It was studied the effect of atomic distance change on the friction force using the MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) device and AFM (atomic force microscope). We designed micro devices that changes the atomic distance of Si by causing stress concentration. These devices were fabricated on SOI (silicon on insulator) wafer by MEMS technology. The applied voltage of the device was varied, and the friction force of the stress concentration part was measured using AFM. We calculated the changing rate of the friction force. As a result, It was found that the average friction force decreased by 28% at the maximum as the voltage change.

It has been reported that there is a correlation between disease and metal content in human hair, and therefore, human hair has been expected to be applied for medical inspection in the future.

In this paper, we report a bending test method for human hair, and show that the property changes depending on the changes in metal content.

We modeled a Kirigami structure and analyzed the parameters affecting the overall mechanical characteristics. Kirigami structure has non uniform deformation regions at both ends and uniform deformation region at the center when stretched. Therefore, we divided Kirigami structure into three regions and considered as a model in which a series connection spring with two different spring constants. Considering the balancing of the spring forces for the model, we derived a model formula on the pattern cycle number and overall mechanical characteristics. A tensile test was conducted to investigate whether the derived model formula can be applied to the Kirigami structure. Comparing measured values and model formulas, the result indicates that series connection spring model can be applied to the Kirigami structure. Overall mechanical characteristics of Kirigami structure was converge to uniform deformation region mechanical characteristics by increasing pattern cycle number.

Evaluation of the mass transfer phenomena in microchannel is an important parameter to estimate the chemical reaction in a micro reactor. In this study, the local mass transfer characteristics in the micro-channel is evaluated by using chemiluminescence(CL) of luminol reaction. Copper plate, which is the catalyst of the luminol reaction, was placed in the glass tube with a inner diameter of 4 mm. The copper ions eluted from the copper plate, then, the chemiluminescence layer was formed on the copper plate. The chemiluminescence layer was observed by digital camera with the microscope. The local mass transfer coefficient can be estimated by the local chemical reaction rate from the chemiluminescence layer profiles. This paper is a first step of the experimental study to measure the mass transfer coefficient using the chemiluminescence reaction.

This paper reports on a micro patterning method of thin Nafion layer which was formed on a device surface. The proposed method enables to fabricate micro size Nafion structure smaller than 100- by using chemical bonding between sulfo group in Nafion and amino-terminal of self assembled monolayer formed on device surface. According to the SPR analysis, we found that the ion absorbing characteristics of the Nafion did not change after our micro pattering method. Thus we confirmed that our method is effective to fabricate Nafion micro structures which are applicable for devices such as fuel cell and or chemical sensors.

Shock wave propagation through circular channel with inner diameter in the order of 1 and 2 mm at different wall temperature is studied using two fast-response pressure transducers. The shock wave is generated by a modified SplitHopkinson Pressure Bar shock tube and introduced into the channel. The shock wave propagation speed near the inlet of the channel is about M~1.1, and quickly decelerates inside the channel. Pressure profile measured in the channel indicates the sharp increase followed by gradual decrease with fluctuations and several small peaks. Wave propagation speed in the tube is slower than that in the open space, and slower in the smaller diameter channel. As the temperature increases, the wave propagation speed increases but the wave Mach number decreases because of the increased speed of sound. A simple estimation shows the flow is transitioned to fully developed between two pressure transducer locations.

A liquid micro-flow calibration rig is developed, which is consisted of a syringe pump and a gravimetric weighing tank system. Calibration flow rate range is from 0.001 mL/min～10 mL/min. The weighing tank system has been improved to reduce influence of evaporation. The syringe pump was calibrated using the weighing tank to check an influence of evaporation error. The calibrated syringe pulse factors all agreed within ±0.1%.

We developed a high performance stretchable thermoelectric generator. Regarding the device structure, rigid inorganic semiconductors (BiTe-based semiconductor) as thermoelectric element were connected with wave-shaped metal conductive tracks in a stretchable elastomer sheet. The BiTe-based thermoelectric elements ensure the high performance of the thermoelectric power generation and the wave-shaped metal conductive tracks ensure the stretchability of the thermoelectric generator. The fabricated thermoelectric generator was adhered to a heat source with a flat or curved surface, and an output voltage was measured under natural convection. As a result, the output voltage was not changed in comparison with the flat and curved heat source. The output voltage was 13 mV when the surface temperature of the heat source was 393 K.

