It is indeed a great honor for me to be invited to contribute to the latest edition of ATR UptoDate, which showcases current developments in device research. I would like to take advantage of this opportunity to share a few of my thoughts.

　　A long time ago, there was a group of Christians who believed that remains of Jesus Christ could be found in every church. They called themselves the "ubiquitous sect." Until recently, that unfamiliar Latin word had nothing to do with our everyday life. In the rush of the 21st century, often dubbed "the century of intellect," however, it is not rare to hear even primary schoolers use the word. Of course, what they believe to be everywhere is not God, but computers of all sizes. These are not only a knowledge vehicle for advanced information processing, but also form networks of varying extent via their telecommunications functions. Though not "God" in the true sense of the word, one could argue that in the forthcoming ubiquitous society even the ordinary person will be able to perform mystical feats hitherto believed only attributable to God. That is, people will work on "people" and "goods" without the restrictions of space and time to gather information and knowledge, issue commands, create an "entity" to function as an alter ego at the chosen time, place and number, and have that entity do surveillance and link with others to seek out new knowledge, make decisions and issue commands. These are, by any definition, the acts of a god.

　　This is not an unrealistic fantasy, but a natural extension of the Internet revolution that broke out towards the end of the last century, as well as the explosive development of wireless phones. In fact, we are witnessing the rapid commercialization of the concept in the form of "wireless IC tags" and "RFID" (radio frequency identification). The potential of these promises immense variety and depth, and is not likely to fit into the conventional framework of IT. For instance, there will come a time when the fantasy depicted in the science fiction movie Fantastic Voyage will become reality: a "treatment chip" that will enter the human body to search for lesions as it communicates wirelessly with physicians and cures the disease. The impact this will have on medicine is simply beyond measure.

　　One of the key requirements for developing an affluent and ubiquitous network society is the creation of new devices. Having played a core role in integrating device technologies in the previous century, silicon technology has, in a broad sense, reached maturity and saturation. Although its importance remains unquestionable, it has created a sense of frustration and has triggered excessive economic competition. Here is where the development of a ubiquitous network society may bring about a breakthrough. That society will require devices that are capable of demonstrating diverse functions and performance at ultra-low power consumption in nanometer-scale space-functions ranging from the sensing of varied physical quantities to molecule recognition to dynamic motion like vibration, migration and rotation. Because of this, multifaceted values will prevail that are different from those silicon devices were required to provide, such as simplicity of functioning principles, an advanced level of uniformity, and high current drivability.

　　Scientific and technological trends in the early 21st century look to be moving towards nano-technology, quantum mechanics, materials diversification, system complexity, and the development of new architectures. Quantum mechanics is no longer merely a tool with which to explain phenomena like it was in the last century, but now provides the principles for the design of nano-devices at the atomic and molecular levels, as well as for methods of quantum computing with its massive amount of parallel processes, and quantum communications that guarantees advanced network security. In the last century, devices and systems were separated by a multi-layered hierarchy, which starts from device design rules, producing professional engineers who were incapable of communicating with each other. What we can learn from living organisms, however, is that complex phenomena on the atomic, molecular and cellular levels are closely related to functions. I am convinced that a new system architecture deeply involved with the physical and chemical phenomena arising on those levels will be indispensable for our new nano-devices. If we are going to create a new world, we will most certainly need a breadth of vision that stretches beyond conventional academic and technological frameworks, as well as pure research featuring advanced expertise and creativity.

　　Applying that vision to this feature edition, one of our most important tasks for the creation of a ubiquitous network society is to contrive a series of devices that will enable networks of all sizes to communicate flexibly. Device research at ATR Adaptive Communications Research Laboratories is geared to the pursuit of this timely direction. Although the number and scale of its research groups are never large, all of their projects are in tune with the aforementioned scientific and technological trends, and feature high levels of vanguard innovation and originality. For example, their research findings on lasers with a minute stadium-shaped resonator, a cutting-edge topic in complex quantum chaos, were published in the Physical Review Letters, one of the most prestigious journals in the field, and their oscillation pattern diagram appeared on the cover of the same issue. This is testimony to the quality of the research. The elegantly-named Micro-origami technique for the design of three-dimensional microstructures, on the other hand, is proprietary ATR technology. The technique not only is optimal for fabricating a micro mirror for optical communications, but also promises a broader range of applications. The fabrication technique of lateral p-n junctions, another of ATR's proprietary developments, is an effective tool for the increasingly important integration of optical devices, and its further development is expected. As these examples illustrate, ATR's device research showcases its striking originality and high scientific value, and holds enormous possibilities for applications. There are high expectations in associated research areas, domestic and overseas, for further development.

　　Finally, I would like to note that at Hokkaido University the Meme-Media Technology Approach to the R&D of Next-Generation Information Technologies, a 21st-century COE program, is now operating under the initiative of Professor Yuzuru Tanaka. Its goal is to develop the new architecture for the new ubiquitous network and for intelligent quantum chips (IQCs), the very small knowledge vehicles that will make it happen. Since ATR and my research center share the goal of developing IQCs, we have a great deal of interest in ATR's device research. I hope we can find ways to collaborate, as we did when a guest lecturer from ATR contributed to our international symposium.