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Mechaphotonics Forum Triggers Large Turnout

How do you get 315 NTT researchers from various laboratories to attend a seminar? Researchers at NTT Interdisciplinary Research Laboratories found the answer by presenting their latest research results at the "Second Mechaphotonics Forum." This forum, a full day event held at the Musashino R&D Center on January 22, 1993, consisted of lectures, poster sessions and a panel debate. It was designed to spur detailed discussions on micromachine technologies. Four prominent invited speakers, Prof. Esashi of Tohoku University, Prof. Hane of Nagoya University, Prof. Irie of Kyushu University, and Dr. Misawa from ERATO's Masuhara Microphotoconversion Project in Kyoto, gave overviews of the present status and future trends in Mechaphotonics.

What is Mechaphotonics and why the excitement? The answer is the emergence of a new technology combining micromechanics, photonics and electronics. This term was coined by NTT Interdisciplinary Research Laboratories, which has taken the lead in developing mechaphotonic devices. Interdisciplinary researchers reported the first mechaphotonics device fabricated by AlGaAs/GaAs micromachining (Science, Vol. 260, 7 May 1993). Other talks highlighted photostriction actuators made from organic semiconductor materials, rotation of anisotropic micro-objects by light pressure, and photorechargeable air batteries. The invited speakers described optical handling of small particles by photon pressure, microactuators controlled by photothermal effects, light-induced actuators using polymers, and several aspects of micromachines.

NTT Interdisciplinary Research Laboratories hopes that mechaphotonics technologies can have a significant impact on engineering design, opening new frontiers in interdisciplinary research. Accordingly, it is possible that the Third Mechaphotonics Forum (most likely to be held next year) might become an open meeting with participation of researchers from many Japanese and foreign research institutions, as well as from NTT.

Proceedings of the Forum are available (in Japanese) from Dr. Hiroo Ukita. He can be reached at the following address:

NTT Interdisciplinary Research Laboratores
3-9-11 Midori-cho, Musashino-shi, Tokyo 180 Japan
(Room M9-504A, telephone +81 422 59 3497
fax +81 422 59 2581, e-mail ukita@aela.ntt.jp)