Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a Japanese meal for dinner.
Any other comment on some potential ethical problems of a new technology that a video image of a fetus of an experimental rat radiating a faint green fluorescence and having its heart beating may insinuate won't be made in my diary. That video image might be just an April Fools joke. It looked as if that event was a comical scene of a morality play in which the old guards and their backers take the roles of the green-eyed monsters against a rash star from the upstarts. My wife said that it might be a parody of the experiments by a Japanese astronaut at the ISS.
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a Japanese meal for dinner.
The participation in active military cooperation for peacekeeping operations, the accomplishment of pioneering research at low costs, and the establishment of an international finance & commerce hub for the Asia-Pacific region within the orbit of Japan are the opportunities that Japan had negligently missed as a consequence in the latter half of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, the Cold War structure had allowed Japan to get along without achieving remarkable results in these fields. Since the end of the Cold War, the problems have begun surfacing suddenly and its situation has grown worse gradually.
An underestimation of the potential of the neighboring Asian countries may be one of the chief reasons why Japan didn't seriously pursue these opportunities in those days. Its innate characteristic of lacking a pioneering spirit may be the other reason. Some of the developed Western countries of those days that Japan had been closing the gap in economic and industrial powers may intentionally mislead Japan with the assistance of Japanese old guards after inflaming their protectionism. Now that things have come to such a pass, it's difficult for Japan to regain the opportunities, before, though it isn't impossible to improve its situation.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner.
Simply speaking, after the Cold War early in the 1990s following the period when the economic frictions between Japan and the US grew serious in the 1980s, the US's strategy against Japan in terms of international commerce focused mainly on the casting of an encircling net to make the technologies spill out of Japan onto the developing countries of Asia. Which country took a role in driving Japanese products into a corner through price competitions, which countries took a role in receiving the technologies from Japan, and which countries took a role to enjoy using the technologies in their hand that the second role place for the purpose of turning out the products at low prices after a short period of the developments and exporting them to the US seems to be obvious. The strong reliance on the imports of the goods produced overseas at very low costs allowed the US to depreciate its currency against other major foreign currencies by overissuing its currency while improving the international competitiveness of its exports. Because of a strong flow of investment toward the first, second, and third role countries in Asia at a tremendous pace, combined with its weakening currency, the US entered a serious economic recession, or depression, about five to six years ago. It's fresh in our memory that its economic slump dreadfully influenced many countries in the world, including Japan naturally. It's a typical example of a lose-lose situation. Probably, it's worse than that.
It goes without saying that Japan needs to maintain its predominance in the high-end core technologies over other Asian countries as tightly as possible, though it's tough. Japan should avoid being hated by its trade partners and try to find a way to achieve a win-win situation, if possible. As written yesterday, it's difficult for Japan to regain the opportunities as before. At least, Japan may be able to continue as a trend leader for Asian countries for a while.
Friday, April 4, 2014
Got up at seven forty-five in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a Japanese meal for dinner.
History repeats itself. Curiously enough, not only the impressive events but also the terrible disasters that happened about three to five years ago came up again throughout the world recently.
Finished reading aloud on the English language Volume I of the Quantum Theory of Fields by Prof. Steven Weinberg, and followed the developments of the theories and equations on it. This is my second reading of this book, which describes the foundations of the quantum field theory including complete quantum electrodynamics and the renormalization method chiefly. Although I also bought Volume II and Volume III of the Quantum Theory of Fields previously, which explain the standard theory, symmetry breaking, supersymmetry, etc., I haven't yet read them.
A classic physics book that I finished reading aloud in the English language last December is The Principles of Quantum Mechanics by Prof. Paul A.M. Dirac. Induction is a typical scientific method of reasoning a general law from particular facts. Generalization of the theories to a higher dimension, many-body problems, various fields and particles, etc. should be required to approach near perfection but always makes it difficult for most readers to understand. For a reader who's determined to learn modern applications of the quantum field theory, and the string theory, this approach should be beneficial. No explanatory diagram can be found in this book. The diagram may be a useful tool to educate a reader on a theory in a simplified manner but may be incapable of demonstrating a highly generalized theory.
The first chapter of Volume I of Prof. Steven Weinberg's book tells the brief history of the quantum field theory. A section describing a theory generalized to a higher level is mostly included in the latter part of each of the following chapters. Because this volume describes the foundations of the quantum field theory, the explanation of the Feynman diagrams representing the interactions with the electromagnetic fields between the elementary particles is indispensable in the sections about less-generalized theories. There is no small number of typos in this book.
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast and a bowl of Japanese noodle soup for lunch. Went out shopping at a grocery store this afternoon. Ate a Japanese meal following an aperitif for dinner.
