Equipment in our facilities are shared. We look forward to your use. Please feel free to contact us.
Objectives
The Smart System Super Integration Research Center (SIRC), an education and research facility affiliated with the Graduate School of Engineering at Tohoku University, was originally established as a Venture Business Laboratory under the FY1995 supplementary budget program of the Japanese government, “Funds for Promoting Original Research and Development Centered on Graduate Schools.” In 2006, the center designated “Research and Development of Sensors and Micromachines (Micro/Nano Machining)” as its core research theme and was renamed the Micro/Nano-Machining Research and Education Center (MNC). In 2026, in response to recent technological trends and with a view to advancing research on next-generation smart systems, the center was reorganized and renamed the Smart System Super Integration Research Center. Building on its achievements to date while maintaining its original mission, the center continues to pursue its mission through a university-wide collaborative framework under the following objectives.
Role of SIRC
We are responsible for training free thinking and creativity for young researchers centered on graduate students; developing human resources with a wide range of attributes and skills through interdisciplinary collaboration beyond the boundaries of graduate schools and majors; carrying out joint research that includes researchers from domestic universities and companies; accepting researchers from overseas such as specially invited foreign researchers; organizing international exchanges such as overseas research by young researchers. In addition, we will actively disseminate the outcomes to the world.
High technology is a comprehensive technology
High technology is a comprehensive technology that aims for large-scale integration, so various equipment and knowledge are indispensable. If each laboratory has its own expensive equipment for research, it will be wasteful, so it is necessary to devise a way to share the equipment.
Micromachining Facility
The “Micromachining Facility” has a clean room of 600 square meters and is an environment to realize microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices and integrated circuits in earnest. In the clean room on the ground floor, small silicon wafers of 2 cm square or 2 inch in diameter are processed for ease of maintenance. We have a facility where full-scale MEMS devices and integrated circuits can be prototyped within the university, so please make great use of it. On the 2nd and 3rd floors, there are laboratories for sample measurement, evaluation, analysis, etc.
Nanomachining Facility
The “Nanomachining Facility” is a clean room of 150 square meters and is an environment that is easy to use for research related to nanomachining. In addition to photomask manufacturing-related equipment, laser lithography equipment, long-focus projection exposure equipment, scanning probe microscope-related equipment, etc. are installed.
Organization and Management
Staff
- Director: Prof. Yoshiaki KANAMORI
- Deputy Director: Assoc. Prof. Makoto SHIMIZU
- 3 technical staff
- 1 clerical staff
Committees and User meeting
Smart System Super Integration Research Center Steering Committee
Objective: discussion for important matters related to the operation of the center.
Composition: chairman; full-time professor of the Graduate School of Engineering; persons deemed necessary by the Steering Committee.
Smart System Super Integration Research Center Campus Joint Use Committee
Objective: adjustments required to the use of the center.
Composition: chairman, professor or associate professor of Graduate Schools of Engineering, Science, Environmental Studies, New Industry Creation Hatchery Center, Institute for Materials Research, Research Institute for Tuberculosis and Cancer, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Institute of Fluid Science, Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials; persons deemed necessary by the Campus Joint Use Committee.
User Meeting
Objective: a meeting once a month about the operation of SIRC.
Composition: the director, deputy director, laboratory staff who use SIRC, etc.
History of SIRC
Successive directors
June 10, 1996–March 31, 2006:
Director of Venture Business Laboratory, Tohoku University
From April 1, 2006-March 31, 2026:
Director of Micro/Nano-Machining Research and Education Center, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University
March 31, 2026:
Director of Smart System Super Integration Research Center, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University
*The position at the time of inauguration is stated in the Name column.
| Name | Term of office |
|---|---|
| Prof. Masayoshi ESASHI | June 10, 1996–May 20, 1998 |
| Prof. Mitsumasa KOYANAGI | May 21, 1998–May 20, 2000 |
| Prof. Kazuhiro HANE | May 21, 2000–May 20, 2002 |
| Prof. Hiroaki NIITSUMA | May 21, 2002–March 31, 2004 |
| Prof. Hiroo YUGAMI | April 1, 2004–July 31, 2006 |
| Prof. Masayoshi ESASHI | Augast 1, 2006–March 31, 2008 |
| Prof. Masayoshi ESASHI | April 1, 2008–March 31, 2009 |
| Prof. Hiroki KUWANO | March 1, 2009–March 31, 2012 |
| Prof. Takahito ONO | April 1, 2012–March 31, 2014 |
| Prof. Shuji TANAKA | April 1, 2014–March 31, 2016 |
| Prof. Kazuhiro HANE | April 1, 2016–March 31, 2018 |
| Prof. Takahito ONO | April 1, 2018–March 31, 2020 |
| Prof. Yoshiaki KANAMORI | April 1, 2020–March 31, 2022 |
| Prof. Shuji TANAKA | April 1, 2022–March 31, 2024 |
| Prof. Takahito ONO | April 1, 2024–March 31, 2026 |