In this study, a bolt-clamped type piezoelectric transducer for microchannel device to generate emulsion which contains sub-micron level droplets has been designed, fabricated and evaluated. In the proposed device, disk type piezoelectric elements are clamped by a bolt located in outer space. The transducer structure has been designed by using FEM simulation to generate the ultrasonic vibration with a suitable pressure distribution to the microchannel device. We have fabricated the transducer and evaluated the pressure distribution. Additionally, nano emulsion has been successfully generated by using the proposed transducer and the microchannel device.

Recently, soft actuators are attracting large attention in various fields. Electrically driven soft actuators are one of the strong candidates of soft actuators because it has high response characteristics, large deformation and high integratability. In this study, we fabricated dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) which is applied water pressure for realizing out-of-plane motion. The actuator is made of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). And also, we succeeded in driving of this actuator by applying electric voltage. We also performed analysis of static characteristics of fabricated DEA with liner material model and compare the calculated results and experimental results.

This report presents a micro manipulation strategy to take single micro wire out of water by DPLUS ultrasonic tweezers at high frequency. A low-loss and high-power device DPLUS (Double Parabolic reflectors wave-guided high-power ultrasonic transducer) was used as the ultrasonic tweezers. In the experiment, the axially vibrating needle of DPLUS was immersed in the water. When the needle tip touches the micro sample, sample was captured on the tip of needle. As the needle moved out of water, the sample could also be out of the water in a droplet on the needle tip. In this way, taking micro samples out of water can be achieved by ultrasonic pipetting method. Then, after the vibrating needle with a micro sample on the tip was inserted into water again, the captured sample was still on the tip of needle. When the ultrasound was turned off, captured sample could be controllably released. In this work, copper wires with a diameter 60 μm and length of 0.5-2 mm were used as sample.

Point-of-Sales (POS) data measures how much product the end-users purchase. Using POS data in a retail manufacture setting helps the manufacturer to understand the demand of its product and to improve its demand forecast. On the other hand, the traditional Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) is one of the recursive neural network approaches that can be applied for modeling of sequential data. The key feature of RNN is the network delay recursion, which enables it to describe the dynamic performance of systems. A Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model approximate the long-term information with significant delays by expanding the conventional RNN algorithm. <IFEOL> An estimation method of the order quantity of the manufacturer is proposed based on the POS data of the retailer by using the LSTM model in this research. Supply chain simulation model have been constructed to generate the POS data of the retailer and the demand quantity of the manufacturer. Some case studies have been carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed LSTM model by using the POS data and the demand quantity obtained by the simulation model.

Recently high-level hermetic sealing is required for packaging of various micro-devices. In this report, we evaluated the applicability of thin Au/Ti films deposited on bonding surface and cavity wall to bonding and gettering material. We conclude that the thin Au/Ti films can be applicable to not only bonding but also gettering the gas atoms inside of a sealed cavity.

To manufacture micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) device with a long term life and high accuracy, it is important to package them in a high vacuum. We fabricated a packaging structure after degassing annealing at 200℃ using Ti/Pt/Au films deposited on Si substrates. Then, by annealing at 450℃, thermally diffused Ti atoms reached the residual gas at the surface. It is assumed that a high vacuum packaging without encapsulating gettering material can be achieved by the proposed method, enabling simplification of the MEMS structure and manufacturing process.

In recent years, high vacuum environment is required in micro-devices such as micro-PMT and bolometer. We developed a small vacuum pump for micro-devices that operate in ultra-high vacuum environment. The small vacuum pump was realized by anodic bonding of chip-scale glass and Si, which is the same principle as the ion pump. As a result, glow discharge was visually confirmed, and discharge characteristics according to Paschen’s law were obtained at a pressure of 1 to 1000 Pa.