Ludwig Boltzmann Forum: 20 February 2015 at the Embassy of Austria in Tokyo
Ludwig Boltzmann discovered many of nature’s laws of energy and entropy, and his leadership has impact even today. We use Ludwig Boltzmann’s laws and mathematical tools every day.
Ludwig Boltzmann Forum: Keynote speakers
Shuji Nakamura Nobel Prize in Physics 2014, Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara. Inventor of blue GaN LEDs and lasers. [summary and discussions]
Gerhard Fasol Physicist, opto-electronics and spin-electronics. CEO, Eurotechnology Japan KK. Board Director of GMO Cloud KK. Served on the Faculty of Tokyo University, Cambrige University, and Trinity College, Cambridge. [summary and discussions]
Chuck Casto Licensed Nuclear Power Station Operator. Was NRC regulator responsible for 23 nuclear power stations. Leader of the US Integrated Government and NRC efforts in Japan during the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011. [summary and discussions]
Hiroyuki Yoshikawa Pioneer of robotics and precision manufacturing. Emeritus President of the University of Tokyo. Japan Prize 1997. [summary and discussions]
Ludwig Boltzmann Forum: Program
14:00 Welcome by Dr. Bernhard Zimburg, Ambassador of Austria to Japan
Shuji Nakamura: Developments of InGaN-based double hetero-structure high brightness blue LEDs and future lightingShuji Nakamura: Developments of InGaN-based double hetero-structure high brightness blue LEDs and future lightingShuji Nakamura: Developments of InGaN-based double hetero-structure high brightness blue LEDs and future lightingShuji Nakamura: Developments of InGaN-based double hetero-structure high brightness blue LEDs and future lightingShuji Nakamura: Developments of InGaN-based double hetero-structure high brightness blue LEDs and future lighting
Chuck Casto: POWER OUTAGE: Japan nuclear power program post-Fukushima?Chuck Casto: POWER OUTAGE: Japan nuclear power program post-Fukushima?Shuji Nakamura and Chuck Casto
Developments of InGaN-based double hetero-structure high brightness blue LEDs and future lighting
Shuji Nakamura
keynote talk given at the 7th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, Austrian Embassy in Tokyo, 20th February 2015
Shuji Nakamura: Developments of InGaN-based double hetero-structure high brightness blue LEDs and future lighting
by Shuji Nakamura, Nobel Prize in Physics 2014. Inventor of blue GaN LEDs and lasers. Professor, Solid State Lighting and Energy Electronics Center, Materials and ECE Departments, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Why Shuji Nakamura’s Nobel Prize is “for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources” and not for “development of mass production technology of blue LEDs”
In an interview for the Japanese Mainichi-Shinbun, the Chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee in Physics, Professor Per Delsing summarized the key discoveries of each Nobel Laureate from the point of view of the Nobel Prize Committee in Physics:
Isamu Akasaki: High quality GaN with AlN buffer
Hiroshi Amano: Demonstration of GaN pn junction
Shuji Nakamura: Many contributions to achieve a practical level of high efficient blue LEDs
The discovery of blue GaN LEDs is a discovery in the field of Physics achieved by three people, their contributions are:
Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano
AlN buffer (to grow AlN of sufficient quality on a substrate of a different material)
p-GaN by electron beam irradiation
realization of GaN pn junction
Shuji Nakamura
GaN buffer (to grow GaN of sufficient quality on a substrate of a different material)
p-GaN by thermal annealing and the theoretical clarification of the mechanism for p-type conductivity
the invention of InGaN-based high brightness double-heterostructure blue LEDs (the Nobel Prize was given to the invention of this LED)
Nobel Prizes are not awarded for the development of “mass manufacturing technologies”…
Alfred Nobel’s will reads:
“The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics;…”
It is perfectly clear in Alfred Nobel’s will, the Nobel Prize Committee awards Nobel Prizes in Physics for “the most important discoveries or inventions within the field of physics” – not for the development of manufacturing technologies.
Shuji Nakamura explained these facts on numerous occasions to Japanese media, and also today at the 7th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum. It is difficult to understand why Japanese media and Government organizations did not take this information in.
