Annual Report 2009

Research Institute of Electrical Communication,Tohoku University

Research Institute of Electrical Communication,Tohoku University
Annual Report 2009

Annual Report 2009

Research Institute of Electrical Communication,Tohoku University

Research Institute of Electrical Communication,Tohoku University

Annual Report 2009

Annual report of Research Institute of Electrical Communication 2009

Contents
1. Preface…………………………………………………………………………………………
�������
1
2. Organization…
������������ ……………………………………………………………………………… 3
3. Research��������� ����������
activities
Research division Information devices division… …………………………………………………… 5
 Broadband engineering division…………………………………………………… 11
 Human information systems division… ………………………………………… 21
 Systems & software division… …………………………………………………… 29
Laboratories and Center Laboratories for nanoelectoronics and spintoronics… ………………………… 35
 Laboratories for brainware systems……………………………………………… 48
 Research center for 21st century information technology……………………… 54
 Management office for safety and health………………………………………… 58
 Flexible information system research center… ………………………………… 59
 Fundamental technology center…………………………………………………… 60
4. Nation-wide������������������������
Cooperative research��������� ��������
projects……………………………………………… 61
5. Symposium……………………………………………………………………………………
���������
71
6. Study������ Groups����������
on ������������������������
Electrical Communication… ………………………………………… 75
7. International�������������� ����������
activities……………………………………………………………………… 79
8. Periodicals�����������������������������
published by the ���������
institute… ………………………………………………… 85
9. Staff,������� �����
Land ��������������������
and Buildings,Budget………………………………………………………… 87
10. Afterword…
��������� ………………………………………………………………………………… 89

2009 Preface

1. Preface
I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your interest in and support for the
research activities of the Research Institute of Electrical Communication (RIEC) of
Tohoku University. Here, I report on the research activities that we undertook in 2009. I
would sincerely appreciate any feedback you might like to provide.
RIEC was established in 1935 as a research institute affiliated with the Faculty ofEngineering, in response to pioneering work on information and communications suchas the Yagi-Uda antenna and the magnetron, which were developed at the university.
We have subsequently transferred our information and communications results tosociety, with "Research on theory and applications of intelligent information scienceand communication" as our mission. Close and smooth communication between people
provides a foundation for the development of a society with a rich sense of humanity.
The information and communication technology that supports this foundation is ofincreasing importance in today’s information society. Thus, we have organized ourselves
into four major research divisions with a 20-year perspective, two research facilities
with a 10-year perspective, and a research center to realize commercialization with a
5-year perspective, which constitutes a system designed to respond quickly to social
needs. Through close cooperation with the Electrical Engineering, Communication
Engineering, Electronic Engineering, and Information Engineering departments in
the Graduate School of Engineering, the Graduate School of Information Sciences
and the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, we are striving to produce many
international researchers and advanced engineers, while promoting cutting edge
research.
The RIEC underwent a large transformation after Tohoku University wasincorporated as a National University Corporation in 2004. In April 2010, we changed
from a National Center for Co-operative Research to a Joint Usage/Research Center.
We have to reconsider our purpose, and expose ourselves to global evaluation. At thesame time, this is a chance to demonstrate clearly the importance of our institute tosociety. We shall accelerate technology exchanges and cooperation with industry andgovernment through 70 cooperative projects of Types A, B, and S, and do our best to
realize communication with the world around us.
We will appreciate your help and encouragement in the years to come.

Masataka NAKAZAWA,
June 28, 2010
Director, Research Institute of Electrical Communication (RIEC),
Tohoku University2009 Organization Chart
2. Organization䇭Chart
Director

Advisory Council

Information Devices Division

Deputy Director
Research
FacultyCouncilBroadband Engineering Division

Human Information Systems Division

Research Facilities

Electromagnetic Bioinformation Engineering
Advanced Acoustic Information Systems
Visual Cognition and Systems
Interdisciplinary Field for Informatics
Ubiquitous Communications System
Multimodal Computing

Software Construction
Computing Information Theory
Communication Network Systems
Information Content
Information Social Structure

Laboratory For
Nanoelectronics and Spintronics

Atomically Controlled Processing
Semiconductor Spintronics
Nano-Molecular Devices
Nano-Spin Memory

Laboratory for Brainware Systems

Real-World ComputingIntelligent Nano-Integration System
Microarchitecture
New Paradigm VLSI System

Research Center for21st Century Information Technology

Project Planning Division
Technology Development Division:‫ ޓޓޓޓޓޓ‬Mobile WirelessTechnology Group
Storage Technology GroupIntelligence Archive Group

Flexible Information System
Research Center
Fundamental Technology Center

Administration
OfficeUltrahigh-Speed Optical Communication
Applied Quantum Optics
Wireless Info Tech
Information Storage Systems
Ultra-Broadband Signal Processing
Basic Technology for Broadband Communication

Systems & Software Division

Management Office for Safety and HealthCommon Research
Facilities

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

General Affairs GroupAccounting Group

Machine Shop Division
Evaluation Division
Process Division
Software Technology Division
General Affairs Section
Cooperative Research Section
Library Section
Accounting Section
Purchasing Section

3.RESEARCH ACTIVITIES2009 Information Devices Division

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 the goals of this division, we have the following 6 sub-divisions withdifferent research fields. Furthermore, we also have a partnership with atomically controlled
processing research 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 target and the summary of achievements of the each sub-division in 2009 are describedin the following pages. In addition, about the summary of achievement of the atomicallycontrolled processing research section will be written in the chapter of the Laboratory for
Nanoelectronics and Spntronics.

2009 Information Devices Division
Nanophotoelectronics

Exploring optical and electronic properties of nanometer-sized structures andtheir applications in photoelectronic devices[Research Target and Activities]
Our main interest lies in studying the physical and chemical

phenomena that take place in nanometer-scale regions and theirapplications in nanophotoelectronic devices.

STM light emission spectrum
STM tip

Tunneling electron

We investigate the material

STM light emission

Surface nano-structure(atom, molecle, quantum dot, etc.)

properties of nanostructures through their optical responses to the local

Lens

excitation induced by electrons from the tip of a scanning tunnelingmicroscope (STM), as illustrated in Fig. 1.

Spectrometer

STM light
emission

SampleIn this year, we have

Fig. 1 STM light

successfully determined local electronic density of states of Ag(110) (2x1)emission spectroscopy

O and local dielectric functions of Ni(110) (2x1) O by analyzing their STM

light emission (STM-LE) spectra. A new finding is obtained concerning electron tunneling between
the tip and a Au film covered by a self-assembled monolayer of thiol molecules.

In order to activate

various functions of each molecule at solid surfaces, its electronic isolation from the substrates is ofimportance.

NaCl films with a monolayer thickness was successfully synthesized on Au(111) for thispurpose, and their dynamics was investigated by STM.

We are also interested in developing novel

methods for measuring nanometer-scale surface properties.

We have developed the new method thatmakes it possible to determine phonon energies (i.e., vibarational energies of solids) with the spatial
resolution of STM.

STM-LE is fundamentally weak.

Hence, in STM-LE measurements one isfrequently confronted with a difficulty arising from this weakness.
prism-coupled

STM-LE

geometryenhances

tenfoldthe

We have found that a

STM-LE

intensities.

The

Finite-Differential-Time-Domain analysis, which is a numerical method for solving the Maxwell
equations, was successfully applied to STM-LE spectra.

[Staff]
Professor
UEHARA, Yoichi Dr.
Assistant Professor
KATANO, Satoshi Dr.
[Profile]
Dr. Yoichi Uehara obtained his D. Eng. degree from the Department of Engineering, University ofOsaka prefecture in 1986, after which, he was initially appointed as an Assistant Professor at the
Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University.
Professor at the institute in 2005.

He eventually became a Full

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.

[Papers][1]

Y. Hirata, K. Sakamoto, Y. Uehara, and S. Ushioda, “Tip-enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy ofnanometer-scale domains in Ni(110)-(2x1) O surface”, Jpn J. Appl. Phys. 48, 110206 (2009).
Y. Uehara, M. Kuwahara, S. Katano, and S. Ushioda, “Scanning tunneling microscope light emission
spectra of polycrystalline Ge2Sb2Te5 and Sb2Te3”, Solid State Commun. 149, 1902 (2009).
Y. Uehara and S. Ushioda, “Local density of states of partially oxidized Ag(110) surfaces observed using
scanning tunneling microscope light emission spectroscopy”, Jpn J. Appl. Phys. 49, 035702 (2010).

[2]
[3]



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

2009 Information Devices Division
Quantum Optical Information Technology

Development of optoelectronic devices for quantum information andcommunication technology[Research Target and Activities]
Current information and communication technology utilizes
macroscopic and classical physical quantities, such as voltage or
frequency of electric fields. The classical technology will reachthe limit of information density and speed in the near future.
The quantum-mechanical counterpart, “quantum information
processing and communication technology”, in which information is carried by microscopic and quantum-mechanical quantities, is expected to overcome the difficulty.
Our goal is to develop the quantum information devices utilizing quantum interaction between electrons and photons insemiconductor nanostructures, to get further understanding of
their physics, and to apply them to practical quantum
information technologies. We are particularly working toward
the development of future quantum information devices
utilizing entangled photon pairs and electron spins insemiconductor nanostructures.
In 2009, we have achieved (1) development of novel entangled photon sources and up-conversion photon detectors using
quasi-phase matched devices, (2) measurement of ultralow-light-level optical nonlinearity in a Si wire waveguide, and(3) quantum media conversion from photons to electron spins insemiconductor quantum structures.

Fig. 1 Single-photon-level optical nonlinearity.

Fig. 2 Quantum media conversion from photon polarization toan electron spin.

[Staff]
Professor: EDAMATSU, Keiichi Dr.
Associate professor: KOSAKA, Hideo Dr.
Assistant professor: MITSUMORI, Yasuyoshi Dr.
[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.
[Papers]
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]

Generation of cross-polarized photon pairs via type-II third-order quasi-phase matched parametric down-conversion[S. Nagano, A. Syouji, R. Shimizu, K. Suizu, H. Ito, and K. Edamatsu: Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 48, 050205/1-3 (2009)]
Electrical measurement of a two-electron spin state in a double quantum dot [N. Yokoshi, H. Imamura, and H. Kosaka: Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 046806/1-4 (2009)]
High-flux and broadband biphoton sources with controlled frequency entanglement [R. Shimizu and K. Edamatsu,
Opt. Express 17, 16385-16393 (2009)]
All-optical phase modulations in a silicon wire waveguide at ultra-low light levels [N. Matsuda, R. Shimizu, Y. Mitsumori, H. Kosaka, A. Sato, H. Yokoyama, K. Yamada, T. Watanabe, T. Tsuchizawa, H. Fukuda, S. Itabashi, and K.
Edamatsu: Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 171110/1-3 (2009)]

Contact to Professor Keiichi EDAMATSU：eda@riec.tohoku.ac.jp2009 Information Devices Division
Solid State Electronics Laboratory

Ubiquitous Silicon Technology[Research Target and Activities]
To realize the ubiquitous (or ambient intelligence) society, in which sensors and their networks areembedded in our ambience to support our daily life, amarriage between non-Si technologies suitable forenvironmental sensing and the Si technology suitable forsignal processings is indispensable. To this goal, weinvestigate formation of ultrathin silicon-carbide (SiC) films
on Si substrates, hoping to use them as a common interface
between the two technologies. SiC is a group-IV compoundthat contains a pair of elements representative of bothelectronics (Si) and biology (C). It also bridges the gap
between Si and other II-VI or III-V compounds. It is a
widegap semiconductor that enables high-temperature
operations. High enough strength and hardness of SiC makethis material suitable for use in MEMS structures. We are
The integrated system for graphene
formation and analysis
developing gas-sensors, graphene-based ultrahigh-speed
devices, LEDs, biosensors, MEMS structures, non-volatilememories, and photovoltaic cells based on the SiC/Si structures. What lies behind these applications is
our original technology of SiC gas-source molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) using organo-silane, whichenables a high-quality, low-temperature SiC epitaxy on Si substrates. One of our most striking
achievements in this field is the realization of the graphene-on-silicon structure, in which graphene, amost promising semiconducting material to be used in the next generation devices, is formed by use of
surface modification of SiC/Si. Our research also covers the surface chemistry of Si-related surfaces,
targeted to the control of nanostructure formation on Si and SiC surfaces. Fabrication of
non-equilibrium Si structures such as amorphous-, microcrystalline-, and poly-Si thin films is also
within our interests, and is being intensively investigated using atmospheric-pressureplasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (AP-PECVD).
[Staff]
Professor : SUEMITSU, Maki Dr.
Assistant Professor : FUKIDOME, Hirokazu Dr.
Technical Assistant : MIURA, Akemi
Postdoctoral Fellow : ALGUNO, Arnold Café Dr.
[Profile of Professor SUEMITSU]
Prof. Maki Suemitsu obtained bachelor degree on electronic enginnering (1975), Ph.D on electronic engineering(1980). He started his service at Research Institute of Electrical Communication (RIEC) as research associate (1980),
and became associate professor (1990). He then became professor at Center for Inderdisciplinary Research (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.
[Papers]1.
Epitaxial growth processes of graphene on silicon substrates, Jpn. Journal of Applied Physics, 49,(2010), pp 01AH03-1-4] H. Fukidome, Y. Miyamoto, H. Handa, E. Saito, and M. Suemitsu
2.
SR-PES and STM Observation of Metastable Chemisorption State of Oxygen on Si(110)-16´2
Surface, Spring-8 Research Frontiers, 2008 (2009) pp82-83, Maki Suemitsu
3.
Initial oxidation of Si(110) as studied by real-time synchrotron-radiation x-ray photomission
spectroscopy, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B27(1), (2009), pp547-550, M. Suemitsu, Y. Yamamoto, H.
Togashi, Y. Enta,. Yoshigoe and Y. Teraoka
Contact to Professor Maki SUEMITSU：suemitsu@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2009 Information Devices Division
Dielectric Nano-Devices

Research on Dielectric Nano Science and Technology[Research Target and Activities]
Our main area of interest is evaluationand development of dielectric materials, including
ferroelectric and piezoelectric materials and theirapplication to communication devices andferroelectric data storage systems. Our major
contributions to advancement in these fields are
the invention and the development of “Scanning
Nonlinear Dielectric Microscope” (SNDM) which isthe first successful purely electrical method for
Fig.1 Digital bit data written on ferroelectricobservingtheferroelectric
polarization
single crystal with the areal recording
density of 4 Tbit/inch2.
distribution without the influence of the shielding
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 2009 are as follows: (1) Surfaces of various material (cf.
silicon, titanium dioxide, strontium titanate) were observed with atomic resolution using non-contact
SNDM. (2) Ferroelectric discrete track media were proposed as a novel recording method, which is
expected to have improved retention characteristics. Additionally, high-accuracy servo tracking
methods for ultrahigh-density ferroelectric data storage were also developed. (3) Dopant profiling
method using SNDM was developed for analysis of semiconductor devices.
[Staff]
Professor : CHO, Yasuo Dr.
Assistant Professor : HIRANAGA, Yoshiomi Dr.
Assistant Professor : KIN, Nobuhiro
Technical Official : WAGATSUMA, Yasuo

Research Fellow : KOBAYASHI, Shinichiro Dr.
Research Fellow : OKAZAKI, Noriaki Dr.

[Profile of Professor Cho]
Yasuo Cho graduated in 1980 from Tohoku University in electrical engineering department.
In 1985 he became a research associate at Research Institute of Electrical Communication Tohoku
University. In 1990, he received an associate professorship from Yamaguchi University. He thenbecame an associate professor in 1997 and a full professor in 2001 at Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication Tohoku University. During this time, his main research interests included nonlinear
phenomena in ferroelectric 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]

Nobuhiro Kin,Yuhei Osa, and Yasuo Cho,“Observation of local dipole moment of Si atoms on Si (100)surfaces using noncontact scanning nonlinear dielectric microscopy”, J. Appl. Phys., Vol.106,
pp.014302-1-014302-5, 2009.
Nozomi Odagawa and Yasuo Cho, “Dependence of long term stability on the initial radius of small
inverted domains formed on congruent single-crystal LiTaO3”, Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol.95,
pp.142907-1-142907-3, 2009.
Yoshiomi Hiranaga and Yasuo Cho, “Intermittent contact scanning nonlinear dielectric microscopy”,
Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 81, pp.023705-1-023705-5, 2010.

Contact to Professor Yasuo CHO：yasuocho@riec.tohoku.ac.jp2009 Information Devices Division
Materials Functionality Design

Computational Design of Functional Materials for Spintornics Devices[Research Target and Activities]
Our research targets are as follows: (1) theoretical analyses of quantum phenomena which appear inmaterials and nanostructures for advanced information devices, (2) computational design of materials
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 2009 include computational materials design for spintornics as follows:(1) Giant magnetoresistive devices using half-metallic Heusler alloys
We investigate the spin-dependent transport properties in Co2MnSi/NM/Co2MnSi (001) (NM = Au, Ag,
Al, Cr, V) spin-valve structures theoretically on the basis of first-principles density-functional
calculations. The compatibility of the Fermi surface projected onto the in-plane wave vector k// plays animportant role in determining the interface resistance of each spin-valve. The resistance-area productin Co2MnSi/Cr/Co2MnSi (001) is larger of about 13 mƺǍm2 than that in Co2MnSi/Ag/Co2MnSi (001),
which is in good agreement with recent experimental observations.
(2) New ordered alloy FeNi with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
We investigate the magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) of an L10-ordered alloy FeNi theoretically on
the basis of first-principles density-functional calculations. The magnetization of FeNi prefers the[001] direction. While the MAE is almost unalteredagainst the contraction of the in-plane lattice
constant, the MAE decreases remarkably withincreasing the in-plane lattice constant (Fig. 1). The
compressive stress arising from the lattice mismatchwith buffer layers is favorable for achieving larger
MAE in FeNi thin films.

[Staff]
Professor : SHIRAI, Masafumi Dr.
Assistant Professor : MIURA, Yoshio Dr.
Assistant Professor : ABE, Kazutaka Dr.
Fig. 1[Profile]
Masafumi Shirai was received the Doctor of Engineering degree from Osaka University in 1989.
From 1988 to 1996, he was a Research Associate, and then 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 and device structures in spintronics.

[Papers][1] M. Shirai, Y. Miura, and K. Abe, “First-principles calculations of half-metallic Heusler alloys: The effectof atomic disorder and interfaces”, Epitaxial Ferromagnetic Films and Spintronic Applications, eds. A.
Hirohata and Y. Otani, ISBN 978-81-308-0319-7, pp. 187-205, Research Signpost, 2009.
[2] T. Kanomata, Y. Kitsunai, K. Sano, Y. Furutani, H. Nishihara, R. Y. Umetsu, R. Kainuma, Y. Miura, and
M. Shirai, “Magnetic properties of quaternary Heusler alloys Ni2-xCoxMnGa”, Phys. Rev. B, Vol. 81, No.
21, Article no. 214402, pp. 1-6, 2009.
[3] Y. Miura, K. Abe, and M. Shirai, “Half-metallic behavior of Co2MnSi/Co2MnAl/MgO interface and its
coherent tunneling conductance”, J. Phys.: Conf. Series, Vol. 200, Article no. 052016, pp. 1-4, 2010.

10

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

2009 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, storage, andsemiconductor spintronics technologies.
(1) Wireless Information Technology
Research and development in wireless information technology are progressing
toward Dependable Air for the next decade's wireless systems.

To realize theDependable Air, we are interested in developing the hybrid single-carrier andmulti-carrier technique and LSI development of frequency domain equalization (FDE).
We are also actively engaged in work on following technologies for broadband,
low-power consumption and small-size terminals; RF-CMOS power amplifier andsynthesizer devices for millimeter-wave-band wireless modems, and GHz-band film
bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) filter and oscillator.
(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-latticecarboncrystal.

We

havefabricatedagraphene-channel FET utilizing heteroepitaxial graphene-on-silicon (GOS) material(provided by the group of Prof. Maki Suemitsu in RIEC) and demonstrated excellent
electron drift mobility 20 times as high as that in Si MOSFETs.
We also succeeded in observation of amplified stimulated terahertz emission fromfemtosecond infrared laser-pumped GOS material.

The results reflect the occurrenceof the negative dynamic conductivity that has been theoretically predicted by our group,
leading to realization of a new type of terahertz lasers.
(3) Ultrahigh-Speed Optical Communication
To achieve a global high-capacity optical network, we have been engaged in the
research on ultrahigh-speed Optical Time-Division Multiplexing (OTDM) transmission
and highly spectral-efficient coherent Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)
transmission.
As regards the ultrahigh-speed transmission, 640 Gbit/s/channel DPSK signal was
successfully transmitted over 525 km in a single polarization by using a novel ultrafast
time-domain optical Fourier transformation technique. In coherent optical transmission,11

2009 Broadband Engineering Division

we successfully achieved a QAM multiplicity as high as 256, and demonstrated a 64
Gbit/s transmission over 160 km with an optical bandwidth of 5.4 GHz. This indicatesthe possibility of a spectral efficiency exceeding 11 bit/s/Hz.
(4) Applied Quantum Optics
Novel functional semiconductor photonic devices are investigated to explore newgeneration photonic network systems. Ultra-broadband coherent terahertz (THz) wave
radiation, called as “Tera-Photonics,” is also studied.
Ultra-high-speed operation of semiconductor photonic active devices is being
investigated. It is confirmed that the bandwidth can be broadened drastically to sometens of GHz by a novel passive feedback laser diode with an external cavity. Novel THz
biosensors using surface plasmon resonance are also studied to achieve sensitive
detection of biomolecules and THz imaging with sub-wavelength spatial resolution.
High-quality THz resonators are successfully realized by using novel fabrication
process.
(5) Information Storage Systems
Amount of digital information is rapidly growing year by year in this decade. Highdensity magnetic recording technology to store the tremendous information is crucial tomeet this strong demand. System technology to process data access to/from the disks
plays another significant role.
For a high areal density of 2 Tbits/inch2, a computer simulation based on LLG
equation and experimental studies for high density read/write performance of
perpendicular magnetic recording have been carried out. The areal density was
examined with perpendicular bit patterned media. A novel storage architecture to
reducepower

consumption

wasdeveloped

andevaluatedforpetabyte-classlarge-capacity systems.
(6) Basic Technology for Broadband Communication (Mizuno Lab.)  Development of measurement instruments using the millimeter- and terahertz-wave
region of the electromagnetic spectrum is the research object of this laboratory.
Passive millimeter wave imaging devices are being developed for security andmedical applications. A prototype of 77 GHz PMMW imaging device was tested in-site at
the Narita International Airport to demonstrate its usefulness for security applicationsin the fall of 2009.
(7) Basic Technology for Broadband Communication (Inutake Lab.)
Synthetic aperture radars (SAR) are useful for all-weather surveillance and rescue.
In this fiscal year we have started to develop a real-time image, air-borne SAR under
the research contract with Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism

12

2009 Broadband Engineering Division(MLIT). Conceptual design of a spotlight-mode SAR system has been done, targeting at
a high resolution (10 cm), small size and light weight (30-50 kg) at Ku-band, anddevelopment of a waveform synthesizer with a precise setting of delay-time has been
done successfully. Scientists and engineers of universities and industries collaborate on
the program.
(8) Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics: Semiconductor Spintronics
The

nanoscienceandnanotechnology

tocontrolthequantum

statesinsemiconductors, especially the spin-states and optical transitions, are investigated torealized new functional devices, such as memories and logic devices using spin states aswell as quantum cascade lasers (QCL) with THz emission.
We performed direct magnetometry of electric-field effect on (Ga,Mn)As film, whichshowed the modulation of the Curie temperature as well as spontaneous magnetization,and elucidated the doping concentration dependence of the spin Hall conductivity ofsemiconductors quantitatively by systematic studies of the spin Hall effect. We also
succeeded in lasing of THz-GaAs-based quantum cascade laser with a metal-metal
waveguide structure, which is expected to reduce the threshold current density andraise the operation temperature.
(9) Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics: Nano-Spin Memories

Technologies to realize advanced spin memory and logic devices using magnetic
tunnel junctions (MTJs) consisting of ferromagnetic metal electrodes and insulating
barriers are developing.
The TMR ratios of 78% at RT were realized in MgO-based MTJs with perpendicularanisotropy CoFe/Pd multilayers and CoFeB or Fe insertion. The TMR ratio of 122% at
RT with RA

2

were obtained in CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB MTJs. Operations of theworld's first 32Mb SPRAM chip, ternary content-addressable memory, Lookup-Table
employing the spin-transfer torque MTJs were verified.