Write purpose, procedure, results and discussion within 200 words. Taking Li₂SrSiO₄ as host, a series of Eu²⁺/Ln³⁺ (Ln is Lanthanide element) singly-doped and co-doped phosphors were synthesized through sol-gel method. The objective is to synthesize broad yellow phosphor and to improve the quality of LED. I investigate luminescence properties of this phosphor. We get the green color emitting at around 510 nm by doping Li₂SrSiO₄: Eu, Ho. However, sample doped Lu do not emit. And Ho is reduced above 600°C. By co-doping Ho and Eu, we successfully synthesized a yellow phosphor having a broad emission band. As confirmed by the chromaticity diagram, the one doped with Eu and Ho compared with Eu phosphor gave a color closer to white. However, in some synthesis conditions, emission of Ho was not observed.

Noncontact thermal flow sensors have an ability to measure flow rate of various fluids. However, heat transfer around the sensors becomes more complicated than that of the conventional contact-type sensors due to the existence of layers placed between the sensor or heater and the fluid. In this study, effects of the three-dimensional heat transfer and the thermophysical properties of fluids on the heater output were numerically investigated to develop a thermofluidic model of the MEMS thermal flow sensor. From the results, we clarified that the most influential fluid property on the heater output is the thermal conductivity, followed in order by density, specific heat, and viscosity.

This paper describes the synthesis method of core-shell hydrogel microbeads using centrifuge-based microfluidic device. In this method, centrifuge-based microfluidic device enables synthesizing core-shell beads easily and quickly without using oil or a syringe pump. We synthesized core-shell beads encapsulating with a carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) solution as the core, by making the shell of alginate hydrogel quickly gelled with calcium ions. We believe that this approach would have a wide range of application such as cell encapsulation beads and drug delivery system by using the biofunctional materials as the core with the assistance of heat control or light irradiation.

This paper describes a new method to fabricate three-dimensional (3D) structures composed of a stimuli-responsive hydrogel. Using this method, 3D structures with internal gaps (ex. framed structure, hangout structure, etc.) can be printed directly in supporting viscous liquid and polymerized with ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. We proposed the proper concentration of CMC aq, confirmed the gelation of printed ink and demonstrated fabrication of 3D structures with internal gaps.

We previously proposed and experimentally demonstrated a novel photo-patterning method, which is direct light etching of organic materials using vacuum ultraviolet light (VUV). It is however the detailed quantitative performance has not been evaluated yet. Thus, we evaluated the side etch performance of direct light etching using Cr thin layer as a photomask, which is directly deposited and patterned on an etching target of PMMA. As a result, this method showed almost no side etching, whereas vertical etching proceeded as increasing VUV irradiation. On the other hand, a conventional contact exposure, which used VUV transparent quartz substrate with Cr pattern as an etching mask, resulted in generation side etch in proportion to the irradiation. Therefore, we found that the direct light etching with VUV has a large possibility to realize high-resolve etching regardless of side etching if the etching mask contacted perfectly on a target substrate.

Cu micropatterns were directly written on glass substrates using reduction of glyoxylic acid Cu complex induced by femtosecond laser pulses. We investigated the patterning properties at various laser irradiation conditions. Although the lower resistivity was obtained at 0.312－0.468 nJ, the resistivity increased at lower and higher pulse energies. X-ray diffraction spectra of the fabricated micropatterns at various laser irradiation conditions suggest that the reoxidization of the micropatterns exhibited higher resistivity at higher pulse energy. In contrast, the lack of the reduction precipitation increased the resistivity at lower pulse energy. The minimum resistivity was 2.43×10^-6 Ωm at the pulse energy of 0.312 nJ and laser scan speed of 1000 μm/s. This direct writing technique was useful to fabricate microdevices on various substrates in air.

This research is a near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy system using a Schottky photodetector enhanced by surface plasmon resonance (SPR). The photodetector offers detection of wavelength-specific plasmon resonance as electric signal with Schottky barrier. We made low noise measurements and automated spectroscopic control. We integrated the spectroscopic device and measurement circuit to perform spectroscopy covering the near infrared range in low noise. We presented a development method to create a responsivity matrix for the spectroscopy signal conversion Since this matrix has characteristics of irradiated light, it enables spectroscopy. Measurements showed wavelengths can be discriminated for simultaneously irradiating two wavelengths using the proposed system.

