本記事に「抄録」はありません。

抄録全体を表示

An olfactory display is a gadget for presenting various scents. The research on olfactory display is briefly reviewed. Then, the principle of multi-component olfactory display, the exploration method of odor components for covering wide range of odors, and the teleolfaction system, which enables odor generation at the remote site, are described. Finally, the perspective of the olfactory display is explained.

抄録全体を表示

QCM sensor coated by a sensing film has been studied as a gas-sensing device with high gas selectivity and high sensor sensitivity. One of the problems to be solved for practical applications is that a resonance frequency of QCM sensor drifts due to the influence of humidity. In this study, we investigated a compensation method of the humidity drift of QCM sensor for NH₃ gas by using the element coated by the reference film, that was prepared by modifying the phosphate group of zirconium phosphate of the sensing film with sodium hydroxide. The response properties of the reference element were measured. The results showed good agreement with the humidity response of the sensor element without reacting to ammonia gas. It was found that the compensation of the humidity drift was successfully accomplished by calculating the frequency difference between the sensor element and the reference element. The application to small QCM (1.3×0.9 mm) was also presented.

抄録全体を表示

In Japan, nuclear accident at Fukushima has been causing a severe shortage in electric supply. As a consequence, it is of critical importance to save electricity by restraining the use of the air conditioner during the summer. Thus, in this study, the effect of KANSEI multimedia such as movies with scents on sensible temperature was investigated in order to find a way to make people feel cool with the minimal use of the air conditioner. For this purpose, a new definition of sensible temperature which takes into account the effect of visual images and scent is proposed. Subjects’ answers to a questionnaire and biological responses are evaluated using visual image in a large screen in a high-defined experimental room where room temperature and humidity can be controlled at a particular degree. Using this definition, subjects’ sensing temperature is mathematically evaluated using Principal Component Analysis by treating adjectives on a questionnaire as explanation variables. Through this experiment, we found out that the exciting content increases sensible temperature while relaxing content decreases it. Also it turned out that visual images with relaxation aroma is more effective in reducing sensible temperature than visual images alone.

抄録全体を表示

In recent years, a way to objective evaluation of the quality and quantity of the odor is required to resolve issues such as odor nuisance, gas explosions and poisoning gas detections. It is also required to detect and track their harmful odors, and remove their sources radically. In this study, we tried to measure odor substances by fluorescent quenching. We developed imaging film to realize optical odor sensing using fluorescence dyes and the odor gas detection system using the film and a cooled CCD camera. The system could detect gaseous odor flow and visualize shape, spread and concentration distribution of odor. In addition, we developed a multi-film and FRET probes for high sensitive and selective detection of odor. FRET probe consisted of a certain combination of fluorescence dyes such as tryptophan and vanillin. FRET probe could detect odors that could not be detected by a single fluorescence probe. Multi probe film consisted of e.g. tryptophan and quinine sulfate. Multiple information of odors could be acquired by catching image of the multi probe film with interference filters.

抄録全体を表示

Recently, various types of olfactory displays have been developed based on several techniques to provide an olfactory sensation. They are useful in certain situations but still lack some important capabilities. In this study, the olfactory display, utilizing Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) streaming and electroosmosis, was developed. In this manner, odors are generated by atomizing liquid odorants transported by Electroosmotic (EO) pumps. The device size is miniaturized to be compact and thin enough to be equipped with a wearable device. It can generate smells rapidly even the scents of low-volatile substances which typically requires much time to be released. The operation is soundless, does not produce heat to the nearby environment, and is more robust against bubble than an olfactory display composed of the widely used inkjet devices. In this research, a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) gas sensor was used to measure the intensities of generated odor vapor to confirm the capabilities to control odor intensity and to blend odors. Moreover, the sensory evaluation was performed to confirm that there was no odor remaining after the presentation.

抄録全体を表示

In this paper, an olfaction aid system is proposed, which allows a human worker to have an enhanced sense of smell when searching for a gas/odor source. The system consists of a gas sensor and an odor generator. It measures the concentration variations of odorous chemical compounds that the user is being exposed to, and presents an odor with amplified concentration variations to the user. Prototype development of the proposed system is reported, and experimental results are presented to show its effectiveness. It has been shown that a user can easily find a gas/odor source by using the olfaction aid system with no special training even if the gas concentration is too low and its odor is indiscernible to humans. The proposed system will contribute to facilitate various gas/odor source localization tasks, e.g., land mine detection in fields, narcotic detection in airports, and victim search at the scenes of disasters, which are currently accomplished by specially trained dogs.

