November 5, 2018
Press Release

Ball Wave Inc.
Ball Wave Inc.—headquartered in the city of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture and led by CEO
Shingo Akao with the mission of revolutionizing the chemical sensing and the gas
measurement—has raised 600 million yen in a round of Series-B funding to support
business expansion.
Ball Wave Inc. was launched in November 2015—with support from the Program for
Creating STart-ups from Advanced Research and Technology (START Program) initiativeof Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for fiscal year
2014 and the START Program initiative of Japan Science and Technology Agency forfiscal year 2015—to develop the ball surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor, a revolutionary
new sensor technology introduced by Tohoku University Professor Emeritus Kazushi
Yamanaka and collaborators.
The international roadmap of the semiconductor industry, following rapidly-moving trends
in device miniaturization and high-density integration, requires that the residual watercontent of material gases used in manufacturing processes has dew points of –100°C or1

below. However, to date the only existing trace moisture analyzers with the sensitivity todetect such small quantities of water have been optical instruments, which are large andexpensive, prohibiting their installation on manufacturing lines. This has created strong
demand for small, high-sensitivity trace moisture analyzers with sufficiently rapid response
to enable applications to the control of production lines.
Ball SAW sensors are high-speed, high-sensitivity gas sensors that exploit a phenomenon
that seems to defy the laws of physics: long-distance propagation of SAWs on a sphericalobject. Trace moisture analyzers employing these sensors are capable of detecting moisture
content at a dew point of –100°C and are small enough (3.3 mm in diameter) to be installedon manufacturing lines for products such as semiconductors and lithium-ion batteries. BallSAW sensors also offer promising potential for preventing damage due to dew
condensation in natural-gas pipelines and liquefaction processes. In addition to Ball SAWsensors, Ball Wave Inc. is developing hydrogen gas sensors, palm-sized portable gas
chromatographs, and other innovative gas-measurement technologies that will contribute torealization of the hydrogen-based society of the future and to environmental safety andprotection.
In this most recent funding round, Ball Wave Inc. has raised a total of 600 million yen —from Tohoku University Venture Partners Co., Ltd, Real Tech Fund, Daiwa Corporate
Investment Co., Ltd., Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co., Ltd., and SMBC Venture Capital Co.,
Ltd.—with the goals of (1) building a mass-production infrastructure for trace-moisture
analyzers capable of responding nimbly to changing market demands, and (2) accelerating
the development of hydrogen gas sensors and portable gas chromatographs.
About Ball Wave Inc.
President & CEO: Shingo Akao, Ph. D.
Capital: 437.08 million yen
Website: http://ballwave.jp/english/index.html
Head Office: Tohoku University Business Incubator T-Biz 501, 6-6-40, Aza Aoba,Aramaki, Aoba, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579, JAPAN
Phone: +81-22-302-6659
FAX: +81-22-302-6709
Tokyo Office: 45 floor, Sunshine 60 Building, 3-1-1 Ikebukuro, Toshima-Ku, Tokyo 1706045 JAPAN
Phone: +81-3-5979-2357
thFor questions concerning this press release, contact:
Yusuke Tsukahara, Ph. D.
Business Development Division, Ball Wave Inc.
Phone: +81-3- 5979-2357
Glossary of terms
1.

The dew point is the temperature at which a gas containing water vapor, cooled underatmospheric pressure, first exhibits condensation. A dew point of –100°C at a pressureof 1 atmosphere corresponds to a moisture content of 14 ppb.