It is a mystery why Japan’s National Television NHK, several Japanese major newspapers, The Journal of the Japanese Society of Applied Physics, Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), Japan’s Science Technology Agency JST and several other Japanese organizations insist that the Nobel Prize should have been awarded as follows:
Professors Akasaki and Amano for the development of the blue LED
Professor Nakamura for the development of manufacturing technology – although it is clear that the Nobel Prize is only awarded for profound discoveries and inventions in the field of physics and not for the development of manufacturing technologies
Clearly there is a disconnect between these major Japanese media organizations, two major Japanese Government Research Organizations NEDO and JST and reality regarding the reason why Shuji Nakamura was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2014.
Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor (MIS) devices vs pn-Junction vs Double Heterostructure (DH) light emitting diodes (LED):
Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor (MIS) devices achieve relatively low intensity, weak light emission at the metal / insulator / n-type or p-type semiconductor interface, thus only n-type or p-type doping is necessary. In the case of GaN, n-type GaN was first demonstrated by Maruska in 1973 (H. P. Maruska, D. A. Stevenson, J. I. Pankove, Appl. Phys. Lett., 22 (1973) p 303-305. In these MIS GaN LEDs visible violet electroluminscence was observed, however it was too dim for practical applications, and the necessary voltage was too high for practical application – 15 Volt.
p-type GaN and InGaN was demonstrated by Akasaki and Amano with electron beam annealing, and the real breakthrough was by Shuji Nakamura by annealing in Nitrogen gas.
On October 20, 1993, the Japanese Journal Nikkan Kogyo announced that “MIS type blue LEDs with a brightness of 200mCd were developed by Toyoda Gosei Co Ltd through industry-University cooperation funded by Japan’s Science and Technology Agency (JST). However, both the MIS LEDs demonstrated by Maruska et al in 1973, and those introduced by Toyoda Gosei in 1993 were too weak for real applications.
Another intermediate step in development are p-n junction LEDs, without double heterostructure. Such LEDs also have relatively low light efficiency, since electrons and holes have small overlap and therefore low recombination probability. The quantum confinement of electrons and holes in the same location in space is necessary to achieve high recombination efficiency and thus high brightness.
For high brightness GaN LEDs it was necessary to develop viable n-type / p-type InGaN heterostructure LEDs. This was done by Shuji Nakamura, and for example announced by the Japanese Journal Nikkei Sangyo on November 1993: “p-n junction InGaN double heterostructure (DH) LEDs with a brightness of more then 1000 mCd were developed by Nichia Chemical Industries Ltd”, when Shuji Nakamura was at Nichia from 1979-1999. It is for the invention and development of these LEDs that Shuji Nakamura was awarded the Nobel Prize.
Shuji Nakamura delivered his Nobel Lecture on 8 December 2014, at Aula Magna, Stockholm University:
Light emitting diodes (LED) produce light of a single color, in a narrow frequency interval (e.g. red, yellow, blue, green) by combining holes and electrons in a semiconductor.
To produce white light needed for lighting, either LEDs of different color can be combined, or blue light can be converted into white light using yellow phosphor.
Applications for InGaN-based LEDs include:
solid state lighting, replacing light bulbs and fluorescent tubes (and fire in developing countries, or emergencies)
decorative lighting
automotive lighting
displays (e.g. flat panel displays for mobile phones, PCs, TVs)
agriculture
indoor lighting
Energy savings impact – for the USA alone:
Approx. 40% electricity savings (261 TeraWatthours) in USA in 2030 due to LEDs.
InGaN LEDs eliminate the need for 30++ 1000MW power plants by 2030.
InGaN LEDs avoid generating about 185 million tons of CO2.
Light efficiency:
oil lamp (15,000BC): 0.1 lm/W
light bulb (19th century): 16 lm/W
fluorescent lamp (20th century): 70 lm/W
LED (21st century): 300 lm/W
2. Material of choice: ZnSe vs GaN
Both ZnSe (II-VI compounds) and GaN (III-V compounds) have the electronic band gap and other properties to efficiently generate blue light. In 1989 the situation was:
ZnSe can be grown on GaAs substrates with 0% lattice mismatch and few dislocations.
high crystal quality: dislocation density < 1 x 10^3 cm^-2
very active research in 1989: > 99% of researchers on blue LEDs
interest at 1992 JSAP Conference: 500 people audience
GaN grown on Sapphire (Al2O3) has a 16% lattice mismatch leading to a high defect (dislocation) density.