13

2009 Broadband Engineering Division
Research Area of Ultrahigh-Speed Optical Communication

Advanced optical communication technologies approaching the Shannon limit[Research Target and Activities]
With the vast growth of traffic on the Internet from
AmplifierArbitrary
Optical Filter
WaveformAtt (䡚3 nm)
simple text data to high quality voice, images, andGenerator
IQ Mod.
EDFA
real-time video, it has become increasingly important䎹PCAtt
C H Frequency
OFS
to realize a high-capacity and high-speed network to Stabilized Laser
PBC
Delay Line(f =10 GHz)
support the daily needs of modern communications.
Ultrahigh-speed optical communication is the key
FBG (5 GHz)80 km SSMF
technology for building such an interconnected world.
PBS
Polarizer
Digital
B-PD A/D
This laboratory aims to achieve a global
SignalB-PD A/D Processor
Att-2 dBm
-2 dBm90 Opticalultrahigh-speed optical network in the 21 century by
Optical Filter
Etalon Hybrid
DBM Feedback(䡚1 nm)PD
engaging in the research of ultrashort pulse
Circuit
EDFA: Erbium-doped Fiber Amplifier
Synthesizer
PC: Polarisation Controller
generation and transmission.
f =10 GHz
OFS: Optical Frequency Shifter
Polarization Beam Combiner
As regards ultrahigh-speed transmission, we PBC:
PBS: Polarization Beam Splitter
Local Oscillator
FBG: Fiber Bragg Grating(TunableStandard Single-mode Fiber
Optical Filter
successfully
demonstrated
640
Gbit/s/channel SSMF:
B-PD: Balanced Photo-detector
Fiber Laser)(䡚2.5 nm)single-polarization DPSK transmission over 525 km, DBM: Double Balanced Mixer
(a)
in
which
a
time-domain
opticalFouriertransformation (OFT) technique was adopted for
improving the system tolerance to transmission
impairments due to higher-order PMD. The OFT was
successfully applied to a 640 Gbit/s DPSK signal, in
which the strong chirp required for the OFT of a
subpicosecond pulse is realized with a phasemodulator operated in a round-trip configuration. As
regards multilevel coherent transmission, 256 QAM
coherent optical transmission was realized for the first(b) Back-to-back(c) After 160 km transmission
time with a frequency-stabilized fiber laser and an
optical PLL technique (Fig. 1). In this scheme, 64
Fig. 1 256 QAM transmission setup (a) andGbit/s (polarization-multiplexed 4 Gsymbol/s, 256constellations before and after transmission
QAM) data were transmitted over 160 km with an(b) and (c), respectively.
optical bandwidth of 5.4 GHz, which corresponds to aspectral efficiency of more than 11 bit/s/Hz in a single
channel.
[Staff]Distinguished Professor: NAKAZAWA, Masataka Dr.
Associate Professor: HIROOKA, Toshihiko Dr.
Assistant Professor: YOSHIDA, Masato Dr.
JSPS Fellow: KASAI, Keisuke Dr.
[Profile of Professor Nakazawa]
Prof. Nakazawa received a Ph. D. degree from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1980. In 1980, hejoined the Ibaraki Electrical Communication Laboratory, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Public
Corporation. He was a visiting scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984-1985. In
2001, he moved to the Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University as aprofessor, where he has been engaged in research on ultrahigh-speed optical communication including
soliton transmission, nonlinear effects in fibers, mode-locked lasers, and photonic crystal fibers. He is
the author and coauthor of over 400 journal articles and holds more than 100 patents. He is a Fellow ofIEEE, OSA, and IEICE, and has received various awards including the 2002 Daniel E. Noble Awardand 2005 OSA R. W. Wood Prize.
[Papers]
2

2

OFS

o

syn

[1] T. Hirooka, M. Okazaki, T. Hirano, P. Guan, M. Nakazawa, and S. Nakamura, “All-opticaldemultiplexing of 640-Gb/s OTDM-DPSK signal using a semiconductor SMZ switch,” IEEE Photon.
Technol. Lett., vol. 21, no. 20, pp. 1574-1576 (2009).
[2] P. Guan, M. Okazaki, T. Hirano, T. Hirooka, and M. Nakazawa, “Low-penalty 5x320
Gbit/s/single-channel WDM DPSK transmission over 525 km using time-domain optical Fouriertransformation,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 21, no. 21, pp. 1579-1581 (2009).
[3] M. Nakazawa, S. Okamoto, T. Omiya, K. Kasai, and M. Yoshida, “256-QAM (64 Gb/s) coherent opticaltransmission over 160 km with an optical bandwidth of 5.4 GHz,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 22,
no. 3, pp. 185-187 (2010).

14

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

2009 Broadband Engineering Division
Applied Quantum Optics

Research on Innovative Highly Functional Photonic Semiconductor Devices andUltra-wide band coherent light sources, and their applications[Research Target and Activities]
Novel functional semiconductor photonic devices including photonic integrated circuits areinvestigated to explore new-generation photonic network systems. We have also been studying
ultra-broadband coherent terahertz (THz) wave radiation to explore novel science and technology,“tera-photonics”.
Ultra-high-speed operation of semiconductor photonic active devices is being investigated It is
confirmed by means of numerical simulation that the operation speed of laser diodes can be increased
by controlling them with high speed signal light. It is also confirmed that the bandwidth can bebroadened drastically by a novel passive feedback laser diode with an external cavity. Novel THz
biosensors using surface plasmon resonance are also studied to achieve sensitive detection of
biomolecules, high-spatial-resolution THz imaging beyond diffraction limit. High-quality THz
resonators for local-field enhancement are successfully realized by using novel fabrication process.

Experimental setups for novel semiconductor photonic functional devices (left),and fabricated surface-plasmon THz-wave resonator (right)[Staff]
Professor 㸸 YASAKA, Hiroshi Dr.
Associate Professor 㸸 SHIKATA, Jun-ichi Dr.
[Profile of Professor Yasaka]
Hiroshi YASAKA received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in physics from Kyusyu University in 1983 and1985, and Ph.D. degree in Electronics Engineering from Hokkaido University in 1993. In 1985 hejoined the Atsugi Electrical Communications Laboratories, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT)Corporation. Since then, he has been engaging in research and development on semiconductor
photonic devices for optical fiber communication systems. From 2008 he has been a professor of Tohoku
University. He is a member of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers(IEICE) of Japan, the Japan Society of Applied Physics, the Physical Society of Japan, andIEEE/LEOS.
[Papers][1] K. Tsuzuki, Y. Shibata, N. Kikuchi, M. Ishikawa, T. Yasui, H. Ishii, and H. Yasaka, “Full C-bandtunable DFB laser array co-packaged with InP Mach-Zehnder modulator for DWDM opticalcommunication systems,” IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, vol. 15, No. 3, pp.
521-527, May/June 2009.
[2] N. Kikuchi, Y. Shibata, K. Tsuzuki, H. Sanjoh, T. Sato, E. Yamada, T. Ishibashi, and H. Yasaka,“80-Gb/s Low-Driving-Voltage InP DQPSK Modulator With an n-p-i-n Structure,” IEEE Photonics
Technology Letters, vol. 21, No. 12, pp. 787-789, June 2009.
[3] J. Shikata, Y. Nomura, and H. Yasaka, “Surface-plasomon terahertz-wave resonator for high-resolution
imaging beyond diffraction limit,” Interdisciplinary Science of Nanomaterials, P-20, Sendai, Sept.
2009.

Contact to Professor Hiroshi YASAKA ： yasaka@riec.tohoku.ac.jp15

2009 Broadband Engineering Division
Wireless Info Tech

For Realizing Dependable Air[Research Target and Activities]
Researchanddevelopment
areprogressing toward Dependable Air in the
21stcentury's
wireless
information
technology.
The
DependableAir
immediately provides any information foreveryone at anytime and anywhere.
For realizing the Dependable Air, we areinterested in developing following wirelessnetwork; (1) next generation mobile
broadband wireless access (MBWA), (2)dependable broadband wireless local area
network (WLAN), and (3) ultra broadband
wireless personal area network (WPAN).
In this year, we have discussed following
Fig. The target system of Wireless Info Tech.
technology for broadband, low power
consumption and small size terminals; (1) RFpower amplifier, synthesizer and mixer devices for millimeter wave and GHz-band wireless modems,(2) GHz-band film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) devices, (3) Ultra small antennas for mobile
terminals, (4) Seamless interconnection technology using 3-dementional system in package (3D SiP),
and (5) frequency domain equalizer (FDE) devices on application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).
Moreover, we have evaluated the MBWA field trial using frequency hopping orthogonal frequency
division multiple access (FH-OFDMA) system.
[Staff]
Professor: TSUBOUCHI, Kazuo, Ph. D
Assistant Professor: KAMEDA, Suguru, Ph. D[Profile]
Prof. Tsubouchi received the Ph.D. degree in Electronics Engineering from Nagoya University in 1974.
Since 1974, he has been with the Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University.
In 1982, he spent at Purdue University as a Visiting Associate Professor. He is currently theprofessor and the director of IT-21 Center. He received the 2005 Achievement Award from the IEICE,and “Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Award” in the Award for Personsof Merit in Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration in FY2007, et al. He is a member of theIEEE, the IEICE, the Physical Society of Japan, the Japan Society of Applied Physics, and theInstitute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.
[Papers][1] S. Tanifuji, T. T. Thanh, S. Kameda, T. Takagi, and K. Tsubouchi, "5GHz band low phase noise Si-CMOS oscillator
using FBAR", IEICE Electron. Express, vol.7, no.3, pp.165-169, 2010.
[2] S. Kameda, H. Oguma, T. Takagi, K. Tsubouchi, N. Izuka, Y. Asano, and Y. Yamazaki, "Feasibility Study of Downlink
Transmission with 256 QAM Based on Results of MBWA System Field Trial," European Wireless 2009, pp.140-144,
May 2009.
[3] I. Kashiwamura, S. Tomita, K. Komatsu, T. N. Hao, H. Oguma, N. Izuka, S. Kameda, T. Takagi, and K. Tsubouchi"Investigation on Single-Carrier and Multi-Carrier Hybrid System for Uplink," Proc. 20th Annual IEEE Int. Symp.
Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Commun., Sept. 2009.

16

Contact to Professor Kazuo TSUBOUCHI：tsubo@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2009 Broadband Engineering Division
Information Storage System

Research on Large Capacity Information Storage System Using Perpendicular
Magnetic Recording[Research Target and Activities]
Amount of digital information is rapidly growing year by year, which is
projected to exceed 1000 Exa-byte (1021 bytes) in 2010. Extremely large storage
capacity by high density magnetic recording for the information is thus
required. Perpendicular magnetic recording was introduced in order tocontinuously develop areal density of hard disk drives beyond the conventional
density limit, i.e., near future target of 1 Tbit/inch2 and even larger than 5
Tbit/inch2. Theoretical studies including a micromagnetic computer simulationin association with experimental approach are carried out for the next Fig 1 Fabricated bit
generation high density perpendicular recording.
patterned media
As we early proposed, magnetic nano-structure of recording media
is the most essential parameter to achieve high density perpendicular
recording. Bit-patterned medium (Fig 1) is one of promising candidates.
Side
An areal density of 2 Tbit/inch2 was clarified to be feasible under theMain poleshieldcondition of good geographical and magnetic uniformity of thepatterned dots and a writing head resolution. A shingled writing
Trailing
recoding with a wide track write head was also studied, which broughtshielddensity increase by 50%. (Fig. 2)
In addition to the studies on magnetic recording, a novel low-power
Shingled
consumption architecture for the data centers in the internet was
Trackdeveloped based on tiered operation of hard disk drives. The power
n+1
reduction of 50% was confirmed from our simulation works.
[Staff]
Hiroaki MURAOKA, Professor (since 2000)
Simon J. GREAVES, Associate Professor (since 2003)
Kenji MIURA, Assistant Professor (since 2003)
Sachiko KOBAYASHI, Secretarynn-1

Fig 2 A proposed high field write
head for shingled recording.

[Profile]
In 1991, Professor Muraoka joined Tohoku University. 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.
[Papers][1] Simon Greaves, Yasushi Kanai, and Hiroaki Muraoka, “Shingled Recording for 2–3 Tbit/in2,” IEEE Trans.
Magn., 45, 10, 3823-3829, 2009. [Invited][2] Kenji Miura, Eiji Yamamoto, Hajime Aoi, Hiroaki Muraoka, “Estimation of Maximum Track Density in
Shingled Writing,” IEEE Trans, Magn. 45, 10, 3722-3725, 2009[3] Junichi Yasumori, Yoshiaki Sonobe, Simon J. Greaves, Hiroaki Muraoka, “Servo-Pattern and Guard-Band
Formation in Perpendicular Discrete-Track Media by Ion Irradiation,” IEEE Trans. Magn., 45, 10, 3703-3706,
2009.
[4] Kiyoshi Yamakawa, Hiroaki Muraoka, Kinya Fudano, Simon John Greaves, Yuichi Ohsawa, Kazuyuki Ise, andYoshihisa Nakamura, “High Field-Gradient Design of Single-Pole Write-Head With Planar Pole Structure,”
IEEE Trans. Magn., Vol.46, No.3, pp. 730-737, 2010. [Invited]
Contact to Professor Hiroaki MURAOKA：muraoka@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

17

2009 Broadband Engineering Division
Ultra-broadband Signal Processing

Novel Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Integrated Electron Devices and Systems[Research Target and Activities]

Carrier relaxation/recombination dynamics in optically-pumped graphene, leading to amplified
stimulated terahertz emission(Left: photo and TEM images of heteroepitaxial graphene-on-Si (GOS) sample (courtesy: Prof. Maki Suemitsu),
center: intraband relaxation and radiative recombination of photogenerated electron/hole pairs resulting inemission of photons !Z , right: measured result demonstrating amplified stimulated terahertz emission
from fs-IR-laser-pumped GOS; blue line: the incident wave, red line: emitted wave from the GOS)

We are developing novel, integrated electron devices and circuit systems operating in the terahertz(THz) region. We are pursuing new materials called “graphene,” a single-layered carbon-atomic
honeycomb lattice crystal featuring extraordinary carrier transport properties. We have theoretically
predicted the occurrence of negative dynamic conductivity in the THz range for optically pumped
graphene. Very recently we have succeeded in observation of amplified stimulated THz emission fromfemtosecond infrared-laser pumped heteroepitaxial graphene on Si (developed by Prof. Maki Suemitsu
in RIEC). This will be the first big step ahead to a new principle THz laser. We have also succeeded intransistor operation by introducing graphene as a channel material in a Si-based FETs, demonstrating
an excellent electron drift mobility by 20 times higher than that for Si MOS-FETs. The other theme
includes the development of plasmon-resonant-based new type of THz emitter/detector devices.

[Staff]
Professor: OTSUJI, Taiichi Dr.
Associate Professor: SUEMITSU, Tetsuya Dr.
CREST Researcher: TAKABAYASHI, Masaru Dr.
JSPS Research Fellow: BOUBANGA TOMBET, Stephane Albon Ph.D.

Secretary: UENO, Kayo[Profile]
Prof. Taiichi Otsuji received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electronic engineering from Kyushu Instituteof Technology (Kyutech), Fukuoka, Japan, in 1982 and 1984, and the Ph.D. degree from Tokyo
Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan, in 1994. After working for NTT Laboratories, Japan, since
1984, he joined Kyutech in 1999, as an associate professor, being a professor from 2002. Since 2005,
he has been a professor at RIEC, Tohoku University, Japan. He is the recipient of the Outstanding
Paper Award of the 1997 IEEE GaAs IC Symposium. He is a member of IEEE, OSA, IEICE, and JSAP.
[Papers][1] H. Karasawa, T. Komori, T. Watanabe, M. Suemitsu, V. Ryzhii, T. Otsuji, Dig. CLEO-Eu, CF8.3, Munich, June 2009.
[2] V. Ryzhii , A. Dubinov , T. Otsuji , V. Mitin , M.S. Shur, J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 107, pp. 054505-1-5, 2010.
[3] V. V. Popov, T. Yu. Bagaeva, T. Otsuji, and V. Ryzhii, Phys. Rev. B, Vol. 81, pp. 073404-1-4, 2010.
[4] Y. Tsuda, T. Komori, A. El Fatimy, T. Suemitsu, and T. Otsuji, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B, Vol. 26, pp. A52-A57, 2009.

18

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

2009 Broadband Engineering Division
Basic Technology for Broadband Communication

Development of Measurement Instrumentation by the Millimeter and THz Wave

[Research Target and Activities]
Development of measurement instruments using the millimeter- and terahertz- wave region of theelectromagnetic spectrum is the research target of this Division. Since the wavelength of this region islarger than that of the infrared and optical region, scattering by cloud, dust, flame, fabrics, skin, etc. ismuch smaller and since photon energy of this region is much smaller than thermal energy kTB at theroom temperature, non-invasive measurement for materials is possible. In this Division passive
millimeter wave imaging systems are now being developed for security and medical applications.

A prototype of 77 GHz PMMW imaging device was tested in-site at the Narita International Airport
to demonstrate its usefulness for security applications in the fall of 2009.

[Staff]Visiting Professor: MIZUNO, Koji Dr[Profile]
Koji Mizuno was graduated from the Department of Electronic Engineering, Tohoku University,
Sendai, in 1963 and was appointed Professor at the University in 1984. He was a visiting researcher at
the University of London in 1972, and at California Institute of Technology in 1990. In 2004 he wasappointed Professor Emeritus of Tohoku University and also Research Professor of RIEC. He isrecipient of the IEEE Fellow grade in 1993, the Kenneth J. Button Medal in 1998, the Minister Award
of MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan) in 2003, and IEEE
MTT-Society Distinguished Educator Award in 2005.
[Paper & Book][1] H. Sato, K. Sawaya, an K. Mizuno, “Passive Millimeter-Wave Imaging Technology,” J. Society of
Instrument and Control Engineers, Vo. 48, No. 10, pp. 748-753, Oct. 2009. (in Japanese)[2] K. Mizuno, in

Fundamentals of Millimeter-Wave Technologies,

Institute of Electrical Engineers ofJapan, pp. 280-288. Tokyo: Ohmsha, 2009. (in Japanese)

Contact to Professor Koji MIZUNO �����������������������
： koji@riec.tohoku.ac.jp����������������������

19

2009 Broadband Engineering Division
Basic Technology for Broadband Communication

High Resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar for Civilian Applications[Research Objectives and Activities]
We are developing air-borne synthetic aperture radars (SAR) for civilian applications. The SAR
is useful for all-weather surveillance and rescue in disastrous fires and smokes. Scientists andengineers from both universities and industries collaborate on this research project.

Development of a high resolution (10cm), small size and light weight (30kg) SAR at Ku-band has
been started in this year under the contract of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
Conceptual design of a real-time image-formation SAR system has been done, as shown above.

[Staff]Visiting Professor : INUTAKE, Masaaki Dr.
[Profile]
1966: Bachelor of Engineering, University of Tokyo.
1972: Doctor of Engineering, University of Tokyo.
1972-1974: Research Fellow, Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science, University of Tokyo.
1974-1980: Assistant Professor, Institute of Plasma Physics, Nagoya University
1980-1994: Associate Professor, Graduate School of Applied Physics, University of Tsukuba.
1994-2007: Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University.
2007-present: Visiting Professor, Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University.
Researches: Microwave / laser-aided plasma diagnostics. Alfven wave physics and its applications to
the wave heating of a fusion plasma and the acceleration of supersonic plasma flows in a magnetic
nozzle for an advanced space propulsion. Prizes for Science & Technology (Research Category),
Commendation for Science & Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology, (April, 2008).
[Papers][1] Y. Kogi, H. Ikezi, A. Mase, M. Inutake, M. Sato, H. Hojo, ”Split-beam SAR” (Applied for Patent
2009-150179).
[2] A. Mase, Y. Kogi, N. Ito, et al., “Advanvement of Micro- wave Diagnostics for Magnetically Confined
Plasmas”, Plasma Devices Operations 17, 98-116 (2009).
[3] X. Feng, M. Sato, Y. Zhang, et al, “CMP Antenna Array GPR and Signal-to-Noise Ratio Improvement”,
IEEE Geosci. Remote Sensing Lett. 6, 23 -27 (2009).