The greater portion of the theories explained in Volume II of Prof. Steven Weinberg's book have already been proven experimentally. So, it's safer to read this volume. On the other hand, however, it seems that most of the theories in Volume III haven't been proven. It's rather adventurous since there is no guarantee that Volume III tells the scientific truth.
Any volume of this book devotes much space to the string theory that hasn't yet been proven scientifically, either. As well known, it's very difficult to prove a unified field theory including the gravitational interaction and the string theory experimentally because of the weakness of the gravitational interaction compared to the other three interactions by many orders of magnitude and the extreme smallness of the hypothetical string.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Got up at eight-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a Japanese one-pot meal following an aperitif for dinner.
Decided to read Volume II of the Quantum Theory of Fields by Prof. Steven Weinberg and his Cosmology only at the weekend. Started reading Cosmology.
Monday, April 7, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a Japanese meal for dinner.
The explanatory diagram is a nice tool to let people know a key point at a glance. The following figures compare the FinFET and the Planar FET in terms of some parasitic capacitances. When the presence of the contact plugs between the S/D electrodes and the metal lines is taken into consideration, the difference in the influence of some small parasitic capacitances existing between the gate sidewall and the S/D electrodes on the circuit performance shouldn't be so significant. Anyway, filling the gaps between these electrodes with a low-k insulating dielectric material should help minimize its impact on the circuit performance. For the purpose of achieving the accurate calculation of the circuit speed, the influences of the contact plugs should be incorporated into the compact modeling. The addition of these parasitic capacitance components only to the compact model of the FinFET should naturally lead to a blunder in the comparison of the circuit performance. For a rough estimation of the circuit performance gain, this sort of parasitic capacitances may be removed from both device structures for the modeling as a reasonable approximation, especially when a low-k insulating dielectric material is utilized. The miller capacitances should also be minimized, correspondingly to these technology generations.
FinFET (TopView) Planar FET (Side View)
The largest components in the extra parasitic capacitances, which are located on the tops of the fins, can be easily deleted by adopting the Tri-Gate structure, as seen in the left-side figure below. The replacement of a low-k mask layer for the Si3N4 mask layer can reduce the parasitic capacitances accompanying it by about 70%, as shown in the right-side figure. There is another idea to reduce this influence.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Got up at seven forty-five in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner. A strange topic has been very much in the nation's news recently. My wife said that the reality show might be a diversion. In response to it, I said that the show might be designed to divert the public interest from the rise of the consumption tax up to 8% on April 1 for the purpose of assisting the sponsors of the mass media. We may be conspiracy theorists.
Not all great scholars like teaching. Some of the great scholars never be able to understand why the students cannot grasp the essentials of the subject and why the students can't avoid what makes them stumble, because the great scholars can easily and sometimes spontaneously carry through them chiefly by virtue of their talents. They may devote their attention mostly to their own studies. Prof. Richard Phillips Feynman is a great scholar and a dedicated teacher. Long ago I read a Japanese translation of his Quantum Mechanics and Path Integrals, which explains the path integral method in the standard manner of teaching using the numerical formulas naturally including integrals, the original of QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter and some of his other books. It's my understanding that his well-known transcripts containing no equation of the lectures at Caltech were designed for the undergraduate students who were learning physics following the traditional ways of studying in order to let the students clear some logical hurdles in physics, and other collections of essays were designed for the general readers. He didn't work on the conventional physics textbooks for the undergraduate students because the good ones had already been available.
He is a professor who is difficult to classify, especially for Japanese and is apt to be misunderstood because of the difficulty of his special field, his new approaches to education not always relying on the formulas, and his higher degree of exposure to the academic fields outside his field and the publishing world. He's also a Nobel laureate who contributed to the completion of quantum electrodynamics, an American scientist who participated in the development of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos in his 20s during WWII, and a New York-born Californian who frequently went to the strip shows taking his fellow professors. Not only the profundity of his intelligence but also the adaptability of his insights to a wider range of fields was astonishing. Above all, his way of thinking is formidable, rather than brilliant.
BTW, some of the unique choices of the words found in volume I of the Quantum Theory of Fields I recently read, such as "The Feynman rule dictates …", "… with the final propagator for the Ol line stripped away", or "The first step is … to use a trick introduced by Feynman", etc are rather suggestive of his character.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a Japanese meal for dinner.
Good traditions should be preserved but evil practices shouldn't. In Japan, as is often said; the stake that sticks out will get hammered down. Although no small number of Japanese regard this tradition as unfavorable, Japanese resignedly accept this situation. Not only Japanese but also most Asian people have a tendency to grow stagnant and can't change without pressure from abroad.