Poor crystal quality: dislocation density > 1 x 10^9 cm^-2
little research in 1989: < 1% of researchers on blue LEDs
interest at 1992 JSAP Conference: < 10 people audience
GaN research was actively discouraged: “GaN has no future”, “GaN people have to move to ZnSe material”….
1989 was the starting point of Shuji Nakamura’s research. Based on his experience at University of Miami, Shuji Nakamura wanted to achieve a PhD degree by writing research papers. The GaN field had the advantage that there were very few researchers and papers, so it was a great topic to publish lots of papers! Working at a small company the budget was small, and there was only one researcher: Shuji Nakamura.
It was commonly accepted in the 19970s-1980s, that LEDs need dislocation density < 1 x 10^3 cm^-2.
Shuji Nakamura never thought at that time that he could invent blue LEDs using GaN….
Conventional MOCVD systems have high carrier gas velocity (about 4.25 m/s), poor uniformity, poor scalability, poor reproducibility, poor control. An AlN buffer layer was introduced to create crack free GaN growth, however, Al causes significant problems in the MOCVD reactor.
Shuji Nakamura’s most significant invention: two-flow MOCVD
To overcome the problems of conventional MOCVD, Shuji Nakamura invented “two-flow MOCVD” where a second “subflow” vertical to the surface of the substrate gently “pushes” the gases down onto the substrate and improves the thermal boundary layer: S. Nakamura et al, Appl. Phys. Lett. 58 (1991) 2012-2023.
Two-flow MOCVD enables the reproducible growth of uniform, high quality GaN. Shuji Nakamura told us, that two-flow MOCVD was his most important invention.
With this new two-flow MOCVD method, Shuji Nakamura grew the first MOCVD GaN buffer layers on 2″ Sapphire substrates, and achieved the highest Hall mobilities reported at that time: S. Nakamura, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 30 (1991) L1705-L1707.
Thermal annealing in hydrogen ion free atmosphere overcomes passivation
Previously all researchers used an atmosphere containing H+ to anneal p-type GaN, which was passivated by this process. Shuji Nakamura discovered that it was necessary to anneal in a H+ free atmosphere to achieve p-type GaN.
From p-n GaN homojunctions to InGaN double heterostructures (DH)
Akasaki and Amano developed p-n GaN homojunctions. These have good crystal quality, but very dim light emission, are very inefficient, power output is below mW, and the emission is around 360nm in the Ultra-Violet (UV). These structures are not suitable for practical LEDs.
Double heterostructures (DH) create a quantum well, were electrons and holes are confined, high carrier concentrations are achieved and the radiative recombination rates are enhanced.
4. Enabling the LED: InGaN
GaN heterojunctions are constructed by growing a sandwich structure consisting of n-GaN, InGaN, p-GaN. The band gap / color is adjusted by adjusting the Indium concentration in InxGa1-xN alloy. However this presents difficult challenges:
It is hard to incorporate Indium, because of its high vapor pressure, Indium tends to boil off. Growth at lower temperatures to prevent Indium boil-off results in poor crystal quality
It is necessary to grow very thin layers to build quantum wells. Growing very thin layers requires very fine control over the growth conditions and high interface quality.
Indium introduces strain in the crystal because Indium is about 20% bigger than Gallium.
Because of these difficulties, research in the 1970s-1980s could not achieve InGaN of sufficiently high quality for room temperature band-to-band emission.
Shuji Nakamura’s two-flow MOCVD method succeeded to grow high quality InGaN with band-to-band emission and with controllable Indium concentration, so that the growth of InGaN with different band-gap and therefore controllable color spectrum became possible: S. Nakamura et al Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 31 (1992) L1457-L1459.
While red GaAs/GaAsP LEDs where invented in the 1970s, progress in luminous efficiency of GaN and InGaN based green and blue LEDs, invented around 1992-1993 by Shuji Nakamura, is much faster. Today white LEDs far exceed light bulbs and fluorescent lamps in luminous efficiency.
USC’s vision: LED based white light is great, laser based white light is even better!
