Column“Green” Devices: Future Devices on the Frontier of MEMS Research
Norihisa Miki, Associate Professor / Lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Keio University
With the promotion of the Highly Integrated / Complex
MEMS Manufacturing Technology Development Project thatbegan in 2006, even greater growth in the MEMS field isanticipated. At the same time, many innovative achievements
are being produced in new fields such as nanotechnology andbiotechnology. To see if fusing MEMS technologies with theseachievements in the nano-bio field would produce sporadic
innovation, in 2006 the Mechanical Social System Foundationcommissioned the Micromachine Center to conduct a study
entitled “Future Device Technologies Created through Fusion
with Nano-bio Technologies as the Frontier of MEMS
Research.” The future devices targeted by this study aredefined as “devices based on MEMS technology, produced byfusing nano-bio materials with MEMS, that will create newlifestyles and have a revolutionary impact on society 20 years
from now.” As shown in Fig. 1, these future devices will beachieved using, as an infrastructure technology, processintegration that fuses microfabrication (a top-down process)with nano-bio processing (a bottom-up process). The devices
will be used in three domains that are expected to be criticalissues in the society of 20 years from now: environment /energy, health / medical care and safety / security. For thisstudy, the future devices in each of these domains were named“Green” Devices, “White” Devices and “Blue” Devices,
respectively, and – together with Process Integration – four
working groups (WG) were formed and activated. In thiscolumn, I will discuss green devices based on the study
conducted by the Green Devices WG, for which I served aschairperson.

(ii) On-site environmental cleanup
Substances such as carbon dioxide emitted by automobiles
and water heaters and wastewater from homes are difficult tocollect and clean up once they have been discharged, due totheir extremely low concentrations in the environment. These
substances will be purified on-site at the source, where they arestill at high concentrations. Nanoporous filters that separate out
pollutants, microorganisms to purify toxic substances and otherbiotechnology solutions are expected to be applied.

(iii) Ultra-sensitive environmental substancedetection devices
These devices are capable of on-site detection of extremely
small quantities of environmental substances with great
sensitivity. Measuring systems will be compact and will form
nodes in a distributed sensor network. For example, Surface
Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) that uses nanostructuresof gold, silver, etc. are anticipated.
Discussions regarding future devices that will be developed
20 years from now are necessarily somewhat lacking inspecifics. Progress in research will give us a clearer picture ofsuch devices. Green devices and the other future devices on thefrontiers of MEMS research will form the foundation of MEMS
technology. At the same time, such devices will no longer be
MEMS devices. For this reason, the working group also
proposed a new name for these devices: Bio ElectromechanicalAutonomous Nano Systems (BEANS). I am confident that thisnew term will soon be in widespread use in many industries.

Table 1 shows the membership of the Green Devices WG.
The WG studied the green devices that are expected to have amajor impact on the environmental and energy fields in thesociety of 20 years in the future. Discussions in the working
group were conducted from two approaches: the qualities thatthese green devices of 20 years in the future should possess(needs) and the achievements that can be accomplished 20years from now by combining nano-bio technologies withpresent-day MEMS technology (seeds). Ultimately, theWorking Group proposed the following three green devices. In
each case, the “localized, on-site” quality of MEMS is utilized toachieve both high performance and advanced functions incombination with nano-bio technologies.

Overview of Future Device Technologies on the Frontier of MEMS Research
Proposed Infrastructure for the Achievement of Future Devices
that will have a Revolutionary Impact on Society 20 Years from Now

Important fields in the society of the future

Environment / Energy
Fully environment-friendly society
Effective use of light energy

White Devices

Green Devices– Solar cell createdcreated through theapplica
application
pplication
tion of nanostructures– Ultra-decentralized energy
energyabsorption device– On-site CO2 fixing device– Ultra-high sensitivity
environmental materialmaterial sensor– Micro-n
ano machining– Nano-carbon– Self-asse / nano-semiconductor usembly– Maxwell's (demon)
device(i) Energy harvesting

Health / medical careigorous lifestyles throughout one’s
one s entire lifetime Comfort / security / safety
Vigorous
Communication
Patient-specificatient-specific care / preventive medical careAchievement of “super-reality”– In vivo MEMS agent (monitoringmachine inside the human body)– In vivo microdoctor (in vivo latentdiagnosis and treatment machine)–4-dimensional hybrid device(device that accommodates to andgrows with the body)– MEMS health sheet(monitor affixed to the body tomonitor physical condition)Process Integration
Process integration for the purpose of creating
revolutionary devices of the future
Nanostructure / large area / interfacial control

Blue Devices– Large area wallpaper
wallpadevices(sheet incorporating sensingdisplay)– Five-senseive-sense accumulation
accumuladevice(touch, smell and taste sensing /re-creation)
tion)– Microchemical analysis (singlechip analyzer)– Portable translator (portable ondemand interpretation)interpreta

pulation– Nano-mani
thesized
proteins syn– Use of new ome technology
through genials
future materofnatioCre–Fig 1 Future Devices on the Frontier of MEMS ResearchLight, heat, vibration, biotechnology and other heretofore
unused sources of environmental energy will be usedeffectively to provide energy. For example, this technology will
enable on-site supply of power to sensors distributed in anetwork. Medical devices implanted into the human body will
not require battery replacement, leading to improved patient
quality of life. Other anticipated devices include ultra-highefficiency organic solar cells created by means of threedimensional nanopillar structures, ultra-high efficiencythermoelectric conversion elements created using
nanocomposites and nanoporous structures, and highperformance storage battery devices that obtain energy fromthe environment and store it until it is needed.

Table 1 Members of the Green Device WG
Norihisa Miki
Koji Miyazaki
Chihaya Adachi
Isao Shimoyama
Takao IshidaKazuyoshi Furuta
Akihiro Koga
Ryo Miyake
Yuji Saisho
Hitomichi Takano
Junji Adachi
Hiroshi Fukumoto
Nobuhiro Tsukada

6

Keio University, Faculty of Science and Technology
Kyushu Institute of Technology, Graduate School of Life
Science and Systems Engineering

Kyushu University, Center for Future ChemistryTokyo University, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology

Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
Seiko Instruments Inc.
Toshiba Corporation
Hitachi, Ltd.
Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.
Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.
Micromachine Center (MMC)
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
Hitachi, Ltd.