe alloy/Si(100) heterostructures grown by
low-energy ECR plasma CVD without substrate heating have been studied. With strain
relaxation in SiGe alloy, alternation of valence band structure and clear infrared
photoluminescence were observed.
(3) Toward a spatial perception system by using motion-stereo vision, we implemented a neural networkmodel into an LSI; an orientation and time-to-contact of a planar surface are detected by integrating local
image motions. The enormous neural connections are realized by using virtual connection scheme withconnection tables stored in local memories and packet-based communication. We confirmed by using HDL
simulation that the operation speed of the designed LSI is comparable with a C++ program performed on acommon desktop CPU, while its power consumption is smaller than the that of the CPU by less than 1%.
Semiconductor Spintronics and Information Technology● Semiconductor Spintronics (H. Ohno and S. Fukami)
Our research activities focus on realizing low-power functional spintronic devices. The
outcomes in the last fiscal year are as follows: (1) Determination of spin mixing conductance atmetal/semiconductor interfaces from electrical signals induced by inverse spin Hall effect under the
ferromagnetic resonance in a (Ga,Mn)As/Pt structure. (2) Demonstration of electrical control ofdamping constant and clarification of the physical origin of magnetic damping using a ferromagnetic
semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As. (3) Quantification of modulation amplitude of magnetic anisotropy
induced by electric field from a nonlinear ferromagnetic resonance with a large precessional angle innano-scale CoFeB-MgO magnetic tunnel junction devices. (4) Clarification of the mechanism that
determines the universality class for a creep motion of a domain wall in ferromagnetic systems. (5)Systematic evaluation of temperature dependence of in-plane magnetic anisotropy, anisotropic
magnetoresistance, and planer Hall effect in (Ga,Mn)As codoped with Li.
In addition, the following outcomes have been obtained through cooperative researches undernational projects.
1. Research activities in "Research and Development of Spintronics Material and Device
Science and Technology for a Disaster-Resistant Safe and Secure Society" Program under
Research and Development Project for ICT Key Technology to Realize Future Societies by32

2015 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
MEXT: (1) Evaluation of width dependence of thermal stability of domain wall in ferromagnetic

Co/Ni nanowires and clarification of the mechanism that governs the thermal stability factor of
domain walls. (2) Evaluation of dot size dependence of threshold current density for spin-orbit
torque induced magnetization switching in nanoscale Ta/CoFeB/MgO dots and clarification offactors that determine the threshold current density. (3) Demonstration of field-free spin-orbit
torque induced magnetization switching in an antiferromagnet/ferromagnet bilayer system andobservation of analogue-like response, which is suitable for applications to artificial intelligences.
2. Research activities in "Achieving Ultimate Green IT Devices with Long Usage Times
without Charging" Program under Impulsing Paradigm Change through Disruptive
Technologies Program of CSTI: (1) Observation of different temperature dependences of energy

barrier in CoFeB-MgO magnetic tunnel junctions depending on their sizes, which can be explainedby a difference in the magnetization reversal mode. (2) Evaluation of thickness dependence of
damping constant for single-interface and double-interface CoFeB-MgO structures from aferromagnetic resonance using a vector network analyzer. (3) Demonstration of the third scheme ofspin-orbit torque induced magnetization switching that is useful to investigate the physicalmechanism of the switching.
● Ultra-Broadband Signal Processing (T. Otsuji, T. Suemitsu, and S. Boubanga-Tombet)
1. Ultra-Broadband Devices and Systems
We are developing novel, integrated electron devices and circuit systems operating in the
millimeter-wave and terahertz regions.

III-V- and graphene-based active plasmonic

heterostructures for creating new types of terahertz lasers and ultrafast transistors aremajor concerns.

By making full use of these world-leading device/circuit technologies, weare exploring future ultra-broadband wireless communication systems as well as
spectroscopic/imaging systems for safety and security.
2. Ultrafast Electron Devices
We are focusing on two important material systems for high-speed and high-frequency
devices: the indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) for ultimately high-frequency operation
including sub-millimeter-wave regime, the gallium nitride (GaN) for high-power
millimeter-wave

applications.

Our

activities

includethedesign,process,andcharacterization of these devices and their integrated circuits.
3. Ultra-Broadband Device Physics
We theoretically and experimentally investigate the physics of plasmonics in III-V
semiconductor- andgraphene-based heterostructure material systems and their device

applications. Our main goal is to develop new and original plasmonic integrated devices
operating in the millimeter-wave and terahertz regions for the next generation of imaging,
spectroscopy, and ultra-broadband communication systems.

33

2015 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
Nano-Molecular Devices● Nano-Molecular Devices (M. Niwano)
1. Development of perovskite solar cells: We have investigated annealing-induced chemicaland structural changes of tri-iodide (TI) and mixed-halide (MH) organometal perovskite
layers using infrared absorption spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and x-ray
diffraction measurements. We suggested that the difference in composition and structureleads to different charge transporting properties of the perovskite layers. (J. Mater. Chem. A,
3, 14195 (2015))
2. Fabrication and characterization of p+-i-p+ type organic thin film transistors: Organic
thin film transistors (OTFTs) have been explored because of their advantageous features
such as light-weight, flexible, and large-area. We have fabricated p+-i-p+ type of OTFTs inwhich an intrinsic (i) regioregular poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) layer is used as the active
layer and highly doped p-type (p+) P3HT is used as the source and drain electrodes. We
demonstrated that the fabricated p+-i-p+ OTFTs work with carrier injection through abuilt-in potential at p+/i interfaces. We found that the p+-i-p+ OTFTs exhibit better FET
characteristics than the conventional P3HT-OTFT with metal (Au) electrodes. (J. Appl. Phys.
119, 154503 (2016); Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 54, 091602 (2015))
3. Investigation of neuronal extracellular recordings: Electrical signals of neuronal cells canbe recorded non-invasively and with a high degree of temporal resolution using
multielectrode arrays (MEAs). However, signals that are recorded with these devices are
small, usually 0.01%–0.1% of intracellular recordings. We showed that the amplitude ofneuronal signals recorded with MEA devices can be amplified by covering neuronal
networks with an electrically resistive sheet. This technique feasibly amplifies signals of
MEA recordings.

34(Appl. Phys. Lett., 108, 023701 (2016))

2015 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
Nano-Integration Devices and Processing

Nano-integration beyond the existing technology
Nano-Integration Devices

Shigeo Sato, Professor

Group IV Quantum Heterointegration

Masao Sakuraba, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
In addition to the conventional demands such as faster operation and larger throughput, lowpower operation for low-carbon emission and robust operation not damaged even in a disaster are
required for the development of the next generation information technology. To meet these demands,studies on high functional and high performance Si-based semiconductor devices realized by 3-D
nano-processing and large scale integration of such devices are important research subjects. We
study the subjects such as new transistors and memories using new materials, new devices basedon new principles like quantum effects, and required 3-D processing. Moreover, we develop
advanced technologies related to 3-D nano-integration, dependable mixed signal LSI, and non von
Neumann architecture.
In this year, following experimental results have been obtained: 1) We have introduced a quantum
version of Hebb learning to neuromorphic quantum computation inspired by the computational
method realized with artificial neural networks. (2) Electrical Properties of Si/strained SiGe
alloy/Si(100) heterostructures grown by low-energy ECR plasma CVD without substrate heating
have been studied. With strain relaxation in SiGe alloy, alternation of valence band structure andclear infrared photoluminescence were observed.
[Staff]
Professor :Shigeo Sato, Dr.
Associate Professor :Masao Sakuraba, Dr.
Assistant Professor:
Hisanao Akima, Dr.
[Profile]
Shigeo Sato was received his B.E. and Ph.D.
degrees from Tohoku University, in 1989 and1994, 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
Towards the Realization of
1995, respectively. In 1995, he joined thea Prototype Brain Computer
Research Institute of Electrical Communication,
Tohoku University. Now, he studies group IV quantum heterointegration as an associate professor.

[Papers][1] A. A. Shklyaev, V. I. Vdovin, V. A. Volodin, D. V. Gulyaev, A. S. Kozhukhov, M. Sakuraba and J. Murota,"Structure and optical properties of Si and SiGe layers grown on SiO2 by chemical vapor deposition", Thin
Solid Films, vol. 579, pp. 131-135, 2015.
[2] W. Li, S. Sato, H. Akima, M. Sakuraba, "Hydrogen Atom Desorption Induced by Electron Bombardment on Si
Surface,” ECS Trans., vol. 69, no. 31, pp. 35-38, 2015.
[3] Y. Yamamoto, N. Ueno, M. Sakuraba, J. Murota, A. Mai and B. Tillack, "C and Si delta doping in Ge by
CH3SiH3 using reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition", Thin Solid Films, vol. 602, pp. 24-28, 2016.

Contact to Professor Shigeo Sato : shigeo@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

35

2015 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
Semiconductor Spintronics

Advanced technology for spintronics-based devices

Functional Spintronics: Hideo Ohno, Professor
Nano-Spin Materials and Devices: Shunsuke Fukami, Associate Professor[Research Target and Activities]
We aim to deepen the understanding of spin-related
physics and to develop new functional materials and devices
in which electron and its spin states are controlled. We arealso working on research and development of advanced
technology for spintronics-based devices and integrated
circuits, which offers high-performance and low-power
information and communication tecnologies.
The outcomes in the last fiscal year include (1) demonstration ofelectrical control of damping constant and clarification of the physicalorigin of magnetic damping using a ferromagnetic semiconductor(Ga,Mn)As, (2) Clarification of the mechanism that determines theuniversality class for a creep motion of a domain wall in ferromagnetic systems (3) demonstration of field-freespin-orbit torque induced magnetization switching in an antiferromagnet/ferromagnet bilayer system andobservation of analogue-like response, which is suitable for applications to artificial intelligences.
[Staff]
Professor: Hideo Ohno, Ph. D.
Associate Professor: Shunsuke Fukami, Ph. D.
Assistant Professor: Shun Kanai, Ph. D.
Research Fellow: Hsiao Wen Chang, Ph. D.
Research Fellow: Eli Christopher Inocencio ENOBIO, Ph. D.
[Profile]
Hideo Ohno received Ph. D. degree from the University of Tokyo in 1982. He was with the Faculty ofEngineering, Hokkaido University as a Lecturer (1982) and then as an Associate Professor (1983). He moved to
Tohoku University in 1994 as a Professor. He received the IBM Japan Science Prize (1998), the IUPAP
Magnetism Prize (2003), the Japan Academy Prize (2005), Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates (2011), JSAP
Outstanding Achievement Award (2011), IEEE David Sarnoff Award (2012), and the 5th Isamu Akasaki Award(2015). He is Institute of Physics (IOP) Fellow (2004), Honorable Professor at Institute of Semiconductors,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, JSAP fellow (2007), and APS fellow (2012), Distinguished Professor at Tohoku
University (2008), and IEEE Magnetic Society Distinguished Lecturer for 2009.
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 Science and Technology by the MEXT (2015), and the Harada Young Research Award (2015).

[Papers][1] L. Chen, F. Matsukura, and H. Ohno, "Electric-Field Modulation of Damping Constant in a Ferromagnetic
Semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As," Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 057204 (2015).
[2] S. DuttaGupta, S. Fukami, C. Zhang, H. Sato, M. Yamanouchi, F. Matsukura, and H. Ohno, "Adiabatic
spin-transfer-torque-induced domain wall creep in a magnetic metal," Nature Phys. 12, 333 (2015).
[3] S. Fukami, C. Zhang, S. DuttaGupta, A. Kurenkov, H. Ohno, "Magnetization switching by spin-orbit torque in an
antiferromagnet-ferromagnet bilayer system," Nature Mater., 15, 535 (2016).

