The Internet of Things era is considered to be the next boost for LSI applications. A large number of things, which have never been connected to the Internet before, will be connected to it by LSIs equipped with a sensor, CPU, memory, and wireless communication device. These LSI devices are not connected to a power line, so they must survive by using a battery or energy generated by energy harvesting. Therefore, low-power device operation is required, and a supply voltage reduction is the most important issue for low-power operation. The Low-power Electronics Association & Project, which was founded in 2010, has been developing new devices such as an FD-SOI CMOS (named SOTB), Atom Switch, MRAM, and PCM as candidates for replacing conventional power-stricken devices. In the article, recent achievements of LEAP are introduced, focusing on the performance of several experimental LSIs made by using LEAP’s new devices.

Exposure tools have been repeatedly replaced to achieve shorter wavelengths in semiconductor lithography. The energy of photons will exceed the ionization potential of resist materials when extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is realized. Using pulse radiolysis with high time resolution and lithography exposure tools with high spatial resolution, the reaction mechanisms of resist materials were investigated to obtain a material design for single nano fabrication. In the energy region of ionizing radiations, the energy of photons is almost randomly deposited on resist materials, unlike the case for deep and vacuum UV lithography. In the material design of EUV resists, it is essential to efficiently transfer the randomly deposited energy to specific chemical reactions. Also, it is necessary to design polymer structures without the interference of each function, because the polymer plays an important role in all the resist pattern formation processes from energy absorption to development.

Dust, containing radioactive materials, was dispersed following the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in March 2011. Gamma-rays were emitted in the process when unstable nuclei in the materials decayed. The visualization of the distribution of radioactive materials is regarded as an important technology in the process of decontamination. A gamma-ray camera, which is based on the concept of reconstructing Compton scatterings, which take place in the detector, is known as a Compton camera and works in the energy range from a few hundred keV to a few MeV. 40 years after the first proposal for such a camera, Compton cameras are now being demonstrated as a real gamma-ray imager that can be used in the Fukushima area. In addition to monitoring hotspots in radiation sites, the camera could be used in various fields, such as medicine and non-destructive analyses. In this paper, we describe recent progress in Gamma-ray imaging by using a semiconductor Compton camera based on the technologies of Si and CdTe semiconductor detectors.

LEDs can produce quite new and unexpected designs for automotive lighting. They have unprecedented forms and colors. Therefore, lighting with LEDs can show the signature of the automobile brand. However, automotive lighting should follow the required regulations in order to guarantee safe driving. Now we are trying to develop new regulations for LEDs and for new technologies.

In bioimaging, it is essential to keep the sample close to its natural state. By freezing the sample in time using a femtosecond pulse duration, an X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) can overcome the radiation damage problem, which limits the achievable resolution. In this study, we present a method for capturing snapshots of live cells kept in a micro-liquid enclosure array by a single-shot XFEL diffraction. We performed a live cell imaging experiment using the SPring-8 Angstrom Compact Free-Electron Laser (SACLA). We exposed each enclosure to a single X-ray laser pulse from the SACLA and recorded a coherent diffraction pattern from the enclosed bacteria. The reconstructed image reveals the living whole-cell structures without any staining, which helps advance the understanding of intracellular phenomena.

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with poly(4-styrenesulfonic acid) (PEDOT/PSS) is commercially available in the form of a water dispersion of colloidal particles. It is one of the most successful conductive polymers, having superior electrical and thermal stability especially in the conductive state, and this provides potential applications to organic electronics or printed electronics such as capacitors, hole-injection layers of organic light-emitting diodes, and transparent electrodes for solar cells and touch panels. In this report, the hierarchical structure of the PEDOT/PSS will be investigated to clarify the mechanism for the improvement of electrical conductivity.

Electrical power generation from carbohydrates produced by living systems is one of the attractive green energy technologies, and has motivated for decades the development of enzymatic biofuel cells that can directly generate electricity without purification of the biofluids. Here, we explain the recent progress of enzymatic power generation, and then introduce our recent achievements.

Methods such as sputtering and PECVD (plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition) can form high quality film on a large-size substrate. In order to achieve a film with good uniformity and performance, it is very important to control the plasma gradient over the substrate. This technique to control plasma is widespread and an essential core technology for the production process of semiconductor elements, power devices, light emitting diodes (LEDs), magnetic recording media, photovoltaic cells and flat panel displays (FPD). Especially in the FPD process, with the substrate size over 3 meters, the technology for controlling plasma has experienced significant development. In this study, we suggest a method for controlling plasma in the sputtering process for metal and pixel electrode deposition and discuss a large-area sputtering system for forming a transparent oxide semiconductor (TOS), which has attracted a lot of attention recently.