Nano/Micro System Engineering Laboratory: "Synthetic Engineering for Nano Systems"

Our lab theme is "Big opportunities created by small machines." The small machine is a device that has some functions of the human brain, five senses (eyesight, hearing, smell, taste and touch) or arms and legs, depending on its purpose, and can get information faster and more accurately than humans, to perform communication or calculation, or to control various energy forms such as electromagnetics, heat and fluids. A lot of such small machines are already being used around you, for example, the air-bag system of your car, blood pressure meter at your house, etc. These small machines are called "micro machines," "micro systems," or “MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems)." "Micro-" is a prefix meaning one-millionth, derived from the Greek term "MIKROS," meaning "small." Along with the recent advancement of nanotechnology, the terms with a prefix "nano-," meaning one-billionth, derived from the Greek term “NANOS (dwarf)," are increasingly being used, such as nano-machine, nano-system and NEMS (Nano Electro Mechanical Systems). Nanoscale small machines often utilize quantum effect and other physical phenomena that are unique to the nanoscale world.

Figure 1 Micro/nano structures manufactured by microfabrication technology

Figure 1 shows a variety of nano- and microstructures fabricated in our laboratory. By applying semiconductor process technology, which is also used to fabricate IC chips for smartphones and personal computers, a wide variety of MEMS/NEMS can be created. The ambition to create new functions in a small-scale world by combining various phenomena in different fields such as those of machinery, electricity, electronics, chemistry, medicine and biology with MEMS/NEMS devices is encapsulated in our slogan, "Big opportunities created by small machines."