20

Contact to Professor Masaaki INUTAKE ： inutakem@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2009 Human Information Systems Division
Aims and Achievements of Human Information Systems Division
Understanding the mechanisms of human information processing and realizing appropriate
information communication environments are necessary for advanced information communication
systems.
The aim of this division is to develop elementary and system technologies for the next
generation of information communication systems that are in harmony with human and theenvironment. For the aim, Achievements of Human Information Systems Division covers theresearch fields of information creation of biological systems, information communication
environments optimization and human information processing.
To achieve the aim, the division consists of the following four laboratories: Electomagnetic
Bioinformation Engineering, Advanced Acoustic Information Systems, Visual Cognition and
Systems, Interdisciplinary Field for Informatics, and Ubiquitous Communications System.
(1) Electomagnetic Bioinformation Engineering(Aims) The aim of our division are to obtain the high accuracy sensor system for the signals from thehuman body or electric devices and to obtain the system for approaching action to the human body, byusing the nano-scale controlled magnetic materials and by the development of the devices under thefunctions of the magnetics.
(Achievements) We proposed an extraordinary high sensitivity of the magnetic field sensor and thestrain sensor by the technique of optimizing the anisotropy of the magnetic thin films. The
manipulating technique for controlling the coagulation and the dispersion of the magnetic small
particles, which will be used in the human body, was proposed. In addition, 3D position detecting
system using magnetic markers was studied to improve its position accuracy. The study about themagnetic actuator driven by external magnetic field was carried out for micro-pump,
micro-cantilevered actuator, and so on. The system supporting the medical operation under theendoscopes was studied accompanied with the medical doctors.
(2)Advanced Acoustic Information Systems(Aims) To realize future high-definition communication systems with rich and natural sense ofpresence, acoustic information processing technologies based on good knowledge of human auditory
system as well as multimodal perception relating to hearing are studied.
(Achievements) In 2009, we deepen the understanding human spaciotemporal perceptual processesof audio-visual and audio-vestibular information. This is particularly important to realize future
multi-modal information processing and communication systems.
We clearly demonstrated that the alternation of sound location induces illusory visual motion when
vision cannot provide accurate spatial information (sound-induced visuall motion: SIVM). We
continued to develop methods, such as virtual auditory displays based on our accumulated knowledgeof human auditory space perception, new auralization method for concert hall based on sound field
simulation and sound reproduction method based on ambisonics techniques, and high-precision21

2009 Human Information Systems Division
analyzing method using a surrounding microphone array, to realize 3D immersive sound fields. They
are keenly required to realize super-definition audio-visual communications in near future.
Furthermore, we developed new signal processing algorithms of multiple description method forrealizing high secrecy in voice over internet protocols (VoIP) , advanced digital hearing aids, andhigh-performance binaural speech enhancement providing proper spatial information.
(3) Visual Cognition and Systems(Aims) To understand the vision-related brain functions in order to apply the knowledge to realize
human oriented information communication systems.
(Achievements) We achieved results in the fields of visual attention, motion perception and color
perception. Firstly, we succeeded to measure distribution of visual attention while people tracking amoving object, and the measurements showed that the visual system has difficulty to pay attention todifferent location other than the object tracked. This knowledge is useful to model the function ofvisual attention. Secondly, we showed that only slow motion detectors contribute to detection of
global motion and also that it is different from the attention-based motion system. Since slow motion
signals have been paid little attention both in vision and image processing, the result provided newview of role of motion signals in visual processing. Thirdly, we have clarified that color informationin human visual cortex is not coded by the combinations of red-green and blue-yellow components
through functional brain-imaging technique and its analysis by image-classification technique.
(4) Interdisciplinary Field for Informatics(Aims) The interdisciplinary field of research combining nanobiotechnology and information
technology attracts our exceeding interests. These studies stand on the development of new materials
created by self-assembly of functional molecules and nanomaterials, leading to new classes ofbiosensing devices.
(Achievements) Ag nanosheet composed of AgMy is sensitive to photocatalytic reaction and changes
the color from yellow to gray when the decomposition of myristate cappings and the fusion of silver
cores take place. By use of Ag nanosheet as a marker, we found TiO2 nanotube anatase crystals
synthesized by anodic oxidation exhibit extremely high remote photocatalytic activity. UV spectra
and SEM images confirmed that only 10-20% of TiO2 nanotubes on surface decomposes the entire
surface of AgNPs nanosheet. This lateral remote reaction was observed only for TiO2 nanotubes but
not for commercial TiO2 powders.
(5) Ubiquitous Communications System(Aims) The goal of ubiquitous communications is to realize communications environments in thateverybody can communicate with anybody, anywhere and anytime through the research anddevelopments on radio propagation characteristics, antennas and radio equipment with whichcustomers can communicate universally. Towards this goal, the core technologies to realize Super
Broad Band Indoor Wireless Communications, millimeter wave beam forming antenna and CMOS
RF amplifier for portable terminals have been studied. Also, it is included to contribute or to lead22

2009 Human Information Systems Division
IEEE standardization based on “Japanese technologies.”(Achievements) Millimeter wave beam forming antennas and RFCMOS amplifiers together withpropagation characteristics have been studied and have yielded following:
1) As results of beam forming antenna with 4-elements employing discrete phase control (90 degreestep), following have been clarified by computer simulations:i. Antenna gain variation is as small and practical as 0.9 dB,ii. Slot-type antenna has shown the best gain/beam performance among of the candidates
studied so far,iii. The antenna beam can be controlled well by 11 combinations of the discrete phases for fourantenna elements.
2) Based on the computer simulation results together with fixed phase shifters, a prototype slot-type
antenna was fabricated and measured. The results on antenna gain and beams show good
agreements with the design.
3) CMOS 60 GHz amplifiers have been challenged by Class-B operation and the computer
simulations showed about 20% power added efficiency and fabricated RFIC indicated highpossibility of achieving 20 % power added efficiency as well.
4) Moreover, a simulator based on ray-tracing to find out the positions and sizes of artificial
reflectors to enhance communications probability has been developed.
By leading COMPA (Consortium for Millimeter wave Practical Applications, Chair: Shuzo Kato)and integrating other 17 overseas Partners (17 organizations in all) who have agreed to COMPA’s
proposal, the millimeter wave standardization (IEEE802.15.3c) was completed in September, 2009. It
is the first successful IEEE 802 Standardization carried out from the very beginning up to the end,
managed and negotiated with many others by Japanese organizations to promote the Japanesetechnologies. This will be a good success example for Japanese industry to learn for the future
standardization.

23

2009 Human Information Systems Division
Electromagnetic Bioinformation Engineering

Communication with human body[Research Target and Activities] 
Fig.1 Sensitive magnetic field sensor

Fig. 2 Magnetic actuator for capsule-endoscope

The magnetic field sensor with very high sensitivity was produced. In this work, new processes forcontrolling the anisotropy of the magnetic thin films were approached and a huge change of the
impedance of the sensor was obtained. On the work of wireless magnetic motion capture systems, thefactors in the detection accuracy were quantitatively clarified. The magnetic actuators such as the
micro-pump, and the cantilevered actuator with the magnetostrictive thin films were studied. The
work for the magnetic actuator for the capsule-endoscope was carried out with a company of the
medical equipments.

[Staff]
Professor: ISHIYAMA, Kazushi Dr.
Assistant Professor: HASHI, Shuichiro Dr.
[Profile of Professor ISHIYAMA]He received his MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Tohoku University in 1986 and1993, respectively. He is currently working as a professor in Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication, Tohoku University. His research interests are in the area of magnetics and magnetic
applications.
[Papers][1] S. Hashi, S. Yabukami, H. Kanetaka, K. Ishiyama, K.I. Arai, "Numerical Study on the Improvement of Detection
Accuracy for a Wireless Motion Capture System," IEEE Trans. Magnetics, Vol.45(2009), pp. 2736-2739.
[2] T. Nakai, K. Takada, K. Ishiyama, "Existence of Three Stable States of Magnetic Domain for the Stepped Giant
Magnetoimpedance Element and Proposal for Sensor With Memory Function," IEEE Trans. Magnetics, Vol.45(2009),
pp. 3499-3502.
[3] Y. Suwa, S. Hashi, K. Ishiyama, “Study of strain sensor using FeSiB magnetostrictive thin film,” IEEE Trans.
Magnetics, Vol.46(2010), pp.666-669.

24

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

2009 Human Information Systems Division
Advanced Acoustic Information Systems

Development of next generation communication systems[Research Target and Activities]
The main interest of this laboratory is a studyof the information processing in the human
auditory system. We are, at the same time,
aiming at the realization of a 'comfortable'sound environment exploiting digital signal
processing
techniques.
Three-dimensionalsound image control by high-definition virtual
auditory displays based on simulating transfer
functions of sound paths from sound sources tolisteners' external ears, and a sound field
simulator based on precise sound field analysis
and control are two examples. These systems
are expected to provide a high-quality 3D
virtual sound space, which is keenly required toFig. 1 Application for training spatial cognition
realize in the multimedia communications,based on high-definition virtual auditory display
cyberspacesystemsandsupre-definition
audio-visual display systems. Moreover, in 2009, we put a lot of efforts to investigate thespatiotemporal integration process of multisensory information processing. Furthermore, in 2009, wedeveloped new signal processing algorithms of digital watermarking, advanced digital hearing aids,
and high-performance two-stage binaural speech enhancement.
[Staff]
Professor: SUZUKI, Yôiti Dr.
Associate Professor: IWAYA, Yukio Dr.
Assistant Professor: SAKAMOTO, Shuichi Dr
Technical Official: SAITO, Fumitaka
Research Fellow: CUI, Zheng Lie Dr., KOBAYASHI, Maori Dr., OKAMOTO, Takuma Dr., OTANI,
Makoto Dr. and TERAMOTO, Wataru Dr.
[Profile of Professor SUZUKi Yôiti]SUZUKI Yôiti graduated from Tohoku University in 1976 and received his Ph. D. degree in electricaland communication engineering in 1981. His research interests include psychoacoustics,
high-definition auditory display and digital signal processing of acoustic signals. He received the
Awaya Kiyoshi Award and Sato Prize from the Acoustical Society of Japan. He served as a president of
the Acoustical Society of Japan from 2005 to 2007. He is a fellow of the Acoustical Society of America.
[Papers]

S. Hidaka, Y. Manaka, W. Teramoto, Y. Sugita, R. Miyauchi, J. Gyoba, Y. Suzuki and Y. Iwaya:“Alternation of sound location induces visual motion perception of a static object,” PLoS ONE, 4, e8188,
2009
A. Honda, H. Shibata, Y. Iwaya, J. Gyoba and Y. Suzuki: “Transfer effects on communication and collision
avoidance behavior from playing a three-dimensional auditory game based on a virtual auditory display,”
Applied Acoustics, 70, 868-874, 2009
J. Li, S. Sakamoto, S. Hongo, M. Akagi and Y. Suzuki: “TS-BASE/WF: Two-Stage BinAural Speech
Enhancement with Wiener filter Based on Equalization-Cancellation Model,” Proc. 2009 IEEE Workshop
on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics (WASPAA2009), 133-136, 2009

Contact to Professor Yôiti SUZUKI ： suzuki@ais.riec.tohoku.ac.jp25

2009 Human Information Systems Division
Visual Cognition and Systems

Vision sciences for visual communication[Research Target and Activities]
In order to realize human oriented information
communication systems and visual environments gentle tohumans, it is necessary to understand the functions of thehuman visual system. The aims of visual cognition andsystems laboratories are to investigate on vision functions in
the human brain and to apply the knowledge to humanfactors and image sciences.
1. 3D motion mechanisms
There are several processes for perception of motion in
depth. We revealed the importance of interocular velocity
differences. We have been studying the properties of theinterocular velocity differences. We found that the specificityof spatial frequency in the 3D motion-in-depth process isdifferent from that in the 2D motion process. This suggeststhat the 3D motion process is independent of spatial scale on the retina.
2. Measurement of the shift of visual attention using steady state brain wave
In order that visual attention shifts independently of gaze, we need devised ways for themeasurement of the shift of visual attention. Although the property of the shift of visual attention has
been examined in detail by psychophysical studies, those methods are very complicated and limited in
temporal resolution. Previous studies have not been success in the measurement of the shift of visual
attention. We succeeded the measurement of the shift of visual attention using the steady state visualevoked potential (SSVEP) in which brain wave is induced by a flicker stimulus consisting of temporally
sinusoidal wave. We found that our method can discern the difference between transient attention andsustained attention.
[Staff]
Professor:
SHIOIRI, Satoshi
Associate Professor:
KURIKI, Ichiro
Assistant Professor:
MATSUMIYA, Kazumichi
Postdoctoral fellow:
OGIYA, Mitsuharu MATSUBARA, Kazuya[Profile]
Professor Shioiri graduated Tokyo Institute of Technology and received Dr. Eng in 1986. He was a
postdoctoral researcher at University of Montreal from 1986 to 1989. From June of 1989 to April of
1990, he was a research fellow at Auditory and Visual Perception Laboratories of Advanced
Telecommunications Research Institute. He moved to Chiba University at May of 1990, where he spent
15 years as an assistant professor, an associate professor, and a professor of Department of Image
Sciences Department of Image, Information Sciences and Department of Medical Systems. In 2005, hemoved to Tohoku University. Since then, he has been a professor of Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication of Tohoku University. His research interests cover early, middle and high level vision,
including motion perception, depth perception, color vision, visual attention, eye movements, modelingof visual functions and comparison of the conscious and unconscious vision processes.
[1]

S. Shioiri, D. Kakehi, T. Tashiro, and H. Yaguchi: “Integration of monocular motion signals and theanalysis of interocular velocity differences for the perception of motion-in-depth”, Journal of Vision,
vol. 9, no. 13, article 10, pp.1-17, 2009.
S. Shioiri, and K. Matsumiya, “Motion mechanisms with different spatiotemporal characteristics
identified by an MAE technique with superimposed gratings” Journal of Vision,vol. 9, no. 5, pp.1-15,
2009.
Y. Kashiwase, K. Matsumiya, I. Kuriki, and S. Shioiri: “Comparison of the time course of attentional
shifts with endogenous and exogenous controls”, Society for Neuroscience (SfN), Chicago, USA,
October, 2009.

[2]
[3]

26

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

2009 Human Information Systems DivisionInterdisciplinary field for informatics

Fabrication and Application of Plasmonic Ag Nanosheet[Research Target and Activities]
The interdisciplinary field of research combining nanobiotechnology and information technology
attracts our exceeding interests. These studies stand on the development of new materials created by
self-assembly of functional molecules and nanomaterials, leading to new classes of biosensing devices.
The plasmons, especially the combination of surface plasmons propagating along the metal-organicinterface and local surface plasmons on metal nanoparticles is crucial to control and manipulate
localized light in nanoscale for nanosensing.
Our main topic, “plasmonic silver
nanosheet”, obtained one remarkablesuccess in its application this year. Ag

nanosheet composed of AgMy is sensitive tophotocatalytic reaction and changes the color
from yellow to gray when the decomposition ofmyristate cappings and the fusion of silver
cores take place. By use of Ag nanosheet as amarker, we found TiO2 nanotube anatase
crystals synthesized by anodic oxidation
exhibit extremely high remote photocatalytic

activity [3]. UV spectra and SEM images
Fig. 1 SEM images of Ag nanosheet on TiO2 nanotube-modified Si(100)confirmed that only 10-20% of TiO2
wafer before (a) and after (b) 100 min UV irradiation, and that on TiO2
powder-modified Si(100) wafer after 100 min UV irradiation (c).
nanotubes on surface decomposes the entire
surface of AgNPs nanosheet (Fig. 1). This
lateral remote reaction was found only for TiO2 nanotubes but not for commercial TiO2 powders(~ m). Thisdifference in remote photocatalytic activity between the TiO2 nanotubes and powders is probably correlate
to the different life time of produced radicals produced on each surface, although a further investigation isnecessary.

[Staff]
Professor TAMADA Kaoru Dr. (from Oct. 2007)[Profile]1984 B.S.chemistry, Nara Women’s University, 1984-1991 JSR Co. Ltd. 1991-1993 University of
Wisconsin-Madison. 1994 Dr of science, Nara Women’s University, 1994-1995 RIKEN frontier international
program. 1995-2004 National institute of materials and chemical research (NIMC) and National institute ofadvanced industrial science and technology (AIST). 1997 Australian national university, 1998-1999
Max-planck institute for polymer research, 2001-2004 National University of Singapore. 2003-2004 Group
Leader, Bio-photonics group, Research institute of photonics, AIST. 2005-2007 Associate professor,
Department of electronic chemistry, Tokyo institute of technology. 2006-2009 Adjunct professor, Departmentof physics, NUS, Singapore. 2007-date Professor, Research institute of electrical communication, Tohoku
university.

[Papers][1]Photoisomerization of azobenzene containing self-assembled monolayers investigated by Kelvin probe
work function measurements, T. Nagahiro, H. Akiyama, M. Hara, K. Tamada, J. Electron Spectroscopy and
Related Phenomena, 172 (1-3), 2009, 128-133.
[2] Tunable Surface Plasmon Band of Position Selective Ag and Au Nanoparticles in Thin Block Copolymer
Micelle Films, H. Acharya,J. Sung, B.-H. Sohn, D.H. Kim, K. Tamada, C. Park, Chem. Mater. Chem. Mater.
2009, 214248-4255.
[3] Ag nanoparticle sheet as a marker of lateral remote photocatalytic reaction, T. Nagahiro, K. Ishibashi, Y.
Kimura, M. Niwano, T. Hayashi, Y. Ikezoe, M. Hara, T. Tatsuma, K. Tamada, Nanoscale, 2010, 2, 107-113.

Contact to Professor Kaoru TAMADA ： tamada@riec.tohoku.ac.jp27

2009 Human Information Systems Division
Ubiquitous Communications System
Research and Development on Super Broadband Wireless Communications[Research Target and Activities][Target]The goal of ubiquitous communications is to realize communications environments in thateverybody can communicate with anybody, anywhere and anytime through the research anddevelopments on radio propagation characteristics, antennas and radio equipment with whichcustomers can communicate universally.
[Activities]
Millimeter wave beam forming antennas and RFCMOS amplifiers together with propagation
characteristics have been studied and have yielded following:1) Based on the computer simulation results together with fixed phase shifters, a prototype
slot-type antenna was fabricated and measured. The results on antenna gain and beams show
good agreements with the design.
2) CMOS 60 GHz amplifiers have been challenged by Class-B operation and the computer
simulations showed about 20% power added efficiency and fabricated RFIC indicated highpossibility of achieving 20 % power added efficiency as well.
By leading COMPA (Consortium for Millimeter wave Practical Applications, Chair: Shuzo Kato) andintegrating with other 17 overseas Partners (17 organizations in all) who have agreed to COMPA’s
proposal, the millimeter wave standardization (IEEE802.15.3c) was completed in September, 2009.
It is the first successful IEEE 802 Standardization carried out from the very beginning up to the end,
managed and negotiated with many others by Japanese organizations.
[Staff]
Professor: KATO, Shuzo Ph.D.
Associate Professor: NAKASE, Hiroyuki Ph. D.
Assistant Professor: SAWADA, Hirokazu Ph. D.
[Profile of Professor Shuzo Kato]
Prof. Shuzo Kato received his Ph. D degree in electrical and communications engineering fromTohoku University, Sendai Japan in 1977. From 1977 to 1995, he worked at NTT (Nippon Telegraphand Telephone) Research Laboratories in Japan, specializing personal and satellite communications
systems R&D. He founded Pacific Communications Research Corp. focusing on ASIC, SW andsystem design for PCS In 1995, at the same time he served as Senior Executive Vice President, andlater as President of Uniden Corporation. From January 1999 to July 2001, he served as Executive
Vice President, Mitsubishi Wireless Communications Inc (MWCI) in USA, as well as President,
Mobile Communications Technology Center of MWCI in San Diego, CA responsible for mobile phone
technology development up to real/sellable and high yield cell phones with all certificates (FCC,
CTIA and inter-operability). From 2002 to 2005, he served as Executive Vice President of Teradyne
Japan responsible for P/L, Engineering, Production and Global Marketing as well as President andCEO of Omni Wireless Inc., in California, USA. He currently is Professor, Research Institute ofElectrical Communications, Tohoku University, Japan, Program Coordinator, Ubiquitous Mobile
Communications at NICT (National Institute of Information and Communications Technology)
working on wireless communications systems R&D focusing on millimeter wave communications
systems. He has been serving as Vice-chair of IEEE802.15.3c Task Group working on millimeterwave systems standardization and Chair of COMPA (Consortium of Millimeter Wave Systems
Practical Applications) promoting millimeter wave systems globally. He has published over 200
technical papers, held over 75 patents (including a patent which became DOD (Department of
Defense, USA) standard in 1998), co-founded International Symposium on Personal Indoor andMobile Radio Communications (PIMRC). He is a Fellow of the IEEE and IEICE Japan and served as
an Editor of IEEE Transaction on Communications, Chairman of Satellite and Space
Communications Committee, COMSOC IEEE, a Board Member of IEICE Japan.
[Papers]
1.
2.

3.

S. Kato, H Harada, R Funada, T Baykas, C-S Sum, J. Wang, M A. Rahman , “Single Carrier Transmission for
Multi-Gigabit 60-GHz WPAN Systems,” IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun., Vol. 27, No. 8, Oct. 2009.
S. Kato, H. Harada, F. Kojima, R. Funada, T. Baykas, C-W. Pyo, Z. Lan, C-S.Sum, J. Wang, and M. A.
Rahman,“Millimeter Wave (60 GHz) Wireless PAN Standardization Activities and Super Broadband
Applications,” Proc. PIMRC 2009, Tokyo, Sept. 2009.
H. Sawada, H. Nakase, S. Kato, M. Umehira, K. Sato, Hiroshi Harada, “Millimeter-wave Propagation Characterization for
Multi-gigabit Video Transmission System,” Proc. APMC 2009, Singapore, Dec. 2009.

28

Contact to Professor Shuzo KATO ： shukato@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2009 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 contents by integrating
computer and communication:
Ɇ Software Construction: Reliable and high-level software.
Ɇ Computing Information Theory: Fundamental theory of new software.
Ɇ Communication Network: Symbiotic computing.
Ɇ Information Content: Network-oriented contents management and utilization technology.
Ɇ Structure of Information Society (Visitor Section).
An overview of research results from Apr. 2009 to Mar. 2010 of these fields except the visitor
section is described in this section.

(1) Software Construction
We have been researching on theoretical foundations for flexible yet reliable
programming languages, and have been conducting a development project of SML#, a newprogramming language in the ML family, that embodies some of our research results such as
more flexible static typing and high-degree of inter-operability with existing languages anddatabases. The major results of 2009 academic year include the following. (1) A typetheoretical foundations for foreign function interface. We developed a type theory for
functional languages that can inter-operate with polymorphic and higher-order functions
defined in the C language, and developed a compilation algorithm for such a functional
language based on the type theory. (2) Development of the SML# Compiler. The last year's
development includes a compiler back-end that produces an x86 object file in the standard
format compatible with C and other languages.

(2) Computing Information Theory
Aiming at combining program transformation methods and automated theorem proving
methods, we continued to pursue the possibility of program transformation by second-ordertemplates based on term rewriting. We proposed a second-order generalization algorithm andbased on this, we implemented a method to extract second-order templates from concrete
program transformations. Although many automated termination provers have been
proposed
automatedrecently, little work is reported on automated confluence provers. We developed an
confluence

divide-and-conquer

provermethods

ACP
such

for
as

term
directrewritingsum

systems

decomposition

based

on

severalandcommutative

decomposition. Applying decreasing diagram technique and incremental extension technique,
we developed new methods for proving confluence of term rewriting systems. Other research
results of this year include a new termination proof of simply typed S-expression rewriting

29

2009 Systems & Software Divisionsystems and a new procedure for disproving head normalization of infinity term rewriting
systems.

(3) Communication Network
We have studied new management schemes for next generation ubiquitous networks(SCOPE project, 2007-2009, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) and promoted
standardization

activities

for“Network

Mobility

Management

Information

Base(NEMO-MIB)” in IETF WG. As an outcome of this work, we have succeeded in international
standardization of NEMO-MIB on 14th April, 2009 (RFC 5488). We have also issued a press
release on this standardization on 23 rd July, 2009, which had attracted wide press coverage.
In the field of “Symbiotic computing”, we have refined the details of its model andarchitecture, and have developed some prototype systems, such as supervisory support
system for elderly people (uEyes) and real/cyber integrated space (SymbioZone). We havepublished six papers in international journals, including one invited paper. Moreover, we had
also demonstrated our systems in Forum on Information Technology (FIT2009) and RIEC
open house which had attracted people from academic and industrial fields.