It seems that the European and North American reformists have well known this tendency and the ploys of the Asian old guards used for their convenience since there is some resemblance between the Asian old guards and their long-standing rivals. Unmanageably, the Asian old guards have shown their ways without regret while using the traditions as an excuse for the last few decades or longer. The Western reformists have begun using the same ways in order to force any country in Asia that stands out like Japan as the old guards in Asian countries have used in order to force to conform anyone outside the old guards' circle who stands out. They may vindicate their justifiability by claiming that they learned from the Asian old guards some methods appropriate to deal with Japan. Simply speaking, there are repayments in the same coins.
The following tells the examples of the recent approaches to Japan by the Western reformists that I sometimes noticed. When Japan has an opportunity, nowadays it may be forced to devote itself to Korea, China, and India where Westerners can derive much benefit indirectly, by saying who taught and brought up Japan hundreds of years ago and earlier and who taught and guided Japan in recent times, as the Japanese old guards often say to an individual. Things have changed and Westerners have become hesitant to speak to Japanese in clear sentences in politics and business because Japanese don't want to speak clearly and some sorts of Japanese are taking advantage of it. Some of them may be evolving the scheme to replace the position of Japan with another Asian country because Japan is inconvenient for most of them now, as the Asian old guards often do against an individual. They may circulate some groundless or exaggerated rumors about Japan in order to stir up feelings of hatred in a majority of people in their countries, as the Asian old guards do against an individual. They may induce some gang forces to engage in some dirty tasks against Japan as the Asian old guards do against an individual. Again, I have to say that evil practices have to be eradicated or at least be sent harmless.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a Japanese meal for dinner.
Some of the unfavorable customs and practices of Japan may be associated with the abuses of its remaining totalitarian and feudalistic ways of administering. Although the strengthening of its tendency toward totalitarianism around the middle of the Edo period had enabled Japan to be promoted to a social level higher than before, it had gone with some extreme ideas. The tendency toward them has been significantly weakened until now but they still remain. These tendencies are good when they are safely softened and turned on a productive direction. When they are used for the purpose of disturbances, deceiving, racketeering, and other non-constructive matters, however, they are just harmful even if they are weakened nowadays. The wrong uses of its tendency toward them should be brought to light and modernized appropriately taking the ethical aspects into consideration.
Japanese people should refrain from making disparaging remarks about another person. On the other side, inadequately overblown reverence isn't necessary. A manner oriented to either extreme leads to trouble in most cases, especially when it's used on the international stage. A mental attitude to adapt one's behavior to either a polite manner or a friendly manner, according to the situation, is good enough. An appropriate simplification makes the world a better place in a large sense. Both the seniority system and the predominance of men over women have just gotten behind the times.
Friday, April 11, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a Japanese meal for dinner.
School education commonly offers some sports training because it's beneficial in terms of many aspects, such as the building up of a healthy body, the development of physical and mental strength, the ability to concentrate on the subject, the determination to achieve the goal, and the spirit of teamwork, and so on. The grownups also enjoy participating in and/or watching sports for health, leisure, and entertainment mostly. Not only with sports education but also with music education, many of the necessary aptitudes can be developed, as well known. What can be developed with sports and music educations as the parts of general education are the necessary aptitudes for the working population and the very basic those for other sort of special roles. Actually, in the past, this education used to be adopted to bring up the soldiers. In the world today, however, the demand for good labor is much higher than that for good soldiers, fortunately. The training that was used for the soldiers is diverted to the other purpose in the main these days.
It goes without saying that the talents necessary for business, governance, and politics on the international stages aren't simple. Highly dedicated talents are necessary, especially for the future executive staff who bear on their shoulders the expectations of others in the parries and companies. It seems that the overvaluation of sports education has increased the number of blind win-lose seekers in many organizations, and has entrusted them with the leadership as the directors and the authority to decide, so it has been producing some harmful influences on the profits of Japan in the business, governance and political world in the long run.
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Got up at seven forty-five in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast and a bowl of Japanese noodle soup for lunch. Went out shopping at a grocery store this afternoon. Ate a Japanese meal following an aperitif for dinner.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a Japanese meal following an aperitif for dinner.
Monday, April 14, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a Japanese meal for dinner.
The probability of Japan's success in the British-style economic strategy should be slender. This is simply because, differently from the United Kingdom, Japan was a defeated nation in the Pacific War and hadn't maintained any gentle association, like the British Commonwealth of Nations. Japan is the country that has passed on responsibility for its security to the US military forces for decades. Although Japan is unable to derive benefits easily from the same style of economic strategy as the UK has done, Japan still takes its cue from the UK in some regards because there is some resemblance between the two countries for better or worse For Japan, the dreaming about it just advances the outflows of its practical values.