For comfortable and convenient human life, human-interactive and communicative robot has attractive attention from industrial to home-use applications. One of human-friendly robotic structures is pneumatic balloon type soft robots using mainly PDMS operated by compressed air. However, sensor integration to detect contact force and surface temperature has yet to be demonstrated without sacrificing softness and flexibility. This study demonstrates PDMS-based pneumatic balloon actuator integrated with electronic skin (e-skin) to detect tactile pressure and temperature like a human skin. The important advance of this demonstration is to integrate flexible sensors embedded in PDMS films. As a proof-of-concept, contact force and surface temperature of human skin were monitored by moving the PDMS-based robotic finger actuated by air pressure. This development is an important step for the future robotic application as human-interactive electronics.

Optical trapping and guiding using laser have been proven to be useful for non-contact and non-invasive manipulation of small objects such as biological cells, organelles within cells, and dielectric particles. We have numerically investigated so far the motion of a Brownian particle suspended in still water under illumination of a speckle pattern generated by interference of coherent light scattered by a rough object. In the present study, we numerically investigate the motion of titanium dioxide particles in a photo-curing resin under the illumination of a speckle pattern. Trajectory of the particle is simulated in relation to its size and, power and size of the speckle grains to confirm the feasibility of the present method for performing optical trapping and guiding of the particle in the photo-curing resin. The present method is expected to be applied to the fabrication of a random laser medium.

We propose a biohybrid robot with an antagonistic pair of skeletal muscle tissues. In the biohybrid robot, two skeletal muscle tissues are arranged in plane symmetry and their ends are connected to a joint via flexible ribbons working like tendons. Since bending of the flexible ribbons prevent the skeletal muscle tissues from deformation, the skeletal muscle tissues achieve linear actuations, inducing smooth rotation of the joint (rotation angle: ~90 degree), comparable to that of our finger. Due to controllability for contractions of skeletal muscle tissues, the biohybrid robot allow pick-and-place manipulation of a ring as an example of its operations. Therefore, we believe that the biohybrid robot will become a platform to replicate various lifelike movements.

We present a microfluidic method for electrical lysis and RNA extraction from fixed-single cells leveraging reversible cross-linker, dithio-bis (succinimidyl propionate), and a storage chemistry that prolongs the membrane integrity of fixed cells, crucial to retaining small molecules. We demonstrated the microfluidic protocol (less than 5 min) from capturing a cell at a hydrodynamic trap, reverse-crosslinking the fixation using dithiothreitol, lysing plasma membrane by electric field to extracting cytoplasmic RNA via isotachophoresis. We used K562 cells and benchmarked the performance of RNA extraction with RT-qPCR. We also integrated our method with single-cell RNA sequencing.

We propose a gaseous odorant sensor using a collagen pedestal and cell-laden collagen pillars containing cells expressing olfactory receptors. The cell-laden collagen pillars in the air can be protected from air dry damages by providing medium from the collagen pedestal. The responses of the cells to odorants increased by exposing to air containing gaseous odorants. Moreover, the 3D structure of pillars increased the reaction efficiency because the structure of pillars has a large surface area rather than the structure of the sheet. We believe that our gaseous odorant detection system will be useful to a development of gaseous odorant sensor.

This paper reports a method for fixed-point observation of a fat fiber with mature adipocytes. The fat fiber consisted of a core consisting white fat cells suspended in collagen and a shell consisting of alginate gel. We showed that the average size of lipid droplets in the fat fiber was about 3 times larger than the 2D culture. By tangling the fat fiber with pillars, we succeeded in observation of the time-dependent change in the size of lipid droplets at a specific area of the fat fiber. Owing to fixed-point observation of mature adipocytes, we believe that our method will be useful for the study of lipid metabolism.