(4) Information Content
We have been developing creation technologies, retrieval technologies and distribution
technologies for information content. We are developing DMD (Digital Movie Director), whichmakes it possible to generate 3DCG animation content only by text (scenario) input, and
automatic human-pose estimation technology for cloth fitting room. Besides we are studying ahigh-performance video shot boundary detection technology, automatic video metadata
generation technology and so forth. Furthermore, we are proposing a new cyclic broadcasting
method and an overlay multicast technology for low-cost & high-performance video
distribution.

30

2009 Systems & Software Division
Software Construction

Foundations for Developing High-level and Reliable Programming Languages[Research Target and Activities]
Today's software systems are becoming more and more complicated due to the need of integrating
various computation resources available in the Internet. A key to control the complexity and toenhance the reliability of such a system is to develop a high-level programming language that candirectly represent various resources and automatically detect potential inconsistencies among thecomponents in a system. Based on this general observation, our research aims at establishing both
firm theoretical basis and implementation method for flexible yet reliable programming languages foradvanced applications. Research topics on theoretical foundations include: logical foundations forcompilation, verification of low-level code, and type-directed compilation for polymorphic languages.
We are also developing a new practical ML-style programming language, SML#, which embodies someof our recent results such as record polymorphism, rank1 polymorphism, and high-degree ofinter-operability with existing languages and databases.
The major results of 2009 academic year include the following. (1) A type theoretical foundations forforeign function interface with C. One major weakness of functional languages is the lack ofinter-operability with C and other languages. To overcome this weakness, in this research, weinvestigated type theoretical properties of inter-operability between an ML style polymorphic language
and the C language, and developed a type system for an ML-style polymorphic functional languagewith powerful foreign function interface. The developed type system allows an ML programmer to call
C functions seamlessly without writing complicated and error-prone stab functions. The target C
functions can even be polymorphic and higher-order ones. These results solve the long standing
problem of the lack of inter-operability in ML-style functional languages. (2) Development of the SML#
Compiler. In the last year, we developed the following methods and components. (i) A compilation
method that enables SML# object files to be statically link with C library. (ii) A compiler back-end that
produces x86 object files in the standard object file format so that they can be statically linked with C
object files using an ordinary linker. (iii) A prototype module for seamless inter-operation with an SQL
database system. The module first type-checks SQL expressions based on record polymorphism andcompiles them to code that interact with an SQL database server.
[Staff]
Professor OHORI, Atsushi㸦2005-㸧
Assistant Professor UENO, Katsuhiro㸦2009-㸧
[Profile]
Professor Atsushi Ohori was born in 1957. He received his BA degree in Philosophy from University ofTokyo, 1981; received his MSE degree in Computer and Information Science from University ofPennsylvania, 1986; and received his Ph.D. degree in Computer and Information Science from
University of Pennsylvania, 1989. He worked for Oki Electric Industry as a programmer, a researcher
and a senior researcher from 1981 until 1993. From 1989 until 1990, he spent one year in University ofGlasgow as a postdoctoral research fellow funded by Royal Society Research Fellowship. In 1993, hejoined 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] Liu Bochao, Atsushi Ohori㸪A Flattening Approach for ML Module Compilation and Implementation,
Computer Software, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp 136-154, 2009.
[2] Katsuhiro Ueno, Atsushi Ohori, Foreign Function Interface of SML#, Computer Software, April, 2010
(to appear) (in Japanese)

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

31

2009 Systems & Software Division
Computing Information Theory

Towards a New Software Paradigm Arising from Computation and Proof[Research Target and Activities]
We are working on the development of a new software paradigm that arises from computation andproof. For this, we focus on a rewriting formalism which offers both flexible and effective reasoning
with equations. In the rewriting formalism, proofs by equational reasoning and computations by
rewriting systems can be combined in a 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, programtransformation, and program verification. Recent research activities include higher-order rewriting
systems, automated inductive theorem proving, combination of functional-logic languages andautomated theorem proving systems.

[Staff]
Professor 㸸TOYAMA, Yoshihito Dr
Associate Professor 㸸AOTO, Takahito Dr
Assistant Professor 㸸KIKUCHI, Kentaro Dr[Profile of 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 andTechnology (JAIST) from 1993 to 2000. Since April 2000, he has been a professor at the ResearchInstitute of Electrical Communication (RIEC) of Tohoku University. His research interests includes
term rewriting systems, program theory, and automated theorem proving.
[Papers]

㹙1㹛Takahito Aoto and Toshiyuki Yamada, Argument filterings and usable rules for simply typed dependency pairs, In
Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Frontiers of Combining Systems (FroCoS 2009), Trento, Italy,
LNAI 5749, pp.117-132, 2009.
㹙2㹛Takahito Aoto, Junichi Yoshida and Yoshihito Toyama, Proving confluence of term rewriting systems automatically, In
Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Rewriting Techniques and Applications (RTA 2009), Brasília,Brazil, LNCS 5595, pp.93-102, 2009.
㹙3㹛Junichi Yoshida, Takahito Aoto, Yoshihito Toyama, Automating Confluence Check of Term Rewriting Systems (injapanese), Computer Software, Vol.26, No.2, pp.76-92, 2009. crexamples-080920.tgz
㹙4㹛Satoshi Shimazu, Takahito Aoto, Yoshihito Toyama, Automated Lemma Generation for Rewriting Induction with
Disproof (in japanese), Computer Software, Vol.26, No.2, pp.41-55, 2009.
㹙5㹛Takahito Aoto, Sound lemma generation for proving inductive validity of equations, In Proceedings of the 28th
International Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2008),
Bangalore, India, Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Vol.08004, pp.13-24, 200832

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

2009 Systems & Software Division
Communication Network Systems

Information Communication Systems based on Symbiotic Computing[Research Target and Activities]
Symbiotic Computing Space
Aiming towards the next generation ubiquitousstage we are pursuing a research on informationand communication paradigm, called “Symbiotic
Social aspect
Human aspect䠄Social Computing䠅
computing”. The purpose of this work is to establish (Human-centered
Computing)
Mobilitya method comprising of flexible information and(Mobile Computing)telecommunication system with the co-existence ofUbiquitous Information Environmet
Flexible Computing
human and IT environment. This computing
paradigm operates with stability while satisfying
Ubiquitous Computing
user and system provider’s criteria. We have been
Symbiotic Computing
promoting both theoretical and practical researches
Pervasiveness(Pervasive Computing)of Symbiotic computing based on the concept offlexible information network where human and IT
Concept of Symbiotic Computing
environment co-exist. Our focus also includes
performance
evaluationofsuper-high-speed
network and its efficient management.
(1) Symbiotic computing: Theory and application.
(2) Symbiotic society and health-care/watch-over support/real-cyber space integration(3) Measurement/analysis of super-high-speed wide-area networks, and mobile network management.
In 2009, for Symbiotic computing research, we have studied model and architecture of Symbiotic
computing in detail. We had also demonstrated our systems in Forum on Information Technology(FIT2009) and RIEC open house. For network management research, we have investigated IPv6
network mobility support and designed a MIB specialized in network mobility. We also promoted
standardization activities in IETF Working Group. As an outcome of this work, we have succeeded ininternational standardization of NEMO-MIB on 14th April, 2009 (RFC 5488). We have also issued apress release on this standardization on 23rd July, 2009, which had attracted wide press coverage.
[Staff]
Professor: SHIRATORI, Norio Dr.
Associate Professor: SUGANUMA, Takuo Dr.
Visiting Associate Professor: CHAKRABORTY Debasish Dr. Secretary: Kaori Moriya[Profile]
Prof. Shiratori was bone in 1946 in Miyagi Prefecture. He received his doctoral degree from Tohoku
University in 1977. He is currently a Professor at RIEC. Before moving to RIEC in 1993, he was theProfessor of Information Engineering at Tohoku University from 1990 to 1993. Prior to that, he served
as an Associate Professor and Research Associate at RIEC. He received IEEE Fellow in 1998, IPSJ
Fellow in 2000 and IEICE Fellow in 2002. He is the recipient of many awards including, IPSJ
Memorial Prize Wining Paper Award in 1985, IPSJ Best Paper Award in 1996, IPSJ Contribution
Award in 2007, IEICE Achievement Award in 2001, IEICE Best Paper Award, IEEE ICOIN-11 Best
Paper Award in 1997, IEEE ICOIN-12 Best Paper Award in 1998, IEEE ICPADS Best Paper Award in
2000, IEEE 5-th WMSCI Best Paper Award in 2001, UIC-07 Outstanding Paper Award in 2007,
Telecommunication Advancement Foundation Incorporation Award in 1991, Tohoku Bureau of
Telecommunications Award in 2002, The Commendation for Science and Technology by the MEXT, in2009, etc. He was the vice president of IPSJ in 2002, IFIP representative from Japan in 2002, anassociate member of Science Council of Japan in 2007, and president of IPSJ in 2009. He is working on
methodology and technology for symbiosis of human and IT environment.
[Papers][1] Satoshi Utsumi, S. M. S. Zabir, and Norio Shiratori, “TCP-Cherry for satellite IP networks: Analytical model and performance
evaluation,” Computer Communications, Vol.32, No.12, pp.1377-1383, 2009.
[2] Satoru Izumi, Kazuhiro Yamanaka, Yoshikazu Tokairin, Hideyuki Takahashi, Takuo Suganuma, and Norio Shiratori,“Ubiquitous supervisory system based on social contexts using ontology,” Mobile Information Systems (MIS), Vol.5, No.2,
pp.141-163, 2009.
[3] Goutam Chakraborty, Kshirasagar Naik, Debasih Chakraborty, Norio Shiratori, and David Wei, “Analysis of the Bluetooth device
discovery protocol,” Wireless Networks, Vol.16, pp.421-436, 2010.

Contact to Professor Norio SHIRATORI ： norio@shiratori.riec.tohoku.ac.jp

33

2009 Systems & Software Division
Information Contents

Creation, Understanding, Distribution andConsumption of Next-generation Digital Content[Research Target and Activities]
In our laboratory, we developed new technologies this fiscal year.
1, Automatic Character Positioning Method in DMD
We developed automatic character positioning method in DMD(Digital Movie Director), which is innovative and useful becauseuser does not have to think of three dimensional CG space.
2. A Cyclic Broadcasting Method for NVoD for IPTV era
We developed a new broadcast scheduling method for end user
to distribute their video content with their PC and network
resources. The features of this method is to own network-error
resilience.
3. An Intuitive Character Motion Creation System
In general, character motion creation is difficult to generate
for most of CG creators. We developed a new system based onarrow-input interface. CG creators can generate new motions
more and more easily by this system.
4 High-performance Video shot Boundary Detection Technology
Existing shot boundary detection methods are difficult to detect all of shot boundaries exactly. This
is why we proposed a new approach to handle numerous video features based on multivariate statistics.
This method showed our proposal to detect most of shot boundaries which existing methods are
difficult to detect.
[Staff]
Professor
NUMAZAWA, Junji Dr.
Associate Professor
AOKI, Terumasa Dr.
Secretary
MUTO, Nobuko[Profile of Professor Numazawa, Junji]
Junji Numazawa received the M.E., and Ph.D degrees in electronics engineering from Hokkaido
University, Sapporo, Japan, in 1971, and 1994, respectively. He joined NHK(Japan Broadcasting
Corp.) in 1971. He was Director of the Science and Technical Research Laboratories of NHK in June
1996, Director of Engineering Administration Department of NHK in June 1999, Executive ResearchEngineer of Science and Technical Research Laboratories of NHK in June 2002. Since 2004, he has
been a Professor at the RIEC and GSIS of Tohoku University. He received Suzuki Memorial Incentive
AwardsandFujio Frontier Awardsof The Institute of Image Information and Television
Engineers (ITE) in 1980 and 1995
respectively,
Distinguished Invited Paper Awardsof
IUMRS-ICAM-93 in 1993, Person Who Has Rendered Distinguished Service Awardsof Tokyo
Metropolitan Government in 2003.
Dr. Numazawa is a Fellow of the Institute of Image Information
and Television Engineers (ITE).
[Papers][1]Terumasa AOKI, Ryo ASATO and Junji NUMAZAWA, “A Study on Jitter Analysis of Cyclic
Broadcasting Schemes and Its Implementation”, IEICE Trans. on Commun., Vol.J-93-B, No.1, Jan,2010. (in Japanese)[2]Terumasa AOKI and Uwe Kowalik, BROAFERENCE
A Prototype of an Emotion-based TV
Quality Rating System , Emotional Engineering : Service Development (Chapter 12), Springer, May,
2010 (To be published).

34

2009 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
The Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics of the Research Institute ofElectrical Communication was established in 2004. Its purpose is to develop andestablish the science and technology of nanoelectronics and spintronics for information
technology, utilizing the facilities installed in the Nanoelectronics-and-Spintronics
building having 1300 m2 of cleanroom area. The Laboratory for Nanoelectronics andSpintronics consists of four Sections:

Atomically Controlled Processing (Junichi Murota, Professor)
Semiconductor Spintronics (Hideo Ohno, Professor)
Nano-Molecular Devices (Michio Niwano, Professor)

Nano-Spin Memory (Shoji Ikeda, Associate Professor)
These Sections cooperatively carry out the research aimed at establishingnanoelectronics and spintronics, together with the groups of Intelligent
Nano-Integration System (Koji Nakajima, Professor), Quantum-optical Information
Technology (Keiichi Edamatsu, Professor), and Ultra-Broadband Signal Processing(Taiichi Otsuji, Professor) and with the research groups of the Institute, the Graduate

School of Engineering, the Graduate School of Information Science, Tohoku University,and nation-wide cooperative research projects in the field.

35

2009 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
Highlights of Research Activities in 2009:
Atomically Controlled Processing [Murota Laboratory]
In order to create atomically controlled processing for nanometer-order artificial
heterostructures of group IV semiconductors, following experimental results have beenobtained: (1) In the research on P atomic-layer doping, low-temperature Si epitaxial growth byreaction of Si2H6 as a higher reactivity gas enables higher P concentration. (2) By heavy C
atomic-layer doping at heterointerface between a Si cap layer and a Si0.55Ge0.45 layer in
Si/Si0.55Ge0.45/Si(100) heterostructure, the intermixing between Si and Ge at heterointerface iseffectively suppressed. (3) In the research on B atomic-layer doping in Si by using a plasma
CVD without substrate heating, it is clarified that lowering of the plasma energy effectively
suppresses a plasma induced lattice damage and a surface B reduction, and it becomes quite
important to achieve heavy B atomic-layer doping in a nanometer-order ultrathin Si film.

Semiconductor Spintronics [Ohno Laboratory]
Our research activities focus on the establishment of the fundamental technologies for
future spintronic devices. The outcomes in the last fiscal year are following. (1) We performed
the direct magnetometry of electric-field effect on (Ga,Mn)As thin film and observed themodulation of the Curie temperature as well as spontaneous magnetization. (2) Doping
concentration dependence of the spin Hall conductivity of semiconductors was quantitatively
obtained by systematic studies of the spin Hall effect using scanning Kerr microscope. (3) We
demonstrated GaAs THz quantum cascade laser emission with threshold current density of
0.8 kA/cm2 and maximum operation temperature of 146 K.

Nano-Molecular Devices [Niwano Laboratory](1) We have fabricated P3HT organic transistors using an ionic liquid to observe its highoperating current as compared to the conventional organic field effect transistors. We
monitored in-situ the chemical state of the P3HT active layer during FET operation using
infrared absorption spectroscopy, and found that the ionic-liquid-based P3HT transistors areoperated by electrochemical doping. (2) We have succeeded in fabricating a thin film of TiO2
nanotubes on a glass substrate by anodizing a metal titanium film deposited on the substrate
in an NH4F-based organic electrolyte. (3) Planar bilayer lipid membranes (BLMs) were formedin microfabricated apertures in Si chips. We have succeeded in preparing BLMs which arestable enough for repetitive solution exchanges and electric stress, and demonstrated thatelectric noise was suppressed by coating the chip surface with dielectric layers. (4) BLMs withchannel proteins were formed in nanoholes of an anodic porous alumina film. We
demonstrated that these BLMs exhibited improved mechanical and electric stability compared
to BLMs formed in the conventional Teflon films.

Intelligent Nano-Integration System [Nakajima Laboratory]
36

2009 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics(1) We proposed a discrete-type inverse function delayed neural network with high-ordersynapse connections and demonstrated its usability for combinatorial optimization problems
by stability analysis on solution states. Moreover, we expanded our new analysis on nonlinear
dynamics to a coupled nonlinear system, and burst firing dynamics was successfully generated
by using a coupled BVP model. (2) We analyzed the resonant activation property of a Bi-2212
intrinsic Josephson junction and found possible reasons for degradation of the quality factor Q.
In order to gain a better Q factor, we designed a filter circuit for suppressing high frequency
noise in bias lines and a line for feeding microwave. (3) To improve the performance ofhigh-speed operation for the single flux-quantum fast Fourier transform, a carry look-aheadadder was fabricated using Nb integrated circuits. The high-speed operation of the addercircuit was successfully demonstrated up to 30GHz. A neural network using superconducting
quantum interference devices for solving a combinatorial optimization problem was proposed
and numerically demonstrated.

Quantum-Optical Information Technology [Edamatsu Laboratory]
1䋮We have demonstrated that quantum state is transferred from photons to electron spinsin a semiconductor. This demonstration opens up an avenue to quantum media conversion
between multiple quantum media such as superconducting qubit, nuclear spin qubit, and ion
qubit.
2䋮We have developed the technique of heterodyne Kerr rotation spectroscopy for ultra-highsensitivity measurement of the spin state in semiconductor quantum structures. We havedemonstrated the measurement of Kerr rotation induced by an exciton in a single quantum
dot.

Nanospin Memory [Ikeda Laboratory]
We are developing technologies to realize advanced spin memory and logic devices using
magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) consisting of ferromagnetic metal electrodes and insulating
barriers. In our group, the following results were obtained: 1) The TMR ratios of 78% at RT
were realized in MgO-based MTJs with perpendicular anisotropy CoFe/Pd multilayerelectrodes and bottom CoFeB and top Fe insertion layers. 2) For the CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB
pseudo spin valve MTJs with in-situ annealing, high TMR ratios were observed in the lower
resistance area product (RA) range. The TMR ratio of 122% at RT with RA=1.0:Pm2 wereobtained. 3) Operations of the world's first 32Mb non-volatile random access memory(SPRAM) chip, ternary content-addressable memory (TCAM㧕, Lookup-Table employing thespin-transfer torque MTJs with synthetic ferrimagnetic free layer were verified.

Ultra-Broadband Signal Processing [Otsuji Laboratory]
The goal of our research is to explore the terahertz frequency range by means of novel
electron devices and systems. Graphene has mass-less carriers and their peculiar
characteristics are expected to be useful as a candidate to realize such systems. We have37

2009 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
theoretically predicted the occurrence of negative dynamic conductivity in the THz range for
optically pumped graphene. Using an epitaxial graphene formed on silicon substrates provided
by Prof. Suemitsu’s group, we have succeeded in observation of amplified stimulated THz
emission from femtosecond infrared-laser pumped graphene. We have also achieved thetransistor operation in graphene-channel FETs that demonstrate an electron drift mobility by
20 times higher than that for Si MOSFETs. W have also developed a terahertz spectroscopy
systemusing

2D-plasmon

resonantterahertz-wave

emitters

based

on

compoundsemiconductor heterostructures.

Wireless Info Tech [Tsubouchi Laboratory]
For realizing radio frequency (RF) filter and oscillator of 5-GHz-band broadband wirelessterminal, we have developed bulk acoustic wave (BAW) device.

Film AlN was manufactured

using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MO-CVD) method.
AlN, film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) was developed.

Using the manufactured

We have evaluated characteristics

of FBAR using computer simulation.

Electromagnetic Bioinformation Engineering [Ishiyama Laboratory]
We have studied successively about a high accuracy strain sensor for detecting thebio-information. In the year 2009, to obtain the higher accuracy, the optimum fabricating
conditions of sensor elements for controlling the internal residual stress of the magnetic thinfilms were examined. In addition, the magnetic domain observation, the magnetization
properties, and the impedance properties of the strain sensors were studied in detail. As theresult, the strain sensor elements exhibiting the accuracy of 18,000 were successfully realized
in result.

Solid State Physics [Takahashi Laboratory]
For low power consumption MRAM (Magnetic Random Access Memory) and high density
HDD (Hard Disk Drive), high-efficiency of current induced magnetization switching (CIMS)
and high stabilization of magnetization in a pinned layer in tunnel magnetoresistance devices
are indispensable. For high-efficiency of the CIMS, in this study, combination of normal- andinverse-CIMS has been demonstrated. As a result, the inverse-CIMS is obtained in themagnetic tunnel junction with Fe4N layer. And negative anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR)
which arises from -1.5 % to -4% with temperature in a stepwise fashion near 50 K is observedin the Fe4N single layer. For high stabilization of magnetization, systematic change of thecomposition of the pinned-ferromagnetic (FM) layer has revealed that body-centered cubic FM
layers were more likely to induce stronger exchange anisotropy than face-centered cubic FM
layers.

Electromagnetic Theory [Yamaguchi Laboratory]
Magnetically soft amorphous particles and Ni-Fe films have been investigated as seeds of38

2009 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
new materials with high performance in the RF(GHz range) applications. As for the particles,
their advantages are their high saturation magnetization and submicron size. In addition tothe original synthesizing process, particle precipitation in a magnetic field is studied. In theprocess of precipitation in the magnetic field the particles are bonded into long chains leading
to an appreciable reduction of the demagnetizing field that has generally been an obstacle tothe high-permeability performance of soft magnetic particles. The microstructures, magnetic
softness of the chains, and significant enhancement of the permeability in the frequency range
0.05~10 GHz are demonstrated.
As for Ni-Fe films, the damping constant(D) of 100-nm-thick NixFe1-x films with various Nicompositions(x) was estimated using a coplanar waveguide (CPW)-FMR system. While D
increases from 0.0092 to 0.0099 in the range of x between 0.67-0.76, it tends to decrease from
0.010 to 0.0079 and again increase to 0.011 as x is varied from 0.76 to 0.86, resulting in theminimum D for x=0.78. All these D are larger than that of bulk-Ni-Fe (0.007).

Microelectronics [Sahashi Laboratory]

The microwave oscillation generated by spin transfer torque (STO), which relates tothe damping parameter (ǂ) of ferromagnetic material have been studied. In this study,
an appropriate electrode structures for the measurement of STO were investigated.
We have designed several masks of coplanar wave guide (CPW) electrode structure,

which the high frequency can transmit. The CPW transmission line and attenuation
characteristics are evaluated by S11 parameter of network analyzer. The CPWtransmission line is found to show good noise attenuation characteristics. The
magnitude of the reflected signal increases progressively with increasing cross section
area. The study on STO including the estimation of ǂ for ferromagnetic thin films will
be continued by using the most suitable pattern of electrode for higher frequency of
microwave transmission.
Solid State Electronics [Itoh Laboratory]
High-performance TFTs with pseudo-single-crystal silicon has been investigated. A novel
laser optical system was introduced to our laser crystallization apparatus, and large elongatedsilicon grain with the length of over 100 Ǵm was formed. This laser annealing technology was
also applied to ferroelectric thin film on glass substrate, and its low temperature annealing
method was obtained. As a novel device structure, nanograting MOSFET has been suggested.
This device structure was applied to Poly-Si TFT, and its current drivability was enhanced.
For RF integrated circuits, above CMOS inductor technology was suggested. Methods forparameter tuning were shown and discussed.