The consideration of Japan's success in the economic and/or political associations may be more constructive and realistic. In any case, it's rather difficult to avoid a situation similar to what Germany has faced in the EU since its establishment, especially during the recent global economic slump. It seems that participating in any association should be attended with difficulties in this aspect to one degree or another. One of the key factors that allow Japan to minimize the influence of this sort of disadvantage simply depends upon who are the current member countries of the association and more importantly who will participate in it later on.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner.
The suitability that Japan will establish a finance & research center for the Asia-Pacific region within it, like Switzerland for the European region, isn't so nice currently. It has entered a period of stagnation not only in the economy but also in the power of attraction since the early 1990s. Now that things have come to such a pass, for Japan whom no small number of the countries in the Asia-Pacific region don't feel goodwill toward historically, it isn't easy to change for the better significantly, though it's no doubt that Japan still maintains an advantage over other Asian countries in science and technology. The Tokyo Olympics in 2020 may bolster the condition of its civil engineering and construction, but whether it will bring a favorable turn in the economy and research of Japan is uncertain. During the period of its preparation, it is to be hoped that further internationalization will advance while maintaining a high standard of public safety.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a Japanese meal for dinner.
There is no doubt that Japan is currently the country that passes on responsibility for its security to the US military forces. It's just a fantasy escape from the reality that the rather convenient situation lasts forever. Japan needs to put forth greater efforts to build up its national defenses than before while maintaining beneficial military cooperation with some partner countries.
It seems to me that there exist no small numbers of Japanese who find greater advantages in having not only military cooperation but also deeper economic cooperation with Russia than those with the US. If one important factor is ignored, they might be right. Let's continue without taking a critical factor into consideration. The characteristics of Japan and Russia are very different. Japan has the advantages of the quality and the diligence of people on average and the well-modernized technologies in a small island territory, and Russia has the advantages of the quality of the selected talents from people, the natural science, and the great military strength in a vast territory rich in natural resources. Both countries differ in their social stance. In terms of the outcomes of the Pacific War and the Cold War, however, both countries are similar. It's easy to find the opportunities to make up for their weaknesses each other.
It's obvious that the risk of establishing military cooperation between Russia and Japan is tremendous if a factor isn't ignored. Both Japan and Russia belong to the defeated sides and the advantages of conducting their partnership are crystal clear. The apparent problem is the fact that a majority of the victorious sides never overlook it. If Japan carelessly had made a decisive step in this direction, a number of disasters could have hit a nation not fully armed eventually, even though the Cold War structure was ended. The recent shady international affairs involving Ukraine made Japan more difficult to choose this way. It's hard to believe that Japan has such miraculous diplomats who are capable of settling this alteration of its military cooperation without causing bloodshed.
Depending on the international situation, Russia may be a good business partner for Japan. It seems that some sort of Japanese who are seeking a closer partnership with Russia continue to be active. Therefore, unlike the Cold War period, the US continues to begrudge releasing its top-of-the-line weapons to Japan. Both the development and the joint development of its own weapons may be unavoidable to some extent.
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a Japanese meal for dinner.
My opinion on China hasn't changed a bit. The possibility that Japan will improve diplomatic relations with China is still unknown because of the complications in the internal pressures and the strong pressures from overseas. Let's read what's going on today.
China has a glorious ancient history, as well known. At last in modern times after its long slow-moving season compared to the West during the medieval and subsequent periods, China's economic and military powers are growing rapidly. One of the main reasons why China hesitated to modernize and was reconciled to falling behind the times is the pride in its glorious past. Strictly speaking, it isn't, but in those days modernization may have been used with the same meaning as Westernization. Their pride didn't allow them to choose the way of Westernization. After the failure of Maoism, which is a version of communism, its stance was changed. Chinese came to understand on a large scale the necessity to copy some of the Western accomplishments, especially in science and technology. Indeed, the copying is the fastest way to catch up. The learning is a better word than that. Before beginning its modernization in recent history, China's military forces were just vulnerable. Obviously, however, its military power is currently growing though it hasn't been proven in an actual service.
There should exist the people who give support to the increase in the business with China. The people who are most captivated by the labor power cheaper than theirs and have been relying on them recently are some sort of Americans who see themselves as the descendants of either the pioneers or the colonialists. Some Americans may have been thinking since the Chinese were brought out of the dream of communism that America owe the Chinese something huge and this time it must be China's turn to help America. Their ambition to get benefits from China businesses has been so strong and the capacity of China is so large that it nearly crashed its own financial market about five years ago which then led to the global economic slump. In both the West and Asia there are also people who are very skeptical about the enhancement of China's business. They are skeptical because they worry about the full recovery of the power of their former rivals the socialist and communist nations, the baneful influences of environmental pollution, climate changes, and animal welfare, the unignorable power shift to an Asian nation, its future potential, and so on.