36

Contact to Professor Hideo Ohno : ohno@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2015 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
Nano-Molecular Devices

Control of surface and interface of molecular informational devices anddevelopment of novel nano-molecular devices

Nano-Molecular Devices: Michio Niwano, Professor[Research Target and Activities]
Development of the semiconductor nanofabrication technology as typified by photolithography has
miniaturized and sophisticated electronic devices. On the other hand, the progress of nanotechnology
and biotechnology enables us to synthesize and use biological molecules, supramolecules, andnanostructures with electrically and optically unique features. By combining these technologies, weare aiming to develop molecular scale devices which allow advanced information process.
1. Development of perovskite solar cells: Annealing process is crucial in obtaining high-quality perovskite layers
used for highly efficient planar perovskite solar cells. In this study, we have investigated annealing-induced chemicaland structural changes of tri-iodide (TI) and mixed-halide (MH) organometal perovskite layers using infraredabsorption spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction measurements. For TI layers, the solvent
molecule, dimethylformamide (DMF), remained in the form of PbI2/ DMF compound after drying at room
temperature. During annealing, the DMF evaporated to form PbI2 crystals. When the MH perovskite film wasannealed, both CH3NH3PbCl3 and CH3NH3PbI3 crystals were initially formed from an amorphous phase. With further
annealing, the CH3NH3PbI3 crystals gradually grew through the incorporation of source materials supplied from theCH3NH3PbCl3 crystals and the amorphous phase and the slow evaporation of methylammonium (MA) and chloride
ions. The resultant MH perovskite layer after annealing was mainly composed of large CH3NH3PbI3 grains with a
trace of chloride ions. We suggested that the difference in composition and structure leads to different chargetransporting properties of the TI and MH perovskite layers. (J. Mater. Chem. A, 3, 14195 (2015))
2. Fabrication and characterization of p+-i-p+ type organic thin film transistors: Organic thin film transistors(OTFTs) have been explored because of their advantageous features such as light-weight, flexible, and large-area. For
more practical application of organic electronic devices, it is very important to realize OTFTs that are composed onlyof organic materials. In this paper, we have fabricated p+-i-p+ typeof OTFTs in which an intrinsic (i) regioregular poly
(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) layer is used as the active layer andhighly doped p-type (p+) P3HT is used as the source and drainelectrodes. 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane(F4-TCNQ) was used as the p-type dopant. A fabricating methodof p+-i-p+ OTFTs have been developed by using SiO2 andaluminum films as capping layers for micro-scaled patterning of
the p+-P3HT electrodes. The characteristics of the OTFTs were
examined using photoelectron spectroscopy and electricalmeasurements. We demonstrated that the fabricated p+-i-p+ OTFTs
work with carrier injection through a built-in potential at p+/i
interfaces. We found that the p+-i-p+ OTFTs exhibit better FET
p+-i-p+ type organic thin film transistors.
characteristics than the conventional P3HT-OTFT with metal (Au)electrodes, indicating that the influence of a carrier injection
barrier at the interface between the electrode and the active layer was suppressed by replacing the metal electrodes
with p+-P3HT layers. (J. Appl. Phys. 119, 154503 (2016); Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 54, 091602 (2015))
3. Investigation of neuronal extracellular recordings: Electrical signals of neuronal cells can be recorded
non-invasively and with a high degree of temporal resolution using multielectrode arrays (MEAs). However, signalsthat are recorded with these devices are small, usually 0.01%–0.1% of intracellular recordings. Here, we show thatthe amplitude of neuronal signals recorded with MEA devices can be amplified by covering neuronal networks with

Contact to Professor Michio Niwano : niwano@riec.tohoku.ac.jp37

2015 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
an electrically resistive sheet. The resistive sheet used in this study is a monolayer of glial cells, supportive cells inthe brain. The glial cells were grown on a collagen-gel film that is permeable to oxygen and other nutrients. The
impedance of the glial sheet was measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and equivalent circuit
simulations were performed to theoretically investigate the effect of covering the neurons with such a resistive sheet.
Finally, the effect of the resistive glial sheet was confirmed experimentally, showing a 6-fold increase in neuronalsignals. This technique feasibly amplifies signals of MEA recordings. (Appl. Phys. Lett., 108, 023701 (2016))[Staff]
Professor: Niwano, Michio Dr. Assistant Professor: Teng Ma Dr.
[Profile]
Michio Niwano
1998 – present
RIEC, Tohoku University, Japan, Professor, Doctorate of Science.
Memberships: The Electrochemical Society (ECS), The Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP),The Surface Science Society of Japan (SSSJ).
[Papers]
[1]

[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]

[8]
[9]

38

Daisuke Tadaki, Teng Ma, Jinyu Zhang, Shohei Iino, Ayumi Hirano-Iwata, Yasuo Kimura, Richard Rosenberg, andMichio Niwano, “Fabrication and characterization of p+-i-p+ type organic thin film transistors with electrodes ofhighly doped polymer.” J. Appl. Phys. 119, 154503 (2016).
Ayumi Hirano-Iwata, Ryosuke Matsumura, Teng Ma, Yasuo Kimura, Michio Niwano, and Kazuo Nishikawa,“Interaction of plasma-generated water cluster ions with chemically-modified Si surfaces investigated by infraredabsorption spectroscopy.” AIP Advances, 6, 035017 2016.
Teng Ma, Daisuke Tadaki, Masao Sakuraba, Shigeo Sato, Ayumi Hirano-Iwata and Michio Niwano, “Effects ofinterfacial chemical states on the performance of perovskite solar cells”, J. Mater. Chem. A, 4, 4392-4397, 2016.
Ryosuke Matsumura, Hideaki Yamamoto, Michio Niwano, and Ayumi Hirano-Iwata, “An electrically resistive sheetof glial cells for amplifying signals of neuronal extracellular recordings.” Appl. Phys. Lett., 108, 023701 2016.
Hideaki Yamamoto, Takanori Demura, Kohei Sekine, Sho Kono, Michio Niwano, Ayumi Hirano-Iwata, Takashi Tanii,“Photopatterning Proteins and Cells in Aqueous Environment Using TiO2 Photocatalysis.” Jove-Journal of Visualized
Experiments, 104, e53045, 2015.
MichioNiwano, Ayumi Hirano-Iwata, “Biosensing by in situ Infrared Spectroscopy (in Japanese)”, 64(11), 793(2015).
Daisuke Tadaki, Teng Ma, Jinyu Zhang, Shohei Iino, Ayumi Hirano-Iwata, Yasuo Kimura, and Michio Niwano ,“Moleculardopingofregioregularpoly(3-hexylthiophene)(P3HT)
layersby
2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (F4-TCNQ) investigated by infrared spectroscopy and electricalmeasurements.” Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 54, 091602, 2015.
Teng Ma, Matteo Cagnoni, Daisuke Tadaki, Ayumi Hirano-Iwata, and Michio Niwano “Annealing-induced chemicaland structural changes in tri-iodide and mixed-halide organometal perovskite layers.” J. Mater. Chem. A, 3,
14195-14201 2015.
Ayumi Hirano-Iwata, Yutaka Ishinari, Hideaki Yamamoto, Michio Niwano, “Micro- and nano-technologies for lipid
bilayer-based ion-channel functional assays .” Chem. Asian J., 10, 1266-1274 (2015).

Contact to Professor Michio Niwano : niwano@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2015 Laboratory for Brainware Systems
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 brainarchitecture Division (planned ). The Laboratory for Brainware Systems consists of the above four
divisions which cooperatively carry out the research. At the same time they serve as a laboratory fornation-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]
Real-World Computing Section: The main contributions achieved in 2014 are summarized asfollows: (1) we have proposed a novel measure that can quantitatively measure locomotion
patterns of legged animals/robots; (2) we have successfully modeled the inter-arm coordination
mechanism underlying ophiuroid locomotion; (3) we have formulated a new decentralized control
mechanism for the scaffold-based locomotion of snakes; (4) we have proposed a novel CPG model
for bipedal locomotion by exploiting plantar sensation generated by deformable feet; (5) we haveproposed a decentralized control mechanism for the interlimb coordination underlying hexapod
locomotion.
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
39

2015 Laboratory for Brainware Systems
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.
[Research Activities]
Real-World Computing Section: The main contributions achieved in 2015 are summarized asfollows: (1) we have proposed a novel decentralized control method on the basis of a concept called
TEGOTAE, a Japanese concept describing how well a perceived reaction matches an expectation.
We implemented this control mechanism into a snake-like robot, and confirmed that this robot
can negotiate unstructured environment; (2) we have investigated the structure of dynamicalsystem underlying the gait transition between middle- and high-speed quadruped locomotor
patterns; (3) we have formulated a novel decentralized control mechanism for bipedal locomotion
on the basis of TEGOTAE concept. Simulation results strongly suggest that the decentralized
control mechanism allows the robot to exhibit adaptive locomotion over slightly uneven terrain.
New Paradigm VLSI System Section: The major contributions achieved in 2015 are summarized
as follows: (1) A nonvolatile FPGA (NVFPGA) test chip, where 3000 6-input lookup table (LUT)
circuits are embedded, is fabricated under 90nm CMOS/75nm perpendicular magnetic tunnel
junction (p-MTJ) technologies. The use of a p-MTJ device makes data-backup-limitation free,which essentially eliminates damage control to nonvolatile storage devices. The use of a p-MTJ
device also enables the extension towards dynamically reconfigurable logic paradigm. Since
hardware components are shared among all the p-MTJ devices by the use of logic-in-memory
structure, the effective area of the 6-input LUT circuit is reduced by 56% compared to that of an
SRAM-based one. Moreover, block-level power gating, in which all the idle function blocks are
optimally turned off in accordance with the operation mode, can minimize static power
consumption of each tile. As a result, the total average power of the proposed NVFPGA is reducedby 81% in comparison with that of an SRAM-based FPGA under typical benchmark-circuit
realizations. (2) We also propose a design and proof-of-concept implementation of Gabor filters
based on stochastic computation for area-efficient hardware. The Gabor filter exhibits a powerfulimage feature extraction capability, but it requires significant computational power. Using
stochastic computation, a sine function used in the Gabor filter is approximated by exploiting
several stochastic tanh functions designed based on a state machine. A stochastic Gabor filter
realized using the stochastic sine shaper and a stochastic exponential function is simulated andcompared with the original Gabor filter that shows almost equivalent behavior at various
frequencies and variance. A root-mean-square error of 0.043 at most is observed. In order toreduce long latency due to stochastic computation, 68 parallel stochastic Gabor filters are
implemented in Silterra m CMOS technology. As a result, the proposed Gabor filters achieve a
78% area reduction compared with a conventional Gabor filter while maintaining the comparable
speed.
Recognition and Learning Systems Section: First, we investigated whether the relationship withpursuit eye movements is different for fast and slow motion processes, using a motion aftereffecttechnique with superimposed low- and high-spatial- frequency gratings. Our results reveal that
pursuit eye movements and perception share motion signals in both slow and fast motion
processes. Second, we investigated how the rotation-independent representation specific to haptic
movements is generated. Our results show that rotation-independent representations of haptic
movements do not appear when haptic movements passively occur. We also confirmed that active
haptic movements generate rotation-independent representations. These results suggest that
active movements are required to generate rotation-independent representations for haptic
movements.

40

2015 Laboratory for Brainware Systems
Recognition and learning systems laboratory

Understanding the human recognition and learning systems(Visual Cognition and Systems, Satoshi Shioiri, Professor)
Adaptive Cognition and Action Systems, Kazumichi Matsumiya, Associate Professor(Auditory and Multisensory Information Systems, Shuichi Sakamoto, Associate 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.
First, we investigated whether the relationship with pursuit eye movements is different for fastand slow motion processes, using a motion aftereffect technique with superimposed low- andhigh-spatial- frequency gratings. We measured the directions of perceived motion and pursuit eye
movements to a test stimulus presented after motion adaptation with changing relative contrasts ofthe two adapting gratings. Pursuit eye movements were observed in the same direction as that of
the motion aftereffects, independent of the relative contrasts of the two adapting gratings, for boththe static and flicker tests. These results suggest that pursuit eye movements and perception sharemotion signals in both slow and fast motion processes. Second, we investigated how therotation-independent representation specific to haptic movements is generated. Our results showthat rotation-independent representations of haptic movements do not appear when haptic
movements passively occur. We also confirmed that
active haptic movements generate rotation-independent
representations. These results suggest that active
movements
arerequiredtogenerate
rotation-independent
representationsforhapticmovements.
[Staff]
Professor ： Satoshi Shioiri, Ph.D.
Associate Professor : Kazumichi Matsumiya, Ph.D.
Associate Professor : Shuichi Sakamoto, Ph.D.

Figure. We found that there are separate representations ofvisual and haptic movements, and the haptic representation
is independent of rotation for movements. In addition, we
found

that

activehapticmovements

generatetherotation-independent representations for haptic movements(right panel; The left panel shows the stimuli and procedure[Profile]
for the experiment).
Kazumichi Matsumiya, Dr. Matsumiya received Ph.D.
degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2000. After then, he worked at Centre for Vision
Research, York University in Canada as a postdoctoral fellow. He worked as a researcher at the
Imaging Science and Engineering Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology until December, 2003.
He worked as a full-time researcher at ATR Human Information Science Laboratories until March,
2005. He joined the Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University as a
Research Associate in April, 2005. Since then, he has been an Associate Professor from July, 2014.

[Papers]

1. Matsumiya K, Shioiri S: Smooth pursuit eye movements and motion perception share motion signals
in slow and fast motion mechanisms. Journal of Vision 15(11):12, 1-15, 2015.
2. Matsumiya K, Takahashi M, Kuriki I, Shioiri S: Active movements generate rotation-independent
representations for haptic movements. Interdisciplinary Information Sciences 21(2), 115-123, 2015.