LEDs: equivalent of a 60W light requires 28mm^2 chip, and external quantum efficiency peaks around 70% rapidly decreases with increasing current density beyond 0.1 kA/cm^2
Lasers: equivalent of a 60W light requires 0.3mm^2 chip, and external quantum efficiency remains around 70% up to current densities of 2 kA/cm^2
Shuji Nakamura: Developments of InGaN-based double hetero-structure high brightness blue LEDs and future lightingShuji Nakamura: Developments of InGaN-based double hetero-structure high brightness blue LEDs and future lightingShuji Nakamura: Developments of InGaN-based double hetero-structure high brightness blue LEDs and future lightingShuji Nakamura: Developments of InGaN-based double hetero-structure high brightness blue LEDs and future lightingChuck Casto and Shuji Nakamura
Ludwig Boltzmann – the revolutionary, Boltzmann’s work, Boltzmann’s constant and entropy
Gerhard Fasol
keynote talk given at the 7th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum at the Embassy of Austria, Tokyo, 20 February 2015
Gerhard Fasol: Entropy and information and Ludwig Boltzmann
by Gerhard Fasol, Physicist, opto-electronics and spin-electronics. CEO, Eurotechnology Japan KK. Board Director of GMO Cloud KK. Served on the Faculty of Tokyo University, Cambrige University, and Trinity College, Cambridge.
Boltzmann constant k, the definition of the unit of temperature and energy
Temperature is one of the physics quantities we use most, and understanding all aspects of temperature is at the core of Ludwig Boltzmann’s work. People measured temperature long before anyone knew what temperature really is: temperature is a measurement of the average kinetic energy of the atoms of a substance. When we touch a body to “feel” its temperature, what we are really doing is to measure the “buzz”, the thermal vibrations of the atoms making up that body.
Boltzmann worked out the distribution of energy, thermal vibrations of atoms in a solid, thermal kinetic energy of atoms or molecules in a gas, or the thermal energy in more complex classical systems is distributed as a function of temperature in the case of equilibrium. Boltzmann has also worked on systems in transition, and has developed powerful mathematical tools, the Boltzmann Equations, to understand systems in transitions or flow.
For an ideal gas, the kinetic energy per molecule is equal to 3/2 k.T, where k is Boltzmann’s constant. Generalized, the energy is 1/2 k.T per degree of freedom. Therefore Boltzmann’s constant directly links energy and Temperature.
However, when we measure “Temperature” in real life, we are not really measuring the true thermodynamic temperature, what we are really measuring is T90, a temperature scale ITS-90 defined in 1990, which is anchored by the definition of temperature units in the System International, the SI system of defining a set of fundamental physical units. Our base units are of fundamental importance for example to transfer semiconductor production processes around the world. For example, when a semiconductor production process requires a temperature of 769.3 Kelvin or mass of 1.0000 Kilogram, then accurate definition and methods of measurement are necessary to achieve precisely the same temperature or mass in different laboratories or factories around the world.
The SI system of physical units is switching to a new fundament
Each fundamental constant Q is a product of a number {Q} and a base unit [Q]:
Q = {Q} x [Q],
for example Boltzmann’s constant is:
k = 1.380650 x 10-23 JK-1.
Thus we have two ways to define the SI system of SI base units:
we can fix the units [Q], and then measure the numerical values {Q} of fundamental constants in terms of these units (method valid today to define the SI system)
we can fix the numbers {Q} of fundamental constants, and then define the units [Q] thus that the fundamental constants have the numerical values {Q} (future method of defining the SI system)
Over the next few years the SI system of units will be switched from the today’s method (1.) where units are fixed and numerical values of fundamental constants are “variable”, i.e. determined experimentally, to the new method (2.) where the numerical values of the set of fundamental constants is fixed, and the units are defined such, that their definition results in the fixed numerical values of the set of fundamental constants. This switch to a new definition of the SI system requires international agreements, and decisions by international organizations, and this process is expected to be completed by 2018.
Today’s method (1.) above is problematic: The SI unit of temperature, Kelvin is defined as the fraction 1/273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature at the triple point of water. The problem is that the triple point depends on many factors including pressure, and the precise composition of water, in terms of isotopes and impurities. In the current definition the water to be used is determined as “VSNOW” = Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water. Of course this is highly problematic, and the new method (2.) will not depend on VSNOW any longer.
