GaAs-based semiconductor devices have been widely used in the front-end part of wireless telecommunication appliances such as handy phones, in order to support very high-speed data receiving and transmission. This paper reviews the requirement for p-HEMT switch ICs for the control of multi-band/multi-mode handy phone set, the market demand for which is increasing, and the design/manufacturing technology of the epitaxial substrate for the p-HEMT.
( 4~15 by Masahiko HATA,Takayuki INOUE,Noboru FUKUHARA,Tsuyoshi NAKANO,Takenori OSADA,Junya HADA,Yasuyuki KURITA )

Plastic foaming products (polystyrene, polyethylene and polypropylene) are used in various fields in items such as food-packaging materials, distribution packaging materials, automobile parts and construction materials. Each product has its own characteristics such as light weight, flexibility (cushioning properties), heat insulation properties and sound absorption properties, which depend on factors such as the resin properties and foaming processes in each application field. In automotive parts applications in particular, polypropylene foaming technologies and products are becoming the center of attention from the points of view of weight reduction and recyclability. In this paper, we review the novel polypropylene foaming/molding technologies and products for Sumiceller®, and give our consideration to the requirement of weight reduction for automobile parts.
( 16~25 by Jinsho NAMBU,Tomoo HIROTA,Akira UOTANI,Yoshinori OOMURA,Akinobu SAKAMOTO )

Ecotoxicological risk assessment of pesticides in aquatic ecosystems has become one of the most important areas of scientific pesticide evaluation. Sumitomo Chemical has been developing many pesticides in order to maintain a stable worldwide food supply, and we have been conducting high quality ecological risk assessments by using state-of-the-art techniques for the evaluation of our pesticides. In this article, the outline of the aquatic ecological risk assessment procedures in Japan, the USA and the EU are briefly summarized and some examples of sophisticated higher-tier ecotoxicological studies undertaken to demonstrate that our pesticides are benign to aquatic environment are introduced.
( 26~40 by Mitsugu MIYAMOTO,Hitoshi TANAKA,Toshiyuki KATAGI )

In recent years the spread of ICP-MS has been remarkable because of high equipment sensitivity and progresses in collision / reaction cell technology. However, direct analysis of gaseous samples is not yet possible because of the difficulty of maintaining plasma during direct analysis. We have developed a gas converter which can move particulate matter included in gas samples to argon in order to now make direct analysis of gas samples possible. Using this new technology, real-time multi-element monitoring of airborne particulate matter samples was continuously examined by directly introducing an outdoor air sample via a PFA tube, and the signal intensities of 20 elements (40 isotopes) were measured at every 8 minutes for 80 hours. As a result, the signal intensities of Be, Ag, Cd, Sn, Sb, Tl, Pb, Bi, Th, and U were obtained at various instances.
( 41~49 by Kohei NISHIGUCHI,Keisuke UTANI )

Low level quantities of PCBs were mixed into insulating oil used in electrical machinery, mainly transformers, as recognized by the Japanese government in 2003, however production and use of PCBs has been prohibited since 1973. The necessity of testing approximately several million transformers for PCB contamination has stimulated urgent interest in development of measurement techniques. We report the performance of our developed rapid and simple immunoassay system for the detection of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in transformer oil.
( 50~57 by Katsuya IMANISHI )