Latest News 2021

RaNNC (Rapid Neural Network Connector), automatic parallelization middleware for deep learning developed jointly by Data-driven Intelligent System Research Center (DIRECT), the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: TOKUDA Hideyuki, Ph.D.), and the University of Tokyo (President: FUJII Teruo), won first place at the PyTorch Annual Hackathon 2021 (PyTorch Developer Tools & Libraries category).

Quantum Innovation 2021 (The International Symposium on Quantum Science, Technology and Innovation) will be held as a virtual conference from Tuesday, December 7th, through Thursday, December 9th.
The aim of this symposium is to introduce quantum information processing technology and its trends in practical applications through guest speeches and technical sessions of each field. We expect to share a common view on the current study status including implementation results both in Japan and abroad as well as to promote international collaborations through the meetings with key persons from each country. We look forward to your participation.

NICT's research paper on nitride superconducting qubit, published on Monday, September 20, 2021, was selected as a featured image highlight at <i>Communications Materials</i> (an open-access journal from Nature Research), so an optical micrograph image of a nitride superconducting qubit circuit is displayed as the main screen view of the journal.

Researchers at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: TOKUDA Hideyuki, Ph.D.), in collaboration with researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST, President: Dr. ISHIMURA Kazuhiko) and the Tokai National Higher Education and Research System Nagoya University (President: Dr. MATSUO Seiichi) have succeeded in developing an all-nitride superconducting qubit using epitaxial growth on a silicon substrate that does not use aluminum as the conductive material. This qubit uses niobium nitride (NbN) with a superconducting transition temperature of 16 K (-257 °C) as the electrode material, and aluminum nitride (AlN) for the insulating layer of the Josephson junction. It is a new type of qubit made of all-nitride materials grown epitaxially on a silicon substrate and free of any amorphous oxides, which are a major noise source. By realizing this new material qubit on a silicon substrate, long coherence times have been obtained: an energy relaxation time (T₁) of 16 microseconds and a phase relaxation time (T₂) of 22 microseconds as the mean values. This is about 32 times T₁ and about 44 times T₂ of nitride superconducting qubits grown on a conventional magnesium oxide substrate.

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: TOKUDA Hideyuki, Ph.D.) has developed a broadband and high-precision terahertz (THz) frequency counter based on a semiconductor-superlattice harmonic mixer. It showed a measurement uncertainty of less than 1 x 10-16 from 0.12 THz to 2.8 THz. This compact and easy-to-handle THz counter operating at room temperature suits for various THz applications supported by the next-generation ICT infrastructure, “Beyond 5G / 6G”.

NICT, along with ten other global leading-edge research and education networks in North America, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, signed a memorandum of understanding to join the Asia Pacific Oceania network (APOnet) and collaboratively improve high-speed network services in the Asia Pacific Oceania region.

[Highlights]
・Integrated cyber attack analysis platform "NIRVANA Kai" newly supports IPv6 and enhances its functions.
・Observation of IPv6 communications, collection of IPv6-related alerts, and real-time visualization of IPv6 networks
・Expected to simplify security operations in IPv6 networks.

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: TOKUDA Hideyuki, Ph.D.) has released white papers on “Beyond 5G/6G” and “Quantum Network” to accelerate R&D collaboration with other research institutions. The white papers summarize the social vision and use cases that are expected to be realized through the progress of Beyond 5G/6G and quantum network technologies, as well as the key technologies and R&D roadmap necessary to realize them.

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: TOKUDA Hideyuki, Ph.D.) has conducted an international joint experiment with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) between the optical terminal (OSIRISv1) onboard the University of Stuttgart’s Flying Laptop satellite and NICT's optical ground station equipped with newly developed optical bench with fine-pointing system. In February 2021, success in receiving the downlink light from OSIRISv1 at NICT's optical ground station was achieved.

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: TOKUDA Hideyuki, Ph.D.) and Toyota Motor Corporation (TOYOTA) have succeeded in experimenting with stabilization technology for manufacturing systems using wireless communication, and to have realized a "non-stop line”. The "non-stop line" can be realized to detect the introduction of unregistered terminals by visualizing the radio, to suppress unplanned radio congestion, and avoiding sudden interference that occurs by coordinated control of different systems. This time, we have demonstrated these technologies at two operating TOYOTA plants.