Electrical stimulation has been known as one of the ways to mature cells and tissues. Here we present an electrical stimulation device for fiber-shaped 3D tissues to be matured. We fabricated cell-encapsulating hydrogel microfibers (cell fibers) using a double coaxial laminar flow microfluidic device and succeeded in controlling the diameter of the core of the fabricated cell fiber. In addition, we succeeded in fixing the cell fiber on a dish by adhesive hydrogel and confirmed that the fixed cell fiber can stably be set in the electrical stimulation device for more than 2 weeks. We believe that our approach would be effective to mature fiber-shaped 3D tissues in vitro.

Retinal vein occlusion is a disease that causes vision disorder due to occlusion of the retinal vein which is one kind of micro-vascular spreading to the fundus. Most of the current treatments are aimed at suppressing symptoms caused by vascular occlusion. In this study, we focused on the impact pressure of micro-jet generated by the collapse of the electrical-induced bubbles. This pressure can be worked as local and minimally invasive physical stimuli from the outside of the blood vessel to resolve the vascular occlusion itself. We performed reperfusion experiment of micro-vascular occlusion model and blood flow measurement to establish a new treatment method for retinal vein occlusion targeting vascular occlusion.

This paper describes an ultrasonic response on demand drug delivery system (DDS) of microgel beads carrier with particles encapsulated to enhance drug release. The goal of this research is an establishment of the highly effective drug release employing ultrasonic. In the first step, we demonstrated the release of fluorescence particles form microgel beads using ultrasonic. Incidentally, the beads were produced using calcium alginate as the main agent by a centrifugal separator. The sustained release was evaluated by measuring the fluorescence intensity of the fluorescent particles released from the beads by irradiating ultrasonic waves. Almost all particles were released by irradiating 50% ultrasound for 20 min. The method may provide benefit to a safe and accurately control for improving DDS.

This paper describes a fabrication method of a tube-shaped 3D culture device composed of chitosan hydrogel. Chitosan hydrogel is known to have high mechanical strength and biocompatibility, ensure the device possibilities of practical use in the field of medicine. The device is made by simple molding, and composed by two coaxial layers: a layer of chitosan hydrogel and a layer of collagen gel inside. The chitosan layer strengthen the device, and the collagen layer provides a scaffold for cell culture. We fabricated the device in various scale and solution concentration, and examined the shrinkage rate and strength of the device. We believe that this device will contribute to the development of tissue engineering.

Metallic nanoparticles were applied to ink materials of inkjet printing technology. We reported a particle size control by changing a flow rate in a synthesis of gold nanoparticles on a microfluidic device by citrate reduction. To apply this simple particle size control method to the synthesis of other metallic materials, we proposed the synthesis of copper nanoparticles in ethylene glycol by the microfluidic device. Copper nanoparticles were prepared using ascorbic acid as both antioxidant and reducing agent. The experimental results found for the first time that the effect of the flow rate of agents on particle size of the synthesized copper nanoparticles in the device.

The expertise of SPP Technologies in plasma processing techniques has led to the company`s cooperation in the “minimal fab” concept proposed by AIST. A Bosch process deep silicon reactive ion etching process chamber has been developed. A plasma with similar properties to those generated in a mass-production process chamber has been realized in a minimal fab process chamber. Design and evaluation of the minimal process chamber was performed by plasma and radical characterization. Successful process results were achieved by generating a plasma with similar density and bias energy to that of a mass production chamber. SPP Technologies has achieved the first Si-DRIE minimal process chamber using the Bosch process. SPT's Minimal Si-DRIE chamber, a research platform aimed at IoT, AI, and other MEMS devices, can be expected to make a big impact due to its early release.

In this research, comparing and investigating the actuator using Electrohydrodynamic (EHD), which is electrically controllable and suitable for miniaturization. We fabricated a micro EHD device and gained the pressure of 24 Pa when the voltage was applied 25 V. It is generally known that EHD flow is occurred when the electric field intensity is 10⁶ to 10⁷ V / m. Required electric field intensity was calculated with this device for the applied voltage of 25 V, and it was confirmed that it is exceeded the calculated range of 10⁶ ~ 10⁷ V/m. EHD flow consider to be generate of when the applied voltage was 25 V. The difference between the actual phenomenon and the theory is under investigation. Observed EHD flow was visualized the Schlieren method and compared with the calculated results. This work was carried out to obtain efficient low voltage EHD device.