The Chinese government has often flaunted the building up of its military strength to the whole world, mostly to the Western countries. Chinese still maintain the communist party as its governing party or at least a dominant party where they can run into from the aggressive capitalists and royalists in time of need. One of the major reasons why they do so is that China doesn't want to be the country that only supplies developed countries with cheap labor forever contrary to America's expectations. It seems that this is why the current American government announced to Japan last December that they were disappointed. Chinese have been preparing carefully for the future when their advantages in the low labor costs and commodity prices disappear. At this point, the Chinese learned from a past mistake of Japan.
For Japan, the business with China should be a good opportunity to demonstrate its ability to conduct a mutually constructive competition. Japan may be able to take a role to lead the way to seek a win-win-win business in the growing huge Chinese market. Obviously, Japan can contribute to the control of various kinds of pollution from the factories, the power plants, the automobiles, and the households in China. For the China business, tight pace control over many aspects including investments, technology transfers, etc. depending upon the political state of affairs should be very important.
Friday, April 18, 2014
Got up at seven forty-five in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a dish of Japanese noodles for dinner.
Japan might follow some recent examples of Germany and Italy, but as a matter of course it should come in for criticism, especially by its neighboring countries, when it approaches them too closely. Instead, some of its neighboring countries may want Japan to behave like Germany in the EU in finance and knowledge, excluding some of their inconvenient respects such as the activities of the military and the development of weapons. To put it briefly, Japan needs its own style by learning from many countries and its past failures.
Finally, my briefing on the world situations associated with Japan will deal with the United States of America. I would like to make just a few comments on Japan's relationship with the US this time. The US has been the most influential country in Japan in terms of many points for decades or longer. On the other hand, though the Japanese-style administration in the companies has fallen into disrepute for a long period of time, a certain degree of them has been introduced to the US companies. Japanese pop cultures have recently begun to attract the attention of younger Americans by virtue of mass media, but the older generations don't regard this tendency as favorable. Considering the contents of the news topics from the US media groups, it seems that the Japanese government and/or its economic organization have been trying to give Americans the impression that all Japanese are very skillful in order to attract the attention of the US investors. I don't think that this is a successful attempt. Western people have a clear tendency to place a higher value on making a tool than on developing a skill. A skill isn't so praised because it can be overtaken with the use of a tool. Plentiful creativity, unique imagination, keen insight, and deep comprehension are something any manmade machine can't create, so these are the valuable abilities of humans. A sure-fire remedy is the suppression of the bad tradition that the stake that sticks out will get hammered down. This was the only hope for Japan, which had already become a developed nation.
Because of the adherence of the large majority of Americans to democratic principles highly rooted in their systems, the US is apt to be subject to the influences of the voices of immigrants and long-term visitors. In view of the above-mentioned point, the size of its territory, the diversities in many aspects, and the power of its economy and military, the US isn't just a country. Considering the US to be what corresponds to an organization of multiple countries such as the EU may be appropriate. In the US I had often heard of some unsavory reputations of Japan, for example, ninja activities, poisoning, discrimination, unfaithfulness, canard circulating, interruption, etc. by the Japanese. For decades, the people who are originally from the neighboring countries of Japan to the US have had aspersions cast on Japan there by telling about Japan's past behaviors, whether it's credible or not. I was several times advised to stay away from Japanese. The Japanese companies that have pursued only a win-lose competition in the US market have stimulated the malicious intents of Americans in some business world. The continuation of whaling and the recent mass killing of dolphins have also worsened its reputation. Not being disliked by the customers is very important if Japan really wants to continue selling its products there.
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast and a bowl of Japanese noodle soup for lunch. Went out shopping at a grocery store this afternoon. Ate a Japanese meal following an aperitif for dinner.
NASA recently announced that its Kepler space telescope identified an Earth-like planet about 500 light-years from the earth. The distance that it takes a ray of light 500 years to reach is very far, though it sounds neighboring from the viewpoint of the entire universe.
The spacecraft Escargot is incapable of making a round trip between the earth and that planet unless the water, air, or some other resource for the propellant, e.g. nitrogen, hydrogen, etc. is available there because it requires the refilling of the propellant probably. The continuous generation of electricity using a reactor without refueling in the time frame of traveling is unfeasible even though the spacecraft reaches the speed that the time delay on it due to the Lorentz contradiction should be taken into consideration, too. Therefore, it's hard for a team of astronauts to travel to that planet for many generations, though an automated unmanned spacecraft may still be able to when a reactor is shut down after setting the alarm clock during the most period of travel at its top speed. Needless to say, any humanoid isn't necessary for this purpose. Within the solar system, however, the traveling range of the Escargot may be good enough. Even if not, the propellant can be self-sufficient utilizing abundant electricity generated with its reactor at either a destination or a filling point on either a planet or a satellite.