Contact to Associate Professor Kazumichi Matsumiya : kmat@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

41

2015 Laboratory for Brainware Systems
New Paradigm VLSI System Research Group

Realization of a New-Paradigm VLSI-Computing World

New Paradigm VLSI System: Takahiro Hanyu, Professor
New Paradigm VLSI Design: Masanori Natsui, 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 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 the brainware LSI (BLSI)
computing, which would open up a novel VLSI chip paradigm, called a “new-paradigm VLSI system.”This year, we have succeeded to design and implement MTJ (Magnetic Tunnel Junction)-based
Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) for ultra-low power computing (Fig. 1) and brain-inspiredfeature-extraction LSIs, called Gabor filtering LSI, based on stochastic computation (Fig. 2).
[Staff]
Professor ： Takahiro Hanyu, Dr.
Assistant Professor ： Naoya Onizawa, Dr.

Associate Professor ： Masanori Natsui, Dr.
Assistant Professor ： Daisuke Suzuki, 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] D. Suzuki,et al., "Fabrication of a 3000-6-Input-LUTs Embedded and Block-Level Power-Gated Nonvolatile FPGA
Chip Using p-MTJ-Based Logic-in-Memory Structure," Digest of Technical Papers, 2015 Symp. on VLSI Circuits,
pp.172-173, June 2015.
[2] H. Jarollahi, et al., "Algorithm and Architecture for a Low-Power Content-Addressable Memory Based on Sparse
Clustered Networks," IEEE Trans. VLSI Syst., vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 642-653, 2015.
[3] N. Onizawa, et al., "Gabor Filter Based on Stochastic Computation, " IEEE Signal Processing Letters, vol. 22, no. 9,
pp. 1224-1228, 2015.

42

Contact to Professor Takahiro Hanyu : hanyu@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2015 Laboratory for Brainware Systems
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: Snake-like robot thatexhibits scaffold-based locomotion

Fig.2: Quadruped robot thatexhibit various gait patterns

Fig.3: Biped robot with soft
deformable feet.

[Staff]
Professor: Akio ISHIGURO, Dr.
Assistant Professor: Dai OWAKI, Dr., Takeshi KANO, Dr., Kazuhiro SAKAMOTO, 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 aprofessor of the Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University. Since April 2011, he has been aprofessor of Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University. His main researchinterests are in bio-inspired robotics, nonlinear dynamics. He received 2003 IROS Best Paper Award
Nomination Finalist, 2004 IROS Best Paper Award, 2008 Ig Nobel Prize (Cognitive Science Prize),2009 IROS Best Paper Award Nomination Finalist, 2011 IEEE/RSJ NTF Award Finalist forEntertainment Robots and Systems, 2012 IEEE/RSJ JCTF Novel Technology Paper Award for
Amusement Culture Finalist, Living Machines 2012 Best Paper Award.
[Papers]
[１]

[２]
[３]

D. Nakashima, T. Kano, and A. Ishiguro, How Snakes Move by Selectively Utilizing Reaction Force from
Environment, 2015 JSMB-CJK Joint conference, P-25，2015
D. Owaki and A. Ishiguro, “A Minimalist CPG Model for Interlimb Coordination in Quadruped Locomotion”,
ICRA2015 CPG workshop, Invited talk, 2015.
D. Owaki, S. Horikiri, J. Nishii, and A. Ishiguro, “Experimental Verification of Bipedal Walling Control
Exploiting Plantar Sensory Feedback”, AMAM2015, 2015.

Contact to Professor Akio Ishiguro : ishiguro@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

43

2015 Research Center for 21st Century Information Technology
IT-21 center

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 planed on matching with bothbasic technologies in the University and application in the Industry. Combination of the technologiesof the University and Industry makes practical technologies with availability for the commercial
products. The center actively accelerates to obtain the intellectual properties generated from thedevelopment of practical technology to the Industry. Presently, two projects for mobile and storage
technologies are being carried out.
1. Development of high-efficient transmission power amplifier module contributing to the
low-carbon society
The mobile wireless technology group has been proposing the concept of “Dependable Air,” which isa heterogeneous and highly-reliable wireless network. The Dependable Air is able to work even in
the event of a big disaster. For realizing the concept of Dependable Air, the mobile group started“Development of high-efficient transmission power amplifier module contributing to the low-carbon
society” from 2015 as the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) A-STEP type project. In mobile
communication systems, power amplifiers (PAs) are one of the most energy consuming device, and PAs
are demanded high linearity and high efficiency. In 2015, we have been proposed a linearity
enhancement technique to a CMOS triple cascode push-pull power amplifier by second harmonic
feedback. The proposed PA was fabricated in 0.18-m CMOS process and was implemented on thebalun by flip-chip connection.
2. Development of High Availability Information Storage Systems
Severe information loss took place due to damage of storage servers at the Tohoku Earthquake. We
started research on reliable information storage with smart file backup and restoration, which
contributes to anti-disaster information storage technology. A project “Research and Development onhighly-functional and highly-available information storage technology” supported by MEXT started in2012 under the collaborations of RIEC including IT21 storage technology group, Hitachi, a major
Japanese Storage manufacturer, and Hitachi Solutions East Japan. The goal of the project is thedevelopment of highly functional and highly available storage system. In 2013, (1) A storage systemthat realizes 90 % of information can be available even when a half (50%) servers are lost or damaged
was developed based on the risk-aware algorism, (2) Simulation of high-speed data-transfer was
carried out for parallel-track storage device and software defined network systems, (3) Prototyping andtesting of the highly reliable storage system. In 2015, the developed highly available storage system
was implemented into the real local area network of Tohoku University for the final testing scheduled
in 2016.
[Staff]Director: Hiroaki Muraoka, Professor
Project Planning Division
Makoto Furunishi, Visiting Professor
Technology Development Division (Mobile Wireless Technology Group)
Noriharu Suematsu, Professor
Suguru Kameda, Associate Professor
Technology Development Division (Storage Technology Group)
Takaki Nakamura, Associate Professor

44

2015 Research Center for 21st Century Information Technology
IT21 Center Mobile Wireless Technology GroupFor Realizing Dependable Air

Noriharu Suematsu, Professor (Project Leader)
Suguru Kameda, Associate 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

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

High
throuput

802.11a/g

ZigbeeShort range 802.15.4

Non IEEEIEEE (IP friendly)

Bluetooth802.15.1

Mobile Internet
smart grid
medicalplant control

LTEfarming/fishery/
forestryhome network

LTEAdvanced
VHT SG
802.11nUltra highthroughput

10mStandard

broadcast/communication
network

OFDMA

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. For realizing the concept of Dependable Air, the group started the Japan
Science and Technology Agency (JST) A-STEP type project “Development of high-efficient transmission
power amplifier module contributing to the low-carbon society” from 2015. In addition, our groupwould like to contribute to the local industries in Tohoku area including the establishment of venturecompanies based on our developments.
[Staff]
Professor: Noriharu Suematsu, Ph. D
Associate Professor: Suguru Kameda, Ph. D[Papers][1] K. Tsubouchi, S. Kameda, A. Taira, N. Suematsu, and T. Takagi, “Dependable air ― Network selection
scheme using positioning information and traffic navigation for heterogeneous wireless network,”
IEICE Fundamentals Review, vol.9, no.1, pp.37-46, July 2015.
[2] T.T. Ta, S. Tanifuji, A. Taira, S. Kameda, N. Suematsu, T. Takagi, and K. Tsubouchi, “A millimeter-wave
WPAN adaptive phased array control method using low-frequency part of signal for self-directed
system,” IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory and Techn., vol.63, no.8, pp.2682-2691, August 2015.
[3] K. Terajima, K. Fujii, T. Takagi, K. Tsubouchi, S. Kameda, and N. Suematsu “A 2GHz band ultra smallbalun with second harmonic branching filter using CMOS Process,” IEICE General Conference, C-2-55,
March 2016 (in Japanese).

Contact to Professor Noriharu Suematsu : suematsu@riec.tohoku.ac.jp / Contact to Associate Professor Suguru Kameda : kameda@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

45

2015 Research Center for 21st Century Information Technology
IT21 Center Storage Technology Group

Realization of Highly-available Storage System

Takaki Nakamura, Associate Professor
Hiroshi Matsuoka, Visiting Professor

Application on Smart Phone Working with
Highly-Available Storage System

A Snapshot in Field Test ofHighly-Available Storage System[Research Target and Activities]
The Storage Technology Group continue to be engaged in the research and development of storage
technology in a collaboration between industry, academia, and government. Our group successfullycompleted two national projects commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology from FY2002 to FY2011.
Recently, as social and information systems become more complicated, one of the urgent researchareas in storage, in addition to “devices” and “drives”, is the “system”. Because of this our group
started a new national project “Research and Development on Highly-functional andHighly-available Information Storage Technology” in FY2012. The project will continue until
FY2016. Furthermore, in collaboration with the storage system industry, we will focus on bringing
the results of our research into practical use within five years, which is the prime mission of the
IT-21 center.
[Staff]
Associate Professor: Takaki Nakamura, Ph.D.
Visiting Professor: Hiroshi Matsuoka, Ph.D.
Research Fellow: Masachika Harada[Profile]
Takaki Nakamura received B.E, M.E, and Ph.D. in information science from Osaka University in
1996, 1998, and 2011 respectively. He joined Central Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. in 1998. He
is currently an associate professor at RIEC, Tohoku University. He has been engaged in research on
storage system.
[Papers]
[1]
[2]

46

Takaki Nakamura, Shinya Matsumoto, and Hiroaki Muraoka, “Discreet Method to Match Safe Site-Pairs in Short
Computation Time for Risk-aware Data Replication,” IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems, Vol.
E98-D, No. 8 (2015), pp. 1493-1502.
Takaki Nakamura, Shinya Matsumoto, Masaru Tezuka, Satoru Izumi, and Hiroaki Muraoka, “Comparison ofDistance Limiting Methods for Risk-aware Data Replication in Urban and Suburban Area,” Journal of Information
Processing, Vol. 24, No. 2 (2016), pp. 381-389.

Contact to Associate Professor Takaki Nakamura : takaki@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2015 Management Office for Health and Safety
Management Office for Safety and HealthRealizing and Maintaining a Safe and Comfortable Environment to Support
Research[Research Target and Activities]

Safety and health seminarFirst aid training course
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: Satoshi Shioiri, Professor

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

Yoshiko Kikuta, Clerk

Contact to anzen@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

47

2015 Flexible Information System Center
Flexible Information System Center

Development and Management of Flexible Information System[Research Target and Activities]
The present information systems represented bycomputers are inflexible systems, because their uses
are predefined and they provide only the fixed
processing and functions. The flexible information
system on the other hand, is a system which canperform the flexible information processing adapted
to the human intention and situation of its
environment beyond the limitations of the principlesof the inflexible information processing. The aims ofthis center are to manage and operate information
networks and systems based on the concept of theflexible information system, and support smooth
research activities of RIEC.
Moreover, utilizing technical know-how acquired
Figure 1 RIEC network systemthrough applying the information networks andsystems to practical use, we also design and construct a leading-edge system for advanced
organization, utilization, administration, operation and dispatching of scientific information.
1. Information collection, organization, dispatching, utilization and research support environment.
2. Advanced maintenance, management and operation of network.
3. Technical supports for information networks and systems in the institute.

[Staff](1) Steering Committee
Professor: Tetsuo Kinoshita, Dr., Yôiti Suzuki, Dr., Yoshihito Toyama, Dr., Masafumi Shirai Dr.,
Atsushi Ohori, Dr., Takuo Suganuma, Dr.
(2) FIR Committee
Professor: Yoshihito Toyama, Dr., Takuo Suganuma, Dr.
Associate Professor: Masato Yoshida, Dr., Gen Kitagata, Dr.
Assistant Professor: Hisanao Akima, Dr., Dai Owaki, Dr., Katsuhiro Ueno, Dr., Kazuto Sasai, Dr.
Technical Official: Masahiko Sato, Kenji Ota
Technical Support Member: Keiko Taniguchi, Ayano Yoshihara(3) Regular Staff
Associate Professor: Gen Kitagata, Dr.
Assistant Professor: Kazuto Sasai, Dr.
Technical Official: Masahiko Sato, Kenji Ota
Technical Support Member: Keiko Taniguchi, Ayano Yoshihara[Profile]
Refer to the Communication Network Laboratory for the profile of Prof. Tetsuo Kinoshita.
Refer to the Computing Information Theory Laboratory for the profile of Prof. Yoshihito Toyama.

