MMC Activities

The Eleventh International Micromachine/Nanotech Symposium
On November 10 (Thursday) 2005, the EleventhInternational Micromachine/Nanotech Symposium washeld in the Science Hall of the Science Museum inTokyo’s Kitanomaru Park, sponsored by the Ministry ofEconomy, Trade and Industry and the New Energy andIndustrial Technology Development Organization(NEDO), with assistance from the Japan Auto Racing
Association. The symposium started with an opening
address from Tamotsu Nomakuchi, Chairman of theCenter, followed by a greeting from the guest of honor,
Tetsuya Yamamoto, Director of the Machinery System
Technology Development Dept. at NEDO. This time,
before the lectures, a special session was planned with akeynote speech and panel discussion on the theme of“Towards development of the MEMS industry”, followedby twelve lectures in the three sessions “The frontiers ofthe micromachine business”, “Micromachine applications
expected to blossom”, and “The leading edge
micromachine technologies”. Three hundred and thirtynine people from a range of specialist fields attended,from a number of companies, universities, and research
institutions in the fields of electronics, equipment andmachinery, automotive, materials and chemicals and soon, making the symposium a great success. This is areport of the symposium overall.
The special session was held to raise awareness of theMEMS Industry Group to be inaugurated by theMicromachine Center in April 2006 with the aim ofpromoting the further development of the MEMS
industry in a situation where the market for MEMS
devices and products is expanding, and to contribute toenhancing the international competitiveness of theJapanese MEMS industry. First Prof. Hiroyuki Fujita ofTokyo University gave a keynote speech entitled “Theexpansion of the MEMS industry and policies fordeveloping new sectors”, followed by a discussion of thethemes “The direction of the MEMS industry” and“Policies for creating a new industry and drivingdevelopment”, mediated by Prof. Fujita with the six
panelists Hitoshi Ogata (Senior Director of Developmentat Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, and MEMS Informal

Committee Representative), Haruo Ogawa (Director ofNew Core Business Planning at Olympus Corporation),
Hiroya Taguchi (Chairman of The Japan Society of
Mechanical Engineers and Chief Engineer of the Hitachi
Research and Development Center), Hiroshi Tsuchiya(Assistant Section Chief, Industrial Machinery Division,
Manufacturing Industries Bureau of the Ministry ofEconomy, Trade and Industry), Tsuneyuki Miyake(Deputy Editor of Nikkei Microdevices), and Prof. Harri
Kopola (Research Director, VTT Electronics), one of thelecturers.
Regarding “The direction of the MEMS industry”, Mr.
Ogawa and Mr. Ogata talked about the micro and nanostrategies of their respective companies, while Prof.
Kopola explained the efforts towards building a MEMS
industry in Finland. It was very much apparent thatcompanies both in Japan and overseas are focusing on
MEMS and nanotechnology as core technologies. Mr.
Miyake rounded off the discussion by talking about howthere is no doubt that MEMS represents a third wave thatis forming a significant market, with semiconductors as
the brains, displays as the face, and MEMS devices as thelimbs and the senses, and how major disparities will open
up between companies depending on their strategies.
Next, they discussed the topic “Policies for creating a
new industry and driving development”. Mr. Taguchi
compared the MEMS research approaches of the Societyof Mechanical Engineers and the Institute of ElectricalEngineers, stressing the necessity for horizontal linkage
between them for MEMS development. Then Mr. Ogata,the representative of the MEMS Informal Committee
which is promoting the establishment of the MEMS
Industry Group, talked about the need for exchanges
within industry to promote the MEMS industry,
introducing the MEMS Industry Group as theorganization for fulfilling this role. Next Mr. Tsuchiya ofthe Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry explained
the strong policies of the Ministry in providing the best
backup for raising MEMS technology, such as preparing
new projects to meet the expectations for the MEMS
industry. Finally the discussion was completed with theThe panel discussion

