No. 283: New technology for a large-scale organic EL panel (May 31, 2011)

Tokyo University Professor Tadatomo Suga developed the technology applicable to the production of organic EL panels. It reduces the cost to glue two glass sheets together, and it is applicable to the production of larger EL panels. The development was led by the professor and participated by Taiyo Yuden, Lantechnical Service, and Bondtech. Organic materials need to be put between two glass sheets and the verge needed to be sealed to build an EL panel. However, as the display grows larger in size, glass sheets skew to make it hard to seal them. This makes it hard to mass produce organic EL panels. The new technology can seal them at a lower cost. To be specific, the ceramic surface of a glass sheet is made flat with the aid of argon ion to glue two glass sheets tight without any space between them at room temperature. The research team expects to put the technology into practical use in three years. Organic EL is higher in performance than liquid crystal in displaying videos, and smart phones will employ organic EL soon. The new technology is expected to promote the application to large TV screens. The research results are scheduled to be presented in the coming Electronic Components and Technology Conference to be held in the U.S. starting on May 31, 2011.

No. 282: Applying car production technology to the medical field (May 27, 2011)

Toyota Motor and Tokyo University collaborate to apply Toyota’s computer-aided simulation technology for auto body designing and production processing to the prediction system of subarachnoid bleeding. Because auto technology has rarely been applied to the medical field, this collaboration invites attention as an approach across two different industrial frameworks. Toyota simulates the running condition of a car and the safety in collision using computers, and Tokyo University’s Institute of Industrial Science uses Toyota’s technology to simulate the condition of blood vessels and the flow of blood of the brain, and looks into possible rupture of a cerebral aneurysm. Currently, it takes about 70 days to analyze the condition of a cerebral aneurysm, but Toyota’s technology of image processing and batch data processing is expected to shorten the time to several hours. About 2% of Japanese are supposed to have a cerebral aneurysm, and one third of them die should it be ruptured. Applying the technology of auto production is expected to increase the speed and accuracy of the analysis and increase the accuracy of decision making on the necessity of operation. In the future, the application will expand to other categories in the medical field.

No. 281: Newly developed powder for efficient purification of polluted water (May 26, 2011)

A research team led by Kanazawa University Professor Tomihisa Ohta developed powder that purifies polluted water containing radioactive materials. The newly developed powder is the result in the research stage, but it has the ability to process 1,000 tons of polluted water per hour should it be put into practical use. It has 20 times more processing capacity than the powder from Areva of France adopted by the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. The research team developed this powder by improving the depurative for contaminated soil. It is a combination of several chemical substances with the action to agglutinate zeolite and metals. It deposits by taking in radioactive substances in the sea efficiently. It was developed in collaboration with Kumaken Kogyo in Akita Prefecture. In the experiment that uses water in which nonradioactive iodine, cesium, strontium are dissolved at a concentration of 1-10 ppm, the powder succeeded in clear them away to nearly 100%. The research team is confident that the powder exhibits the same processing function for radioactive substances as for nonradioactive substances. The professor has already designed the large-scale processing system, and he plans to propose the new powder with the system to the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power.

No. 280: Electric train? No, it is a battery train (May 25, 2011)

West Japan Railway Company started the plan to run a battery train operated only by lithium-ion batteries by 2020. The battery train charges the batteries from the feeding facilities near the station through the overhead wire when it makes a stop at the station. It has the regenerative braking system that allows the train to accelerate using the energy stored in the batteries and collect the generated energy from the motor when it decelerates. It can reduce carbon dioxide emissions and noises. In fact, it can conserve energy 10% more than the railway motor car using a diesel engine. The company will try batteries from several producers and make the battery train applicable toward 2020. It is estimated to cost more than 30 million yen to build a battery train, but mass production is expected to reduce the cost to one seventh. It is rather hard for a railway company to reduce fixed cost because train service needs lots of various types of equipment, but battery trains can contribute to the reduction of fixed cost through decreased oil consumption and lighter train body. In addition, it can eliminate overhead wires and electrification facilities on the ground. Railway Technical Research Institute has already worked on developing a battery streetcar, and East Japan Railway Company is running hybrid trains that carry both batteries and a diesel engine.

No. 279: New display panel film for 3D TV (May 21, 2011)

New film used for the display panel of a 3D TV has been developed by Toppan Printing and Arisawa Mfg. The 3D TV gives a three dimensional image by discharging different images from either side of the screen. Toppan is a leading printing company, and Arisawa Mfg. produces panel glass materials to give the 3D function to a TV. Toppan processed the material developed by Arisawa using Toppan’s processing technology and developed film more elastic than glass. The film is cheaper than glass with higher production efficiency. The new company to be founded jointly by the two companies on June 1 will ship samples for 23-inch TVs by coming September. Full-scale production is scheduled for 2012 at a new plant. It plans to develop film for 55-inch TVs in the future. A U.S. survey company predicts that 3D TV shipments will grow 25 times from 2010 to the level of 100 units in 2014 worldwide. The panel using the new film meets the requirements of the 3D TV that requires simple special glasses for viewing. This type of 3D TV will be more acceptable to households because it is lower in price than the type that asks viewers to wear special glasses that need power. The new company plans to develop the market for PCs and monitors for industrial use in the future.

No. 278: New method to discern a cancer stem cell (May 18, 2011)

Nobuyuki Takakura, a professor of Research Institute for Microbial Diseases of Osaka University, developed the method to discern a cancer stem cell closely related to the growth and spread of cancer. The method will be helpful to the selection of candidates of new drugs effective for the permanent cure of cancer. He will collaborate with GeneStem, a university-launched venture company, that was founded in Osaka this past January and pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs. Professor Takakura examined the stem cell of a fetus that grows as actively as a cancer stem cell and focused on the gene “PSF1” that a stem cell of a fetus and a cancer stem cell have in common. He looked into the cells of colon cancer and esophagus cancer, and found that PSF1 is intensively active in the margin of multiplying cancer where neoangiogenesis is active. Experiments using mice implanted by cancer verified the fast cancer growth and metastases and high malignancy when the PSF1 is frequently activated. Judging from the gene expression, the PSF1 is thought to be activated in the cancer stem cell. Using the work of the PSF1 as an earmark will facilitate the development of drugs effective for a cancer stem cell.

No. 277: New materials for large liquid crystal TVs (May 16, 2011)

A professor of Keio University, Yasuhiro Koichi, developed new materials that realize high quality pictures inexpensively for large liquid crystal TVs. They are a backlight with 50% smaller power consumption, inexpensive protective film for deflecting plate, and scattering film without color heterogeneity. Each of them is made of acrylic transparent resin. The backlight that contains fine particles of several micrometers in diameter can transmit parallel light, and the protective film is characterized by a new mixture ratio of multiple raw materials of resin. The scattering film contains particles of a different character from those contained in the backlight. These materials help a liquid crystal display to have better price competitiveness over the existing models in which expensive phase films are incorporated. The professor suggests the possibility that the production process of liquid crystals changes basically. In fact, the production cost will be halved if the mass production technology is established. The professor will present the research results on May 17 in the Society for Information Display scheduled from 15th and 17th of May in Los Angeles in the U.S.