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"Green" Devices: Future Devices On The Frontier of MEMS Research

This document discusses future "green devices" that could have a major impact on environmental and energy fields within 20 years. It summarizes the findings of a working group that studied how MEMS technologies could be fused with nanotechnology and biotechnology to create innovative devices. The working group proposed three types of green devices: (1) devices that harvest energy from various environmental sources; (2) devices that can purify pollutants on-site; and (3) ultra-sensitive devices that can detect small amounts of environmental substances. These localized devices could help achieve high performance and advanced functions by combining MEMS with nano-bio technologies.

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68 views1 page

"Green" Devices: Future Devices On The Frontier of MEMS Research

This document discusses future "green devices" that could have a major impact on environmental and energy fields within 20 years. It summarizes the findings of a working group that studied how MEMS technologies could be fused with nanotechnology and biotechnology to create innovative devices. The working group proposed three types of green devices: (1) devices that harvest energy from various environmental sources; (2) devices that can purify pollutants on-site; and (3) ultra-sensitive devices that can detect small amounts of environmental substances. These localized devices could help achieve high performance and advanced functions by combining MEMS with nano-bio technologies.

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karthikds91
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Green Devices: Future Devices on the Frontier of MEMS Research


Norihisa Miki, Associate Professor / Lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Keio University
With the promotion of the Highly Integrated / Complex MEMS Manufacturing Technology Development Project that began in 2006, even greater growth in the MEMS field is anticipated. At the same time, many innovative achievements are being produced in new fields such as nanotechnology and biotechnology. To see if fusing MEMS technologies with these achievements in the nano-bio field would produce sporadic innovation, in 2006 the Mechanical Social System Foundation commissioned the Micromachine Center to conduct a study entitled Future Device Technologies Created through Fusion with Nano-bio Technologies as the Frontier of MEMS Research. The future devices targeted by this study are defined as devices based on MEMS technology, produced by fusing nano-bio materials with MEMS, that will create new lifestyles and have a revolutionary impact on society 20 years from now. As shown in Fig. 1, these future devices will be achieved using, as an infrastructure technology, process integration that fuses microfabrication (a top-down process) with nano-bio processing (a bottom-up process). The devices will be used in three domains that are expected to be critical issues in the society of 20 years from now: environment / energy, health / medical care and safety / security. For this study, the future devices in each of these domains were named Green Devices, White Devices and Blue Devices, respectively, and together with Process Integration four working groups (WG) were formed and activated. In this column, I will discuss green devices based on the study conducted by the Green Devices WG, for which I served as chairperson. Table 1 shows the membership of the Green Devices WG. The WG studied the green devices that are expected to have a major impact on the environmental and energy fields in the society of 20 years in the future. Discussions in the working group were conducted from two approaches: the qualities that these green devices of 20 years in the future should possess (needs) and the achievements that can be accomplished 20 years from now by combining nano-bio technologies with present-day MEMS technology (seeds). Ultimately, the Working Group proposed the following three green devices. In each case, the localized, on-site quality of MEMS is utilized to achieve both high performance and advanced functions in combination with nano-bio technologies.

(ii) On-site environmental cleanup


Substances such as carbon dioxide emitted by automobiles and water heaters and wastewater from homes are difficult to collect and clean up once they have been discharged, due to their extremely low concentrations in the environment. These substances will be purified on-site at the source, where they are still at high concentrations. Nanoporous filters that separate out pollutants, microorganisms to purify toxic substances and other biotechnology solutions are expected to be applied.

(iii) Ultra-sensitive environmental substance detection devices


These devices are capable of on-site detection of extremely small quantities of environmental substances with great sensitivity. Measuring systems will be compact and will form nodes in a distributed sensor network. For example, Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) that uses nanostructures of gold, silver, etc. are anticipated. Discussions regarding future devices that will be developed 20 years from now are necessarily somewhat lacking in specifics. Progress in research will give us a clearer picture of such devices. Green devices and the other future devices on the frontiers of MEMS research will form the foundation of MEMS technology. At the same time, such devices will no longer be MEMS devices. For this reason, the working group also proposed a new name for these devices: Bio Electromechanical Autonomous Nano Systems (BEANS). I am confident that this new term will soon be in widespread use in many industries.
Overview of Future Device Technologies on the Frontier of MEMS Research
Proposed Infrastructure for the Achievement of Future Devices that will have a Revolutionary Impact on Society 20 Years from Now

Important fields in the society of the future

Environment / Energy
Fully environment-friendly society Effective use of light energy

Health / medical care


igorous one s Vigorous lifestyles throughout ones entire lifetime Comfort / security / safety Communication Patient-specific care / preventive medical care atient-specific Achievement of super-reality

Green Devices
Solar cell created through the created application application of nanostructures pplication Ultra-decentralized energy energy absorption device On-site CO2 fixing device Ultra-high sensitivity environmental material sensor material

White Devices
In vivo MEMS agent (monitoring machine inside the human body) In vivo microdoctor (in vivo latent diagnosis and treatment machine) 4-dimensional hybrid device (device that accommodates to and grows with the body) MEMS health sheet (monitor affixed to the body to monitor physical condition)

Blue Devices
Large area wallpa wallpaper devices (sheet incorporating sensing display) Five-sense accumula ive-sense accumulation device (touch, smell and taste sensing / re-creation) tion) Microchemical analysis (singlechip analyzer) Portable translator (portable ondemand interpreta interpretation)

Micro-n ano mach ining Nano-car bon Self-asse / nano-semiconducto r use mbly Maxwell 's (demon) device

Process Integration
Process integration for the purpose of creating revolutionary devices of the future Nanostructure / large area / interfacial control

pulation Nano-mani thesized proteins syn Use of new ome technology through gen ure materials Creation of fut

(i) Energy harvesting


Light, heat, vibration, biotechnology and other heretofore unused sources of environmental energy will be used effectively to provide energy. For example, this technology will enable on-site supply of power to sensors distributed in a network. Medical devices implanted into the human body will not require battery replacement, leading to improved patient quality of life. Other anticipated devices include ultra-high efficiency organic solar cells created by means of threedimensional nanopillar structures, ultra-high efficiency thermoelectric conversion elements created using nanocomposites and nanoporous structures, and highperformance storage battery devices that obtain energy from the environment and store it until it is needed.

Fig 1 Future Devices on the Frontier of MEMS Research Table 1 Members of the Green Device WG
Norihisa Miki Koji Miyazaki Chihaya Adachi Isao Shimoyama Takao Ishida Kazuyoshi Furuta Akihiro Koga Ryo Miyake Yuji Saisho Hitomichi Takano Junji Adachi Hiroshi Fukumoto Nobuhiro Tsukada Keio University, Faculty of Science and Technology
Kyushu Institute of Technology, Graduate School of Life Science and Systems Engineering

Kyushu University, Center for Future Chemistry


Tokyo University, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology

Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) Seiko Instruments Inc. Toshiba Corporation Hitachi, Ltd. Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd. Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd. Micromachine Center (MMC) Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Hitachi, Ltd.

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