48

Contact to fir@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2015 Fundamental Technology Center
Fundamental Technology Center

Supporting research with high-level specialized knowledge and technology

Overview of Fundamental Technology Center[Research Target and Activities]
The Fundamental Technology Center provides a wide range of technical supports for research anddevelopment (R & D) through the following four divisions; machine shop, evaluation, process, andinformation technology.

The activities of the present year are summarized as follows except for thoseof Technical Official F. Saito which are separately described in the sections of Advanced Acoustic
Information Systems respectively.
1. Machine Shop Division
The Machine Shop Division supplied machining products of 125, following requests fromresearchers.

About 30 % of the requests were from the outside of the institute.

2. Evaluation Division
20 laboratories utilized evaluation and measurement apparatuses for shared usage (the utilization
time was 4331 hours in total), and furthermore there was utilization from the outside of university.
Glass processing products of 6 were supplied.

Several services relating to supply of cryogenic liquids

were provided.
3. Process DivisionThis division supplied electron-beam lithographic products of 279, in cooperation with technicaloffice, Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics.

Technical supports were provided for

operating and maintain clean rooms of Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics.

In addition,

optical mutilayered thin films were supplied to the outside of the university.
4. Software Technology DivisionThis division operated the in-house network at the institute and maintained shared-useinformation-equipment, in cooperation with Flexible Information System Center.

This division also

engaged in contracting affairs of collaborative research based on intellectual-property rights and ingiving advices to researchers who tried to apply patents.
[Staff]Director (Professor): Yoichi UEHARA.
Assistant Professor: Nobuyuki SATO.
Technical Officials:

Koichi SHOJI, Tamotsu SUENAGA, Kento ABE, Yasuaki MAEDA, Maho ABE,
Takenori TANNO, Iori MORITA, Rikima ONO, Masahiko SATO, Yuko MARUYAMA,
Kenji OHTA, Fumitaka SAITO, Katsumi SAGAE,
Keiko TANIGUCHI, Ayano YOSHIHARA, Toshiko ISHIKAWA, Sachiko INOOKA.

Contact to eac@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

49

2015 Ad-hoc research groups
Ad-hoc research groups

Taking advantage of the wide range of expertise in the institute, ad-hoc research groups are formed
outside of the formal organizational structure to investigate challenging exploratory topics andneeds-based, cutting-edge subjects.

[Group of multimodal attention]
It is crucial to select information from input signals to process, and to select action from infinite
number of possibilities for human to live in the world with full of complicated objects changing
dynamically. We focus on the attention process for action as well as for cognition in the study.
Assuming that attention for action is based on a space representation that unifies signals fromdifferent modalities, we investigate the mechanism of attention for action. In this year, we
discussed the possibilities of experimental approach for the purpose using a technique developed forvisual attention and we made a plan of the study to submit application for KAKENHI.

[Next-Generation Nitride Electron Device Research Group]
GaN-based semiconductors are promising candidates for high-speed and high-power transistors
for communication systems, vehicle applications and so on as well as blue and white LEDs. The goalof our study is to realize new GaN-based high-power RF transistors that help enhance the power
efficiency by combining the advanced material technology developed at the Institute for Materials
Research and the cutting-edge device technology developed at RIEC. We started a study on thenitrogen-polar GaN that has a potential to achieve superior transistor performance than theconventional GaN material system. A nitrogen-polar GaN/AlGaN heterostructure has beensuccessfully grown and the electrical characterization has confirmed the existence of thetwo-dimensional electron gas that will be an important current path when we make a transistor.

[Time salon：research group investigating the concept of time]
Time is one of most fundamental concepts created by human beings; through time constructing,
we would obtain the ability to perceive the space, our bodies, and relationships to others. The
ultimate goal of this research group is to discover the principles of human's time construction, andto develop a model of human cognition and control. To approach this goal, the group attempts todevelop a model of time construction that underlies human perception through philosophicalobservation and scientific experimentation. In this academic year, we have held 12 discussion
meetings, the "time salons", and have analyzed and discussed diverse topics related to human's
time construction, ranging from Kant's transcendental deduction of time to recent findings in
cognitive science and neural science, and have come up with some observations. We hope tocontinue pursuing the research and to design some experiments of verifying our observations.

50

2015 Center for Spintronics Integrated Systems (CSIS)
Center for Spintronics Integrated Systems (CSIS)＜About the Center＞
Establishment：CSIS, which was established on March 10th 2010 in order to implement the FIRST Program, isconducting research and development of ultra-low power spintronics-based VLSIs.
Organization：
・Director ：Hideo Ohno (Professor and Director of RIEC)
・Number of Researchers：23（including 17 concurrent appointments）
Research Target：CSIS has been advancing the following programs to assume a leading role in innovative change
by demonstrating the fusion of spintronics devices and logic integrated circuits, thus aiming at playing a pivotal
role in the global innovation cycle of VLSIs.
○“Distributed IT system project (project leader : Prof. Hideo Ohno)” in ImPACT program (program manager :Prof. Masashi Sahashi) of CSTI, 2015/10/2～
Research Activities： Research and development of spintronics device, 300mm integration process technology,
innovative circuit and the architecture technology, and realization of low power consumption microcontroller
driven by energy harvesting＜Major Achievements in 2015＞(1) Observation of different temperature dependence of energy barrier in CoFeB-MgO magnetic
tunnel junctions depending on their sizes, which can be explained by a difference in themagnetization reversal mode. (2) Evaluation of thickness dependence of damping constant for
single-interface and double-interface CoFeB-MgO structures from a ferromagnetic resonance using

a vector network analyzer. (3) Demonstration of the third scheme of spin-orbit torque induced
magnetization switching that is useful to investigate the physical mechanism of the switching. (4)Demonstration of nonvolatile associative processor for image recognition to achieve the world's lowest(600W) operation power based on the 300mm-wafer 90nm-CMOS/70nm- perpendicular-MTJ hybrid
process.

○“Research and Development of Spintronics Material and Device Science and Technology for a
Disaster-Resistant Safe and Secure Society (principal investigator: Prof. Hideo Ohno)” under “R&D Project for
ICT Key Technology” of MEXT, 2012/8/15～
Research Activities：Research and development of spintronics material and device for high functionality (highspeed)/ ultra-low power consumption (high capacity) working memory at technology node of less than 20 nm, andstudy on simulation of disaster-resistant computer system.
＜Major Achievements in 2015＞(1) Evaluation of width dependence of thermal stability of domain wall in ferromagnetic Co/Ninanowires and clarification of the mechanism that governs the thermal stability factor of domain
walls. (2) Evaluation of dot size dependence of threshold current density for spin-orbit torqueinduced magnetization switching in nanoscale Ta/CoFeB/MgO dots and clarification of factors that

determine the threshold current density. (3) Demonstration of field-free spin-orbit torque induced

magnetization switching in an antiferromagnet/ferromagnet bilayer system and observation of
analogue-like response, which is suitable for applications to artificial intelligences.

51

2015 Research Organization of Electrical Communication (ROEC)
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 2015, two ongoing projects were promoted. We have also been engaged in a disaster
information delivery project in Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP) promoted by the
Cabinet Office and a disaster management project supported by RISTEX, JST. In addition, we demonstrated thefeasibility of the research results concerning the disaster-resilient ICT system at the disaster-response drill of
headquarter in Tohoku University. The research results produced by the promoted projects were presented at theInnovation Fair, Disaster Reconstruction and Regeneration Research Symposium of Tohoku University, andDisaster-resilient ICT Research Symposium of NICT. Our activities were also described in ROEC Newsletterspublished in 2015.

Fig.1 Research Organization of Electrical Communication.

Fig.2 Overview of ICT Reconstruction Project.

[Staff]Prof. Nei Kato (Executive Director)
Prof. Masayuki Kawamata (Vice Executive Director)
Specially Appointed Prof. Yasushi Sakanaka (Vice Executive Director)
Specially Appointed Prof. Katsumi Iwatsuki (Research Administrator)
Mr. Yasuharu Ito (Office Manager)
Mr. Syuichi Terashima (Manager)
Ms. Izumi Ishikawa (Secretary)[Papers][1] M. Nakazawa, "Optical and wireless-integrated next-generation access network based on coherent technologies,"
IEICE Society Conference 2015, CK-3-6 (invited talk), 2015.9.9 (in Japanese).
[2] Zubair Md. Fadlullah, et al., "Field Measurement of an Implemented Solar Powered BS-based Wireless Mesh
Network," IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 137-143, Jun. 2015.
[3] Kentaro Inui, “Modeling "Reading between the Lines" Based on Scalable and Trainable Abduction and Large-scale
Knowledge Acquisition”, Workshop on Deep and Large-Scale Semantic Processing: The Way Ahead. Trento, March
2015.

52

2015 Center for Innovative Integrated Electronic Systems (CIES)
Center for Innovative Integrated Electronic Systems (CIES)＜Overview＞
Establishment: CIES was established in October 2012 to enhance industry-academic collaborations andcontribute to the further development of integrated electronic industry. The building wasconstructed in March 2013 as the first research center by private investment in Science Park at
Tohoku University’s Aobayama New Campus.
Organization: Director: Tetsuo Endoh (Professor, Graduate School of Engineering)Number of staff: 60 (including appointments across RIEC, Graduate School of Engineering,
Graduate School of Inforamtion Sciences, etc)
Mission: CIES aims to contribute to the enhancement of global competitiveness in the field of next
generation integrated electronics systems, and further, work toward the creation of practicalapplications and new industries, through the research and development of innovative devices
and its integrated electronic systems and constructing a consortium for this field under theinternational collaboration among industries, universities and government.
Research topics: Research and development by industry-university joint research projects,

national

research projects, community-based cooperation projects and so on in the field of IT including
electronic device components such as for next-generation semiconductor memory,high-performance printed-circuit board, packaging, and image processing technologies, and in
the field of car-electronics including electronic automotive components.
＜Major activities in FY2015＞
Toward practical applications from innovative core technologies created by Tohoku University, wemanaged the international industry-academic consortium (CIES Consortium) consisting of sevenindustry–academic collaborations, three major national projects (JST-ACCEL, ImPACT and NEDO projects),
and community-based cooperation projects through our cooperation with a diverse range of Japanese andforeign companies from fields such as materials, equipment, devices, circuits and systems, and achieved
remarkable results. CIES promoted to enlarge the base for collaborative research between industry andacademia with world-first 300mm wafer process line and facilities for prototype manufacturing andcharacterizing spintronics integrated circuits compatible with world-class companies. So far, dozens ofJapanese and foreign companies have participated in the consortium by accelerating system reforms
including intellectual property management, common facility uses and so on to promote industry-academic
collaborations. In addition, the companies utilized “a special private-sector investment promotion zone
system (for information service-related industries)” under a joint application from Miyagi prefecture andlocal municipalities, and “financial assistance according to the amount of property tax paid (created under anagreement between Tohoku University and the city of Sendai)”. CIES have succeeded in developing theworld’s largest consortium centering on non-volatile memory (STT-MRAM) and expanding into regional
cooperation.
CIES has developed multiple innovative technologies, including next generation memories, high53

2015 Center for Innovative Integrated Electronic Systems (CIES)
performance board and package technologies, image processing and so on. Especially, 1M STT-MRAM chipwith the world-highest access speed of 2GHz has successfully developed in R&D on STT-MRAM.
Keyshight Technologies, Inc. announced to commercialize new STT-MRAM test solution based oncollaboration with CIES by 2016. Thus, some of them have been emerged as the successful results in view ofthe production phase.
We started a technology matching program for regional and local companies with cooperation of Miyagi
Prefecture, the Miyagi Advanced Electronics and Machinery Industry Association, the Miyagi Automotive
Industry Promotion Council, the Tohoku Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry and other partners. CIES
launched three community-based cooperation projects (one of them, NEDO project for bridging between
research institutes and small/mid-sized companies was adopted.) for putting to commercial use of the coretechnologies, and contributed to rebuild the Tohoku area and assist the region.
Furthermore, CIES internship program has been continued, which contributed to high-level humanresources training for forging the future of this field.

54

2015 Spintronics Research and Education Promotion Office
Spintronics Research and Education Promotion Office<Overview>
Establishment: December, 2014
Organization:
・Chair of Steering Committee: Executive Vice President (for Research) Sadayoshi Ito
・Steering Committee: 10 members
Mission:・Discussing the items related to promotion of spintronics R&D in Tohoku University
・Liaison and coordination between relevant departments in Tohoku University
Activities:(1) Sharing information and innovative technologies on spintronics in Tohoku University(2) Promotion of spintronics research and training young researchers and students throughthe collaboration among research groups within and beyond Tohoku University(3) Establishment of "Center for 'spintronics research innovation and cooperative network' "according to "Basic concept on promotion of large-scale research project －Drawing-up
roadmap－ Roadmap 2014"(4) Other necessary items concerned with spintronics R&D<Major activities in 2015>
The second Steering Committee was held on November 17, 2015. The request for budgetary
appropriations was approved to establish Center for Spintornics Research Network in Tohoku
University. To foster international as well as domestic collaboration in spintronics to enhanceexisting areas of research and to create new areas aiming at deepening science and creating
new branches of industry, this center will promote cooperative research and be the hub of a
network with other research institutions within Japan and overseas. As a result, Spintronics
Research and Education Promotion Office was abolished at the end of the FY2015.