For this study, a novel magnetization-free micro-magnetic tag is proposed and fabricated with low cost to make a tracking living bodies under water condition to establish a system for biometric identification within short time. Conventional identification system has a disadvantage that sensing signal is too weak to be identified because of the water absorption of electromagnetic waves and the highly in cost. For the present study, Magneto-Optics is employed as a high throughput sensing by 2D magnetic field. In order to magnify the sensing ability, FEM analysis has successfully optimized the configurations of external magnetic field and additional yoke module using double layer structure. The amplified magnetic information has successfully measured by magneto-optical (MO) sensor without contacting the magnetic tag whose maximum distance from sensor is 250μm. This study contributes to environmental technology and sensing / tracing technology.

This paper reports the healing property evaluation of the self-healing metal conductive track, which uses dielectrophoresis of metal nanoparticles for the self-healing, under cyclic stretching deformation. We designed and fabricated wave-shaped gold tracks with self-healing ability, and its impedance change under cyclic stretching deformation was measured. As a result, regarding the breaking elongation, each value of the second or more stretching cycles was lower than that of the first stretching cycle. As for the impedance after healing, each value of the second or more stretching cycles was higher than the first stretching cycle. Regarding the healing time, each value of the second or more stretching cycles takes both higher and lower values than the first stretching cycle randomly.

In this paper, we present a microfluidic device for droplet electrofusion with a continuously observation. The microfluidic device is composed of a hydrodynamic micro array system for trapping droplets and a pair of microelectrodes for applying electric field on the paired droplets. We fabricated the dynamic micro array device by standard soft lithography method and integrated microelectrode into the device by injecting low melting point alloy. We successfully trapped and fused a pair of droplets by applying direct current (DC) pulses. Furthermore, we confirmed the device allowed continuous observation for sequential fusion of droplets. We believe that this droplet electrofusion device will become a useful tool for droplet based chemical/biological reaction study.

This study investigates a new wiring technology for various materials without any surface treatment using plasma and electrically induced micro-bubbles. Our technology has three novelty points: (1) No requirement of complicated pre-surface treatment processes before wiring and which is unlikely to the electroless plating or conventional other method. (2) Resolution of the wiring can be reached to several tens micron with short time and low cost. (3) Robust metallic adhesion on wide range material was successfully carried out with precise positioning. For this time, we implanted nickel nanoparticles into rubber substrate with our method, and electrical conductivity of the created line. This result suggests our technology has a possibility to become new wiring technology. Precise, robust and simple electrical circuit can be fabricated without any complicated procedures and pre-treatment and which can be contribute to micro-fabrication technology.

We have fabricated device on a chip which can eject multiple electrically-induced bubbles at a time. This device has been developed for the injection of medicine or genes. Previous developed 3D probe injector requires the functions of high-throughput. It was required to inject numerous samples and wide area within short time. Therefore, a multiple injector has been developed. However, it was time consuming to fabricate multiple injector by conventional photolithography techniques. In this time, we fabricated a new device whose fabrication process and structure are simple and functional. We have successfully confirmed generation of bubbles with a new device. Evaluation of the device was also carried out in terms of resistance and voltage.

This paper describes a method of forming actin and myosin bundles in a microfluidic channel. We fabricated a Y-shaped microfluidic channel made of PDMS and glass Given the ATP and certain cation in the solvent, actin and myosin bound each other and induced condensation rapidly. We flew the actin and myosin solutions into the channel to examine the formation of actin-myosin filament. This approach would be effective to reconstruct self-assembled fibrous actin-myosin bundles for micro-scale actuators.

Rolling contact fatigue (RCF) such as pitting, flaking and shelling has a close relationship with shear-mode fatigue crack initiation and propagation. Also, it is known that the threshold condition and the crack growth behavior of shear-mode fatigue crack are significantly affected by the interaction of opposing crack faces. In order to apply fracture mechanics to the strength design of rolling contact machine elements, it is important to understand the friction and wear properties on the crack faces. In this study, the effects of nominal contact pressure, p, test frequency, f, and surface roughness, Ra, on the kinetic friction properties of bearing steel (JIS. SUJ2) were investigated by using a ring-on-ring testing method.