Basic Plasma Engineering [Hatakeyama Laboratory]
Single-walled carbon nanotubes have successfully been grown from nonmagnetic catalysts
by plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) for the first time. Based on the systematical39

2009 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
investigation for the combination of catalyst type (magnetic or nonmagnetic) and CVD method(plasma CVD or thermal CVD), it is found that a low concentration of hydrogen species during
nanotubes growth is the critical factor to realize the SWNTs growth from a nonmagnetic
catalyst by the plasma CVD method. This can be explained by the different binding energy
between hydrocarbon and catalyst surface. Nano particle fabrication is carried out under thenovel reaction phase, where plasma and liquid interface is directly contacted. It is revealed
that there is a close correlation between plasma parameters and size distribution of nanoparticles.

Optical Physics Engineering [Yamada Laboratory]
Our research focus on silicon photonic-wire waveguides, with silicon (Si) core and silica(SiO2) cladding, with the objective of realizing integrated optical circuits. In this year, westudied an optical input/output interface and an integration method of LDs on Si waveguides.
Both, the numerical calculations and the experimental results, showed good properties. In
addition, we found an abnormally localized optical mode in 1-D photonic crystals.

Spin Electronics [Ando Laboratory at Department of Applied Physics]
Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with a half-metallic Co2MnSi Heusler alloy electrode anda high-quality MgO tunneling barrier have been developed. We have succeeded to observe avery large tunnel magneto resistance (TMR) ratio of 217% at RT and 753% at 2K. The
observed large TMR ratio results from both half-metallicity of Co2MnSi and coherent
tunneling through the crystalline MgO barrier. In addition, we succeeded to suppress
temperature and bias voltage dependence of TMR ratio by inserting a very thin CoFeB layer
into the Co2MnSi/MgO interface.

Superstructured Thin Film Chemistry [Kawasaki Laboratory at Institute forMaterials Research]
One of oxide heterointerfaces, MgZnO/ZnO, can provide an interesting arena forinvestigation of quantum transport properties with high-mobility two-dimensional electrongas (2DEG). Electron mobility in the 2DEG reaches 180,000 cm2/Vs by optimization of
fabrication conditions. We have also fabricated an FET device with a dielectric layer by atomic
layer deposition method and precisely modulate the charge carrier density in the 2DEG. As aresult, we firstly observed a fractional quantum Hall effect in oxide heterostructure. The
improved controllability will lead to higher performance of transparent field effect transistor.
Co-doped TiO2 is one of room temperature ferromagnetic oxide semiconductor. In this study,
we fabricated electric double layer transistors on Co-doped TiO2 films, which can modulate
high charge carrier density as high as 1014 cm-2 by a gate electric field. The device showsparamagnetic to ferromagnetic switching by applying external gate bias at room temperature.
We will extend this study to device applications in spintronics area.

40

2009 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
Materials Quantum Science [Nitta Laboratory at Department of Materials Science]
We have investigated the spin orbit interaction (SOI) in semiconductor heterostructures. (1)
We investigated magneto-transport properties in gate fitted narrow wire structures based on
InGaAs/InAlAs two dimensional electron gas. Spin relaxation length was enhanced more than
10 times larger than that in the Hall bar structure. From the theoretical analysis, origin of theenhanced spin relaxation length is due to both the one dimensional confinement effect and thePersistent Spin Helix condition, where the strength of Rashba SOI is close to that ofDresselhaus SOI. (2) We investigated the size dependence of spin interference effect inmesoscopic ring structures. With propagating length of electron waves, resistance oscillations
observed as Aharanov-Casher effect are systematically changed, which reveals that electricalspin manipulation depends on the diameter of the ring structures.

Nanoscalemagnetism

anddevices[Kitakami

Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials]

Laboratory

atInstituteofResearch project on development of high-Ku materials and understanding of magnetization
behavior of nanoscale magnets are being carried out, aiming to achieve ultra-high density
magnetic memory.

Magnetization process under a short pulse field is one of the key issues toincrease the operation frequency of magnetic device.

Magnetization process of a nanoscale

Co/Pt multilayer dot was investigated by detecting anomalous Hall effect of a single dot.

It isrevealed that the magnetization reversal is initiated by the nucleation process within
sub-nanoseconds time scale followed by its growth in nanoseconds.

Medical Nanosystem Engineering [Tanaka Lab at Graduate School of Biomedical
Engineering]
The novel SPRAM-based 3-dimensional reconfigurable spin processor has been proposed.
This year, two main results below were obtained. As a SPICE model of MTJ was
successfully made, it became possible to simulate logic circuit operation including MTJ using
SPICE. This leads to a highly efficient analysis of SPRAM circuits. The SPRAM-based
reconfigurable logic block circuit is composed of the SRAM for LUT and the SPRAM forconfiguretion data. As the write circuit design of reconfigurable logic block was improved,
2.4% faster SRAM read-back circuit speed was successfully achieved.

New Paradigm VLSI System [Hanyuu Laboratory]

Our research group has fabricated a nonvolatile LUT (Lookup-Table) circuit in FPGA
(Field-Programmable Gate Array) using a MTJ (Magnetic Tunnel Junction) device-based
logic technology. The proposed LUT circuit fabricated by a 0.14um CMOS/MTJ-hybrid
process achieves area reduction by 2/3 compared to a conventional SRAM-based one, andcomplete elimination of standby power dissipation. The MOS-transistor part is fabricated by
Hitachi Co., Ltd. and the MTJ-device part is fabricated by Laboratory for Nanoelectronics
and Spintronics, Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University. Thisis the collaboration of Prof. H. Ohno's, Prof. S. Ikeda’s and our laboratories

41

2009 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
Technology Development Division Storage Technology Group [Fujimoto Laboratory]
A cooperative research project between industry, academia and government; Development ofsuper high-speed mass storage HDD systems started in August 2007 under the collaborations
between RIEC including IT21 storage technology group, major Japanese HDD manufacturers
and

other

laboratories

researching

relatedtechnologies

withinTohokuUniversity.

Developments of high density patterned media and high sensitivity sensor are researchsubjects in this project, and we fabricated fine dot arrays of Co based alloy films and spin
accumulation devices and studied fundamental properties. We started experimental analysis
of magnetization reversal for dot arrays of high-Ku perpendicular films with the dot diameterof 10~15 nm. Moreover, a preliminary study of read/write properties for bit-patterned media(60 nm in dot diameter) using a static tester revealed that the writing margin was 70% to the
bit length.

Solid State Electronics [Suemitsu Laboratory]

We have this year made progresses on the establishment of graphene-based field effecttransistor (G-FET) and the evaluation of device characteristics of G-FET. As a result, we
could have succeeded in fabricating and evaluating of G-FET, which can in principle
overwhelm Si-based MOS-FET. Further we have tackled one of the big problems in theapplication of G-FET, the adequate adoption of the materials for insulator. We have thensucceeded in using organic thin films as insulators for the ultra high-speed G-FET.

Researching Section [Endoh Lab at Center for Interdisciplinary Research]
To develop a novel Spin device technology for the Magnetic Tunneling Junction (MTJ)
combined with the Si-CMOS circuit, we have systematically studied the Spin device technology,
the integration process technology, the circuit design and the measurement.
We fabricated the MTJs on via metal with surface roughness of 0.30nm with 0.14Ǎm CMOS
process and 60×180nm2 MTJ process. The fabricated MTJ on CMOS logic circuit plane
achieves a large change in a resistance of 3.63kƺ(anti-parallel) with the TMR ratio of 138% atroom temperature. Furthermore, we have successfully demonstrated the DC and AC operationof this MTJ with write transistor. As a result, our MTJ achieves high enough write/read
performance with transistors for realizing MTJ-based logic circuits. This is the collaboration ofProf. H. Ohno's, Prof. S. Ikeda’s and our laboratories.

Intelligent Nano-Process [Samukawa Laboratory]
We work on the development of quantum dot solar cell and quantum dot laser withultra-low damage neutral beam etching and sub-10nm bio-template. In the last fiscal year, theoutcomes are as follows. (1) We succeeded in controlling the band gap energy (1.4 to 2.2eV) of
high density (>7x1011 cm-2) 2-dimensional Si-nanodisk (2D Si-ND) array by changing the
Si-ND thickness (12-2nm). This characteristic of Si-ND shows great potential to realize all-Si
tandem solar cell. PL peak at approximately 630nm was also observed in 2D Si-ND at 100K.
(2) Vertical etching profile of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well (QW) was realized using neutral42

2009 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
beam etching. There is almost no lattice defect on the etched side-wall of GaAs and roughnessof etched surface is the same as bare GaAs wafer. The PL intensity of etched GaAs/AlGaAs
QW is comparable to unetched one. The result means that ultra low damage etching of
GaAs/AlGaAs is realized.

Applied Quantum Optics [Yasaka Laboratory]
Highly functional semiconductor photonic devices and ultra-broadband coherent terahertz(THz) wave sources have been studied to explore new-generation photonic network systems
as well as novel science and technology. Novel THz biosensors using surface plasmon
resonancewerestudiedtoachievesensitive

detectionofbiomolecules,

high-spatial-resolution THz imaging beyond diffraction limit. High-quality THz resonatorsfor local-field enhancement were successfully fabricated on silicon wafers by introducing
novel fabrication process using SU-8.

43

2009 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
Atomically Controlled Processing

Creation of Atomically Controlled Processing of Group IV Semiconductor andApplication to Nano Heterodevices[Research Target and Activities]
Development of atomically controlled processing technology in deposition and etching is quite
important to fabricate future higher-performance ultralarge-scale integrated circuits (ULSIs) as wellas quantum devices for new functions and to create new materials with novel properties which are
different from that of conventional bulk materials. To overcome the limits of Si material propertiesand device miniaturization and to achieve on-chip integration of ultimate charge control into Si
ULSIs, this laboratory aims to establish atomically controlled processing for nanometer-order
artificial heterostructures of group IV semiconductors with atomically controlled surface andinterfaces and nanometer-order three-dimensional patterning with molecular control to fabricate
nanometer-order heterostructure devices. (Fig. 1)
In this year, following experimental results have been obtained: (1) In the research on P
atomic-layer doping, low-temperature Si epitaxial growth by reaction of Si2H6 as a higher reactivity
gas enables higher P concentration. (2) By heavy C atomic-layer doping at heterointerface between a
Si cap layer and a Si0.55Ge0.45 layer in Si/Si0.55Ge0.45/Si(100) heterostructure, the intermixing between
Si and Ge at heterointerface is effectively suppressed. (3) In the research on B atomic-layer doping in
Si by using a plasma CVD without substrate heating, it is clarified that lowering of the plasmaenergy effectively suppresses a plasma induced lattice damage and a surface B reduction, and it
becomes quite important to achieve
heavy B atomic-layer doping in a
nanometer-order ultrathin Si film.
[Staff]
Professor: MUROTA, Junichi Dr.
Associate Prof.: SAKURABA, Masao Dr.
[Profile of Prof. J. Murota]
Fig. 1. 10 nm-scale quantum nanodevices with strain
Prof. J. Murota was born in 1948. He
controlled nano-scale patterned heterostructure ofreceived the B.E., M.E. and Ph.D
group IV semiconductors.
degrees in electronic engineering from
Hokkaido University in 1970, 1972 and 1985, respectively. He joined the Musashino ElectricalCommunication Laboratory, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation (NTT) in 1972. In
1983, he moved to the Atsugi Electrical Communication Laboratory, NTT. In 1985 he became an
Associate Professor in the Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University and in
1995 became a Professor. He is actively involved in researches on atomically controlled processing ofgroup IV semiconductors. He was awarded the 3rd (2003) Yamazaki-Teiichi Prize and theCommendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology for 2010: The Prizes for Science and Technology in Research Category.
[Papers][1] J. Murota, M. Sakuraba and B. Tillack, “Atomically Controlled CVD Processing for Doping of
Si-Based Group IV Semiconductors” (Invited Paper), Symp. E10: ULSI Process Integration 6 (216th
Meeting of the Electrochem. Soc.), Vienna, Austria, Oct. 4-9, 2009, Abs.No.2360: ECS Trans., Vol.25,
No.7 (Edited by C. Claeys et al., The Electrochem. Soc., Pennington, NJ, 2009), pp.177-184 (2009).
[2] Y. Chiba, M. Sakuraba, B. Tillack and J. Murota, “Impact of Si Cap Layer Growth on Surface
Segregation of P Incorporated by Atomic Layer Doping”, Thin Solid Films, Vol.518, pp.S231-S233,(2010).
[3] T. Hirano, M. Sakuraba, B. Tillack and J. Murota, “Heavy Carbon Atomic-Layer Doping at Si1-xGex/Si
Heterointerface”, Thin Solid Films, Vol.518, pp.S222-S225, (2010).
[4] T. Nosaka, M. Sakuraba, B. Tillack and J. Murota, “Heavy B Atomic-Layer Doping in Si Epitaxial
Growth on Si(100) Using Electron-Cyclotron-Resonance Plasma CVD”, Thin Solid Films, Vol.518,
pp.S140-S142, (2010).

44

Contact to Professor Junichi MUROTA ： murota@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2009 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
Semiconductor Spintronics

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology for Spintronics and THz Lasers[Research Target and Activities]
We are working on the nanoscience and
Semiconductor Spintronics
nanotechnology to control the quantum statesin semiconductors, especially the spin-states
Quantumand optical transitions in the mid-infrared toSpin memorycomputingTHz.
Ultrafast
Electrical controlled
Spin
Materials of interest include GaAs/AlAs,
opticalcoherencemagnetism
InAs/(Al,Ga)Sb, GaN, and ZnO, with andswitching
without doping of magnetic elements, allSpin
THz lasers
grown by molecular beam epitaxy. We are
ChargeSpinrelaxation
investigating electrical, optical, magnetic
Spin
Quantum structures Intersubband
properties of these materials and theirtransition
injection
application to new functional devices, such as
memories and logic devices using spin states
Nanoscience / Nanotechnology
as well as quantum cascade lasers (QCL) with
THz emission.
The outcomes in the last fiscal year are (1)Direct magnetometry of electric-field control of magnetisim in a (Ga,Mn)As thin film. (2)Determination of spin Hall conductivity in n-type GaAs and its theoretical description (3)Demonstration of GaAs THz quantum cascade laser emission with threshold current density of 0.8
kA/cm2 and maxumum operation temperature of 146 K.
[Staff]
Professor : OHNO, Hideo
Associate Professor : OHNO, Yuzo
Associate Professor : MATSUKURA, Fumihiro
Assistant Professor : OHTANI, Keita[Profileof Professor Hideo Ohno]
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), and the 2005 Agilent
Technologies Europhysics Prize. He is Institute of Physics (IOP) Fellow (2004), Honorable Professor at
Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and JSAP fellow (2007), Distinguished
Professor at Tohoku University (2008), and IEEE Magnetic Society Distinguished Lecturer for 2009.
He is a member of JSAP, JPS, JACG, IEICE, APS, IOP, IEEE, and AVS.
[Papers][1] S. Matsuzaka, Y. Ohno, and H. Ohno, "Electron density dependence of the spin Hall effect in GaAs probed by scanning
Kerr rotation microscopy," Physical Review B, Vol. 80, 241305, December 2009.
[2] M. Sawicki, D. Chiba, A. Korbecka, Y. Nishitani, J. A. Majewski, F. Matsukura, T. Dietl, and H. Ohno, "Experimental
probing of the interplay between ferromagnetism and localization in (Ga, Mn)As," Nature Physics, Vol. 6, pp. 22-25,
January 2010.
[3] S. Marcet, K. Ohtani, and H. Ohno, "Vertical electric field tuning of the exciton fine structure splitting and photon
correlation measurements of GaAs quantum dot," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 96, 101117, March 2010.

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

45

2009 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
Nano-Molecular Devices

Control of surface and interface of molecular informational devices anddevelopment of novel nano-molecular devices[Research Target and Activities]
Our research aims at application of the Si technology toorganic semiconductor devices or many kinds of biosensors. We
have investigated development of 1) an organic transistor using
an ionic liquid, 2) an ion channel sensor using a Si technology,
and 3) a nanofabrication method using electrochemical
processes such as anodization of valve metals. Especially, we
have applied TiO2 nanotubes formed by anodization todye-sensitized solar cells (DSC).

The schematic of an organic
transistor using ionic liquid

1) Fabrication and characterization of an organic transistor
using an ionic liquid
We have fabricated P3HT organic transistors using an ionicliquid to observe its high operating current as compared to theconventional organic field effect transistors. We monitoredin-situ the chemical state of the P3HT active layer during FET
operation using infrared absorption spectroscopy, and foundthat the ionic-liquid-based P3HT transistors are operated byelectrochemical doping.
Anodization of a patterned Al
2) Development of planar bilayer lipid membranes
film and Al nanodots formed by it
Planar bilayer lipid membranes (BLMs) were formed in
microfabricated apertures in Si chips. We have succeeded in preparing BLMs which are stable enoughfor repetitive solution exchanges and electric stress, and demonstrated that electric noise wassuppressed by coating the chip surface with dielectric layers. BLMs with channel proteins were also
formed in nanoholes of an anodic porous alumina films.
3)Direct formation of a titanium oxide nanotube film on a substrate using anodization
A titanium oxide nanotube film was directly formed on a substrate by anodization of a metal titanium
film deposited on it in an ammonium fluoride based organic electrolyte.

[Staff]
Professor㸸NIWANO, Michio Dr.
Assistant professor㸸 KIMURA, Yasuo Dr.
[Profile of Professor NIWANO, Michio]
1998 - present RIEC, Tohoku University, Japan, Professor
Memberships: Electrochemical Society (ECS), Material Research Society(MRS), American Vacuum Society (AVS)
Education: March, 1980 Tohoku University, Japan, Doctorate of Science[Papers]
[1]
[2]
[3]

Y. Kimura, M. Niwano, N. Ikuma, K. Goushi, and K. Itaya, “Organic field effect transistor using pentacene single
crystals grown by liquid-phase crystallization process”, Langmuir, 25(9) (2009) 4861-4863.
A. Hirano-Iwata, R. Yamaguchi, K. Miyamoto, Y. Kimura, and M. Niwano, “In situ real-time monitoring of
biomolecular interactions by using surface infrared spectroscopy”, J. Appl. Phys. 105(10) (2009) 102039.
A. Hirano-Iwata, K. Aoto, A. Oshima, T. Taira, R. Yamaguchi, Y. Kimura and M. Niwano, “Free-Standing Lipid
Bilayers in Silicon Chips-Membrane Stabilization Based on Microfabricated Apertures with a Nanometer-Scale
Smoothness”, Langmuir 26(3) (2010) 1949–1952

46

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

2009 Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
Nano-Spin Memory

Research of spin based device and memory[Research Target and Activities]
We are developing technologies to realize advanced spin
memory and logic devices using magnetic tunnel junctions(MTJs) consisting of ferromagnetic metal electrodes andinsulating barriers. In our group, the following results wereobtained.
1) TMR properties and film structures of perpendicular MTJs with

cap-layer[Co90Fe10(0.2)/Pd(1.2)]X10(pinned-layer)

CoFe Pd multilayer and different insertion layers such as CoFeB

w/ and w/o
Co20Fe60B20(1.8)

MgO(2)or Fe(1.8)

and Fe were investigated. The insertion of 1.8 nm-thick CoFeB[Co90Fe10(0.2)/Pd(1.2)]X3(free-layer)

layers between CoFe/Pd multilayers and MgO barrier resulted in an
Buffer-layer

increase of TMR ratio from a few percent to up to 43%. By
applying combination of bottom CoFeB and top Fe insertion layers,
TMR ratio of 78% was observed. 2) Operation of a prototype of
the world's first 32Mbit non-volatile random accessmemory (SPRAM) chip employing the spin-transfer torque
MTJs with synthetic ferrimagnetic free layer was verified.

[Staff]
Associate Professor : IKEDA, Shoji Ph.D.,
Visiting Professor :HASEGAWA, Haruhiro Ph.D.,
Research Fellow : GAN, Huadong Ph.D.,
Research Fellow : YAMAMOTO, Hiroyuki Ph.D.,
Research Fellow : MIURA, Katsuya Ph.D.,
Research Fellow : YAMAMOTO, Hiroki,

TMR ratio (%)

the TMR ratio reached 67%. For the MTJs with in situ annealing the

90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

CoFeB//Fe+in-situ anneal
CoFeB//Fe
CoFeB//CoFeB
Fe//Fe

100

150
200
250
300
350
o
Annealing temperature, T a ( C)IEEE Trans. Magn. 45 (2009) 3476.
Appl. Phys. Lett., 95 (2009) 232516.

Development of perpendicular MTJs with
CoFePd multilayer and different insertion
layers such as CoFeB and Fe.

[Papers][1] J. H. Park, S. Ikeda, H. Yamamoto, H. Gan, K. Mizunuma, K.
Miura, H. Hasegawa, J. Hayakawa, K. Ito, F. Matsukura, and H.
Ohno, "Perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions with CoFe/Pd
multilayer electrodes and an MgO barrier", IEEE Transactions on
Magnetics, Vol. 45, pp. 3476-3479, September 2009.
[2] K. Mizunuma, S. Ikeda, J. H. Park, H. Yamamoto, H. Gan, K.
Miura, H. Hasegawa, J. Hayakawa, F. Matsukura, and H. Ohno,"MgO barrier-perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions with
CoFe/Pd multilayers and ferromagnetic insertion layers", Applied
Physics Letters, Vol. 95, pp. 232516, December 2009.
[3] R. Takemura, T. Kawahara, K. Miura, H. Yamamoto, J. Hayakawa,
N. Matsuzaki, K. Ono, M. Yamanouchi, K. Ito, H. Takahashi, S.
Ikeda, H. Hasegawa, H. Matsuoka, and H. Ohno, “32-Mb 2T1R
SPRAM with localized bi-directional write driver and '1'/'0'
dual-array equalized reference cell”, in Symposium on VLSI
Circuits Digest of Technical Papers 2009, pp.84-85, June 2009.

Process
DensityMemory cell size
TMR size
Chip size
Write
Read

150 nm CMOS
32Mb
1.0 x1.0 μm
100 x 200 nm
15.32 x 6.19 mm
300 μA/cell, 40 ns
32 ns

VLSI Circuits 2009

32Mb Spin-Transfer Torque RAM (SPRAM)
chip employing the spin-transfer torque MTJs
withsynthetic
ferrimagnetic
CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB free layer.