55

2015 Leading Graduate Program
Leading Graduate Program
Interdepartmental Doctoral Degree Program for Multi-dimensional Materials Science Leaders<Overview>
Establishment: October , 2013
Organization:
・Program manager: Executive Vice President (for Education, Student Support and Student
International Exchange) Kimio Hanawa
・Program coordinator: Professor Tetsuya Nagasaka (Graduate School of Engineering)・Program member: about 60 Professors in Tohoku University
Mission:・Cultivating human resources through creating leaders who have a firm grasp of thefundamentals of material science and extensive research experience
・The term “multi-dimensional” (MD) refers to the extensive, panoramic perception ofmaterials through dimensions such as functionalities, characteristics, processes,
environmental compatibility, economics, safety, and assessment techniques.
<Major activities in 2015>
About 20 new students joined the program and in 2015. About 40 students in total learned
the fundamental and specialized subjects and joined long-term internship at domestic
corporations and/or foreign institutions.
A group of interested students participated in the study tour on February 15-16, 2016. They
visited National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), National
Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and
Hitachi Research Laboratory.
The second joint symposium co-organized by two Leading Graduate Programs, i.e. MD
Program in Tohoku University and Ambitious Leader’s Program in Hokkaido University, washeld in March, 2016 at Hokkaido University.

56

2015 Graduate Program in Spintronics (GP-Spin)
Graduate Program in Spintronics (GP-Spin)<Overview>
Establishment: April 1, 2015
Organization:
・Program manager: Executive Vice President (for Education, Student Support and Student
International Exchange)

Kimio Hanawa

・Program leader: Professor Yoshiro Hirayama (Graduate School of Science)・Program member: about 10 Professors in Tohoku University
・Foreign organization: Johannes Gutenberg Univ. Mainz (Germany), Tech. Univ. München(Germany), Tech. Univ. Kaiserslautern (Germany), Tech. Univ. Delft (The Netherland),Univ. Groningen (The Netherland), Univ. Chicago (USA), Univ. New South Wales(Australia)
Mission:・Education of world-class leaders in spintronics from fundamental to applications
Activities:
・Education by world-leading professors from all departments and institute in Tohoku
University with participation from all over the world
・Joint education with foreign organization including joint supervised degree/joint degree,
mutual visit and long-term internship, international school/workshop, qualifying
examination to guarantee the educational quality<Major activities in 2015>
In FY2015, ten invited researchers, including Prof. Klaus von Klitzing who is a Novel Prize
Lauriate in Physics, visited Tohoku University from abroad. They attended as keynote or
invited speakers at the International Workshops* at “Tohoku Forum of Creativity” or held
Seminars for students of this program. They also had intensive discussions with students andresearchers during their stay in Sendai.
*International Workshops at “Tohoku Forum of Creativity”
・Quantum Nanostructures and Electron-Nuclear Spin Interactions
・Spintronics with Antiferromagnets
・Spintronics (13th RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics)

57

2015 Program for Key Interdisciplinary Research
Program for Key Interdisciplinary Research
Research platform for Yotta-scale data science＜Project outline＞
Founded：October 2015
Organization：
Yotta Informatics Research Center (Project leader: Hiroaki Muraoka, RIEC, Professor)
Project members: 26 experts from eight departments.
Purpose of the research:
Novel science and technology to manage both quantity and quality of yotta-scale information, in order toestablish the future ICT technology and new humanics by collaborative work of engineering and humanand social science
Research：
The amount of information is rapidly increasing, which is projected to reach to the amount of one yotta
bytes, one trillion times of one Tera-bytes, or 10 to 24th bytes. Ordinary extension technology of theconventional ICT cannot cope with such gigantic amount of information, therefore essential paradigm
change for the information processing is indispensable. In this project, 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 from departments are discussing about
interdisciplinary collaborating works to understand the quality and value of information, as well as thequantity. The value information is the key properties for the future informatics to receive the full benefitof the information in the upcoming “beyond the big data” era.
＜Major achievement in 2015＞
1. Meeting and discussions by the all project members
The meetings were held five times in total to discuss about the information quality and value. Twenty
presentations by the members were presented. These discussions contributed to mutual understanding of
the members to establish the research organization
2. Survey of previous studies
Previous studies on the information quality was investigated. The research activities on the quality of
information products were founded by MIT (US), Oxford University (UK) etc.
3. Algorism of the information quality
Analysis algorism is investigated so as to extract values from the large information based on its quality.
The information processing is carried out by the human approach based on the objective measurable
properties.

58

2015 Nation-wide Cooperative Research Projects
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, applications of ultrasonic communication and acoustic
communication, non-linear physics and engineering, and computer software. On the basis of thisrich historical background the Institute was designated as a National Center for Cooperative
Research in 1994. Accompanying Tohoku University’s transformation to “a national university
juridical entity” in April, 2004, this institution plays a leading role on the world stage, as its
researchers, both domestic and foreign, continue the task of “investigating the theory andapplication 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.

Director

Advisory Council
Cooperative Research
Projects Committee

Outline of the Operation Policy

Act as a planning center for all
operations in cooperative
projects research

Type A

Cooperative Projects
Selection Committee

Type B

Cooperative Projects
Steering Committee

Type S

Rating of applications
Adoption decision

Budget allocation
Daily routine business59

2015 Nation-wide Cooperative Research Projects
Nation-wide cooperative research projects list 2015
Project Number
Research Project Theme
Ｈ２５／Ａ０１

Fabrication and characterization of
nanometer-scale chalcogenide
structures, and their application tomemory devices

Project Leader

Facilitator
in RIEC

Masashi Kuwahara
National Institute of Advanced
Industrial Science andTechnology

YoichiUeharaYohtaro Umeda
Tokyo University of Science
Study on High-Power Terahertz Signal Faculty of Science andTechnology Electrical
Source with InGaAs HEMTs
Engineering
Ｈ２５／Ａ０２

Tetsuya
Suemitsu

Ｈ２５／Ａ０３

Self-assembling formation of highdensity ferromagnetic nanodots bycontrolled alloying of group IV
semiconductors with metals and its
magnetic properties
Ｈ２５／Ａ０４

Electronic structure and properties offerromagnetic shape memory andother functional magnetic materials
Ｈ２５／Ａ０５

Implementation of Large Scale

Superconducting Quantum Detectors
for Practical Applications
H２５／Ａ０６

High-precision communication systemfor kansei information of speech
Ｈ２５／Ａ０７

Multi-channel color representation inhuman brain
H２５／Ａ０８

Development of speech processing
technology by nonlinear time-varying
auditory representation
60

Seiichi Miyazaki
Graduate School ofEngineering,
Nagoya University

MichioNiwanoShin Imada
College of Science andEngineering,
Ritsumeikan University

Masafumi
Shirai

Satoshi Kohjiro
National Institute of Advanced
Industrial Science andTechnology

ShigeoSato

Akihiro Tanaka
Tokyo Woman's Christian
University

Shuichi
Sakamoto

Ichiro Kuriki
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University
Masanori MoriseInterdisciplinary Graduate
School of medicine andEngineering,
University of Yamanashi

IchiroKuriki

Shuichi
Sakamoto

2015 Nation-wide Cooperative Research Projects
Project Number
Research Project Theme
Ｈ２５／Ａ０９Study of the cooperativeenvironment for building visual
cognition models
Ｈ２５／Ａ１１

Study of Information Principle ofBrainware and its applications
H２５／Ａ１２

Heterarchical analysis of adaptability
under indeterminacy and its
technological applications
Ｈ２５／Ａ１３

A Study for Persons,Space andInformation Technologies
Ｈ２６／Ａ０１

Development of graphene-based
electronic and photonic devices

Project Leader

Facilitator
in RIEC

Ko Sakai
Faculty of Engineering,
Information and Systems,
University of Tsukuba

Satoshi
Shioiri

Toshiyuki Kanoh
NEC Corporation

Takahiro
Hanyu

Tatsuji Takahashi
School of Science andEngineering,Tokyo Denki University
Ikuo Daibo
Motivation and Behavioral
Sciences,Tokyo Future University
Takashi Uchino
Tohoku Institute of Technology

KazutoSasai

Yoshifumi
Kitamura
TaiichiOtsuji

Ｈ２６／Ａ０２

Hiroyuki Odagawa
Measurement of polarization structure
National Institute ofin layered piezoelectric thin films
Technology,
using scanning nonlinear dielectric
Kumamoto College
microscopy

Yasuo
Cho

Hiroshi Okamoto
Graduate School of Science andFabrication of various type high-k/Ge
Technology,
structure by plasma processing andevaluation of their near-interface traps Hirosaki University

MichioNiwanoＨ２６／Ａ０３

Masakiyo Tsunoda
Graduate School ofEngineering,Tohoku University

Masafumi
Shirai

Studies on fabrication offerromagnet/semiconductor hybrid

Fumihiro Matsukura
Advanced Institute forMaterials Research,
Tohoku University

Masafumi
Shirai

Ｈ２６／Ａ０６

Masao Sakuraba
Research Institute of Electrical Michio
NiwanoCommunication,
Tohoku University

Ｈ２６／Ａ０４

Development of Fe4N-based magnetic
tunnel junctions with ferroelectric
tunnel barrier
Ｈ２６／Ａ０５

structures and their application for
spintronics devices
Highly-Strained andAtomically-Controlled Formation of
Ge-Based Group-IV Semiconductors
and Nanodevice Application61

2015 Nation-wide Cooperative Research Projects
Project Number
Research Project Theme
Ｈ２６／Ａ０７

Structure-controlled synthesis andproperty elucidation of
two-dimensional emiconductormaterial
Ｈ２６／Ａ０８

Investigation of high sensitive
magnetic sensor with
Spin-torque-Oscillator
Ｈ２６／Ａ１０Development of Wireless Network
Architecture for Dependable Air
Ｈ２６／Ａ１１

Study on the organization of corticalcircuits

Project Leader

Facilitator
in RIEC

Toshiaki Kato
Graduate School ofEngineering,Tohoku University

Satoshi
KatanoYohei Shiokawa
Graduate School ofEngineering,Tohoku University

Satoshi
KatanoSuguru Kameda
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University
Shigeru Kubota
Graduate School of Science andEngineering,
Yamagata University

Ｈ２６／Ａ１２

Haruyuki Kamiya
Reconstruction of neuronal network for Hokkaido University Graduate
School of Medicine
generation of hybrid brain
Ｈ２６／Ａ１３

Dynamic cues for auditory spaceperception
Ｈ２６／Ａ１４

Speech intelligibility estimation
without transmission characteristics
under long-path echo conditions
Ｈ２６／Ａ１５

Study for thin film functional device
obtained by controlling normal
magnetic field

Akio Honda
Yamanashi Eiwa College
Yosuke Kobayashi
National Institute ofTechnology,
Miyakonojo College
Tomoo Nakai
Industrial Technology
Institute,
Miyagi Prefectural
Government

Ｈ２６／Ａ１６

Yasuo Kimura
Development of nanostructured hybridTokyo University of Technology
solar cells
Ｈ２６／Ａ１８
Yoshifumi Kitamura
Research Institute of Electrical
Application of 3D Interactive
Communication,
Technologies to Medical Education
Tohoku University
based on the Method of Design

SuguruKamedaMichioNiwanoMichioNiwanoShuichi
Sakamoto
Shuichi
Sakamoto

KazushiIshiyama
Teng
Ma
Yoshifumi
Kitamura

Ｈ２６／Ａ１９

Keiichi Yasumoto
A study on new information processing
Nara Institute of Science andtechnology focusing on the flow ofTechnology
information
62

Gen
Kitagata

2015 Nation-wide Cooperative Research Projects
Project Number
Research Project Theme

Project Leader

Facilitator
in RIEC

Ｈ２６／Ａ２０

Tatsuya Yamazaki
Study on Cooperative Mechanism ofSympathetic Devices for Mental Status Niigata University
Sharing

Hideyuki
Takahashi

Ｈ２６／Ａ２１

An accurate estimation for acoustical
Masashi Itohtransfer function of pinna from camera Tohoku Institute of Technology
imagesＨ２６／Ａ２２
Fumihiro Matsukura
Advanced Institute forStudy of magnetic coupling and spin
Materials Research,transport mechanisms in magnetic
Tohoku University
semiconductors and oxides

