introduction to IRES²
Institute for Research on Next-generation Semiconductor and Sensing Science (IRES²)
Kazuaki SAWADA
Director
The University has strengthened (reorganized) the predecessor institute, the Electronics-Inspired Interdisciplinary Research Institute (EIIRIS) and established the Institute for Research on Next-generation Semiconductor and Sensing Science (IRES²) on April 1, 2023. We are conducting activities with the aim of using previous research activities as a basis for deploying “innovative electronics technology”, based on next-generation semiconductor technology and sensing technology, to the level of social implementation, and to contribute to solving both domestic and international problems. We will achieve this through interdisciplinary research with cutting-edge application fields such as robotics, information and communications, life sciences, agricultural engineering, environment, disaster prevention, and next-generation mobility.
This Institute consists of the “Basic Research Department”, which develops cutting-edge research areas: “LSI Factory”, which handles semiconductors and sensors from design to production and evaluation and “Social Implementation Department”, which is responsible for applying and deploying interdisciplinary research and its social implementation. With the “Strategic Management Department” supervising the entire research cycle, the Institute aims to form an all-in-one innovation creation model from basic research to integrated circuit prototyping to social implementation, and to become the world’s top next-generation semiconductor (education) research and prototyping base. In terms of the research organization, the Basic Research Department includes four fields (Innovative Sensing Technology Creation Field, Innovative Sensing Technology Development Field, Advanced Environmental Sensing Field, and Advanced Life Science Field), and the Social Implementation Department includes four fields (Next-Generation Mobility Society Field, Safety and Security Technology Field, Advanced Agritech Field, and Human-Robot Symbiosis Field). With these fields, we are promoting integrated sensor interdisciplinary research through organic collaboration.
For the research activity base, in IRES²-1 (1,500 m2: completed in 2010), the advanced materials development clean room is located on the first floor; the optical measurement room, physical measurement room, and bioscience laboratory are located on the second floor; and the staff floor is located on the third floor. IRES²-2 (2,300 m2) is connected to IRES²-1 on the third floor and has a “globally unique facility” (21st-century COE midterm evaluation) that can perform everything from LSI / sensor / MEMS design to CMOS / sensor processing and evaluation, commonly called the LSI factory. In IRES²-3, a full-fledged experimental facility for handling animals was completed in FY2012 as a life science experimental facility, which is rare among engineering universities, with interdisciplinary research being conducted here.
The understanding and cooperation of industry, domestic, and international research institutions, and our University’s professors and students in many fields is essential for IRES² to promote global interdisciplinary research. We hope that such activities will be the source for research results and collaborative industry-academia activities that will be disseminated worldwide.