Activities of the BEANS Laboratory

Completion of the BEANS Project Interim Evaluation
A subcommittee meeting for interim evaluations of theNEDO-sponsored BEANS Project was held at Otemachi Sunsky
Room (Room E) from 10:30 to 17:30 on September 10, andmembers of the evaluation committee assessed the activities
and R&D achievements produced over the first two and a halfyears of the project. Since NEDO will announce the results ofthe interim evaluation at a later date, this article will serve todescribe the proceedings of the meeting and the significance ofthe BEANS Project summarized for purposes of the interimevaluation.

the significance of the project’s achievements thus far from thefollowing perspectives: 1) academic significance, 2) market
expansion/creation brought about by the achievements, 3)
generation of achievements that are the world’s first or highest
level, 4) potential for pioneering new technological fields, and5) versatility of the achievements. Each of these aspects of theproject’s significance is described briefly below.
1) Academic significanceAs indicated by the name of the project, the academic
significance of BEANS lies in the integration of dissimilar fields
to create devices with novel functions. The following threepoints may be considered the substance of this heterogeneous
integration.
i ) Integrating different scales from nanometers to metersii) Integrating different processes employing bottom-up andtop-down approachesiii) Integrating different materials from biomaterials tosemiconductors2) Market expansion/creation brought about by theachievements
Process innovation created through the BEANS Project
enables the manufacture of unprecedented innovative devices
that will provide us with novel methods for dealing withnational issues twenty years from now in such fields as energy
and the environment, medical care and welfare, and safety andsecurity. Such innovations are hoped to enrich people,lifestyles, and the Earth and to enable us to expand into a wide
range of markets and to create new markets. At the meeting, weprovided several examples to illustrate how the achievements of
the BEANS Project can enrich people, lifestyles, and the Earth.
3) Generation of achievements that are the world’s firstor highest level
In the BEANS Project, we researched and developed newtechnologies that are only now possible through heterogeneous
integration. Our presentation at the subcommittee meeting
noted that, to date, the BEANS Project has produced a numberof achievements that are considered the world’s first or highest
level, including nine such achievements from R&D item 1 onbio/organic materials integration processes, twelve from R&D
item 2 on 3D nanostructure fabrication processes, and eightfrom R&D item 3 on large-area continuous micro/nanostructure
fabrication processes.
4) Potential for pioneering new technological fields
Achievements of the BEANS Project that are expected topioneer new technological fields were divided into the following
three categories.
i ) Achievements through heterogeneous integration (9)ii) Achievements through technologies based on new
concepts (9)iii) Achievements through technological advancements (5)5) Versatility of the achievements
An objective of the BEANS Project is to build a process
platform for inventing next-generation devices throughdevelopment in R&D items 1–3, and research has been carriedout while envisioning target devices in each of the R&D items.
However, the processes used in development were selected fortheir versatility. For the subcommittee meeting, devices otherthan the target devices that were thought to have application
potential were summarized in a table.

1. Overview of the Interim Evaluation Subcommittee Meeting
A total of 39 people attended the subcommittee meeting forinterim evaluations. These attendees comprised 7
subcommittee members including the chair of thesubcommittee, Professor Kazuo Sato of Nagoya University; 8
personnel from METI and NEDO in charge of promoting theproject; 10 members of the BEANS Project in charge ofimplementing the project, including President Atsushi Yusa; 12
members of the subcommittee meeting secretariat; and 2participants from the general public.
The morning session, which was open to the public, wasused to give an outline of the project and to answer anyquestions. Hideaki Watanabe, the principal investigator fromNEDO, and President Yusa, the BEANS Project Leader, gave a
50-minute presentation based on the project’s records, andsubsequently fielded questions from subcommittee members.
The questions were primarily concerned with the outline andR&D management of the project and led to a particularly lively
Q&A session between the BEANS Project members and thesubcommittee members regarding the appropriateness of theproject’s priorities and goals, as well as the best method of
expanding on the project’s achievements. Consequently, themorning session ran well past the scheduled ending time of 12o’clock.
In the afternoon session, which was closed to the public,
each of the center directors in the BEANS Project gave detailed
reports on research findings covering all eight themes of theproject. The subcommittee members showed great interest in
the latest hot topics of BEANS research. Perhaps for thisreason, the afternoon session had a different mood from themorning session, evolving into a meaningful discussion withvarious specialists giving a wide range of views on the academic
significance of the research findings and their value as
industrial technologies.
The final segment of the meeting, which was once again
open to the public, featured questions and comments
throughout. Notably, all of the subcommittee members
expressed a high regard for the project’s achievements andcreative activities. There was also a request to further clarify
the objectives and direction of the project in order todisseminate and expand on the project’s achievements and to
study scenarios in which the achievements of the project could
contribute to the growth of MEMS technology in Japan and help
strengthen the nation’s international competitiveness inindustry. Following this discussion, the meeting was adjourned.

2. Significance of the BEANS Project
In preparation for the interim evaluation, we summarized5