In the new system (2.) the Kelvin will be defined as:
Kelvin is defined such, that the numerical value of the Boltzmann constant k is equal to exactly 1.380650 x 10-23 JK-1.
In order to link the soon to be fixed numerical value of Boltzmann’s constant to currently valid definitions of the Kelvin, and in particular to determine the precision and errors, it is necessary to measure the value of Boltzmann’s current in terms of today’s units as accurately as possible, and also to understand and estimate all errors in the measurement. Several measurements of Boltzmann’s constants are being performed in laboratories around the world, particularly at several European and US laboratories. Arguably today’s best measurement has been performed by Dr Michael de Podesta MBE CPhys MInstP, Principal Research Scientist at the National Physical Laboratory NPL in Teddington, UK, who has kindly discussed his measurements and today’s status of the work on the system of SI units and its redefinition with me, and has greatly assisted in the preparation of this article. Dr Podesta’s measurements of Boltzmann’s constant have been published in:
Michael de Podesta et al. “A low-uncertainty measurement of the Boltzmann constant”, Metrologia 50 (2013) 354-376.
Dr Podesta’s measurements are extremely sophisticated, needed many years of work, and cooperations with several other laboratories. Dr. Podesta and collaborators constructed a highly precise resonant cavity filled with Argon gas. Dr. Podesta measured both the microwave resonance modes of the cavity to determine the precise radius and geometry, and determined the speed of sound in the Argon gas from acoustic resonance modes. Dr Podesta performed exceptionally accurate measurements of the speed of sound in this cavity, which can be said to be the most accurate thermometer globally today. The speed of sound can be directly related to 3/2 k.T, the mean molecular kinetic energy of the Argon molecules. In these measurements, Dr. Podesta very carefully considered many different types of influences on his measurements, such as surface gas layers, shape of microwave and acoustic sources and sensors etc. He achieved a relative standard uncertainty of 0.71. 10-6, which means that his measurements of Boltzmann’s constant are estimated to be accurate to within better than on millionth. Dr. Podesta’s measurements directly influences the precision with which we measure temperature in the new system of units.
Over the last 10 years there is intense effort in Europe and the USA to build rebuild the SI unit system. In particular NIST (USA), NPL (UK), several French institutions and Italian institutions, as well as the German PTB (Physikalische Technische Bundesanstalt) are undertaking this effort. To my knowledge there is only very small or no contribution from Japan to this effort, which was surprising for me.
What is today’s best value for the Boltzmann constant k:
Ludwig Boltzmann was not only a monumental scientist, but also an exceptional leader, teacher, educator and promoter of exceptional talent, and he promoted many women.
One of the women Ludwig Boltzmann promoted was Henriette von Aigentler, who was refused permission to unofficially audit lectures at Graz University. Ludwig Boltzmann advised and helped her to appeal this decision, in 1874, Henriette von Aigentler passed her exams as a high-school teacher, and on July 17, 1876, Ludwig Boltzmann married Henriette von Aigentler, my great-grand mother.
Another woman Ludwig Boltzmann promoted was his student Lise Meitner (Nov 1878 – Oct 27, 1968), who later was part of the team that discovered nuclear fission, work for which Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize. Lise Meitner was also the second woman to earn a Doctorate degree in Physics from the University of Vienna. Element 109, Meitnerium, is named after Lise Meitner.
Ludwig Boltzmann’s greatest contribution to science is that he linked the macroscopic definition of Entropy which came from optimizing steam engines at the source of the first industrial revolution to the microscopic motion of atoms or molecules in gases, this achievement is summarized by the equation S = k log W, linking entropy S with the probability W. k is the Boltzmann constant, one of the most important constants in nature, linked directly to temperature in the SI system of physical units. This monumental work is maybe Boltzmann’s most important creation but by far not the only one. He discovered many laws, and created many mathematical tools, for example Boltzmann’s Equations, which are used today as tools for numerical simulations of gas flow for the construction of jet engines, airplanes, automobiles, in semiconductor physics, information technology and many other areas. Although independently discovered, Shannon’s theory of noise in communication networks, and Shannon’s entropy in IT is also directly related to Boltzmann’s entropy work.