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Got up at nine o'clock in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a Japanese one-pot meal following an aperitif for dinner.
Monday, April 21, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a bowl of Japanese noodle soup for lunch, and a Japanese meal for dinner.
The choice of word "completion" in the sentence, that is "the completion of quantum electrodynamics", found in my diary on April 8, may stick in somebody's craw. I think that this choice of words is reasonable. To be more precise, the phrase can be "the completion of quantum electrodynamics initiated by Prof. Paul A.M. Dirac and including his delta functions. Quantum ElectroDynamics had approached perfection when the problems associated with the divergences of the formulas in the theory were patched with the renormalization methods around the middle of the twentieth century, but it wasn't perfect. QED requires the mathematical technique of renormalization to function.
The Industrial Revolution led to the rapid development of experimental apparatuses throughout the nineteenth century and later. The advancements in experimental physics enabled the earlier physicists to discover a number of unfamiliar phenomena that produced their motives for finding out quantum theory in Western Europe early in the twentieth century. Probably, a breakthrough discovery not necessarily in experimental science and technology but a revolutionary movement in the other field may be necessary in order to get the necessary conditions that allow physicists to gain insights into the elementary particles that are much deeper than what humankind can do at present time and are verifiable with the experiment, the observation or something else, so that the theory can reach perfection finally. It's going to be quite a long time before humankind will reach there.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a dish of Japanese pasta for dinner.
The development of the computer must be an ongoing revolutionary achievement in the recent human civilization. In the future, the continuous advancement in computer performance may lead humankind to a giant leap in the research for truth much deeper than what humankind can reach by relying on the scientific methods at the present time. However, currently, it isn't foreseen how the computer might be able to help humankind reveal the universal truth in the future.
So far, the computer has helped humankind to solve a complicated problem numerically and to analyze a large amount of data stored in its storage medium in a short time. The computer has also provided the other machines with multifunctional capabilities. Computer simulation is one of the promising tools for humankind to boost its capabilities of comprehension and discernment by allowing the ability of the accurate predictions based on experimentally proven theories. Although the computer may be used to predict a result in advance, it is powerless to verify the theoretical prediction. The computer is incapable of proving an inference from known facts. Humankind might need to discover a way other than scientific experiments and observation to verify a hypothesis. No one may find such a way forever. At least, no one knows it at the present time.
Anyway, whether in the future the computer may enable humankind to find the truth hidden out of the sight of scientists by shouting "Eureka!" or not, it must be a very convenient tool. The development of the computer has to continue without hindrance. The method of the 3D mixed-mode device and circuit simulation used to be very time-consuming and require a large memory space. The recent advancement of computing may improve the environment for computer simulation in 3D.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a Japanese meal for dinner.
The photo images below were taken under the cherry trees in almost full bloom on the Yokokawa River this Sunday. It was a cloudy day.
The other way to validate a truth hidden out of the sight of the scientists may rely on the tremendous advancement in the techniques of the traditional method of experimental science. A newly constructed linear accelerator in the synchrotron radiation facility at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, which is more compact than that at Stanford University, was introduced on a TV program of NHK recently. The wavelength of electromagnetic waves generated using the linear accelerator can be down to 0.6 angstroms or so. This potential wavelength is short enough to analyze the electronic and structural properties of a substance at the atomic level (some angstroms). The wavelength of the generated electromagnetic wave could be further scaled down by making the length of the accelerator structure longer and improving a sequence of alternating electric fields in order to bring the speed of the accelerated electrons to the speed of light in a vacuum as close as possible, and with increasing the intensity of the wiggler magnetic field applied to the high-speed electrons with the so-called free-electron laser method. For the purpose of probing an elementary particle in detail, however, the wavelength of electromagnetic wave has to be taken further down from the atomic level by 10 digits or probably higher. Currently, it's impossible. An attempt to analyze an elementary particle with an apparatus utilizing such synchrotron radiation in order to verify the string theory and other competing hypotheses corresponds nearly to an attempt to see an atom with a conventional spyglass.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a Japanese meal for dinner.
The following table summarizes the characteristics of the logic MOS Field Effect Transistors listed in the latest ITRS Technology Roadmap. It seems that the FinFET/the TriGate has already become the standard high-performance/low-power transistors in the semiconductor industry because the gate length of the conventional planar MOSFETs can't be scaled down to 7nm while maintaining or improving the performance and the table includes the features peculiar only to the FinFETs. According to this table, the MOSFET scaling may end in 2025. As far as I know, the scaling limit of this type of semiconductor device is near 7nm, which may be dominated by the excess tunneling current through the built-in potential barrier from the source to the channel, depending on the doping concentrations, the S/D junction abruptness, and the supply voltage. There may still exist some non-invented methods to enable the MOSFETs to go beyond this limit. Instead of seeking to break this limit, either the compound semiconductor may replace the silicon as the primary channel material, or a completely new transistor may replace the MOSFET as the standard logic device, before or after hitting the scaling limit of the MOSFETs.
