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JAPAN NANONET BULLETIN
-- 25th Issue -- August 19, 2004
Nanotechnology Researchers Network Center of Japan
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)
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IN THIS ISSUE
Nanonet Interview:
Shoichiro YOSHIDA, Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer,
Nikon Corporation
Young Researchers' Introduction:
Shigeki TAKEUCHI, Associate Professor, Research Institute for
Electronic Science, Hokkaido University
-- NANO CALENDAR --
For information on nanotechnology related symposiums and conferences
held in the world,
http://www.nanonet.go.jp/english/calendar/
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NANONET INTERVIEW
First stepper
--Developing new technology based on what you master--
(Issued in Japanese: July 29, 2003)
Shoichiro YOSHIDA, Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer,
Nikon Corporation
Nikon Corporation began to develop ruling engines in 1961, and in that
year Mr. Yoshida participated in its development project as an
engineer in his fifth year at the company. Ruling engines are
precision machines used for making diffraction gratings. They can draw
1,000 to 1,500 parallel lines per millimeter on the surfaces of 10cm x
10cm flat glass plates using diamond cutters. Through the ruling
engine development project, which lasted for about 10 years, Nikon
engineers developed a very accurate laser interferometer-based XY
stage positioning mechanism and peripheral technologies. These
technologies contributed greatly to Nikon's development of steppers,
of which the company has become the world's number one manufacturer.
Mr. Yoshida says, "I tried very seriously to find any possible
application of these technologies because it had taken the company 10
years to develop them." Fortunately, the Japanese semiconductor
industry had just entered its growth stage at that time. Nikon
developed mask coordinate measuring machines for semiconductor
manufacturers in the early 1970s, making good use of these
technologies. The machines were the world's first instruments that
could measure the positions of masks with a precision of 100nm.
Mr. Yoshida says, "Nikon used to make special custom-made ruling
engines and astronomical telescopes. But the company received repeat
orders for its mask coordinate measuring machines from customers for
the first time. This convinced me that semiconductor manufacturing-
related machines would provide a good business opportunity for the
company. So I started my career in the semiconductor-related industry."
When he started his career in this industry, semiconductors were being
produced using the contact printing microlithography system, in which
masks are placed directly on wafers to imprint microscopic circuitry
patterns. Imprinting finer circuitry patterns on wafers requires the
reduction of mask patterns through optical lenses. Mr. Yoshida thought
reduced patterns could be imprinted accurately on wafers by moving the
wafers very accurately, if his company were to make use of its mask
coordinate measurement technology coupled with its high-resolution
lenses. "But," he says, "no one in the industry considered it possible
to develop such steppers, arguing that the basic concept of steppers
at that time could not satisfy the needs of semiconductor
manufacturers in terms of productivity."
In 1976, Nikon was asked to develop steppers by an organization that
had conducted a VLSI R&D project. The organization was set up to carry
out Japan's first national semiconductor development project.
Mr. Yoshida says, "We delivered our first stepper to the organization
in 1978, and a commercial version was launched in 1981. Initially, our
model was able to imprint circuit patterns with a line width of 1
micrometer using a 1/10 reduction projection system. After the first
machine was introduced, a novel 1/5 reduction projection system, which
can also imprint lines that are 1 micrometer wide, was released. This
helped semiconductor device maker improve their productivity fourfold,
and this is why Nikon has become the world's number one stepper
supplier."
The key to the success of his company was setting clear project
targets and thorough discussion among project members. Mr. Yoshida
says, "I think setting clear targets in application research is very
important, and this can be applied to the nanotechnology area as well."
When Nikon started developing steppers, most of the researchers and
engineers were young. They discussed issues very frankly, and their
honest discussions sometimes caused arguments. "I believe that how
deeply staff who are involved in a project can discuss issues
determines whether the project team can make most of its integrated
ability," says Mr. Yoshida. These, for him, are the necessary factors
for a successful project. As a project leader, he always wants to
encourage participants to generate new ideas.
(Interviewer: Kuniko Ishiguro, Cosmopia Inc.)
For more information,
http://www.nanonet.go.jp/english/mailmag/2004/025a.html
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YOUNG RESEARCHERS' INTRODUCTION
An efficient single photon source using parametric down conversion
(Issued in Japanese: July 29, 2003)
Shigeki TAKEUCHI, Associate Professor, Research Institute for
Electronic Science, Hokkaido University
One of the most important applications of the single photon source is
quantum cryptography. Up to now, most of the experiments of quantum
cryptography have used weak coherent light as photon sources. In those
experiments, the average photon number was kept as small as 0.1 in
order to maintain a very low probability of generating two photons in
one pulse. However, this meant that 90% of the pulses were vacuum
states and could not be used to send any information. Therefore,
single photon sources that can output single photon states with a high
probability while having only a small probability of two photon states
are very important for quantum cryptography.
There has been extensive research to produce single photon pulses
using a single light emitter, like single molecules, single color
centers in diamonds and single quantum dots. In those methods,
however, photons are emitted in all directions and it is difficult to
collect the photons with high efficiency. To the best of our knowledge,
the highest probability P(1) of finding a single photon at an output
port where single photons are collimated was less than 10% in such
devices.
We report the construction of a single photon source using gated
parametric fluorescence with the measurement result of the photon
number distribution. We succeeded in increasing the probability P(1)
of finding a single photon in a pulse to 26.5%. The availability of
the source at room temperature, its long life, and its wavelength
tunability may also be useful for quantum cryptography and photonic
quantum computation.
For more information,
http://www.nanonet.go.jp/english/mailmag/2004/025b.html
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Nanotechnology Researchers Network Center of Japan
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)
Our website: http://www.nanonet.go.jp/english/
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Copyright(c) 2003-2004, Nanotechnology Researchers Network Center of
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