Global leadership in the extreme: crisis leadership in post-Fukushima
Chuck Casto
keynote talk given at the 7th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum at the Embassy of Austria, Tokyo, 20 February 2015
Dr. Chuck Casto, Casto Group Consulting LLC, Licensed Nuclear Power Station Operator. Was NRC regulator responsible for 23 nuclear power stations. Leader of the US Integrated Government and NRC efforts in Japan during the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011.
by: Dr. Chuck Casto, Casto Group Consulting LLC, Licensed Nuclear Power Station Operator. Was NRC regulator responsible for 23 nuclear power stations. Leader of the US Integrated Government and NRC efforts in Japan during the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011.
summary by Gerhard Fasol – discussions at the end of this page
Leadership in the Extreme
The earth is flat enhanced global leadership is needed. A nuclear accident in one country is a nuclear accident everywhere.
Japan – the Fukushima disaster revealed an imbalance of power and leadership:
systems failure
misalignment of values
actions are needed to realign values
Needed enhancements for extreme crisis leadership, not only developing countries, but also including 1st world, developed countries such as Japan.
The USA are very experienced in assisting 2nd and 3rd world, developing countries in times of disaster and the response is essentially standardized. However, the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear disaster was the first time, where the USA assisted a developed 1st world country in coping with a disaster.
The Fukushima Dai-Ichi disaster revealed the need to standardize our plans for domestic and international responses in times of disaster. We need to understand how nations define severe accident response, post-disaster recovery and preparations for extreme events.
Fukushima-Dai-Ichi was a system failure, a consequence of an imbalance of power and responsibility
Broken information flow
There was a lack of flow of information between government, utility and the public, and a lack of formal communication between the disaster site and the Government leadership – the disaster site was an isolated island.
Imbalance of power
This lack of sufficient information flow was compounded by imbalance of power and legal uncertainty. Several different laws and Government agencies applied, and there was confusion between Atomic Energy Basic Law, Emergency Laws, Basic Energy Plan, Industry Ministry (METI), Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), Self Defense Forces and other agencies.
There was confusion and conflicts over division of labor and responsibility, regarding venting of the reactors, injection of water and evacuation of local communities.
Imbalance of responsibility
There must be a clear legal basis for roles and responsibilities, which was not the case because of conflicts between different applicable laws (e.g. nuclear laws and emergency laws) and between different agencies and the utilities.
Ultimately the utilities (Tokyo Electrical Power Company TEPCO) must be responsible, however, the public and the government are reluctant to give the utilities the clear and sole responsibilty.
There is an uncertainty about “acceptable risk”. Risk management had been replaced by “Japan’s nuclear safety myth”, and preparations for nuclear accidents were not sufficient.
It is necessary to realign responsibility, accountability, power and achieve a balanced system
Japan needs to realign responsibility, accountability, power between:
Government / Diet (Japan’s Parliament)
Government agencies (MEXT, METI, NRA)
Extra-Governmental Organizations
Prefectural and local Government
Nuclear utilities
non-governmental organizations and the public
In particular, Government and Diet (Japan’s Parliament) need to exercise power, while the nuclear utilities must assume full responsibility and be fully accountable.
The nuclear regulator must be fully accountable to the Diet (Japan’s Parliament), and the Diet must assume the responsibility to supervise the nuclear regulator.
A public discussion on national level must determine which risk is acceptable, and the regulator must regulate to this acceptable risk, and be supervised by the Diet.
Questions and Answers
Question by Shuji Nakamura: what do you think is the best energy for Japan
Answer by Dr Chuck Casto: because of Japan’s earthquake and other risks, geo-thermal energy and wind might be the most suitable.
Question: are modern nuclear reactors safe?
Answer by Dr Chuck Casto: like modern cars, modern nuclear reactors are better engineered and generally safer than old designs from 30-40-50 years ago. If Japan could afford this, I would advise Japan to replace all old reactors with new modern reactors.
Question: are your worried about the safety of nuclear reactors in China and other countries?