Shuichi
Sakamoto

Hideo
Ohno

Ｈ２６／Ａ２３

Japan-Spain International Research
Collaboration on Terahertz Sensing
Devices

MEZIANI Yahya Moubarak
University of Salamanca

TaiichiOtsuji

Noriharu Suematsu
Research Institute of Electrical Noriharu
Study on Direct Digital RF MODEM
Communication,
Suematsu
Technologies
Tohoku University
Ｈ２６／Ａ２４

Ｈ２６／Ａ２５

Cultural and individual differences incolor lexicon

Keiji Uchikawa
Tokyo Institute of Technology

Ｈ２６／Ａ２６

Taku Komura
Machine Learning Hand-Manipulation
University of Edinburghfor HCI Application
Ｈ２７／Ａ０１

Fabrication and evaluation of power
generation properties of Solid Oxide
Fuel Cells using nano-thin film
electrolyte
Ｈ２７／Ａ０２

Basis Establishment of Plasma
Nanobio-Medicine

Satoshi
Shioiri
Yoshifumi
Kitamura

Kiyoshi Uchiyama
National Institute ofTechnology,
Tsuruoka College

Yasuo
Cho

Toshiro Kaneko
Graduate School ofEngineering,Tohoku University

MichioNiwanoＨ２７／Ａ０３

Quantum Heterostructure Formationof Group-IV Semiconductors andControl of Electronic Properties
Utilizing Atomically-Controlled
Plasma CVD

Masao Sakuraba
Research Institute of Electrical Michio
Communication,
NiwanoTohoku University

63

2015 Nation-wide Cooperative Research Projects
Project Number
Research Project Theme
Ｈ２７／Ａ０４

Next-generation device researches byusing operando spectromicroscopy
Ｈ２７／Ａ０５

Development of novel quantum lightsource for quantum
info-communication
Ｈ２７／Ａ０６

Nano-scale Geometrical Control and
Optical Properties of a Single Metal
Nanostructure
Ｈ２７／Ａ０７

Computational Study of Plasmons in
Semiconductor Two-Dimensional
Electron Systems for THz Device
Applications
Ｈ２７／Ａ０８

Studies on resonant tunneling THz
signal generators having low phasenoise properties

Project Leader
Hirokazu Fukidome
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University
Keiichi Edamatsu
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University
Satoshi Katano
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University
Koichi Narahara
Department ofElectrical&Electronic
Engineering,
Kanagawa Institute ofTechnology

Facilitator
in RIEC

Hirokazu
Fukidome

Keiichi
Edamatsu

Satoshi
Katano

Akira
Satou

Koichi Maezawa
Graduate School of Science and Taiichi
Engineering for Research,
OtsujiUniversity of Toyama

Ｈ２７／Ａ０９

A study of carrier conversion system
between optical and wireless signal
frequency domain for futurefull-coherent access networks
Ｈ２７／Ａ１０

A research on reflectarray using
metamaterial for propagation
improvement in M2M communications
Ｈ２７／Ａ１１

An Empirical Study on SDN-based
Networking System based on Changes
in User’s Physiological Indexes
Ｈ２７／Ａ１２

Effects of self-movements onperception of the surrounding
world

64

Naoto Yoshimoto
Chitose Institute of Scienceand Technology
Tamami Maruyama
National Institute ofTechnology,
Hakodate College
Masaki Omata
Interdisciplinary Graduate
School of medicine andEngineering,
University of Yamanashi
Wataru Teramoto
Department of Psychology,
Faculty of Letters,
Kumamoto University

TaiichiOtsuji

Noriharu
Suematsu

Gen
Kitagata

Shuichi
Sakamoto

2015 Nation-wide Cooperative Research Projects
Project Number
Research Project Theme
Ｈ２７／Ａ１３

Studies on relationship between
perception of monaural sound andhead-related transfer function

Project Leader

Facilitator
in RIEC

Daisuke Morikawa
Japan Advanced Institute of
Science and Technology

Shuichi
Sakamoto

Ｈ２７／Ａ１４

Ayumi Hirano
Construction of functional
Graduate School of
bio-information devices via
Biomedical Engineering,combination of silicon microfabrication Tohoku University
and lipid bilayers
Ｈ２７／Ａ１５

Yasuhiro Takeshima
The effects of sensory processing speed
Bunkyo Gakuin University
on audio-visual synchrony perception

MichioNiwanoJorge
TrevinoＨ２７／Ａ１６

Shosuke Sato
Workshop and Practical Study on theInternational Research
Handing Down of Disaster Experiences
Institute of Disaster Science,from the Perspective of Information
Tohoku University
Communication Technology

Jorge
TrevinoＨ２７／Ａ１７

Tomoko Ohtani
Influence of synchrony perception onsense of presence and verisimilitude in Tokyo University of the Arts
multimodal environment

Jorge
TrevinoＨ２７／Ａ１８

Tomoko Ohtani
Tokyo University of the Arts

Shuichi
Sakamoto

Hayato Sato
Graduate School ofEngineering,
Kobe University

Yôiti
SuzukiAkito Araya
Earthquake ResearchInstitute,
University of Tokyo

Masataka
Nakazawa

Influence of speaker’s movie of speechutterance on serial recall task
Ｈ２７／Ａ１９Development of physical index for
speech intelligibility considering long
path echo
Ｈ２７／Ａ２０

Research on measurement
technologies of earthquakes,
tsunami, and crustal deformation
using an optical-fiber network
Ｈ２７／Ａ２１

Hardware Technology for Brain
Computation
Ｈ２７／Ａ２２

3D Flexible Interactions in Multiple
Display Environment

Shigeo Sato
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University
Yoshifumi Kitamura
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University

ShigeoSato

Yoshifumi
Kitamura

65

2015 Nation-wide Cooperative Research Projects
Project Number
Research Project Theme
Ｈ２７／Ａ２３

Research of Multimodal Agent
Framework for Symbiotic Computing
Ｈ２７／Ａ２４

Study on knowledge acquisition andutilization for the diversifying
information networks
Ｈ２７／Ａ２５

Development of a system architecture
and infrastructure technology for the
Smart Community
Ｈ２７／Ａ２６

Empirical Researches for introducing
ubiquitous systems into the actual life
Ｈ２７／Ａ２７

Research on olfactory multimodal
information processes in humans
Ｈ２５／Ｂ０１

New Principle Nano Devices Based on
Precision Control and Observation of
Spin Fluctuation and Correlations
Ｈ２５／Ｂ０２

Fabrication of novel nano-materials
based on fine particle plasma physics
Ｈ２５／Ｂ０３

Research in magnetic materials andmagnetic devices for advanced
communications equipment
Ｈ２５／Ｂ０４

Physics and applications ofelectric-field control of magnetism
Ｈ２５／Ｂ０５Novel photonics and nano photonic
informatics
66

Project Leader
Takahiro Uchiya
Information Technology
Center,Nagoya Institute of Technology
Akinori Takahashi
Graduate School ofEngineering and Resource
Science,
Akita University
Akira Fukuda
Graduate School ofInformation Science andElectrical Engineering,
Kyusyu University

Facilitator
in RIEC

TetsuoKinoshita

TetsuoKinoshita

TetsuoKinoshita

Yutaka Arakawa
Nara Institute of Science andTechnology

Hideyuki
Takahashi

Nobuyuki Sakai
Graduate School of Artsand Letters,
Tohoku University

Shuichi
Sakamoto

Shintaro Nomura
Faculty of Pure and Applied
Sciences,
University of Tsukuba

Hideo
Ohno

Masaharu Shiratani
Graduate School and Faculty ofMichioInformation Science andNiwanoElectrical Engineering,
Kyushu University
Ken-ichi Yamamoto
Faculty of Engineering,
University of the Ryukyus
Masafumi Shirai
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University
Takashige Omatsu
Graduate School of Advanced
Integration Science,
Chiba University

KazushiIshiyama

Masafumi
Shirai
Keiichi
Edamatsu

2015 Nation-wide Cooperative Research Projects
Project Number
Research Project Theme
Ｈ２５／Ｂ０６

Research on Electromagnetic Wave
Technologies for Low-Carbon Energy
Society
Ｈ２５／Ｂ０７

Studies on cortical mechanisms forvisual perception of object-surface
attributes
Ｈ２５／Ｂ０９Development and Civilian Use of
Microwave and Laser Aided Synthetic
Aperture Radar
Ｈ２５／Ｂ１０

Logical Approach to Metaprograms

Project Leader

Facilitator
in RIEC

Takashi Ohira
Toyohashi Univercity ofTechnology

Noriharu
Suematsu

Katsunori Okajima
Graduate School ofEnvironment and Information
Sciences,
Yokohama National University

IchiroKuriki

Yuichiro Kogi
Fukuoka Institute ofTechnology

HiroshiYasakaYukiyoshi Kameyama
Faculty of Engineering,
Information and Systems,
University of Tsukuba

Yoshihito
ToyamaShin-ichiro Umemura
Study of functional piezoelectric
Graduate School of Biomedical
materials and applications to advanced Engineering,Tohoku University
communication devices
Ｈ２６／Ｂ０１

Ｈ２６／Ｂ０２

Research on the new concept devices
with integration of nano materials on
silicon technology
Ｈ２６／Ｂ０３

Research for future electronicsystems by nano devices andcircuits with nano semiconductormaterials

Yôiti
Suzuki

Heiji Watanabe
Graduate School ofEngineering,Osaka University

Hideo
Ohno

Kikuo Yamabe
Graduate School of Pure andApplied Sciences,
University of Tsukuba

Hideo
Ohno

Kenjiro Nishikawa
Graduate School of Science andHybrid Semiconductor Circuit
Engineering,Technologies and Their Applications
Kagoshima University
for Next Generation RFICs
Ｈ２６／Ｂ０６
Hidemi Tsuchida
National Institute of Advanced
Advanced Communication andMeasurement Systems Using Coherent Industrial Science andTechnology
Multicarrier Lightwave
Ｈ２６／Ｂ０７
Koichi Oosuka
Graduate School of
KOTO-mimetics: Rethinking andEngineering,
Recreating Biomimetics
Osaka University
Ｈ２６／Ｂ０５

Noriharu
Suematsu

Masataka
Nakazawa
Akio
Ishiguro67

2015 Nation-wide Cooperative Research Projects
Project Number
Research Project Theme
Ｈ２６／Ｂ０８

Contribution of self-body motion tomultisensory integration
Ｈ２６／Ｂ０９International Research Collaborationof Brainware LSI
Ｈ２６／Ｂ１０

Reliable and Scalable Foundation
for Parallel Computing on
Many-Core Architecture
Ｈ２６／Ｂ１１Sensing and Communication
Technologies for Human and Mobility
Ｈ２７／Ｂ０１

Finding innovative reactive fields
related with multi-scale structures invarious plasma flows
Ｈ２７／Ｂ０２

Material Development andApplications Using SiC-based
Heterostructures
Ｈ２７／Ｂ０３

Physics of quantum measurement andcommunication
Ｈ２７／Ｂ０４

Physics and applications of spin
dynamics in solids
Ｈ２７／Ｂ０５

Evaluation of telecommunication
handset performance under the
influence of broadband unnecessary
radio wave

Project Leader

Facilitator
in RIEC

Kenzo Sakurai
Faculty of liberal arts,
Tohoku Gakuin University

Yôiti
SuzukiTakahiro Hanyu
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University
Kazuhiko Kato
Graduate School of Systems
and Information Engineering,
University of Tsukuba

Takahiro
Hanyu
AtsushiOhori

Takeshi Oishi
Institute of Industrial Science,
The University of Tokyo

KazukiTakashima

Akira Ando
Graduate School ofEngineering,Tohoku University

Maki
Suemitsu

Maki Suemitsu
Research Institute of Electrical Maki
Communication,
Suemitsu
Tohoku University
Keiichi Edamatsu
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
Tohoku University
Fumihiro Matsukura
Advanced Institute forMaterials Research,
Tohoku University

Keiichi
Edamatsu
Shun
Kanai

Masahiro Yamaguchi
Graduate School ofEngineering,Tohoku University

KazushiIshiyama

Ichiro Tsuda
Hokkaido University Graduate
School of Science

Hideo
Ohno

Ken-ichiro Tsutsui
Graduate School of Life
Sciences,
Tohoku University

Satoshi
Shioiri

Ｈ２７／Ｂ０６

Science Education Harmonized
between Objectivity and Humanity-For the Issues of Modern Science andFuture of MankindＨ２７／Ｂ０７Parallel processes of brain functions