2013 ITRS Technology Roadmap
Production Year 2013 2015 2017 2019 2021 2023 2025
Tech. Node [nm] 16/14 10 7 5 3.5 2.5 1.8
Gate Length [nm] 20 17 14 12 10 8 7
Fin Width [nm] 7.9 7.2 6.8 6.4 6.1 5.7 5.4
Fin Half-Pitch [nm]30 24 19 15 12 9.5 7.5
Vdd [V] 0.86 0.83 0.80 0.77 0.74 0.71 0.68
Vdd [V] 0.86 0.83 0.80 0.77 0.74 0.71 0.68
The shortest physical gate length of the MOSFETs in production has recently reached 20nm. It's my guess that some companies are capable of processing the MOSFETs with the 20 nm gate length, but many of the others aren't. The use of the multiple gate configuration of the FinFET and the TriGate enables scaling the gate length down by scaling the fin width together, without relying on the tough scaling of the effective gate oxide thickness. In this table, as both the gate length and the fin width are scaled down, the fin pitch is also. It seems that the ceaseless advancement of not only in the etching process but also in the photo process is necessary to realize such a nearly proportional scaling of the fin pitch. The introduction of either the X-ray photolithography or the electron-beam lithography that has to be suitable for mass production may be necessary in order to advance one step at a technology node following the roadmap beyond the gate length below 10nm.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a Japanese meal for dinner.
It seems that immersion photolithography with deep to extreme ultraviolet rays has been leading the transistor scaling according to the ITRS technology roadmap these days. The combination of the dual patterning with it may also help reduce the fin pitch. Without reading the recent publications, however, it's difficult to know quantitatively how far the ultraviolet-ray photolithography can go with the assistance of the trim etching, and whether the patterning scheme repeating more than twice is feasible or not. It can be said that these are only a couple of minor changes in photolithography and won't cost a lot for their developments and applications. Therefore, the scaling down of the wavelength of the light source within the range in which it can be controlled with the use of the lens should still be most possible. On the other hand, the transition of a source of electromagnetic wave of the photo process suitable for the patterning of some critical dimensions from ultraviolet rays to much shorter electromagnetic waves, that is soft to hard X-rays, isn't a minor change but a major one. It should be rather costly. Whether the X-ray photolithography will be necessary after a while or not is still uncertain.
The X-ray photolithography utilizing the synchrotron radiation has been a possible imposing project for the future technology nodes in the semiconductor industry for a long time. Although synchrotron radiation should be an expensive process technology for a semiconductor company, compared with other X-ray sources, the short wavelength, the very small divergence, and the high intensity of X-rays generated with it should be desirable for the purpose of the photolithography of the sub-10nm semiconductor processes. The wavelength below one angstrom of X-rays is fine enough to lithograph the designed delicate patterns on the semiconductor wafer for the above-mentioned technology nodes down to 1.8 nm and beyond when well-paralleled X-rays are obtainable. The high intensity of X-rays from the synchrotron radiation allows maintaining the distance between the synchrotron radiation and the semiconductor wafer while giving the acceptable exposure time, so that the divergence of X-rays and the blurriness near the edge of the wafer may be significantly reduced with increasing the distance. Without reading the recent publications, however, it's difficult to see how far it has to be maintained. It may be tens of meters or longer. The use of the step & repeat exposure method, which is very conventional for photolithography these days, for this type of X-ray photo process should significantly reduce the problem because the exposed area per shot becomes smaller. Anyway, it's absolutely certain that this type of photo equipment should become large-scale. Obviously, only a very limited number of semiconductor companies afford to adopt X-ray photolithography with synchrotron radiation. Most of them will need some support from the government to go in this direction. When a few companies participate in a joint project utilizing synchrotron radiation, the necessary requirement that the object semiconductor wafer should be kept a certain long distance away from the synchrotron radiation may be what they want in order to protect their confidentiality from each other.
The electron-beam lithography has been mostly used for the purpose of mask and reticle production. However, I have never heard about the direct writing on the whole surface of a semiconductor wafer with the electron-beam lithography process that can be adoptable to mass production of the semiconductor chips. To the best of my recollection, there are some difficult problems in the preparation and maintenance of the stencil mask or the stencil reticle having very dedicated circuit patterns that are specialized for the projection electron-beam lithography.