Contact to Associate Professor Shoji IKEDA ： sikeda@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

47

2009 Laboratory for Brainware Systems
Laboratory for Brainware Systems

Research Targets and Activities of Laboratory for Brainware Systems

䎃
The Laboratory for Brainware Systems of the Research Institute of Electrical Communication was established in 2004. Its
purpose is to contribute to the research and development of advanced information science and technology for Brainware
systems which realize a seamless fusion of the changeable and complex real world and the cyber space.
We aim at establishing scientific and technological foundations for Real-World Computing (section), New Paradigm VLSI
System (section), Intelligent Nano-Integration System (section), Microarchitecture (section), Cyber Robotics (planned section),and Next-Generation Human Interface (planned section). The Laboratory for Brainware Systems consists of the above six
sections which cooperatively carry out the research. At the same time they serve as a laboratory for nation-wide cooperative
research in the field of Brainware systems.
The technology developed in the Laboratory is expected to enhance the research carried out in the four Divisions of theInstitute, and the research conducted in the Divisions, in turn, is expected to provide scientific basis for the information
technology developed in the Laboratory.

[Research Target]
Real-World Computing Section: Our main aim is to understand highly harmonic and autonomous
biological-information systems, and to propose principles for designing new systems. For carrying out
any purpose or any function, the biological system must solve inverse problems in the real-world. Since
the inverse problem is an ill-posed one, the system has to create an appropriate constraint for solving
the ill-posedness by itself, and autonomously satisfies the created constraint in real time. Clarifying
logic and basic mechanisms of “Constraint Self-Emergence and Self-Satisfaction”, we create artificial
systems for pattern recognitions and motion controls that work well in the real-world.
New Paradigm VLSI System Section Section: Performance degradation of SoCs due to wiring
complexity, power dissipation and characteristic variation of materials/devices is increasingly getting aserious problem in recent era. Our research activity is to solve the above problem by the following
two ways: the use of logic-in-memory architecture based on nonvolatile logic, and the use of
asynchronous data-transfer scheme based on multiple-valued current-mode logic, which would open
up a novel VLSI chip paradigm, called a “new-paradigm VLSI system.”Intelligent Nano-Integration System Section: Our research activities cover the fields of architecturesof Brain computing systems, characterization and application of artificial neural networks, computer
aided designs and fabrications of intelligent integrated circuits, and exploitation of new devices forneural circuits. At present research is focused on the large scale integration of Brain computing systemand exploitations of new neural devices proposing a neuromorphic quantum computation.
48

2009 Laboratory for Brainware Systems
Microarchitecture Section: The research activities in microarchitecture lab. include architecture andcircuit design of mixed-signal SoC applicable to sensor network system to explore brain activity
research along with mixed-signal topdown design methodology.

[Research Activities]
Real-World Computing Section (Yano Laboratory): We obtained the following three main results.
First, we proposed a computational algorithm for odor information representation using time
dimension, and clarified how to implement it into a neurobiologically plausible network model. The
model accounted for essential features of odor responses of biological networks and emergence ofolfactory cognitive functions. Second, concerning arm reaching movement, we computationallydemonstrated that the posture and motion of arm can be controlled in autonomous decentralizedmanner by using “mobility measure” of each joint calculated from its kinematical and dynamical
information in real time. We also found that the resulted arm movements of our model have a global
optimality with respect to energy consumption during motion. Furthermore, we psychophysicallyclarified that executing various motion under unpredictable environment would enhance theadaptability of motion control to environmental changes. Third, we examined the psychophysicaleffects of formant peak and spectral slope on vowel perception, and found that the vowel perception
can be generally accounted for by two acoustic features, slope and prominency of band-limited
spectrum.
New Paradigm VLSI System Section (Hanyu Laboratory): As this-year research results in the
nonvolatile logic-in-memory circuit technology, we have succeeded the chip fabrication of an
MOS/MTJ-hybrid Lookup-Table (LUT) circuit for a nonvolatile Field-Programmable Gate Array(FPGA) and confirmed its "immediate wake-up" behavior without reloading the configuration datafrom external nonvolatile devices. We have also succeeded the fine-grained power-gating scheme of
the nonvolatile ternary content-addressable memory (TCAM) proposed last year, which results ingreat reduction of wasted power dissipation in the TCAM. Moreover, we have succeeded the chip
fabrication of the single-wire multiple-valued single-track test chip under a 0.13um CMOS process,and confirmed its energy-efficient asynchronous data transmission on the wire length of 5mm.
Intelligent Nano-Integration System Section (Nakajima-Sato Laboratory): (1) We proposed a
discrete-type inverse function delayed neural network with high-order synapse connections anddemonstrated its usability for combinatorial optimization problems by stability analysis on solution
states. Moreover, we expanded our new analysis on nonlinear dynamics to a coupled nonlinear system,
and burst firing dynamics was successfully generated by using a coupled BVP model. (2) We analyzed
the resonant activation property of a Bi-2212 intrinsic Josephson junction and found possible reasonsfor degradation of the quality factor Q. In order to gain a better Q factor, we designed a filter circuit for
suppressing high frequency noise in bias lines and a line for feeding microwave. (3) To improve theperformance of high-speed operation for the single flux-quantum fast Fourier transform, a carrylook-ahead adder was fabricated using Nb integrated circuits. The high-speed operation of the addercircuit was successfully demonstrated up to 30GHz. A neural network using superconducting quantum
interference devices for solving a combinatorial optimization problem was proposed and numericallydemonstrated.
Microarchitecture Section (Masui Laboratory): We have been investigating architecture and circuit
techniques for low-power and low-cost CMOS transceiver ICs applicable to wireless sensor network,and high-speed A/D converter applicable to vision sensing. We have been explored a low-power
fractional-N PLL synthesizer design with high-speed setup circuit, and a low-power/low-cost bandpass
filter implemented with active gm-RC scheme. We start to investigate the hardware optimization
technique for time-interleaved A/D converters to achieve one tenth of power consumption and one fifthof area compared with conventional pipeline A/D converters. In terms of design productivity
enhancements, we have established a gm/Id lookup table design optimization methodology for
low-power OTA (operational transconductance amplifier), and have successfully implemented an
optimization flow including a detailed settling time analysis.
49

2009 Laboratory for Brainware Systems
Real-world computing

Odor Representation Algorithm: Invariance, Similarity, and Speed-Accuracy
Trade-off.
Receptors

Odor molecules

Primary Center

g1

g2

LN-I1

g3

LN-I2

PN1

PN2

LN-I3

PN3
LN-II2LN-I4

PN4
LN-II3

LN-II4Higher Center

LN-II1

g4

Fig. 1 Schematic illustration of biological olfactory
system.

Primary Center

Input

ORN1

ORN2

ORN3

ORN4

PN4
PN3
PN2
PN1
1
d4
42

Higher Center Node-Cells[Research Target and Activities]
Time is a key dimension for sensory information coding in
biological networks. In olfactory systems (Fig. 1), an odor-evokedspatial pattern of glomerular activation is transformed into first
dense, then sparse spatiotemporal patterns of spikes at Primaryolfactory and higher center networks, respectively. Althoughthese spatiotemporal neural representations seem to be useful forconcentration invariant odor identification and classification,
computational strategy and mechanisms underlying thesetransformation are still unclear.
We proposed a two-stage algorithm for odor representation thatcausally and logically relates the neurobiological representations
from a computational point of view, and that satisfies
computational criteria for usefulness in odor identification andclassification. Odor concentration change significantly alters theevoked glomerular activation pattern, but would not affect aranking of glomeruli in order of their relative response intensity.
Implementing the algorithm, a model first extracts theglomerular ranking as a temporal sequence of spike-bursts but its
detailed temporal structure still concentration-dependent. In thesecond-stage, the model evaluates exclusively the activity
sequence in the first-stage representation, and acquires theconcentration-invariant representation as a sparsely distributed
spike sequence (Fig. 2). The represented odor information can
predict how odors are grouped. Introduction of plastic connections
into the second-stage network enables the system to store odor
information as a weighting of network connectivity. The modelaccounts for essential features of odor responses of biologicalnetworks and the emergence of olfactory cognitive functions. The
temporal sequence representation predicted by the proposed
algorithm is a tool for pattern recognition that warrants further
investigation in biological systems and for designing flexible
information and communication systems.

34
32
24
d2
14
12

2

3

43
41
d3
31
23
21
13
d1

1
2
3
Fig. 2 Network implementation of odor representation algorithm using spatiotemporal neuralactivity.

[Staff]
Professor: YANO, Masafumi Dr.
Assistant professors: MAKINO, Yoshinari Dr., SAKANOTO, Kazuhiro Dr.
Research associate: TOMITA, Nozomi Dr.

[Profile of Professor Yano]
1992-: Professor, Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University.
2007-: Director, Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University.
[Papers][1]

Y. Makino and M. Yano, “Investigating the Underlying Intelligence Mechanisms of the Biological Olfactory System,”
Advances in Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 2010, Article ID 478107, 2010.
[2] Y. Yoshihara, Y. Makino, N. Tomita, M. Yano, “Can Real-time Optimization of Joint Mobility Generate Globally
Optimal Arm Motion?,” Keisoku Jidou Seigyo Gakkai, Vol. 45, pp. 570-579, 2009.
[3] K Sakamoto, H Nakajima, T Suzuki and M Yano, “Global closure,” ICONIP 2008, Part I, LNCS
5506, pp. 258-265, 2009.

50

Contact to Professor Masafumi YANO ： masafumi@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2009 Laboratory for Brainware Systems
Intelligent Nano-Integration System

Basic Technology of Integrated System for Intelligent Processing[Research Target and Activities]
Our research activities cover the fields of architectures of Brain computing systems, characterization
and application of artificial neural networks, computer aided designs and fabrications of intelligent
integrated circuits, and exploitation of new devices for neural circuits.
We have constructed a stochastic artificial neural network with one million synaptic units, analyzed
the dynamic behaviour of neural networks aiming at a time-dependent data processing, succeeded topropose a system where we are able to get off successfully from any local minima fallen into on the wayof data processing in neural networks, and fabricated its prototype hardware system on the silicon
microchip by using the CMOS technology. We have also presented an FFT and a neural system
operated by using a flux quantum logic in superconducting integrated circuits.
At present research is focused on the large scale integration of Brain computing system andexploitations of new neural devices proposing a neuromorphic quantum computation.
Research Activities in 2009
(1) We proposed a discrete-type inverse function delayed neural network with high-order synapse
connections and demonstrated its usability for combinatorial optimization problems by stability
analysis on solution states. Moreover, we expanded our new
analysis on nonlinear dynamics to a coupled nonlinear system,
and burst firing dynamics was successfully generated by using acoupled BVP model. (2) We analyzed the resonant activation
property of a Bi-2212 intrinsic Josephson junction and foundpossible reasons for degradation of the quality factor Q. In order togain a better Q factor, we designed a filter circuit for suppressing
high frequency noise in bias lines and a line for feeding microwave.
(3) To improve the performance of high-speed operation for the
single flux-quantum fast Fourier transform, a carry look-aheadadder was fabricated using Nb integrated circuits. The high-speed
operation of the adder circuit was successfully demonstrated up to
30GHz. A neural network using superconducting quantum
interference devices for solving a combinatorial optimization
problem was proposed and numerically demonstrated.
Fig.1 A 4-bit parallel multiplier[Staff]using SFQ logic
NAKAJIMA, Koji Professor
SATO, Shigeo Associate Professor
ONOMI, Takeshi Assistant Professor[Profile]
K. Nakajima was received his B.E. M.E. and Dr. Eng. from Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, in 1972,
1975, and 1978, respectively. Since 1978, he has been working at the Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication, Tohoku University, except for a ten month period in 1983 when he was a Visiting
Assistant Research Engineer at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a professor at the
Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku Univ., and is currently engaged in the studyof VLSI implementation of neural network, and Josephson junction devices for digital applications.
[Papers]
1.
2.
3.

T. Onomi, T. Kondo, and K. Nakajima, Implementation of High-Speed Single Flux-Quantum Up/Down
Counter for the Neural Computation Using Stochastic Logic, IEEE Trans. Applied Superconductivity,
vol.19, no.3, pp.626-629, June 2009.
S. Sato, K. Matsushita, K. Inomata, H. Wang, T. Hatano, M. Kinjo, and K. Nakajima, Collective
Dynamics of Intrinsic Josephson Junctions, Ext. Abst. 12th International Superconductive Electronics
Conf., TD-P35, June 2009.
Y. Hayakawa and K. Nakajima, Design of the Inverse Function Delayed Neural Network for Solving
Combinatorial Optimization Problems, IEEE Trans. Neural Networks, vol.21, no.2, pp.224-237, Feb.
2010.

Contact to Professor Koji NAKAJIMA ： hello@nakajima.riec.tohoku.ac.jp51

2009 Laboratory for Brainware Systems
Microarchitecture Laboratory

Mixed-Signal Platform Design[Research Target and Activities]

Ubiquitous society has been established by the deployment of various wireless systems ICs, and it
demands advances in mixed-signal (analog and digital) design technique as well as higher
integration through SoC (System on a Chip). Our research activities include architecture andcircuit design of mixed-signal SoC applicable to sensor network systems for the investigation ofbrain activities researches as well as design automation of RF/analog circuit. We propose amixed-signal platform to maximize the design creativity by utilizing IP-based digital design
methodology to various RF/analog and mixed-signal circuits. Moreover, we have been researchingon the development of RF/analog design optimization flows by using gm/Id based lookup table
methodology.

[Staff]
Professor: MASUI Shoichi Dr.
[Profile]
Shoichi Masui received the B. S. and M. S. degrees from Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan in 1982,
and 1984, respectively, and received the Ph. D. degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2006.
From 1990 to 1992, he was a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, Stanford CA, and in 2001, he
was a Visiting Scholar at University of Toronto, Toronto ON, Canada. Since 2007, he is a professor
in Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University. He was the recipient of acommendation by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Japan, in
2004 for his research achievements on FeRAM.
[Papers][1] D. Su, M. Loinaz, S. Masui, and B. Wooley, “Experimental Results aand Modeling Techniques for
Substrate Noise in Mixed Signal Integrated Circuits,” Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 28, no. 4,
pp. 420-430, 1993.
[2] S. Masui, T. Ninomiya, M. Oura, W. Yokozeki, K. Mukaida, and S. Kawashima, “Ferroelectric
Memory Based Secure Dynamically Programmable Gate Array”, IEEE J. of Solid-State Circuits, vol.
38, no. 5, pp. 715-725, 2003.
[3] H. Nakamoto, D. Yamazaki, T. Yamamoto, H. Kurata, S. Yamada, K. Mukaida, T. Ninomiya, T.
Ohkawa, S. Masui, and K. Gotoh, “A Passive UHF RF Identification Tag LSI with 36.6% Efficiency
CMOS-Only Rectifier and Current-Mode Demodulator in 0.35Pm FeRAM technology, ” IEEE
Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 101-110, 2007.

52

Contact to Professor Shoichi MASUI ： shomasui@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2009 Laboratory for Brainware Systems
New Paradigm VLSI System Research Group

Realization of a New-paradigm VLSI System[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 is increasingly getting a serious problem in the
recent VLSI chip. Our research activity is to solve the above problem primarily by the following two
ways: the use of logic-in-memory architecture based on nonvolatile logic, and the use of asynchronous
data-transfer scheme based on multiple-valued current-mode logic, which would open up a novel VLSI
chip paradigm, called a “new-paradigm VLSI system.”
As a this-year research result in nonvolatile-logic area, we have succeeded the chip fabrication of MTJ(Magnetic Tunnel Junction)-based basic logic component, a nonvolatile LUT (look-up table) circuit chip(Fig.1). We have also designed and fabricated a high-throughput asynchronous multiple-valued
single-track data-transfer test chip (Fig.3), whose performance is evaluated to be 1.5-times faster thanthat of a conventional implementation with maintaining less wire counts. Furthermore, we haveproposed nonvolatile TCAM based on a fine-grained power-gating scheme which enables to greatly
reduce standby power in the TCAM (Fig.2).
Die Photo

MeasuredWaveform

16.4PmPowerͲ
Off Active

Active17.5Pm

CLK
CrossͲ
DyCML
CoupledBufferKeeper
Selection
ReferenceTransistor
Resistor
Tree
Dynamic
Current
Source

VDD

AB
0
1

1
0

1
1

Output
Z
0
0

AB

V DD =0

Input(A,B)
0
0

0
1

1
0

Output
Z

1 1 1
0
1
1
X
X
X

0
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Searchword
SA

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SA

ACC

Match

SA

ACC

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SA

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SA

ACC

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SA

ACC

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TCAMcell(active)
SA Senseamplifier(active) SA

Fig.1:MTJͲbasednonvolatileLUTcircuitchip[Staffs]
Professor
Assistant Professor
Research Fellow

1
1

MeasuredWaveforms

Photomicrograph1 1 1
0
1
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X

0
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SA

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SA

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Mismatch

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ACC

TCAMcell(standby)

PIN

ReceiverMismatch
Transmitter

Match

Match

ACC Accumulator(active)

Senseamplifier(standby)

Fig.2NonvolatileTCAMbasedonfineͲgrained
powerͲgatingscheme

NIN

Vx’

OUT0.5 OUT1.5

Data:001Vhigh’

0

0

Spacer00

Vmiddle’10

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1

0

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1

1

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0

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NIN

0

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OUT1.500

0

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OUT0.510

1

1Silterra 0.13umCMOStechnology.
STATE PIN

Spacer

780mV/div
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Fig.3HighͲspeedasynchronousdataͲtransferchipbasedonmultipleͲvaluedsignleͲtrackschemeanditswaveforms

HANYU, Takahiro Dr.,NATSUI, Masanori Dr., MATSUMOTO, Atsushi Dr.
MATSUNAGA, Shoun Dr., ONIZAWA, Naoya Dr., SUZUKI, Daisuke Dr.

[Profile]
Takahiro Hanyu received the B.E., M.E. and D.E. degrees in Electronic engineering from Tohoku
University, Sendai, Japan, in 1984, 1986, 1989, respectively. He is currently a Professor in the
Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University. His general research interests
include multiple-valued current-mode logic and its application to high performance and low-powerarithmetic VLSIs.
[Papers](1) Naoya Onizawa, Takahiro Hanyu, and Vincent C. Gaudet, Design of High-Throughput Fully-Parallel
LDPC Decoders Based on Wire Partitioning, IEEE Trans. on VLSI Systems, Vol.18, No.3, pp.482 - 489,
2010.
(2) Daisuke Suzuki, Masanori Natsui, Shoji Ikeda, Haruhiro Hasegawa, Katsuya Miura, Jun
Hayakawa,FabricationofaNonvolatile
Lookup-Table
Circuit
Chip
Using
Magneto/Semiconductor-Hybrid Structure for an Immediate-Power-Up Field Programmable Gate
Array, Tetsuo Endoh, Hideo Ohno and Takahiro Hanyu, IEEE 2009 Symposia on VLSI Circuits, Dig.
Tech. Papers, pp.80-81, 2009.
(3) Shoun Matsunaga, Atsushi Matsumoto, Masanori Natsui, Tetsuo Endoh, Hideo Ohno, and Takahiro
Hanyu, Fine-Grain Power-Gating Scheme of a CMOS/MTJ-Hybrid Bit-Serial TernaryContent-Addressable Memory, International Conference on Solid State Devices and Materials (SSDM),
K-6-6, pp. 1382-1383, 2009.

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

53

2009 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. From 2007, the new 2 projects were started.
1. Development of Dependable Wireless System and Devices
Our new project “Development of Dependable Wireless System and Devices” was accepted in 2007
as the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) CREST type research program “Fundamental
Technology for Dependable VLSI System.” The project has been executed by the collaborations
between RIEC including IT21 mobile wireless technology group, major Japanese mobile terminal
manufacturers and other universities. In this project, concept of Dependable Air, which ismulti-mode and multi-band dependable wireless network, is proposed. The targets of this project are(1) all IP dependable wireless network which can realize a communication speed of 1Mbit/s~10Gbit/s,(2) all Si CMOS mixed signal LSI with frequency range of 500MHz~70GHz, (3) LSI development of
frequency domain equalizer technology, and (4) scalable AD converter.
2. Development of Low Power Consumption Mass Storage HDD Systems
A new project “Development of super high-speed mass storage HDD systems” started in 2007 under
the collaborations between RIEC including IT21 storage technology group, major Japanese HDD
manufacturers and other laboratories within Tohoku University. The goals of this project are todevelop the perpendicular recording technologies required for higher than 2 Tbits/inch2 recording
density and, based on these technologies, to develop the system architecture for realizing large
capacity, high performance and low power consumption storage systems; (1) Development offundamental technologies for the recording densities over 2 Tb/inch2; high sensitivity sensors, highrecording resolution SPT writers and high-density media including patterned media, (2) Developmentof a system architecture for high performance and low power consumption storage systems.
[Staff]Director: Kazuo TSUBOUCHI, Professor
Katsumi SAGAE, Technical Official
Project Planning Division
Makoto FURUNISHI, Professor
Technology Development Division (Mobile Wireless Technology Group)
Tadashi TAKAGI, Professor
Makoto IWATA, Visiting Professor
Technology Development Division (Storage Technology Group)
Kazuhisa FUJIMOTO, Professor
Hajime AOI, Visiting Professor
Takehito SHIMATSU, Associate Professor
Kiyoshi YAMAKAWA, Visiting Associate Professor

54

2009 Research Center for 21st Century Information Technology
The IT-21 Center Project Planning Division

Planning and Encouraging of R&D Projects[Research Target and Activities]
Study on trends of science and technology policy, etc. to launch R&D projects with industries. Studyon schemes to support R&D projects.
We have successfully launched two new projects since 2007FY, “the development of super high-speed
mass storage HDD systems” and “the development of CMOS wireless LAN by 3D SiP”. We issued afinal report on the IT Project which was entrusted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology (MEXT) from 2002FY to 2007FY. Planning of a new project is underway toutilize the internationally standardized outcome of the IT Project.
We have proposed the roles that the Research Institute of Electrical Communication (RIEC) would
play in the management of intellectual property rights, and have arranged a new scheme to handle
intellectual property rights with industries in order to carry out the projects mentioned above.
We hold meetings with institutes with which RIEC has concluded the cooperation agreements to start
R&D projects.

Planning of R&D䊶䊶䊶䊶To Analyze Trends of Science and Technology Policy
To Evaluate Innovative Impact
To Investigate on Social Needs
To Investigate on R&D Grant Scheme

Research Center for 21st Century Information Technology(IT-21 Center)

Technology Development Division

Project Planning Division

Encouraging of R&D

䊶 To manage Intellectual Property Rights
䊶 To communicate with the public[Staff]
Professor : FURUNISHI, Makoto
Secretary : KAGAMITANI, Machiko[Profile]
1986.3 got master’s degree from Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, theUniversity of Tokyo
1986.4 joined Science and Technology Agency (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology (MEXT) at present)
2005.1- 2004.7 Director of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Regulation Division, NISA, METI
2006.8- 2009.9 Professor, IT-21 Center, RIEC, Tohoku University, 2006.11-2008.3 Special Advisor to
President
2009.9- Councilor, Secretariat of Science Council of Japan2009.12- Visiting Professor, RIEC, Tohoku University[Article]
Effective Management of Intellectual Property Rights at National Universities for the Advancement ofIndustry-University Collaboration, Intellectual Property Management, Vol.59, No.11, 200955

2009 Research Center for 21st Century Information Technology
IT21 Center Mobile Wireless Technology Group

Development of Dependable Wireless System (DWS) Technology
for Dependable Air[Research Target and Activities]“Development of Dependable Wireless System and Devices” project was accepted in 2007 as the Japan
Science and Technology Agency (JST) CREST type research program “Fundamental Technology for
Dependable VLSI System.” In this project, concept of Dependable Air, which is multi-mode andmulti-band dependable wireless network, has been proposed. The targets of this project are (1) all IP
dependable wireless network which can realize a communication speed of 1Mbit/s-10Gbit/s, (2) all Si
CMOS mixed signal LSI with frequency range of 500MHz-70GHz, (3) LSI development of frequency
domain equalizer technology, and (4) scalable AD converter.
1. All Si CMOS RFICFor realizing DWS, we have developed a 5GHz- and 60GHz-band RF circuits using 90nm Si-CMOS
technology.
2. Digitally Assisted Compensation Technology
We have developed a novel frequency domain equalizer (FDE) technology implemented to an
application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). We have demonstrated a transmission test undermultipass fading environments. Due to the FDE, we have realized to improve bit error rate (BER)
characteristics. Conventionally, FDE technology has been evaluated by simulation. Here, we havebeen able to realize it by experiment.
3. Adaptive and Scalable ADC/DAC (Analog-to-Digital Converter/ Digital-to-Analog Converter)
We have devised a current mode pipeline ADC, which is suitable for process miniaturization andlow supply voltage. We have designed several core circuits of the ADC and have realized static
characteristics.