抄録全体を表示

Various volatile substances associated with disorders are released from human bodies. In order to utilize them as biomarkers of related diseases, a highly sensitive and highly selective method for gas measurement is strongly requested. Biochemical gas sensors (bio-sniffer) that use biochemical reaction of enzyme have been developed and tested in biomedical applications. Owing to the specific activity of enzyme, the bio-sniffer provides high-sensitivity and high-selectivity with a relatively simplified system. This paper reports on the current status of bio-sniffer development and applications to medical and healthcare fields.

抄録全体を表示

This paper reports key process technologies for the application of epitaxial polysilicon (epi-poly-Si) to scanning micromirrors, including low-stress epi-poly-Si deposition, the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) of epi-poly-Si and the fabrication of trench isolations in the epi-poly-Si film. Epi-poly-Si thicker than 20 µm was deposited at a rate of 300 nm/min using an atmospheric pressure epitaxial reactor. The residual film stress was 57.2±1.4 MPa (compressive), and the stress gradient was 1.41±0.84 MPa/µm (more tensile toward the surface) for an as-deposited 21 µm thick film. The average surface roughness Ra was initially 202±48 nm, but improved to 10 nm by 10 min CMP. The stress gradient after CMP was as small as -0.30±0.1 MPa/µm. This leads to only negligible bending of cantilevers, e.g. 0.5 µm for a 1000 µm long cantilever. Isolation trenches refilled with poly-Si was fabricated in epi-poly-Si. A stepwise design to minimize voids in the refilled trench was demonstrated.

抄録全体を表示

To practically realize high precision processes and devices based on scanning nanoprobes, it is required to improve not only the wear durability of the probe tip but also the electric contact stability at the sliding probe electrode. It has been known that the native oxide film covering the electrode surface has a significant effect on electric contact and wear behavior, but its effect was not clearly understood.
In this study, we examined in detail the influence of the surface oxide film on the relations between electric contact resistance and wear at the nanoscale sliding contact area by using a scanning probe microscopy system. It was confirmed that the electric current could be enhanced by the tunneling current passing through the relatively thin part of the oxide film. Meanwhile, when the probe slid on the conductive indium tin oxide film for a long distance, the electric contact resistance gradually increased and finally the electric current was lost. This implies that the wear debris of the oxide film adhered to the probe tip and that it formed a covering layer, which reduced the tunneling current. It is also suggested at the same time that the covering layer helped to improve the wear durability of the probe tip.

抄録全体を表示

In order to realize the miniaturization of the optical gas sensors by the passive alignment of optical components, we proposed a micro-optical bench which consists of a guiding groove and a micro-mirror with an ultra-thick resin structure. We fabricated the micro-optical bench with an ultra-thick resin structure of 2 mm height and processing accuracy of within ±10 µm. By using this micro-optical bench, compact optical multi-gas sensors (size: 3 cm×3 cm) by the passive alignment through a guiding groove for a ball lens and a fiber ferrule were realized.

抄録全体を表示

The CMOS-MEMS integrated tactile sensor enables the robot to have dense and large area tactile sensor on the whole body. The ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) with the CMOS technology provides the communication function for the bus connected tactile sensor. The size of integrated chips is reduced by wafer-level-packaging (WLP) technology down to mm-scale size. Because the yield of the fabrication process of the tactile sensor will be a critical issue for this sensor network system, the testing and repairing procedure should be developed at the experimental phase, as well as designing the wafer-level fabrication process. The testing and repairing process in the middle of the fabrication provides a quick feedback to the yield optimization. In this paper, a novel process flow for testing and repairing in the process of the fabrication was developed. The test environments were prepared at each checkpoint of the fabrication process, and repairing process with Focused Ion Beam (FIB) was also applied to modify and repair the device. Finally, completed tactile sensors are fabricated with about 40% yield, and mounted on the flexible cable by the developed low-temperature flip chip bonding technology.

抄録全体を表示

In this study, we worked on the improvement of detection sensitivity for fluorescence dyes filled in the well of Microwell with Manageable Volume (MMV). For this purpose, we applied fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) and time-resolved fluorescence (TRF) to method of fluorescence detection. In addition, we built up confocal optics system with a pinhole in front of the photomultiplier tube on the fluorescence microscopy in order to decrease noise from MMV. In the result, the confocal optics system increased the S/N ratio of photon count from dilute Alexa fluor 430. However, the pinhole limited available photon and mechanical vignetting of light path by lateral face of the well also restricted available photon. They caused increasing standard deviation of the result. These issues affected sensitivity of fluorescence detection and it is necessary to balance between noise reduction and amount of available photon for improvement of detection sensitivity by confocal optics system. We suggested suitable pinhole size and other parameters in order to keep the balance, and we succeeded to detect 1 pM Alexa fluor 430 filled into the well of MMV.

抄録全体を表示