68

2015 Nation-wide Cooperative Research Projects
Project Number
Research Project Theme

Project Leader

Akira Hirose
Graduate School of
Optimization of Information
Representation on a High-Dimensional Engineering,
The University of Tokyo
Neural Network
Ｈ２７／Ｂ０９
Fumihiko Hirose
Graduate School of Science andFunctionalization of oxide surfaces andEngineering,its application to nanodevices
Yamagata University
Ｈ２７／Ｂ１０
Tatsuo Arai
Graduate School ofModeling of dynamic nonverbal behaviors
Engineering Science,of interpersonal communications
Osaka University
Ｈ２７／Ｂ１１
Yoshifumi Kitamura
Research Institute of Electrical
Computer Graphics and Interactive
Communication,
Techniques: New Horizon
Tohoku University
Ｈ２７／Ｂ１２
Kohei Sonoda
Research Organization ofPreliminary examination for analysis of
Science and Technology,
asynchronous in network dynamics
Ritsumeikan University
Ｈ２７／Ｂ１３
Naofumi Aoki
Hokkaido University Graduate
Studies on enrichment of media
School of Information Science
technologies
and Technology

Facilitator
in RIEC

Ｈ２７／Ｂ０８

ShigeoSatoMichioNiwanoYoshifumi
Kitamura
Yoshifumi
Kitamura
KazutoSasai
Yôiti
SuzukiＨ２７／Ｂ１４
Evaluations and quantitative verificationof disaster resistance and fault tolerance
characters on a wide area distributed
storage system
Ｈ２６／Ｓ１

Hiroki Kashiwazaki
Cybermedia Center,
Osaka University

Hidenori Mimura
Project to construct the basis for future Research Institute ofElectronics,
science and technology of coherent
Shizuoka Universitywave
Ｈ２６／Ｓ２Masaaki Tanaka
Graduate School ofEngineering,
Spintronics Academic Alliance
The University of Tokyo
Ｈ２６／Ｓ３
Katsuyuki Utaka
Institute for Nanoscience &Collaborative Research on
Nanotechnology,
Nano-electronics
Waseda University
Ｈ２７／Ｓ１
Kazunori Komatani
The Institute of Scientific and
Empathic Computing System throughinteractive knowledge emergence based on Industrial Research,
Osaka University
massive data processing

TakakiNakamura

HiroshiYasakaMasafumi
Shirai
MichioNiwanoYoshifumi
Kitamura69

2015 Symposium organized by the Institute
5. Symposium organized by the InstituteThis Symposium is planned to exchange relevant information on current important
topics concerning Electrical Eng., Electrical Communications, Electronic Eng., andInformation Eng. Many related researchers inside and outside Tohoku University
participate the Symposium and stimulate discussion.

1

Symposium In Past
Title

Date

Quantum Electronics of Liglht Waves and Micro Waves

Feb. 6- 8, 1964

Magnetic Recording

Feb.14-15, 1964

2 Ultra-High Frequency Acoustelectronics

Feb.11-12, 1965

3 Artificial lntelligence

Mar. 8- 9, 1966

4 Thin Film Electronics

Jan.26-27, 1967

5 Crystal GrowthDec. 19-20, 1967

6 1968 Sendai Svmoosium on Acoustelectronics

Aug.19-20, 1968

7 Current Status and Future Trends of Superconductivitv

Jan.22-24, 1970

8 Soeech Information Processing

Feb.24-26, 1971

9 Surface Acoustic Wave Technology

May.25-26, 197210

Liquid Crystals · Their Molecular Orientations and Application to
Display Devices

11 Computer Network
12

The Memorial Symposium on the 40th Anniversarv of the Foundation of
RIEC

Dec.13-14, 1974
Mar.17-18, 1975
Sep.25-26, 1975

13 Application of Amorphous Ferromagnetic Materials

Mar.10-11, 1977

14 Stoichiometry of Compound Crystals

Nov.24-25, 1977

15 Submillimeter Waves

Nov.16-17, 1978

16 Solid State Chemical Sensors

Feb. 1- 2, 1980

17 Graph Theory and Algorithms

Oct.24-25, 1980

18 Perpendicular Magnetic Recording

Mar.11-12, 1982

19 Approach to Optical Computer

Mar.10-11, 1983

20 Plasma Non-Linear Phenomena - Basic Problems for Fusion Plasmas

Mar. 8- 9, 1984

21 New Computer Architecture

Jul.25-26, 1985

22 Guided Wave Technology and Its Application at Mid-Infrared

Mar.13-14,1986

23 Physics and Applications of Tunnelling Phenomena

Mar.12-14, 1987

24 Biomagnetics and Bioelectronics

Feb.26-27, 1988

25 Ultrasonic Electronics - New Applications of Piezoelectricity

Feb. 2- 3, 1989

26 Boundaries between Light and Electromagnetic Wave

Feb. 1-2, 1990

71

2015 Symposium organized by the Institute
27 Issues and Realization of Pattern Recognition and Understanding

Feb.28-Mar.1,1991

28 Discrete Algorithms

Oct.17-18, 1991

29

Perspective for New Computing Paradigm

Feb. 4- 5, 1993

Current Status and Future Prospects of System Control

Mar. 3- 4, 1993

30 Future Prospects of Electron Beam Devices

Nov. 1- 2, 1993

31 Discharge and EMC

Dec.20-21, 1994

32 Statistical Physics and Information Science

Mar.22-23,1995

33 Photo-and Plasma-Excited Processes on Surfaces

Nov.30-Dec.1,1995

34 Nano Spinics and Power Electronics

Feb.15-16, 1996

35 Potential Formation and Related Nonlinear Phenomena in Plasmas

Sep.17-19, 1996

36 New Trend in Ultrasonic Measurements

Feb. 3- 4, 1997

37

72

Toward the Realization of the High-Definition Multi-Media
Communication

Nov. 4- 6, 1997

2015 Symposium organized by the InstituteInternational Symposium Organized by the Institute
Title
Intrinsic Josephson Effect and THz Plasma Oscillation in High Tc
1
Superconductors
Design and Architecture of Information Processing Systems Based on
2
The Brain Information Principle
3 Novel Techniques and Applications of Millimeter-Waves
The International Joint Conference on Silicon Epitaxy and4
Heterostructures
International Workshop on Photonic and Electromagnetic Crystal
5
Structures
6 Physics and Application Spin Related Phenomena in Semiconductors

Date
Feb.23-25, 1997
Mar.16-18, 1998
Dec.14-16, 1998
Sep.13-17, 1999
Mar.8-10, 2000
Sep.13-15, 2000

7 Rewriting in Proof and Computation

Oct.25-27, 2001

8 Nonlinear Theory and its Applications

Oct.28-Nov.1, 2001

9 New Paradigm VLSI Computing

Dec.12-14, 2002

10 Ultra High Density Spinic Storage System
3rd International Workshop on New Group IV (Si-Ge-C)
11
Semiconductors
3rd International Workshop on High Freaqency Micromagnetic Devices
12and Materials (MMDM3)
4th International Conference on Silicon Epitaxy and Heterostructures
13(lCSl-4)
1st International WorkShop on New Group IV Semiconductor
14
Nanoelectronics
GSIS International Symposium on Information Sciences of New Era:
15
Brain, Mind and Society
The 1st RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics -Spin Transfer
16
Phenomena4th International Workshop on High Frequency Micromagnetic Devices
17
and Materials (MMDM4)
4th International Conference on Physics and Applications of18
Spin-Related Phenomena in Semiconductors (PASPS-lV)
2nd International Workshop on New Group IV Semiconductor
19
Nanoelectronics
20 2nd RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics

Oct.23-24, 2003

21 Japan-China Joint Conference on acoustics, JCA2007
International Conference on Discovery Science/
22
International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory
23 The 3rd RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics
3rd International Workshop on New Group ⅣSemiconductor
24
Nanoelectronics
25 International Workshop on Nanostructures & Nanoelectronics
The 18th International Symposium on Algorithms and26
Computation(ISAAC2007)
International Interdisciplinary-Symposium on Gaseous and Liquid
27
Plasmas (ISGLP 2008)

Jun.4-6,2007

Oct.12-13, 2004
Apr.11-12, 2005
May 23-26, 2005
May 27-28. 2005
Sep.26-27, 2005
Feb.8-9, 2006
May 8,2006
Aug.15-18,2006
Oct.2-3,2006
Feb.15-16,2007
Oct.1-4,2007
Oct. 31-Nov.1,2007
Nov.8-9,2007
Nov.21-22,2007
Dec.17-19,2007
Sep.5-6,2008

73

2015 Symposium organized by the Institute28

4th International Workshop on New Group IV Semiconductor
Nanoelectronics

Sep.25-27,2008

29 The 4th RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics

Oct.9-10,2008

30 Global Symposium on Millimeter Waves 2009 (GSMM2009)

Apr.20-22,2009

31 Mini R.I.E.C. workshop on multimodal perception

Apr.24,200932 The 4th International Symposium on Ultrafast Photonic Technologies

Aug.4-5,2009

PIMRC2009 Personal Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications
Symposium 2009
2nd RIEC-CNSI Workshop on Nanoelectronics,Spintronics and
34
Photonics (5th RIEC Symposium on Spintronics)
International Workshop on the principles and applications of spatial
35
hearing 2009 (IWPASH2009)
5th International Workshop on New Group IV Semiconductor
36
Nanoelectronics
33

Sep.13-16,2009
Oct.22-23,2009
Nov.11-13,2009
Jan.29-30,2010

37 6th RIEC International on Spintronics

Feb.5-6,2010

38 2nd International Workshop on Nanostructure & Nanoelectronics

Mar.11-12,2010

39 2nd RIEC International Symposium on Graphene Devices (ISGD2010)

Oct.27-29,2010

40 9th Japan-Korea Symposium on Surface Nanostructures

Nov.15-16,2010

41 The 7th RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics

Feb.3-4,2011

42

The 42nd RIEC International Symposium
12th International Multisensory Research Forum (IMRF2011)

Oct.17-20,2011

43 The 8th RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics

Feb.2-3,2012

44 The Sixth International Symposium on Medical, Bio- and Nano-Electronics

Mar.8,2012

45 3rd International Workshop on Nanostructures & Nanoelectronics

Mar.21-22,2012

46 9th RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics

May 31-Jun.2,2012

47
48
49
50
51

The 1st International Workshop on Smart Technologies for Energy,
Information and Communication (STEIC2012)
Technical University of Dresden and Tohoku University Symposium2012
The 1st RIEC International Symposium on Brain Functions and Brain
Computer
Tohoku – Harvard Joint Workshop New Directions in Materials foranoelectronics,Spintronics and Photonics（10th RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics）
11th RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics &3rdCSISInternationalSymposiumonSpintronics-based VLSIs

Oct.18-19,2012
Nov.2,2012
Nov.15-16,2012
Jan.15-16,2013
Jan.31-Feb.1,2013

52 7th International Symposium on Medical, Bio- and Nano-Electronics

Mar.7,2013

53 6th Global

Apr.22-23,2013

74

Symposium on Millimeter Wave 20132015 Symposium organized by the Institute54

The 2nd RIEC International Symposium on Brain Functions and Brain
ComputerFeb.21-22,2014

55 8th International Symposium on Medical,Bio- and Nano-Electro

Mar.6-7,2014

56 5th International Workshop on Nanostructures and Nanoelectronics

Mar.6-7,2014

57 12th RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics

Jun.25-27,2014

58 The IEEE International Conference on Microwave Magnetics

Jun.29-Jul.2,2014

59 RIEC International Symposium on Perception and Communication

Jul.24,2014

60 APMC 2014(2014 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference)

Nov.4-7,2014

61

The 3rd RIEC International Symposium on Brain Functions and Brain
Computer

62 International Symposium on Brainware LSI
The 9th International Symposium on Medical, Bio- andNano-Electronics
The 6th International Workshop on Nanostructures and64
Nanoelectronics
63

65 RIEC International Symposium on Vision and Cognition
The 23rd Symposium of the International Colour Vision Society(ICVS 2015)
RIEC International Symposium on Computer Graphics and Interactive
67
Techniques: New Horizon
66

68 13th RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics
69

The 4th RIEC International Symposium on Brain Functions and Brain
Computer

70 International Symposium on Brainware LSI
71

The 10th International Symposium on Medical, Bio- and NanoElectronics

72 The 7th International Workshop on Nanostructures and Nanoelectronic

Feb.18-19,2015
Mar.2-3,2015
Mar.2-4,2015
Mar.2-4,2015
Mar.20,2015
Jul. 3-7, 2015
Sep. 26-27,2015
Nov. 18-20,2015
Feb. 23-24,2016
Feb. 26-27,2016Mar. 1-3,2016Mar. 1-3,2016

75

2015 Study Groups on Electrical Communication
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.

Hirohito Yamada

Manager

Associate Prof.

