IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2015 - 26

including the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and
Technology (MEXT), the Japan
Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), the Japan Science
and Technology Agency (JST), the
Ministry of Economy, Trade, and
Industry MITI), and the New Energy
and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).
In 2009, The Council for Science
and Technology Policy (CSTP), Cabinet Office, Government of Japan
announced the "Funding Program
for World-Leading Innovative R&D
on Science and Technology: FIRST"
program. The program included projects in spintronics, green nano electronics, electron/photon fusion for
optical interconnection, and heterogenous integrations for more than
Moore technology. These FIRST programs were concluded in 2014.
For low power electronics, a
research association called "Low
Power Electronics Association
& Project: LEAP" started in 2010
supported by NEDO and MITI. The
main topics of this project are MTJ
for non-volatile memory, phase
change memory, atomic switch for
FPGA, carbon based interconnection, and nano scale transistors.

Another national driver is the
need for new photoresistance to
handle extreme ultraviolet (EUV)
light. For resistant materials development, the EUVL Infrastructure
Development Center (EIDEC) was
organized in 2010, supported by
NEDO and METI. This program
involved EUV mask inspection, gas
protection from photo resistance,
resistant materials development,
and direct self assembly of resistant polymers. Indeed, nano scale
lithography and fine pattering are
not the only solutions for future
electronics. Therefore, in parallel,
"post scaling" has been discussed
and some other ideas are proposed
with heterogeneous integration [41].
These four FIRST programs,
LEAP and EIDEC programs were
operated mainly in the National
Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) West
Campus, and some of them are
related to the Tsukuba Innovation
Arena (TIA-Nano) research network.
Another funding agency, JST is an
independent public body of MEXT.
The JST had been supporting the
Core Research for Evolutional Science
and Technology (CREST) program,
which is a five year project focusing

Global-Scale Societal Issues

Personal
Computer
Existing
Technologies

Understanding
Zero Energy
100-Years Lasting
Tablet PC,
Portable Phone Auto-Update
Inter-Operability/Dependability

Invention
II
Business
Model

Heterogeneous Integration
Bridge Building

Nanoelectronics Research
Past

on topics proposed by a program
manager. Since 2005, a CREST program entitled "Research of Innovation Materials and Process for Creating
Next Generation Electronic Devices"
began and drove much innovation.
In 2013, the JST launched another
CREST program, Innovative NanoElectronics through Interdisciplinary
Collaboration among Material, Device, and System Layers. The areas
are related to tunneling FET, sensing devices with Si nano wire, and
image sensors for spin mapping.
The projects are expected to lead
innovative information processing
and electronics to contribute to
high impact societal needs such
as smart houses, traffic, next-generation automobiles, robots, and
human interfaces. IPWGN Japan
members believe it is absolutely imperative to bridge the gap between
nanoelectronics and the business
model of the semiconductor industries. This challenge is highlighted
in Figure 3.
Of key importance to the Japan
approach has been MEXT. MEXT has
been instrumental from the very
beginning in constructing a userfacility network in Japan, which is
similar to the U.S. NNIN program. The
integrated partnership of user facilities, "Nanotechnology Support Program," started in 2002, followed by
the "Nanotechnology Network Program" started in 2007. The newly
launched "Nanotechnology Platform
(2012-2021)" is a nationwide user
facilities platform covering three technological areas of "advanced characterization," "nanofabrication," and
"molecule and material synthesis."

Present

Application
Driven

Japan Gap Analysis
Looking at the Japan gap analysis, the more-than-Moore architecture, 0D/1D/2D, a nd st ate
variables seem to be well funded
in Japan. Actually, many programs
deal with MEMS sensors, circuit/

Invention

Future

Figure 3 Bridge building between nanoelectronics and the business model of

semiconductor industries (with permission from Naoki Yokoyama, INC10).

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

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JUNE 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2015