[Staff]
Professor: TAKAGI, Tadashi, Dr. (since 2005)
Guest Professor: IWATA, Iwata, Dr. (since 2003)[Profile of Professor TAKAGI, Tadashi]
Professor TAKAGI Tadashi received the B.S. degree in physics from Tokyo Institute of Technology,
Tokyo, Japan and Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering from Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, Japan,
in 1973 and 1995, respectively. In 1973, he joined the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, where he wasengaged in development on microwave and millimeter-wave circuits technology. Since 2005, he has
been with Tohoku University, where he is now a professor. Now, his main area of research interest ismobile wireless broadband communication circuits and systems technology. He is a senior member of
the IEEE and a member of IEICE of Japan.
[Papers][1] S. Tanifuji, T. T. Thanh, S. Kameda, T. Takagi, and K. Tsubouchi, "5GHz band low phase noise
Si-CMOS oscillator using FBAR", IEICE Electron. Express, vol.7, no.3, pp.165-169, 2010.
[2] S. Yoshida, H. Oguma, S. Kameda, T. Takagi, and K. Tsubouchi, "60 GHz Band Planar Monopole
Antenna Using Organic Substrates for Ultra-Small WPAN Modules," Global Symposium on Millimeter
Waves 2009 (GSMM2009), April 2009.
[3] S. Kameda, H. Oguma, T. Takagi, K. Tsubouchi, N. Izuka, Y. Asano, and Y. Yamazaki, "Feasibility
Study of Downlink Transmission with 256 QAM Based on Results of MBWA System Field Trial,"
European Wireless 2009, pp.140-144, May 2009.

56

Contact to Professor Tadashi TAKAGI ： t-takagi@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2009 Research Center for 21st Century Information Technology
IT-21 center, Technology Development Division, Storage Technology Group

Development of low power consumption mass storage HDD systems[Research Target and Activities]
A new project ;Development of super high-speed mass storage HDD systems started in August 2007
under the collaborations between RIEC including IT21 storage technology group, major Japanese
HDD manufacturers. The goals of this project are to develop the perpendicular recording technologies
required for higher than 2 Tbits/inch2 recording density and, to develop the system architecture forrealizing large capacity, high performance and low power consumption storage systems.
This year we continued fundamental studies and obtained the following achievements.
1) High density recording media: L11-type CoPtM (M: Fe, Ni, Cr, Mn, Pd) ordered alloy films with alarge uniaxial magnetic anisotropy were fabricated using UHV sputter film deposition, andmagnetic properties were examined. Moreover, we started experimental analysis of magnetization
reversal for dot arrays of high-Ku perpendicular films with the dot diameter of 10~15 nm.
2) High sensitivity sensor technology: It was experimentally shown for high sensitivity spin
accumulation sensor that an introduction of MgO barrier structure resulted in an enhancement of
output signal.
3) Single pole type writer with a high recording resolution: Multiple tapered main-pole structure wasfurther improved utilizing simulation. Preliminary study of head element fabrication was started.
4) New recording algorithm for over terabits per square inch densities: Possibility of attaining 2Tb/in2
using hard/soft stacked structure bit patterned media (BPM) was confirmed using LLG simulation.
Moreover, a preliminary study of read/write
properties for bit-patterned media (60 nm in dot
diameter) using a static tester revealed that thewriting margin was 70% to the bit length.
5) A 64-TB testbed with “2-dimension data allocation
method with an access prediction” was developed toevaluate the energy savings with minimum loss of
speed and could obtain an energy-saving of 16%
compared with current tiered-storage without loss ofdata-throughput. The energy savings in 1-PB
capacity system, estimated from the measured data,
AHE curves and MFM image for thecorresponded to a saving of 55%.
dot arrays of L11-CoPt alloy films.
[Staff]Kazuhisa FUJIMOTO, Professor. Hajime AOI, Visiting Professor. Takehito SHIMATSU, Associate
Professor. Kiyoshi YAMAKAWA, Visiting Associate Professor.
[Profile]
Kazuhisa Fujimoto received the Dr. of Engineering degree from Kyushu University in 1997. He joined
Central Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd., in 1987. He joined RIEC, Tohoku University in 2007. He
has been engaged in research on storage system architectures.
[Papers][1] K. Fujimoto, H. Akaike, N. Okada, K. Miura, and H. Muraoka, “Power-aware Proactive Storage-tiering
Management for High-speed Tiered-storage Systems,” SustainIT '10 (online proceedings) (2010).
[2] T Shimatsu, H Sato, H Kataoka, S Okamoto, O Kitakami, and H Aoi, “Magnetic and structuralproperties of L11 type CoPt-C ordered alloy perpendicular films as a function of C content,” ICM2009,
Th-C-10-10 (J. Phys.: Conf. Ser., in press).

Contact to Professor Kazuhisa FUJIMOTO ： fujimoto@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

57

2009 Management Ofﬁce for Safety and HealthManagement 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 Health and Safety is established to maintain the health and safety 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 Health and Safety
provides support for health and safety 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 health and safety at the office, the Health and Safety Committee firstpresents the basic policies of safety management at the institute, and the Management Office for
Health and Safety 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 Health and Safety 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 health and safety. 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 theinstituteInspection of and assistance in improving the health and safety management system and working
environment within the instituteHolding first-aid training course
Investigation of laws related to health and safety and collection of information regarding healthand safety management
Providing advice and information to health and safety personnel in each department[Staff]
Manager: Michio NIWANO Dr., Professor

Deputy Manager: Yoichi UEHARA Dr., Professor
Nobuyuki SATO Dr., Assistant Professor
Ayako CHIBA, Clerk

58

Contact to anzen@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2009 Flexible Information System Research Center
Flexible Information System Research Center

Development of Flexible Information Systems and Management of Network[Research Target and Activities]
The present information systems such as computers are
inflexible systems, because their purpose is predefined
NetworkInformation
RetrievalAgentand they provide only the fixed procedures and functions.
On the other hand the flexible information system can
NetworkInformation
perform the flexible information processing adapted to the
VisualizationAgent
human intention and situation of its environment.
Our goal is to investigate principles of the flexible
information processing through the theories andUserAgent
experiments, and establish their system construction
methodology. Moreover, we also study the flexible
distributed systems for advanced organization, utilization,
administration, operation and putting out scientificinformation. Through practical applications of above
Fig. 1 Agent based Network
results to the real network in RIEC, we confirm
Management System.
effectiveness of our methods. To achieve the above goal,
this year we have conducted the following researches:(1) development of distributed and scalable authentication method for large scale overlay network,(2) development of an agent based network management system (Fig.1) and(3) flexible computing mechanism in biological system.
Graph

Results

Visualization

File

SelectRequests

Set

Load

MakeGraphCountsSize

Date/Time

Size

Requests[Staff](1) Steering Committee㩷
Professor: SUZUKI Yôiti Dr., SHIRATORI Norio Dr., TOYAMA Yoshihito Dr., KINOSHITA Tetsuo Dr.,SHIRAI Masafumi Dr., OHORI Atsushi Dr.
(2) FIR Committee
Professor: TOYAMA Yoshihito Dr., KINOSHITA Tetsuo Dr.
Associate Professor: AOTO Takahito Dr., AOKI Terumasa Dr., KITAGATA Gen Dr.
Assistant Professor: YOSHIDA Masato Dr., ONOMI Takeshi Dr., SASAI Kazuto Dr.
Research Fellow: OSADA Toshiaki Dr.
Technical Support Member: SUZUKI Midori, NIITSUMA Sachiko(3) Regular Staff
Associate Professor: KITAGATA Gen Dr.
Assistant Professor: SASAI Kazuto Dr.
Research Fellow: OSADA Toshiaki Dr.
Technical Support Member: SUZUKI Midori, NIITSUMA Sachiko[Profile]
Refer to the Advanced Acoustic Information Systems Laboratory for the profile Prof. Yôiti Suzuki.
Refer to the Computing Information Theory Laboratory for the profile Prof. Yoshihito Toyama.
[Papers]1.

J. Makishi, D. Chakraborty, T. Osada, G. Kitagata, A. Takeda, K. Hashimoto, N. Shiratori, "A Fair Load Sharing
Scheme for Multi-source Multimedia Overlay Application Layer Multicast," Proc. of the 4th International
Conference on Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems (CISIS 2010), Krakow, Polland, Feb. 15-18,
2010.

2.

Akihiro Satoh, Toshiaki Osada, Toru Abe, Gen Kitagata, Norio Shiratori, Tetsuo Kinoshita, "Traffic Classification in
Mobile IP Network," Proc. of the 4th International Conference on Ubiquitous Information Technologies &Applications (ICUT 2009), 2009.12.

3.

Akira Sakatoku, Akifumi Kawato, Toshiaki Osada, Gen Kitagata, Norio Shiratori, Tetsuo Kinoshita, "3D Symbiotic
Environment for Collaborative Work," Proc. of the 4th International Conference on Ubiquitous Information
Technologies & Applications (ICUT 2009), 2009.12..

Contact to Associate Professor Gen KITAGATA ： minatsu@fir.riec.tohoku.ac.jp

59

2009 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 research support, closely linked with research
activities at the Institute, based on its high-level specialized knowledge and technology. We must
maintain and improve our organization to develop and pass on high-level knowledge and technology.
Based on this philosophy, the Center provides research support through its four Divisions.
1. Machine Shop Division
The Machine Shop Division has previously pioneered a number of new machining methods, andcontributed to research on high-density magnetic recording and many other types of research relating
to advanced information and communications. This year, there were 129 fabrication requests fromlaboratories (114 from inside the Institute, 15 from outside).
2. Evaluation Division
The Evaluation Division provides the following as measurement equipment for shared use:
atomic force microscope, scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffractometer, electron spin resonancespectrometer, scanning transmission electron microscope, electron probe micro analyzer, X-ray
fluorescence analyzer, fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer, infrared-visible spectroscope,liquidchromatograph,

opticalcharacteristic

measurement

equipment,

in-airphotoelectron

measurement equipment, dicing saw
3. Process Division
The Process Division provides the following as measurement equipment for shared use:
Focused ion beam system, mask aligner, X-ray diffractometer for thin films, electron beam exposure
equipment, sputtering equipment, scanning
probe

electronmicroscope,

opticalmicroscope,scanning

microscope, spectrophotometer, digital microscope, dicing saw, UV & ozone dry stripper

4. Software Technology Division
The Software Technology Division manages, operates and develops information systems for theInstitute. To support research in each field, the Division handles tasks like disseminating information
on research results and providing services for gathering/organizing/utilizing academic information,such as space collaboration systems and a database of RIEC researchers.
[Staff]Director (Professor): Michio NIWANO Dr., Assistant Professor: Nobuyuki SATO Dr.
Technical Official : Yasuo WAGATSUMA, Shigeto AGATSUMA, Koichi SHOJI, Tamotsu SUENAGA,
Takeshi YAMASHITA, Maho ABE, Keisuke SATO, Kento ABE, Hiroshi WATANABE, Munetomo
SUGAWARA, Yuji KONNO, Ryuji YONEZAWA, Choichi TAKYU,

60

Contact to eac@riec.tohoku.ac.jp

2009 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, acoustic communication,
non-linear physics and engineering, and computer software. On the basis of this rich historicalbackground the Institute was designated as 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 and application of universal science andtechnology to realize communication, to the enrichment of humanity.”
In such 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. 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 Judging Committee that includes members from the outside of Tohoku University
has a judging function for project proposals. The purpose of the Project Steering Committee is theproper operation of approved projects.

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2009 Nation-wide Cooperative research projects
Nation-wide cooperative research projects list 2009
Project Number
Research Project Theme䌈䋱䋹䋯䌁䋰䋱

Development of magnetic-dielectricmaterial using magnetic nanoparticle
assembly for ultra-high frequency
devices䌈䋱䋹䋯䌁䋰䋲

A basic research for gaining IP
network aspect䌈䋱䋹䋯䌁䋰䋳

Theoretical Design and Fabrication ofMulti-functional Spintronics
Materials䌈䋱䋹䋯䌁䋰䋴

Valency Control of Group IV
Semiconductor Quantum Dots and Its
Application of MOS Memories䌈䋱䋹䋯䌁䋰䋵

Study of Orientation and Mobility
Training for the Persons with Visual
Impairment by using Wide-Range
Three Dimensional Acoustical
Technologies䌈䋱䋹䋯䌁䋰䋶

Research on accurate HRTF
measurement systems䌈䋱䋹䋯䌁䋰䋷

A study on the basic representation ofcolor (color alphabets) in visual cortex䌈䋱䋹䋯䌁䋰䋸

Development of new measurement
techniques with nanometer scalespatial resolution and exploration of
the electronic and optical properties of
surface nanostructures

62

Project Leader
Migaku TAKAHASHI
School of Engineering
Tohoku University

Hiroshi UEDA
Library and Information
Technology Center,Gunma
University

Facilitator
in RIEC

Yasuo CHO

Yukio
IWAYA

Akio KIMURA
Hiroshima University, The
Graduate School of Science

Masafumi
SHIRAI

Seiichi MIYAZAKI
Hiroshima University,
Advanced Sciences of Matter

Junichi
MUROTA

Yoshikazu SEKI
National Institute of Advanced
Industrial Science and
Yukio
Technology
IWAYA

Tatsuya HIRAHARA
Toyama Prefectural University Yôiti
SUZUKI
Faculty of Engineering
Ichiro KURIKI
Research Institute of Electrical
IchiroCommunication, Tohoku
KURIKI
University
Yoichi UEHARA
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication,
YoichiTohoku University
UEHARA

2009 Nation-wide Cooperative research projects
Project Number
Research Project Theme䌈䋱䋹䋯䌁䋱䋰

On application of frequency domainbinaural model for hearing aids䌈䋱䋹䋯䌁䋱䋳

Physiological Evaluation andDevelopment of a Distributed
Multi-display System Adapting toUser's situation䌈䋱䋹䋯䌁䋱䋴

Next Generation Wireless Hot-Spot
Network䌈䋲䋰䋯䌁䋰䋱

Basic Studies in Plasma
Nanobiotronics
䌈䋲䋰䋯䌁䋰䋲

The Frontier of Photonic Crystal andNano-Photonic Applications䌈䋲䋰䋯䌁䋰䋳

Investigation of interface trap density
for an MIS structures using an ECR
sputter-deposited high-k gate-oxides
䌈䋲䋰䋯䌁䋰䋴

Three-DimensionalNanostructure
Formation of Strain-ControlledGroup-IV Semiconductors and Its
Device Application䌈䋲䋰䋯䌁䋰䋵

Fabrication of high mobility
two-dimensional hole gas䌈䋲䋰䋯䌁䋰䋶

Intelligent nano-integration system
and its application

Project Leader
Tsuyoshi USAGAWA
Kumamoto University,
Graduate School of Science andTechnology
Atsumi IMAMIYA
University of Yamanashi,Interdisciplinary Graduate
School of Medicine andEngineering
Kazuo TSUBOUCHI
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication, Tohoku
University
Rikizo HATAKEYAMA
School of Engineering Tohoku
University
Shojiro KAWAKAMI
Sendai Foundation for Applied
Information Sciences

Facilitator
in RIECYôiti
SUZUKI

Takuo

SUGANUMA

Kazuo

TSUBOUCHI

MichioNIWANO

Masataka

NAKAZAWA

Toshiro ONO
Graduate School of Science and Junichi
Technology Hirosaki
MUROTA
University
Junichi MUROTA
Research Institute of Electrical
JunichiCommunication, Tohoku
MUROTA
University
Seigo TARUCHA
School of Engineering The
University of Tokyo

Yuzo
OHNO

Koji NAKAJIMA
Research Institute of Electrical Koji
NAKAJIMA
Communication, Tohoku
University

63

2009 Nation-wide Cooperative research projects
Project Number
Research Project Theme

Project Leader

Fumihiko HIROSE
Yamagata University㩷
A research on organic heterojunction
Graduate School of Science andphotovoltaic devices
Engineering䌈䋲䋰䋯䌁䋰䋸
Masao SUGAWARA
Nihon University College ofDevelopment of Ion-Channel Chips
Humanities and Sciences䌈䋲䋰䋯䌁䋰䋹
Masayuki SATO
Study of human visual stability during Faculty of Environmental
Engineering, Kitakyushu㩷
eye movements
University䌈䋲䋰䋯䌁䋱䋰
Kenji OZAWA
University of Yamanashi,
Learning effects of sound localization
Interdisciplinary Graduate
in the binaural technology
School of Medicine andEngineering䌈䋲䋰䋯䌁䋰䋷

䌈䋲䋰䋯䌁䋱䋱

Cell-based chips using infrared
spectroscopy䌈䋲䋰䋯䌁䋱䋳

Study of magnetic devices withapplication of the thin film elementwith inclined stripe magnetic domain䌈䋲䋰䋯䌁䋱䋴

A study on advanced video content
retrieval technology䌈䋲䋱䋯䌁䋰䋱

Superconducting㩷 Computer
Technology toward Reduction of㩷
Environmental Burden䌈䋲䋱䋯䌁䋰䋲

Nanophotonics and Nanoelectronics
Devices with Metallic Nanomaterials䌈䋲䋱䋯䌁䋰䋳

Study on the heterointerface for the
improvement of㩷 performance andreliability of group-㸊 hetero-devices

64

Facilitator
in RIEC

MichioNIWANO
MichioNIWANO
SatoshiSHIOIRIYôiti
SUZUKI

Yasuo SHINOHARA
Institute for Genome Research, Michio
NIWANOThe University of Tokushima
Tomoo NAKAI
Industrial Technology
Institute, Miyagi Prefectural
Government

Kazushi
ISHIYAMA

Junji NUMAZAWA
Research Institute of Electrical Junji
NUMAZAWA
Communication, Tohoku
University
Yoshinao MIZUGAKIThe University ofElectro-Communications

ShigeoSATO

Kaoru TAMADA
Kaoru
Research Institute of Electrical
TAMADA
Communication Tohoku
University
Toshiaki TSUCHIYA
Shimane University
Interdisciplinary Faculty of
Science and Engineering

Junichi
MUROTA

2009 Nation-wide Cooperative research projects
Project Number
Research Project Theme䌈䋲䋱䋯䌁䋰䋴

Evaluation of Piezoelectric Langasite
Family Compounds by the Ultrasonic

Project Leader
Jun-ichi KUSHIBIKI
School of Engineering Tohoku
University

Facilitator
in RIEC

Yasuo CHO

Microspectroscopy and PiezoelectricResonant-Antiresonant Frequencies
Methods and their Applications to
High-Temperature Sensors䌈䋲䋱䋯䌁䋰䋵

Study on spintronic application of theoxide thin films with Magneto-Electriceffect䌈䋲䋱䋯䌁䋰䋶

STT microwave oscillation ofself-organized multi-nano-pillar
structure and its application䌈䋲䋱䋯䌁䋰䋷

Synchronization in dynamics ofoscillating pulse edges in switch lines

Seiji SAHASHI
School of Engineering Tohoku
University

Kazushi
ISHIYAMA

Masaaki DOI
School of Engineering Tohoku
University

Kazushi
ISHIYAMA

Koichi NARAHARA
Taiichi
Yamagata University㩷
Graduate School of Science and OTSUJI
Engineering䌈䋲䋱䋯䌁䋰䋸

High performance THz wave sources
based on resonant tunneling diodepairs䌈䋲䋱䋯䌁䋰䋹

Development of measuring method forspeech recognition performance undervarious sound field䌈䋲䋱䋯䌁䋱䋰

A Study on Higher Realistic
Communication in Three Dimensional
Sound Space䌈䋲䋱䋯䌁䋱䋱

The cooperative system to built amodel of visual cognition

Koichi MAESAWA
Faculity of Engineering,
University of Toyama
Hiroshi SATO
National Institute of Advanced
Industrial Science andTechnology

TaiichiOTSUJIYôiti
SUZUKI

Kazuhiro KONDO
Yamagata University㩷
Graduate School of Science and Yukio
Engineering
IWAYA
Satoshi SHIOIRISatoshiResearch Institute of Electrical
SHIOIRI
Communication Tohoku
University

65

2009 Nation-wide Cooperative research projects
Project Number
Research Project Theme䌈䋲䋱䋯䌁䋱䋲

A study on SAT(Scenario To Anime)
technology䌈䋲䋱䋯䌁䋱䋳Creation of Platform for Sustainable
Information Society by Sensor-Cloud
Systems

Project Leader
Terumasa AOKI
Research Institute of ElectricalCommunication Tohoku
University
Osamu TAKAHASHIThe School of Systems
Information Science Future
University-HAKODATEAtsushi MASE
Subject and View of Synthetic Aperture Art,Science and Technology
Center for Cooperative
Radar Development for Civilian Use
Research,Kyushu University䌈䋱䋹䋯䌂䋰䋱

䌈䋱䋹䋯䌂䋰䋲

Research on optical measurements ofearthquakes and their networking䌈䋱䋹䋯䌂䋰䋴

Development of Science ofFine-Particle Plasmas䌈䋱䋹䋯䌂䋰䋹

A proof theoretical approach toprinciples of program construction䌈䋲䋰䋯䌂䋰䋲

Development of high performancepiezoelectric materials and application
to information and communication
devices䌈䋲䋰䋯䌂䋰䋳

Research on Ultra High Density
Semiconductor Memories based on
New Conceptual Material and Storage
Principle䌈䋲䋰䋯䌂䋰䋴

Research on Nano Semiconductor
Materials and its Application to Nano
Devices

66

Facilitator
in RIEC

Terumasa
AOKI

Norio
SHIRATORI

Kazuo

TSUBOUCHI

Akito㩷 ARAYA
Earthquake Research Institite, Masataka
NAKAZAWA
University of Tokyo
Yasuaki HAYASHI
Kyoto Institute of Technology