The keynote speech from Prof. Fujita2extremely useful. To round up the session, Prof. Isao
Shimoyama of Tokyo University gave a lecture entitled“Fine MEMS”, talking of the need for combinations ofMEMS and nanotech functions, integrated fabrication ofMEMS and semiconductors, and the development of highintegration composite MEMS technologies for high
MEMS/MEMS integration, in order for MEMS to meet
diversified needs. And although MEMS devices andcomponents are incorporated in many products, thegeneral public is largely unaware of them so he made theinteresting suggestion that products containing MEMS
should be labeled with a mark like that used by Intel.
In Session 3, “The leading edge micromachinetechnologies”, there were lectures about MEMS andmaterials, ultraprecision microfabrication and its
applications, nanometrology, and the mechanical limits ofstructural thin-film materials and nanomaterials.
Development of the basic technologies regarding
materials, fabrication, measurement, and reliability are
essential for MEMS development, and on this occasion,
we encountered the leading edge of these basic
technologies being pursued steadily at universities andthe like, both here and overseas. Among these, YoshimiTakeuchi of Osaka University talked about ultraprecision
microfabrication and its applications. Although
semiconductor microfabrication technologies tend to playa central part in MEMS fabrication technology, Mr.
Takeuchi presented extensive fabrication data showingthat machining at the nanolevel is possible not only
superficially but on three-dimensional surfaces too.
Finally Dr. Christopher Muhlstein of Pennsylvania State
University spoke on the subject of understanding themechanical limits of structural thin-film materials andnanomaterials. He explained how he analyzed thebreakdown and fatigue behavior of thin film materials
with the aim of improving the reliability of MEMS, and heshowed a method of improving the mechanicalcharacteristics of thin films with a protective coating on
their surface based on those results. The reliability of thinfilm materials is an important research issue forcommercialization of MEMS, and this topic was of greatinterest to the audience.
Starting after 9 and going on till 6 in the evening, it
was a long event starting with the panel discussion in thespecial session followed by twelve lectures packed into atight schedule. The venue was enthused by the palpable
sense of potential and expectation surrounding
micromachines and MEMS. It was apparent that MEMS
technology, that was in its initial phase centered on
research and development, is now becoming afunctioning industry. Thanks to the timely topics
provided by the speakers from Japan and overseas and to
the efforts of the program committee, this symposium
was a tremendous success.

presentation of a video letter from MANCEF President,
Dr. Kees Eijkel expressing strong support for the MEMS
Council.
In Session 1, “The frontiers of the micromachinebusiness”, there were presentations that strongly evoked
the scene of work at the various companies, on thesubject of inkjet printers from Mitsuro Abe of Seiko
Epson, mobile phones from Kunihiko Nakamura of
Matsushita Electric, and inertia sensors such as
acceleration sensors and gyroscopes (angular velocitysensors) from Bob Sulouff of Analog Devices in the US.
The printer heads at the heart of inkjet printers are one
successful type of MEMS device, and the applications ofprinter heads are not limited to printers. Mr. Abe
explained how recently, the development of applications
is taking off with printer heads used as a tool for themanufacture of a range of devices such as LCD color
filters, organic EL displays, organic TFTs, plasma display
electrodes, biochips and so on, which was greeted withsurprise. In order to achieve multiband mobile phones,
further technological innovation is required. Among these
innovations, there are expectations for the developmentof small, low-loss RF-MEMS switches and RF-MEMS
filters, and it was explained that relevant research anddevelopment is taking place around the world. MEMS
devices have been commercialized successfully in theform of inertia sensors such as acceleration sensors andgyroscopes (angular velocity sensors), and the wonderful
success story of Analog Devices in the US which
succeeded in breaking into the MEMS industry gave heart
to everybody else involved in the same effort.
In Session 2, “Micromachine applications expected toblossom”, there were lectures introducing the frontiers ofapplied research in medicine, optics, energy, and space,in which MEMS technology is key. Prof. Yoshinobu Babaof Nagoya University gave a lecture on the medical
applications of nanotechnology. Nanobiotechnology ismaking significant advances with microfabrication
technology and molecular nanotechnology, making
possible the development of methods for separating allsorts of biomolecules such as DNA, RNA, proteins andpeptides, for applications in genomics, genetic
information copying, protein science and the like, while
applications in the treatment of cancer are also expected.
In his lecture, Prof. Kopola of VTT Electronics explainedthat in future optoelectronics and optical communication
systems, MEMS technology will be a key technology forminiaturization, integration, and low cost. Osamu
Nakamura of Casio gave a talk on the development ofsubminiature, high-performance reforming fuel cells foruse in mobile terminals. MEMS technology is the key
technology for making the integrated miniature reformer,
an essential part for generating hydrogen from a fuelalcohol such as methanol, and from which the powergenerating cell extracts electrical energy. In his lecture,
Dr. Thomas George who carried out research at NASA,
explained that MEMS and nanotechnology, which achieve
the ultralow volume, ultrasmall size, and ultralow energy
consumption required in space development, areThe Twelfth International Symposium will be held onNovember 8 (Wednesday), 2006 at the Tokyo
International Forum as part of Exhibition
MICROMACHINE.

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