Answer by Dr Chuck Casto: of course I am worried about the safety of nuclear reactors in China, in other developed and developing countries. I am also worried about the safety in our own country – the USA, because in the USA we have lost much needed basic skills such as welding. We need to keep our basic skill such as welding. France has an advantage in nuclear power, because in France all reactors use the same basic design. So improvements of this basic reactor type at one plant can be used to improve the safety at all other plants. In the USA, or in other countries we have many different reactor designs, so its much more difficult to manage the safety, and to bring improvements from one plant to others which might be differently designed reactors.
Charles A. Casto: “Crisis management: A qualitative study of extreme leadership“, (2014), Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects. Paper 626. A Dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration in the Coles College of Business, Kennesaw State University
Chuck Casto: Global leadership in the extreme: crisis leadership in post-Fukushima7th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum – audienceChuck Casto and Shuji Nakamura
keynote talk given at the 7th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, Tokyo, 20 February 2015
Hiroyuki Yoshikawa: Macroscopic Engineering
by Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, Pioneer of robotics and precision manufacturing, Emeritus President of the University of Tokyo, Japan Prize 1997
summary by Gerhard Fasol – discussions at the end of this page
Part I: Robotless Robot (automatic assembly without robot)
For many engineering processes the interaction of geometrical shapes is important.
“Stable states” are states where for example triangles are placed with their sides in contact. As an example, if we consider two triangles, we have 9 stable states and 36 possible transitions.
Let us consider interactions between cylinders and holes in a plate – such as situation could arise in an industrial process. In this case we have metastable states, where the cylinders are upright, lying on their side, or placed oblique in one of the holes, and we have stable states, where the cylinders rest in on one of the holes.
We can consider an experiment where we have cylinders on a plate with several holes, and subject the plate to vibrations. Depending on the magnitude of vibrations, the cylinders will move around and may end up all placed in holes, which would be the finished product of this thought experiment.
The distribution of energy of cylinders at collisions between cylinders and the disc follows a Boltzmann Distribution.
Part II: Macroscopic Service Science (Servicentric human society)
Reconceptualization of manufacturing
Hypothesis: Service makes a society
The basic reason why human beings live together and work collectively or socially is that their mutual services are essential for their survival on earth. Humans cannot live alone.
Lemma: Manufacturing industry is part of the service industry.
In the service industry, a service donor (e.g. a server in a restaurant) manufactures a function and simultaneously delivers this as a service to a recipients (customer).
In the manufacturing industry, a donor manufactures functions which are embedded into products, which are delivered to recipients at a later time.
Basic structure of primitive service
Service design:
motivation
design
function
design
service
Product design:
motivation
design
function
design
product
use (service)
The flow of services can be seen as similar to flow in fluid dynamics: services flow from donor through a service pipe to recipients.
A donor’s motivation (subjective) is transformed into function (objective) at the first stage of service design. Function is input to themselves (donor) increasing the potential of latent function. When the potential exceeds the recipient’s potential of latent function, a service starts. Motivation is subjective, while function is objective (see: Social Theory and Social Structure by Robert K. Merton)
Replacing GDP by the total functional flow (services in a society) as an indicator for wealth of society
Motivation of a donor increases its latent function and when it exceeds the latent function of a recipient, function flow of service starts. Rate of flow is proportional to the functional gap, and admittance of the path.
A society is composed of people with different latent function of a kind. Each member has its capacity of receiving the function. As a result, the system of functional flow in the society is determined.
Services make a society.
From “manufacturing a product” to “manufacturing amplifiers on service network”
Our industrial society can be seen of the sum of a primitive service-only society PLUS manufacturing industries, resulting in amplified services.
As an example:
Primitive service: medical service at home e.g. mother-child
Amplified service: medical service at hospital by a highly trained doctor using medical equipment and know-how
Amplifiers: life science, medical skills, medical equipment, hospital facilities, IT
Industrial products and know-how amplify simple services.
Chains of primitive services
Donate a service, e.g. a vegetable dish
This service consists of three primitive services:
produce food (donor: farmer, vehicle: fields, vegetables, recipient: wholesaler)
sales service (donor: retailer, recipient: purchaser)
cooking service (donor: cook, vehicle: dishes, recipient: eater)
vehicle is a medium for the service. Tool is a typical vehicle