Nanosilver particles have a strong potential to be one of the key materials for next generation bonding technique for power modules. In this study, tensile tests of sintered nanosilver films with different porosities were carried out to investigate the relationships between porosity, Young's modulus and breaking strain. The fracture mechanism was investigated.

This paper describes an experimental technique for evaluating fatigue crack propagation behavior in-situ scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation. Pure Al and Al-Si alloy thin films deposited by sputtering were subjected to fatigue test. Specially developed compact tensile test equipment was used for the test in a SEM. A fatigue crack initiated at the sidewall of a specimen, and propagated along slip lines first. Then, the propagation direction changed to another direction, across to slip lines, which was caused by Si precipitation. Consequently, Al-Si alloy thin film showed longer lifetime than pure Al thin film.

In fracture mechanics, materials are treated as continuum models and the fracture criteria are evaluated by strength of singular stress field. Nanometer scale materials have nanometer scale singular stress fields in which discreteness of atoms has significant effect. It is reported that linear fracture has lower applicable limitation in range of crack length. In this research, we conduct molecular statics about crack propagation on nanoscale graphene which shows nonlinear deformation. We find that fracture criteria based on nonlinear fracture mechanics is applicable in small crack where linear fracture mechanics is not applicable. We investigate the lower limit of fracture criteria based on nonlinear fracture mechanics. Furthermore, we show new criteria based on discreteness of atoms which is applicable in every scale crack.

The hollow inside of a carbon nanotube (CNT) is attracted as a nanoscale channel for fluid transfer and material storage. However, previous studies related to those applications are focused on CNT with liquid inside, whereas the studies during liquid filling process is limited. In the present study, we stuck the CNT tip into liquid surface under vacuum condition and this experiment was observed by scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) to visualize the meniscus behavior. There found stop motion of meniscus and it is explained by capillary action with intermolecular force between CNT inner wall and liquid. In addition, voids inside the liquid infused into CNT were found by STEM, Rayleigh-Plateau instability would be the reason of this generation mechanism.

Droplet impact on high-temperature wall can be seen in a spray cooling to heated steel. Impacting droplets can levitate when the wall has sufficiently high temperature. This levitating phenomenon of a droplet is called the Leidenfrost effect. Many researches have been conducted to investigate the conditions of occurrence of the Leidenfrost effect. It is reported that a wettability of the wall and an impact velocity of droplets have affected the occurrence of the Leidenfrost effect. However, the detailed mechanism of the Leidenfrost effect is still poor understood. In this study, we used the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation to investigate the mechanism of the levitating phenomenon of impacting nanodroplet. We found that evaporation from in the vicinity of the three-phase contact line may affect the levitation of nanodroplet.

We proposed thermal conductivity measurement device which can measured nano, micro scale materials by extending 3-omega method. Specifically, we fabricated metal micro wire on an elastomeric ultra-thin film (nanosheet) with the thickness of several hundred nanometers by using photolithography or metal mask. Electrical resistivity of the fabricated metal micro wire by using photolithography and metal mask were 25.5 ohm and 364 ohm, respectively. Furthermore, we confirmed that the electrical resistivity of metal micro wire formed on the elastomeric nanosheet was not changed even if the nanosheet was peeled off from a supporting layer, resulting in a free-standing state. The result suggested that fabricated device can measure thermal conductivity by attaching measurement sample.

Aluminum (Al)- assisted chemical etching enable us to achieve the high-speed chemical anisotropic etching of silicon dioxide (SiO₂). In this study, processing characteristics on Al-assisted chemical etching were evaluated. As a result, chemical vapor etching with Al (Al : O = 1 : 0.0038) was 16.9 times faster than it without Al. In addition, we evaluated the relationship between oxygen content and etching speed. Chemical vapor etching using aluminum which had high purity was faster. Furthermore, we demonstrated by fabrications of some nanostructure such as bull's eye nanostructure and nanotrench structure, that Al-assisted chemical vapor etching is a powerful technique for nanofabrication.