Yasuo Ohtera

Acoustic Engineering
Chair

Prof.

Yôiti Suzuki

Manager

Associate Prof.

Manager

Lecturer

Shuichi Sakamoto

Takashi Nose

Sendai "Plasma Forum"
Chair

Prof.

Akira AndoManagerProf.

Toshiro Kaneko

Sendai Seminar on EMC
Chair

Prof.

Hideaki Sone

ManagerProf.

Masahiro Yamaguchi

77

2015 Study Groups on Electrical Communication
Computer Science
Chair

Prof.

Manager

Associate Prof.

Eijiro Sumii
Kazutaka Matsuda

Systems Control
Chair

Prof.

Manager

Associate Prof.

Makoto Yoshizawa
Norihiro Sugita

Information-biotronics
Chair

Prof.

Manager

Associate Prof .

Tatsuo Yoshinobu
Ayumi Hirano

Spinics
Chair

Prof.

Manager

Associate Prof.

Yasushi EndoManager

Assistant Prof.

Tomoyuki Ogawa

Kazushi Ishiyama

New Paradigm Computing
Chair

Prof.

Manager

Associate Prof.

Takahiro Hanyu
Naofumi Homma

Ultrasonic Electronics
Chair

Prof.

Manager

Associate Prof .

78

Shin-ichiro Umemura
Shin Yoshizawa

2015 Study Groups on Electrical Communication
Brainware
Chair

Prof.

Manager

Assistant Prof.

Akio Ishiguro
Takeshi Kano

Mathematical Physics and its Application to Information Sciences
Chair

Prof.

Manager

Associate Prof.

Kazuyuki Tanaka
Yuji Waizumi

Biocybernetics and Bioinformatics
Chair

Prof.

Manager

Associate Prof.

Takeshi Obayashi

Manager

Associate Prof.

Kazumichi Matsumiya

Satoshi Shioiri

Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
Chair

Prof.

Shigeo SatoManagerProf .

Michio Niwano

Advenced Information Communication Engineering
Chair

Prof.

Manager

Associate Prof.

Tetsuo Kinoshita
Gen Kitagata

79

2015 International Activities
7.

International Activities

Many of the staff in RIEC contribute to the development of technology and science inthe world 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 many visiting researchers and students from all over the world
every year. Several academic exchange programs with foreign colleges or institutes arein operation.
International academic exchange programs:
 The Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland) ＊The Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorm University (Thailand) ＊Harbin Institute of Technology (China)
 ＊The James Frank Institute, The University of Chicago (U.S.A.) ＊Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London (U.K.)
 ＊Scientific Research Department, Shenzhen University (China)
 ＊Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Sung-Kyun-Kwan University (Korea)
 ＊Institute of Materials Science, Faculty of Applied Physics, University of Twente (Netherlands)
 ＊The Institute of Radioengineering and Electronics Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia)
 ＊Department of Electronics Science and Engineering, University of Nanjing (China)
 ＊School of Computer and Communication Engineering, Taegu University (Korea)
 The Interdisciplinary Center on Nanoscience of Marseille, National Center of Scientific Research (France)
 IHP-Innovations for High Performance Microelectronics (Germany) Institute of Semiconductors Chinese Academy of Sciences (China)
 WINLAB, Rutgers University (U.S.A.) University of Vigo (Spain) State University of New Nork, College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering(CNSE)(U.S.A)
 Department of Physics, National Sun Yat-Sen Univesity (Taiwan)
 Research and Educational Center“Photonics and Infrared Technology”and Institute ofRadio Electronics and Laser Technology , Bauman Moscow State Technical University(Russia) Research Laboratory of Electronics and Microsystems Technology Laboratories,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT)(U.S.A.)(＊: expired program)International journals in which a staff in RIEC participates as an editor:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Acoustical Science and Technology
Acta Acustica Sinica
Applied Acoustics
Applied Intelligence
Frontiers in Virtual Environments (a section of Frontiers in Robotics and AI)
IEEE Magnetics Letter
IEICE Electronics Express
IEICE Trans. Commun.
Interdisciplinary Information Sciences
International Journal of Energy, Information and Communication81

2015 International Activities
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics
Journal of Magnetics, Korean Magnetics Society
Journal of SPIN
Nature Communications
Nature Scientific Reports
Neural Networks
Nonlinear Theory and Its Applications, IEICENPG Asia Materials
Optical Fiber Technology
Optical Review
Scientific Reports
The Journal of Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)

Recent international conferences programmed by a staff in RIEC
1 13th RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics
2 17th International Multisensory Research Forum (IMRF2016)
3 1st International Conference on Enterprise Architecture and information Systems(EAIS2016)
4 2015 IEEE International Symposium on Radio-Frequency integration Technology(RFIT2015)
5 21st International Conference on Electronic Properties of Two-Dimensional Systems(EP2DS) and the 17th International Conference on Modulated Semiconductor
Structures (MSS)
6 40th International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter and THz Waves (IRMMW-THz
2015)
7 ACM SIGCHI
8 ACM SIGGRAPH
9 ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2015:
The 8th SIGGRAPH Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics andInteractive Techniques in Asia 2015
10 ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST)
11 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC)
12 Asia-Pacific Workshop on Fundamentals and Applications of Advanced Semiconductor
Devices(AWAD)
13 EGVE: Eurographics Workshop on Virtual Environment (EGVE)
14 European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC)
15 European Solid-State Device Research Conference(ESSDERC)
16 Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing (IIH-MSP2015)17 IEEE International Conference on Web Interlligence(WI)
18 IEEE International Symposium on Asynchronous Circuits and Systems
19 IEEE International Symposium on Multiple-Valued Logic
20 IEEE NEMS 2016
21 International Advisory Committee, 8th International School and Conference on
Spintronics and Quantum Information Technology (SPINTECH-8)
22 International Conference Industrial & Eingineering Applications of Artificial
intelligence & Expert Systems (IEA/AIE)82

2015 International Activities
23 International Conference on Artificial Reality and Tele-existence (ICAT)
24 International Conference on Electron Dynamics in Semiconductors, Optoelectronics
and Nanostructures(EDISON)
25 International Conference on Indium Phosphide and Related Materials (IPRM)
26 International Conference on Recent Progress in Graphene Research (RPGR)
27 International Conferences on Modern Materials & Technologies(CIMTEC)
28 International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Human-Computer
Interaction (TC-13)
29 International Symposium on Advanced and Applied Convergence
30 International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors (ISCS)
31 International Symposium on Frontiers in THz Technology (FIT)
32 International Workshop: Spintronics VLSI
33 Optical Fiber Commnunication Conference (OFC)
34 Opto-Electronics and Communications Conference (OECC)
35 Russia-Japan-USA-Europe Symposium on Fundamental & Applied Problems of
Terahertz Devices & Technologies (RJUSE)
36 SPIE International Conference on Defense, Commercial, and Sensing
37 Technical Committee of Multiple-Valued Logic, IEEE Computer Society
38 The 11th Asia-Pacific Conference on Vision (APCV 2015)
39 The 11th International Conference on Intelligent Information
40 The 23rd Symposium of the International Colour Vision Society (ICVS 2015)
41 The 25th IEEE International Semiconductor Laser Conference (ISLC) 2016
42 The 28th International Conference on Indium Phosphide and Related Materials(IPRM)2016
43 The Fourth Asian Conference on Informatino Systems (ACIS2015)
44 The magnetic Recoeding Conference 201745 Topical Workshop on Heterostructure Microelectronics(TWHM)
46 VLSI Circuits Symposium
47 York-Tohoku-Kaiserslautern Research Symposium on “New Concept Spintronics
Devices”

832015 Periodicals Published by the Institute
8. Periodicals Published by the Institute
The Institute publishes the following two periodicals to inform readers on recent research results of
the Institute.

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
the result of the Graduate School of Engineering, Information Sciences, Biomedical

Engineering.

Since the journal also aims at publishing general research activities of the Institute and of the
Graduate School such as records of the final lectures of retiring professors, records of the InstituteSymposium, 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 or three 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 andresearch facility. Also included are reports on nation-wide co-operative research projects, international
symposium and seminars organized by members of RIEC, and the reports and evaluation on the RIEC
advisory board members.

English edition(digest version of Japanese edition) has been publishedsince 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

85

2015 Periodicals Published by the Instituteresearch and the vision of the future from RIEC’s contributions to the progression of science andtechnology in Japan. RIEC News was first launched in March 2011, In fiscal year 2015, 14th, 15th and16th issues were published. Every issue introduces special topics such as large scale projects andSpecially-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 is also published in March 2014. Further, RIEC News offers anotification 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/86

2015 Staff, Budget
9. Staff, Budget
1. Faculty & Staff

as of May 1, 2015

Professors

22

Associate Professors

19

Assistant Professors

22

Research Fellows

15

Specially Appointed Professors

1

Administrative Staff

16

Technical Staff

11

Total

106

2. Researchers (FY2015)
Foreign Researchers

Visiting Professors

3

Visiting Associate Professors

4

Cooperative Researchers of Private Company etc

2

JSPS Research Fellowship for Young Scientists

8

JSPS Postdoctral Fellowship for Overseas Researchers

1

Contract Researchers

10

Contract Trainees

1

Total

29

3. Students

as of May 1, 2015
School of Engineering

Graduate School ofInformation Science

Undergraduate Students

52

Master Course Students

77 ( 6)36 ( 7)

Doctor Course Students

28 ( 7)8 ( 2)

Graduate School of
Biomedical Engineering

157 (13)

Total
52

4

44 ( 9)117 (13)36 ( 9)Research Students
Total

RIEC

4

5 ( 3)

5 ( 3)

5 ( 3)

210 (25)*( ) Foreigner87

2015 Staff, Budget
4.BudgetBudget Shiftmillion yen

6,000

5,000
1,542
50

433

4,000

3,000
2,461

2,933

2,464

2,000

1,000

360

20

1,423

1,514

1,523

1,435

1,382

1,460

1,392

FY2011FY2012FY2013

FY2014FY20150Operation Grants

External Funds

Expenses for Facilities Improvement etc.

Budget Summary

thousand yen
Categories

FY2011FY2012FY2013

FY2014FY2015

Personnel Expenses

835,898

770,443

723,507791,174

724,798

Non-Personnel Expenses

687,253

665,038

658,590668,941

667,582

1,523,151

1,435,481

1,382,097

1,460,115

1,392,380

Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research

469,840

407,629

343,824

399,311422,846

Funds for Commissioned Research

1,122,944

1,344,071

1,890,012

1,007,060

1,076,220

FIRST Program※1・NEXT Program※2

813,777

671,668

660,578

00Donations

54,16740,714

38,10016,89014,490Indirect Expenses

311,801

326,869

336,037

212,669

219,8862,460,728

2,464,082

2,932,514

1,423,261

1,513,556

432,607

4,993

0

0

0

Expenses for Relocation

00

49,632359,770

20,011

Expenses for Facilities Improvement0

1,536,530

000432,607

1,541,523

49,632359,770

20,011

4,416,486

5,441,086

4,364,243

3,243,146

2,925,947

Operation Grants

Operation Grants Total

External Funds

External Funds

Total

Expenses for Reconstruction

Expenses for Facilities Improvement etc. Total
Total



88

※1 FIRST Program…Funding Program for World-Leading Innovative R&D on Science and Technology (JSPS)※2 NEXT Program…Funding Program for Next Generation World-Leading Researchers(JSPS)2015 Staff, Budget
External Funds
million yen

2,000

1,890

1,800
1,600

1,344

1,400
1,200

1,123

1,000

814

800
600

1,076

1,007

672
470

661

408

400

423

399

344

200

54

41

38

0

0
FY2011FY2012Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research

FY201317

0

FY2014

Funds for Commissioned Research

14

FY2015FIRST Program・NEXT Program

Donations

thousand yen

External Funds
Categories

FY2012FY2013

FY2014FY2015Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research

469,840

407,629

343,824

399,311422,846

Funds for Commissioned Research

1,122,944

1,344,071

1,890,012

1,007,060

1,076,220

FIRST Program※1・NEXT Program※2

813,777

671,668

660,578

00Donations

54,16740,714

38,10016,89014,4902,460,728

2,464,082

2,932,514

1,423,261

1,513,556

Total



FY2011※1 FIRST Program…Funding Program for World-Leading Innovative R&D on Science and Technology (JSPS)※2 NEXT Program…Funding Program for Next Generation World-Leading Researchers(JSPS)89

Annual Report 2015
Research Institute of Electrical Communication
Tohoku University
2-1-1Katahira, Aobaku, Sendai 980-8577, Japan
Tel. +81-(0)22-217-5422 Fax. +81-(0)22-217-5426
http://www.riec.tohoku.ac.jp/