My diary today includes several ambiguous expressions because of the lack of information on the recent technologies related to photolithography. The analysis of the experimental data is essential for accurate forecasting.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast and a bowl of Japanese noodle soup for lunch. Went out shopping at a grocery store this afternoon. Ate a Japanese meal following an aperitif for dinner.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a Japanese meal following an aperitif for dinner. Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II were canonized by Pope Francis today.
The photo images below were taken in the neighborhood this afternoon. Some kind of cherry trees have already been overblown and the Thunberg's meadowsweet trees are now their best here. It's a fine warm day.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a bowl of Japanese noodle soup for lunch, and a Japanese meal for dinner.
After the scaling down of the minimum width of the metal lines reaches about 1.8 nm in the middle of 2020s, as planned in the latest ITRS technology roadmap, what has to be done next may be an interesting question to ask. Taking the fact that the atomic constant is in the range of some angstroms into consideration, there is no more space for further scaling of the metal line width. Not only a change in the channel material of the devices and/or their structure but also a change in the material of the wiring lines and/or the transmission principle through them may have future potential.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a Japanese meal for lunch, and a Japanese meal following an aperitif for dinner.
Theoretically, the adoption of the superconducting circuit is capable of improving the circuit performance when it's well optimized for the circuit operation at a low temperature. When the superconductor wiring is used as a substitute for the conventional metal wiring with the normal conductor e.g. copper, tungsten, etc. in a semiconductor chip and the temperature of a chip is reduced down below the critical temperature of the superconductor, the electrical resistance of the superconductor lines becomes zero. The significant reduction of the temperature also improves the switching characteristics of the semiconductor devices integrated into a semiconductor chip. Although the adoption of the superconductor should eliminate the heat generation from the wiring, the transistors still generate the heat that may prevent the wiring from superconducting during the operation. In order to achieve consistent superconductivity during the circuit operation, the advancement of raising the critical temperature of the superconductor to have enough margins above the temperature of liquid nitrogen (minus 196 degrees C) is always favorable.
The adoption of the superconducting circuit should improve the circuit performance, but it does have only a very limited number of applications because of the necessity of the cooling of a semiconductor chip with liquid nitrogen. It's obvious that the superconducting circuit shouldn't be appropriate for consumer, auto, and general business applications. Whether the performance gain from the superconducting circuit fits compensation for its total cost currently or not is unknown even for the application to the supercomputer. In general, the superconducting wiring is essential for the circuit integrating the so-called quantum devices utilizing the superconductor such as the Josephson device and other new devices, the potential application of which should also be limited to the supercomputer as a matter of course since these devices are operational only at cryogenic temperature.
If in the future a revolutionary high-temperature superconductor, the critical temperature of which is high enough not to require liquid nitrogen cooling but to require only a simple practical cooling during the circuit operation, is developed, the superconducting circuit might have multiple practical applications. At the present day, it's very tough.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Got up at seven forty-five in the morning. Ate a piece of bread for breakfast, a bowl of Japanese noodle soup for lunch, and a Japanese meal for dinner.
The photonic integrated circuit is one of the possible future technologies, as written previously. In this technology, instead of the electric signals, the light signals are transmitted through the optical fibers connected very intricately in the logic circuit. Like the LED compared with the conventional incandescent lamp, the photonic integrated circuit can potentially be more energy efficient than the conventional integrated circuit. Naturally, it doesn't require any special cooling system. Currently, however, it should be very difficult for the photonic integrated circuit to be capable of having a larger-scale integration than the conventional integrated circuit. The formation of the optical fibers is highly satisfying in quality and a few nm in width layer by layer throughout the back-end process integration should be difficult, too. Probably, the speed of the photonic devices that have ever been attained so far and should chiefly determine the circuit performance of the photonic integration circuit should still be insufficient at the present days. There is a possibility, though it's rather faint, that partial use of the optical fibers in the integrated circuit might become a reality in the near future mainstream of the high-performance or low-power ICs when the photonic device can exceed the MOSFETs in the switching characteristic. Although this technology may potentially be applied widely when its expected performance is realized, it would take quite a long time to take shape.
I planned to purchase a book about the photonic integrated circuit and to read it, but I haven't yet. I may have some deeper insights into the photonic integrated circuit after reading it. According to some websites, the companies that have been working on the photonic integrated circuit in the US nowadays may be categorized mostly into the munitions industry, for some reason or other.
(Retouch on July 17, 2017: If the efficiencies of the photonic devices in converting electricity into light and vice versa are considerably high, in theory, the power dissipation of the computing system can be significantly reduced by virtue of cutting down the undesirable self-heating and the parasitic capacitances of the wirings. However, the conversion efficiencies of the photonic devices on the integrated circuit aren't sufficient enough, the energy losses from the conversions spoil its energy efficiency on the whole.)
