RItsumeikan
Semiconductor Application
research center

Since the 1990s, Japan's semiconductor industry has been in a state of decline and has lost much of its former glory of the 1980s.

During this period, valuable semiconductor human resources and technologies were lost from Japanese companies and universities, leading to a significant decline in international competitiveness, and the adverse effects are still plaguing the Japanese semiconductor industry like a body blow.

The hollowing out of the industry is particularly severe in the Kansai region, which is lagging behind Tokyo, Kyushu, and Hokkaido, which are trying to regain momentum.

On the other hand, demand for semiconductors is rapidly increasing in all industrial fields due to the promotion of digital transformation (DX) on a global scale, and at the same time, unprecedentedly large reductions in power consumption are required to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

The semiconductor application research that is Japan's forte and the pioneering of new materials will be a source of strength and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Japan's semiconductor industry to return to the international arena.

The University, not wanting to miss this opportunity as a university, established the Semiconductor Application Research Center in 2024.

The center's distinctive feature is that it not only conducts pioneering research on new semiconductor materials, but also expands the scope of its research to include new applications with an eye toward social implementation.

In our research on novel semiconductor materials, we aim to create next-generation semiconductor materials for innovative power and optical applications from the bottom up, and to change the game in these areas with a view to strategic social implementation.

In addition, we will actively conduct research on semiconductor applications that will become important in the world of the future, such as the use of semiconductors to DX human activities, including the quantification and databasing of human perception, motor functions, and psychology, as well as applications in the space environment and new energy sources.

And support from experts in business administration, international semiconductor strategy, and intellectual property strategy is also very important to achieve the ultimate goal in semiconductor applications: social implementation.

Ritsumeikan University's Biwako-Kusatsu Campus is conveniently located in Shiga Prefecture, which has a large concentration of highly technological manufacturing companies, and in Kyoto Prefecture, where many companies that have grown from start-ups to world-class tech companies are based.

We will actively collaborate with such companies to promote productization and commercialization.

This center is also very important to develop the semiconductor human resources that Japan has lost.

The Center, in which researchers from a variety of fields participate to create an advanced research environment and engage in industry-academia collaboration, will accept doctoral and other personnel not only from Japan but also from around the world, and will make efforts to develop not only researchers but also engineers, managers, and other semiconductor personnel who will be responsible for promoting the semiconductor industry in the next generation.

Ideally, it will be a place where researchers from universities and research institutes around the world, entrepreneurs and managers, private companies, and governments participate to create innovative value that will change the next generation.

We aim to become an important semiconductor research center not only in Japan but also in the world.