MichioNIWANO

Masahiko SATO
Graduate School ofInformatics, Kyoto University

Yoshihito
TOYAMA

Jun-ichi KUSHIBIKI
School of Engineering Tohoku
University

Yasuo CHO

Heiji WATANABE
Graduate School ofEngineering Osaka University

Kikuo YAMABE
Graduate School of Pure andApplied Sciences University ofTsukuba

TetsuoENDOH

TetsuoENDOH

2009 Nation-wide Cooperative research projects
Project Number
Research Project Theme䌈䋲䋰䋯䌂䋰䋵

Cooperation of Semiconductor Scienceand Technologies Toward Science
Driven Semiconductor Technologies䌈䋲䋰䋯䌂䋰䋶Development of high-performancequantum cascade lasers and theirapplications to high-sensitive sensing䌈䋲䋰䋯䌂䋰䋸

Advanced communication andmeasurement technologies using
phase-controlled lightwaves䌈䋲䋰䋯䌂䋰䋹

Research on Next-Generation
Peta-byte Information Storage
䌈䋲䋰䋯䌂䋱䋰

Development of Dependable System
Software with a Highly Reliable
Programming Language System

Project Leader

Facilitator
in RIEC

Kenji SHIRAISHI
Center for Computational
Hideo
Sciences University of Tsukuba OHNO㩷Keita OHTANI
Research Institute of Electrical Keita
Communication, Tohoku
OHTANI㩷
University
Hidemi TSUCHIDA
National Institute of Advanced
Industrial Science andTechnology

Masataka

NAKAZAWA

Hiroaki MURAOKA
Research Institute of Electrical Hiroaki
MURAOKA
Communication, Tohoku㩷University
Kazuhiko KATO
University of Tsukuba,
Graduate School of Systems
and Information Engineering

Atsushi
OHORI

Mizuhito OGAWA
Automatic program verification based School of Information
Science,Japan Advanced
on deduction engines
Institute of Science andTechnology

AtsushiOHORI

Akira ANDOH
Fundamental
characteristics
and School of Engineering Tohoku
applications of innovative functional University
field generated by various plasma flow

Maki
SUEMITSU䌈䋲䋰䋯䌂䋱䋱

䌈䋲䋱䋯䌂䋰䋱

Maki SUEMITSU
Control and Elucidation of Growth Research Institute of Electrical Maki
SUEMITSU
Mechanism of Graphene for device Communication Tohoku
University
applications in the next generation䌈䋲䋱䋯䌂䋰䋲

67

2009 Nation-wide Cooperative research projects
Project Number
Research Project Theme䌈䋲䋱䋯䌂䋰䋳

Small Power WirelessCommunications

Project Leader

Shuzo KATO
Research Institute of Electrical Shuzo
Communication Tohoku
KATO
University䌈䋲䋱䋯䌂䋰䋴

Akira HIROSE
Complex Valued Neural Network for School of Engineering The
University of Tokyo
Real Applications䌈䋲䋱䋯䌂䋰䋵

Study on human performance with aview to designing human-friendly
information systems

Facilitator
in RIEC

Shigeo 㩷
SATO㩷
Hirofumi YANAI
College of Engineering. Ibaraki Koji
NAKAJIMA
University㩷䌈䋲䋱䋯䌂䋰䋶

Toward an interdisciplinary㩷 approachof vision sciences

Kenichiro TSUTSUI
Tohoku University, Graduate
School of Life Science

SatoshiSHIOIRI

Toshio OGINO
Yokohama National
University, Graduate School ofEngineering

MichioNIWANOKo HOSODA
Constructivist approach to mechanism Graduate School ofof adaptive locomotion of biological Engineering Osaka University
system

Masafumi
YANO䌈䋲䋱䋯䌂䋰䋷

Novel Bioelectronic Devices Based on
Combination of Nano andBio-technology䌈䋲䋱䋯䌂䋰䋸

䌈䋲䋱䋯䌂䋰䋹

Evolution of high performancecomputing by non-volatile
bits-operation technologies

Hiroshi MATSUOKARIKEN Advanced Institutefor Computational Science

Isao ECHIZEN
Research on Next-Generation Models National Institute ofInformatics
of Digital Content Distribution

Takahiro
HANYU

䌈䋲䋱䋯䌂䋱䋰68

Yôiti
SUZUKI

2009 Nation-wide Cooperative research projects
Project Number
Research Project Theme

Project Leader

Facilitator
in RIEC

Takahiro HANYU
New Paradigm VLSI System and Its Research Institute of Electrical Takahiro㩷
Communication Tohoku
HANYU
System Integration Technology
University䌈䋲䋱䋯䌂䋱䋱

Hidenori㩷 MIMURA
Development of essential technologies Shizuoka University Research Yôiti
SUZUKI
Institute of Electronics
for superhivision䌈䋲䋰䋯S䋰䋱

䌈䋲䋰䋯S䋰䋲

Spintronics Initiative Network

Kouhei ITOH
Keio University Science andTechnology

Hideo
OHNO

䌈䋲1䋯S䋰1

Yasushi YAGI
Information processing and
The Institute of Scientific andKoji
communication system based on an
Industrial Research, Osaka
NAKAJIMA
innovative new concept associated with University
human functions69

2009 Symposium
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.

Symposium In Past㩷 㩷 Title
1

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

2009 Symposium
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, 199737

Toward the Realization of the High-Definition Multi-Media
Communication
International Symposium Organized by the Institute
Title

㩷
1
2

Intrinsic Josephson Effect and THz Plasma Oscillation in High Tc
Superconductors
Design and Architecture of Information Processing Systems Based on
The Brain Information Principle

3 Novel Techniques and Applications of Millimeter-Waves
4
5

The International Joint Conference on Silicon Epitaxy andHeterostructures
International Workshop on Photonic and Electromagnetic Crystal
Structures

Nov. 4- 6, 1997

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

6 Physics and Application Spin Related Phenomena in Semiconductors

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

Oct.23-24, 2003

11 3rd International Workshop on New Group IV (Si-Ge-C) Semiconductors

Oct.12-13, 2004

12
13
14

3rd International Workshop on High Freaqency Micromagnetic Devices
and Materials (MMDM3)
4th International Conference on Silicon Epitaxy and Heterostructures(lCSl-4)
1st International WorkShop on New Group IV Semiconductor
Nanoelectronics

72

Apr.11-12, 2005
May.23-26, 2005
May.27-28. 2005

2009 Symposium
15
16
17
18
19

GSIS International Symposium on Information Sciences of New Era:
Brain, Mind and Society
The 1st RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics -Spin Transfer
Phenomena4th International Workshop on High Frequency Micromagnetic Devices
and Materials (MMDM4)
4th International Conference on Physics and Applications of
Spin-Related Phenomena in Semiconductors (PASPS-lV)
2nd International Workshop on New Group IV Semiconductor
Nanoelectronics

Sep.26-27, 2005
Feb.8-9, 2006
May 8,2006
Aug.15-18,2006
Oct.2-3,2006

20 2nd RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics

Feb.15-16,2007

21 Japan-China Joint Conference on acoustics, JCA2007

Jun.4-6,2007

22

International Conference on Discovery Science/
International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory

23 The 3rd RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics
24

3rd International Workshop on New Group 㸊Semiconductor
Nanoelectronics

25 International Workshop on Nanostructures & Nanoelectronics

Oct.1-4,2007
Oct.
31-Nov.1,2007
Nov.8-9,2007
Nov.21-22,2007

The 18th International Symposium on Algorithms andDec.17-19,2007
Computation(ISAAC2007)
International Interdisciplinary-Symposium on Gaseous and Liquid27㩷
Sep.5-6,2008㩷
Plasmas (ISGLP 2008)㩷
4th International Workshop on New Group IV Semiconductor28㩷
Sep.25-27,2008㩷
Nanoelectronics㩷
26

29㩷 The 4th RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics㩷

Oct.9-10,2008

30 GSMM2009 (Global Symposium on Millimeter Waves 2009 )Apr.20-22,2009

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

Apr.24-25,200932 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 Photonics
34(5th RIEC Symposium on Spintronics)
International Workshop on the principles and applications of spatial
35
hearing (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 Workshop on Spintronics

Feb.5-6,2010

38 2nd International Workshop on Nanostructure & Nanoelectronics

Mar.11-12,2010

73

2009 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, Depts. of Electrical Eng., Electrical Communications,Electronic Eng., Information Eng., and related scientists and engineers inside and outside Tohoku
University. The Study Groups on Electrical Communication consist of 14 Sub-Groups as listed
below, to deal with specific subjects. Each Sub-Group holds workshops. The abstracts of theworkshops 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
to provide information on these activities upon request. Please contact each Sub-Group Chairman
or manager for general information or more specific questions.

Electromagnetic and Optical Waves Engineering
Chair

Prof.

Yuji

Manager

Assistant Prof.

MATSUURA
Takashi KATAGIRI

Acoustic Engineering
Chair

Prof.

Yôiti SUZUKIManager

Associate Prof.

Yukio

Manager

Assistant Prof.

Masashi ITO

IWAYA

Sendai "Plasma Forum"
Chair

Prof.

Rikizo HATAKEYAMAManager

Associate Prof.

Satoshi IIZUKA

Sendai Seminar on EMC
Chair

Prof.

Hideaki SONEManagerProf.

Masahiro YAMAGUCHI

75

2009 Study Groups on Electrical Communication
Computer Science
Chair

Prof. Naoki KOBAYASHIManager

Associate Prof.  Takahito AOTO

Systems Control
Chair

Prof. Makoto YOSHIZAWAManager

Associate Prof.

Noriyasu HOMMA

Information-biotronics
Chair

Prof. Michio NIWANOManagerProf. Tatsuo YOSHINOBU

Spinics
Chair

Prof.

Manager

Associate Prof.

Simon GREAVESManager

Associate Prof.

Yasushi ENDO

Migaku TAKAHASHINew Paradigm Computing
Chair

Prof. Michitaka KAMEYAMAManager

Associate Prof.

Masahide ABE

Ultrasonic Electronics
Chair

Prof. Shinichirou UMEMURAManager

Assistant Prof.  Yuji OHASHI

76

2009 Study Groups on Electrical Communication
Integration of Brain Functions
Chair

Prof. Koji NAKAJIMAManager

Associate Prof.  Shigeo SATO

Mathematical Physics and its Application to Information Sciences
Chair

Prof. Kazuyuki TANAKAManagerProf. Kazuyuki TANAKA

Biocybernetics and Bioinformatics
Chair

Prof. Mitsuyuki NAKAO

Manager

Assistant Prof.

Kazumichi MATSUMIYA

Nanoelectronics and Spintronics
Chair

Prof. Hideo OHNOManager

Associate Prof.  Yuzo OHNO

77

2009 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)
Research Center of Condensed Materials and Nanosciences, National Center for 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 California, Santa Barbara (U.S.A.)
King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (Thailand)
The University of York (U.K.)
The Dresden University of Technology (Germany)
Berlin Institute of Technology (Germany)
National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan)
Universite de Technologie de Compiegne (France)

International journals in which a staff in RIEC participates as an editor:
1.㩷

Acoustical Science and Technology

2.㩷

Applied Acoustics

3.㩷

Applied Physics Express (APEX)

4.㩷

Higher-Order and Symbolic Computation

5.㩷

IEICE Electronics Express

6.㩷

IEICE Transactions on Electronics

7.㩷

Institution of Engineering and Technology ( IET )79

2009 International activities
8.

International journal of Artificial Intelligence, Neural
Problem Solving Technologies

Networks, and Complex

9.

International Journal of Computer Science and Network Seculity

10.

International Journal of Information Sciences and Computer Engineering (IJSCE)

11.

Journal of Infrared, Millimeter and Terahertz Waves

12.

Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing

13.

Journal of Communications and Networks

14.

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics

15.

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics (JJAP)16.

NPG Asia Materials

17.

Nonlinear Theory and Its Applications, IEICE

18.

Optical Fiber Technology

19.

Optics Communications

20.

The Journal of21.

Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology

Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds

Recent international conferences programmed by a staff in RIEC:
1.

European Solid-State Device Research Conference (ESDERC)

2.

Asia-Pacific Radio Science Conference (AP-RASC)

3.

Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC)

4.

Asia-Pacific Workshop on Fundamentals and Applications of Advanced
Semiconductor Devices (AWAD)

5.

International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves

6.

International Conference on Magnetics (ICM)

7.

IEEE International Magnetic Conference (INTERMAG)

8.

Conference on Magnnetism & Magnetic Materials (MMM)

9.

International Symposium on Advanced Magnetic and Applications (ISAMMA)

10.

International Symposium on Surface Science (ISSS-6)

11.

6th International Conference on Molecalar Electronics and Bioelectronics (M&BE5)80

2009 International activities
12.

Europian Conference on optical Communication ( ECOC )13.

ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology

14.

IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces

15.

International Symposium on Graphene Devices:technology, Physics a nd Modeling

16.

SPIE International Conference on Defence, Security, and Sensing

17.

International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors (ISCS)18.

The 7th International Conference on Ubiquitous Intelligence and Computing

19.

Topical Workshop on Heterostructure Microelectronics(TWHM)

20.
21.
22.
23.
24.

(ISGD)

4th SiGe, Ge, and Related Compounds: Materials, Processing, and Devices
Symposium (The Electrochemical Society)
International Symposium on Technology Evolution for Silicon Nano-Electronics(ISTESNE)
4th International Workshop on spin Currents and 2nd International Workshop on
Spin caloritronics
6th RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics
5th RIEC International Workshop on Spintronics, RIEC-CNSI Workshop on
Nanoelectronics, Spintronics, and Photonics

25.

Engineering Conference International (ECI)26.

International Conference of Magnetism (ICM)27.

The 14th International Conference on Modulated Semiconductor Structures (MSS14)

28.

20th International Colloquium on Magnetic Films and Surfaces (ICMFS)

29.
30.
31.

5th International School and Conference on Spintronics and Quantum Information
Technology (SPINTECH V)
38th International School & Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors (Jaszowiec)
The 6th International Conference on the Physics and Applications of Spin Related
Phenomena in Semiconductors (PASPS-VI)

32.

The 37th International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors

33.

ISMVL Technical Committee

34.

International Workshop on the Principles and the Applications of Spatial Hearing
2009

81

2009 International activities
35.

The 10th western pacific acoustics conference (WESPAC) 200936.

The 3rd International Universal Communication Symposium (IUCS2009)37.

The Fifth International Conference on Intelligent Information Hiding and Mutimedia
Signal Processing (IIHMSP2009)

38.

International Conference on Functional Programming 200939.

ACE 2009:

40.

2009 International Advisory Board, Korean Magnetic Society

41.

ISMVL ( International Symposium of Multiple-Valued Logic) 2009

42.

VRST 2009: 16th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology

43.

22nd International Conference on Indium Phosphide and Related Material

44.

The 22nd IEEE International Semiconductor Laser Conference (ISLC2010)45.

Asia-Pacific microwave Conference ( APMC ) 201046.

Joint MMM-Intermag Conference 201047.

The 9th Perpendicular Magnetic Recording Conference ( PMRC 2010)48.

5th Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology Conference(IPRM2010)

The 3rd International Symposium on Organic and Inorganic Electronic Materials andRelated Nanotechnologies (EM-NANO2010)49.

The 9th International Conference on Auditory-Visual Speech Processing (AVSP2010)

50.

International Multisensory Research Forum (IMRF) 2010

51.

The Sixth International Conference on Intelligent Information Hiding and Mutimedia
Signal Processing (IIHMSP2010)52.

The 4th International Universal Communication Symposium (IUCS2010)

53.

Asia Pacific Vision Conference 2010

54.

International Conference Nanoscopio Colloidand Surface Science (NCSS2010)55.

ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of56.

ACM SIGPLAN Workshop on pertial Eualation and Program Manipulation 2010

57.
58.
59.

82

Programming Language 2010

The 5th International Conference on broadband, Wireless Computing,Communication and Applications (BWCCA-2010)
The 25th International Conference on Advanced Information Networking andApplications (AINA-2010)
The 1st International Workshop on Symbiotic and Multiagent Systems (SCMAS-2010)

2009 International activities
60.

IEEE Virtual Reality Conference 201061.

ACE 2010:

62.

3DUI 2010: 5th IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces

63.

2nd International Symposium on Aware Computing (ISAC2010)64.

5th International SiGe Technology and Device Meeting (ISTDM2010)

65.
66.
67.

6th Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology Conference2010㩷 International Symposium on Nonlinear Theory and Its Applications( NOLTA 2010)
International Workshop on Human and Information Space Symbiosis ( IWHISS2010 )First International Workshop on Symbiotic Computing and Multiagent Systems( SCMAS2010)68.

The 9th perpendicular Magnetic Recording Conference (PMRC 2010)

69.

International Multisensory Research Forum (IMRF) 201183

2009 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 Departments of Electrical Engineering, Communication Engineering, Electronics
Engineering, and Information Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering. Since the journal also aims
at publishing general research activities of the Institute and of the Departments such as records of the
final lectures of retiring professors, records of the Institute Symposium, and reviews.
The name of the Journal ‘Conversazione’ is attributable to the ‘Tuesday Conversazione’ at the
Department of Electrical Engineering, which had been held once a week on Tuesday since around 1920.
Minutes of the meetings had been distributed to researchers outside of the University via various
routes and therefore some of them had been referred to as 'Records of Tuesday Electrical Engineering
Conversazione Tohoku University' with the result that they came to be treated as official publications.
Though the meeting was once interrupted by World War Two, it was restarted in 1947. In 1952, thepublication of the records was succeeded by the Institute and the records have been published asperiodicals, two 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.

85

2009 Staff,Land and Buildings,Budget
9. Staff,Land and Buildings,Budget

1. Staff
Classification

Professors

Research
Administration Office
Laboratory
Laboratory Center for Fundamen
for
for
tal
General
21stDivision Nanoelectro
Accounti
Head
BrainwareTechnolog
Affairs
century
nics andng Group
Official
sysystems Information y Center
Group
Spintronics
Technology
19
3
4
3

Associate Professors

12

4

1

Assistant Professors

17

3

5

Research Fellows

8

4

3

25
1

16

Administrative Officials
14

29
18

17
56

Total

1

Technical Officials
Total(2009.7.1)

13

5

17

1

1

19

1

6

7

14

1

7

8

121

2.Land and Buildings
Site:
Total䇭building area:
Total floor area:
Name of Buildings
Building No.1

Katahira 2-1-1, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8577, Japan
12,913m㪉
28,776m㪉
Structure
Reinforced Concrete, 4 floors(2009.7.1)
Year of Completion Floor Area
Building-S:1962,1963
Building-N:1959,1960

2

7,772mReinforced Concrete, 4 floors
Building No.2
Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Steel-flame, 5 floors
Spintronics

1962, 1963

7,085m2

2004

7,375m2

Laboratory for Brainware sysystems Reinforced Concrete, 1 floor

1967, 1968, 1972

Reinforced Concrete(partly steel-flame), 2 floors

1986

Steel-frame 1 floor

1996

Light-weight steel-frame, 2 floors

1999

Reinforced Concrete, 3 floors

1930

Steel-frame 1 floor

2002

Evaluation and Analysis Center

Reinforced Concrete, 2 floors

1981

Helium Sub-Center

Reinforced Concrete(partly light-weight steel-flame), 1 floor 1972

Machine Shop

Reinforced Concrete(partly light-weight steel-flame), 1 floor 1965, 1966, 1978

Research Center for 21st century
Information Technology

525m

2
2

1,553m

598m2
147m2

1,343m2
435m2
790m2

Others

166m2
479m2
508m2

Total

28,776m2

3.BudgetFinancial Year

(Unit:1,000yen)

Personnel
Expenditure

Supplies
Expenditure

Research Grant
Ministry of
Education,Science andCulturePartnership Between
Universities andIndustry

total

2005

㪐㪏㪋㪃㪈㪈㪊

㪈㪃㪇㪌㪇㪃㪍㪋㪎㪌㪌㪋㪃㪍㪏㪇

㪈㪃㪊㪇㪊㪃㪇㪉㪏㪊㪃㪏㪐㪉㪃㪋㪍㪏

2006

㪐㪎㪈㪃㪋㪏㪉

㪐㪉㪎㪃㪇㪐㪇

㪌㪐㪐㪃㪇㪋㪇

㪐㪊㪎㪃㪋㪋㪈

㪊㪃㪋㪊㪌㪃㪇㪌㪊

2007

㪐㪎㪇㪃㪐㪍㪈

㪏㪈㪊㪃㪎㪉㪋

㪎㪇㪇㪃㪍㪈㪌

㪏㪏㪏㪃㪏㪊㪊

㪊㪃㪊㪎㪋㪃㪈㪊㪊

2008㪏㪎㪐㪃㪋㪏㪈

㪐㪌㪊㪃㪇㪇㪇

㪍㪐㪋㪃㪏㪏㪊

㪈㪃㪇㪍㪐㪃㪏㪊㪉㪊㪃㪌㪐㪎㪃㪈㪐㪍

2009㪈㪃㪇㪉㪍㪃㪌㪈㪈

㪈㪃㪌62㪃31㪏㪍㪇㪌㪃㪈㪇㪇

㪎㪐㪏㪃㪇㪌㪊

㪊㪃㪐91㪃98㪉

87

2009 Afterword

10.

Afterword

Although it has often been said that "we are just one national university affiliatedresearch institute for a given subject in Japan," the expression "just one" does not soundvery forceful. Because, from the start, university affiliated research institutes were
established as organizations without overlapping research fields. However, there aremany outside competitors when we take account of the research institutes of companies,
national and private university research institutes, etc., and so it is hard for us to rise to
the real top. Nevertheless, I think it is very important for a university affiliated research
institute to establish an industrial infrastructure for the next generation by efficiently
exploiting tradition and culture, rooted in the deep knowledge peculiar to that university,
which other organizations cannot imitate.
The Research Institute of Electrical Communication (RIEC) of Tohoku University
began life by undertaking research on weak-current electricity, and devices are ourstrength. Nowadays, we have expanded our research scope from devices to software.
In the autumn of last year, we held the Tokyo Forum whose theme was "Brain
Science and Communications". There were many participants, and the event was very
successful. If we are to process images received by the eye or realize a realistic soundfield space, we need new DSPs and LSIs adapted for these special purposes. We wantto propose a new system in a form that includes these functionalities. Without question,
the integration of such devices and software is easier said than done. However, we plan
to attack these difficult themes from various angles with new strategies. Although we
may sometimes fail, I strongly hope that we can eventually find a new direction thatwill prove globally useful 20 years from now. We are now looking for ways to merge
different fields into a new form that goes beyond the four major research divisions
with their more than 20 constituent laboratories. I expect to make the Laboratory for
Nanoelectronics and Spintronics and the Laboratory for Brainware Systems, agile andflexible organizations capable of making systems. Moreover, we have begun to consider
a program for young researchers, such as assistant professors and associate professors,
to help them progress rapidly.
After reading this report please send us any opinions or proposals that you may have;for example "The new direction remains unclear," or "I think this is interesting." We
shall be very happy to hear from you. We will all greatly appreciate your further help
and encouragement in the years to come.

89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/

Annual Report 2009

Research Institute of Electrical Communication,Tohoku University

Research Institute of Electrical Communication,Tohoku University
Annual Report 2009

Annual Report 2009

Research Institute of Electrical Communication,Tohoku University

Research Institute of Electrical Communication,Tohoku University

Annual Report 2009