Prof James Copper of Purdue University supplied the following trip
report:

Trip Report
        2nd International Workshop on Hard Electronics
                                Tsukuba, Japan
                                Feb 3-4, 1998

        This workshop was sponsored by the New Energy & Industrial
Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and the R&D Association for
Future Electron Devices (FED) and held at the Electrotechnical
Laboratory (ETL) in Tsukuba.  Prof. H. Matsunami of Kyoto University chaired the
Organizing Committee.  About 250 researchers from Japanese companies,
universities, and government laboratories attended.

        "Hard Electronics" encompasses SiC, GaN, diamond, and vacuum
microelectronics.  Although "Hard Electronics" could be taken in two ways,
the Japanese intention is to denote applications in hostile, rugged
environments such as high power, high temperature, and high radiation. The
only outside speakers were myself and Chuck Weitzel of Motorola PCRL.
All other talks were in Japanese, but the Digest was in English.

        To indicate the broad participation from within Japan, I list
the organizations presenting papers or posters and their topics below:

Universities
        Tokyo Inst. of Tech. (SiC, metal oxides)
        Nagoya Inst. of Tech. (SiC, III-N)
        U. of Tsukuba (SiC, diamond, metal oxides)
        Tohoku U. (Silicon, diamond, metal oxides)
        Hosei U. (SiC)
        U. of Erlangen-Nuremberg (SiC)
        Nihon U. (SiC)
        Kyoto U. (SiC)
        Tokai U. (diamond)
        Osaka U. (diamond, III-N, metal oxides)
        Waseda U. (diamond)
        Yokohama Nat'l. U. (III-N)
        Kochi U. of Tech. (diamond)

Government Laboratories
        Electrotechnical Lab. (SiC, diamond, III-N)
        Japan Atomic Energy Res. Inst. (SiC)
        Ion Engineering Res. Inst. (SiC)
        Nat'l. Inst. for Res. in Inorganic Mat'ls. (diamond)

Industrial Laboratories
        Fuji Electric Co. (SiC)
        Toyota Central R&D Labs. (SiC, III-N)
        ULVAC Corp. (SiC)
        Sanyo Electric Co. (SiC)
        Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (SiC)
        Hitachi, Ltd. (SIC)
        Kansai Electric Power Co. (SiC)
        Denso Corp. (SiC)
        Matsushita Electronics Corp. (SiC, Josephson Junc.)
        Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. (III-N)
        Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (III-N)
        Sony Corp. (III-N)

        In addition to the workshop, I visited the Electrotechnical Labs.
as a guest of Dr. Kazuo Arai, Leader of Hard Electronics Research, ETL.
The SiC group at ETL consists of about 12 researchers working in a variety
of areas including 3C growth, Schottky and ohmic contacts, and
sublimation boule growth.

        ***** Japanese National Program on Hard Electronics *****

        MITI is sponsoring a five-year National Program on Hard
Electronics, to begin sometime in 1998.  The funding level is estimated at
5-7 billion yen, or $40-55M, with the program restricted to industrial and
government laboratories.  The concentration areas are (i) high power, high
speed, low loss power switching devices, (ii) devices for severe conditions
such as space, nuclear energy and well logging, and (iii) devices for
information and communication electronics.  The primary technologies to be
pursued are SiC, III-N, diamond, and vacuum microelectronics.  The working
goals are to reduce the electrical losses of power electronics by a factor
of 100, to increase the frequency of communication devices by a factor of
100, to increase radiation tolerance by a factor of 100, and to achieve
working temperatures in the 500 - 800 C range.  In the SiC area, the goals
are to produce larger substrates (3-4 inch dia.), to improve substrate
material quality, and to conduct a parallel research effort on device
fabrication issues.
________________________________________________________

Dr. John C. Zolper
Electronics Division, Code-312
Office of Naval Research
800 North Quincy Street
Arlington VA  22217-5660
email: zolperj@onr.navy.mil
http://www.onr.navy.mil/