This study presents a stimuli-responsive gel-based gripper that can be wirelessly manipulated using infrared (IR) light. We fabricated IR-responsive gel (pNIPAM-SWCNT gel) by uniformly dispersed single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) that efficiently absorb IR light and generates heat. We confirmed that pNIPAM-SWCNT gel has IR-responsiveness by IR irradiation experiments. By using photomasks, we successfully fabricated a gel gripper that has gripping motion. We confirmed driving speed of the gel grippers became faster with increasing the UV irradiation time for the gel grippers' formation. We believe that our gel gripper could be applied to a remote controlled manipulator in vivo, and could contribute to the development of low-invasive treatment.

In this research, we propose a new imprint process for multilayered material. The work sheet material is set onto an expanded rubber substrate, and in-plane compression is performed to the work sheet by the contraction of the rubber sheet. By imprinting on the multilayered material, it is possible not only to transcribe the surface pattern by the mold but also to form some patterns along interface. Further, by the proposed in-plane compression, an overhang shape and a high aspect ratio would be obtained, which are difficult for simple conventional imprinting. As a result of the experiment, it was possible to reduce the pitch of the imprinted material by compressing the imprinted material in-plane. We show some results of in-plane compressive imprint.

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) is a fuel cell has the highest power generation performance, however, the energy density is lower than another type of fuel cells, and downsizing is necessary. By applying a pattern to the interface between the electrode and the electrolyte, it is possible to increase the amount of power generation per volume. In this study, imprint processing was performed on an electrode and electrolyte laminate material composed of particle dispersion resin, which is a material of SOFC, to concurrently impart a wave pattern of order of several micrometers to the electrolyte surface and the laminated interface. In addition, we will grasp the deformation behavior of the interfacial shape of laminated resin and try to control the interface shape.

In this study, we report the fabrication procedure and evaluation of titanium alloy scalpels for microsurgery. The scalpels with micro-scale feature were fabricated by Thermally assisted Reactive Ion Etching (TRIE) technique. We evaluated the scalpels with/without micro-scale feature and confirmed these scalpels with micro-scale feature can cut PDMS with low cutting resistance.

To execute efficient and precise handling tasks in micro world, a bilateral system which connects the micro and macro worlds in both directions has been developed. In order to improve the work efficiency, 3-dimensional observation of objects in the micro world is necessary. Two images with parallax are necessary for the 3-D observation, but it is difficult to obtain these images under a microscope. In this research, we proposed a method of obtaining parallax images by inserting a glass plate under the microscope, tilting the plate and thus changing the optical path by a small distance. In addition, in order to electrically control the tilt of the glass plate, we developed a swinging actuator driven by voice coils.

In this paper, we describe a porous hydrogel microfiber that improves temperature responsiveness. We fabricated hydrogel microfiber using a microfluidic device. We successfully encapsulated cellulose nanofibers in the hydrogel microfiber. We succeeded in making porous structures in the hydrogel microfiber by dissolving the cellulose nanofibers. As a result, the temperature responsiveness was improved: the response time of the porous hydrogel microfiber was 90 s when the diameter ratio was 0.9 while that of non-porous hydrogel microfiber was 250 s. We believe that our hydrogel microfibers could be applied to actuators such as soft robots and artificial muscles.

This paper describes a graphene-based wireless inline pressure sensor with an elastic microfluidic tube. Our wireless pressure sensor is simply composed of a graphene sheet (piezo-resistive sensor) attached to an elastic microfluidic tube and a coil wound up to the tube as a transmitter. The elastic tube was fabricated by molding a poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and gold was deposited as a wiring. The applied pressure inside the tube can be monitored wirelessly by an external receiver coil. We fabricated the sensor system applicable to monitoring pressure in the range of 0-20 kPa by designing the sensitivity depending on the stiffness of the elastic tube, the turn numbers of the coils, and the distance between the coils. The proposed pressure sensor could be expected to pressure monitoring for in vivo implanted medical devices.

This research is aimed at research on micromanipulation using EWOD.

In the conventional micromanipulation, the complexity such as breakage of the object due to contact between the glass tube and the object, three-dimensional operation of the glass tube and the like is a problem. We are studying a new micromanipulation for manipulating liquid droplets against these problems.EWOD can be used as a kind of micromanipulation.With using EOD it is possible to make an object and a manipulator in contact with each other It is possible to move objects without manipulating complex manipulators without manipulators.

In this presentation, we introduce the transport of micro objects in addition to the study of grasping and separation using the wettability control of the conventional EWOD device.