TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 28, 2026--
Rigaku Corporation, a group company of Rigaku Holdings and a global solutions partner for X-ray analytical systems (Head Office: Akishima, Tokyo; President and CEO: Jun Kawakami; “Rigaku”), and Tohoku University (Sendai, Miyagi; President: Teiji Tominaga; “Tohoku University”) have established the Rigaku-Tohoku University Co-Creation Research Institute for X-ray Metrology: Beyond The Limits (the “Institute”) at Tohoku University on August 1, 2026. The Institute will advance X-ray metrology technology, develop new metrology methods, and foster the next generation of researchers through an initial three-year collaboration, with the possibility of extension based on its achievements.
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As semiconductors become smaller, more multilayered, and incorporate a wider range of materials, manufacturing processes are becoming increasingly complex. X-ray metrology technology is essential for high-precision, non-destructive analysis needed for supporting stable mass production, yet conventional techniques are reaching their limits in areas such as evaluation of microstructures and accurate structural analysis in the depth direction. Addressing these challenges requires new metrology technologies, including soft X-rays (X-rays with longer wavelengths and lower energy than conventional X-rays), as well as stronger capabilities built in collaboration with synchrotron radiation facilities.
In addition, fostering professionals who can systematically understand advanced X-ray metrology and apply it in both industry and research has become increasingly important.
To address these two challenges of technology and human resources, Tohoku University, home to the next-generation synchrotron radiation facility NanoTerasu and a leader in information science, and Rigaku, with its expertise and a proven track record in X-ray metrology, have established a new institute. Under the banner “Beyond The Limits,” the Institute will integrate technological innovation and talent development to push beyond the current limits of X-ray metrology.
The Institute seeks to focus on three key goals:
1. Advancement of X-ray Metrology Technology
The Institute will develop microstructure metrology technologies by leveraging NanoTerasu’s strengths in the soft X-ray field, integrating Tohoku University’s expertise in information science with Rigaku’s technical know-how to advance data analysis. It aims to establish a technological foundation that meets increasingly sophisticated metrology and analysis needs.
2. Promotion of Collaborative Research
The Institute will pursue collaborative research across a broad range of fields that require X-ray metrology, including challenges that cannot be addressed with conventional technologies.
3. Training and Support for Next-Generation Researchers and Engineers
The Institute will provide systematic education in X-ray metrology technology, from its fundamentals to its applications to new materials and structures, with the aim of introducing credit-bearing courses. It aims to cultivate researchers and engineers who can contribute to both industry and academia. In addition, the Rigaku Scholarship System will provide scholarships to graduate students conducting X-ray-related research, supporting their academic research toward a degree thesis as well as its application to practical metrology technologies.
During its initial three-year term, the Institute will focus on achieving the goals of its joint research plan. Priority will be given to the practical application of soft X-ray metrology for semiconductors and the advancement of data analysis technologies through information science. Building on these achievements, the Institute will expand its research to broader fields, including electronic and functional materials, where precise characterization of microstructures and material states is essential.
By cultivating researchers and engineers with the skills to contribute to both industry and academia, the Institute aims to foster a cycle of knowledge exchange in X-ray metrology and help establish a sustainable foundation for innovation.
“The driving force behind Rigaku’s growth has been our ability to provide optimal solutions using X-ray technology whenever new metrology targets have emerged,” says Kazuhiko Omote, General Manager, X-ray Research Laboratory, Rigaku Corporation (Chief Operations Officer and Specially Appointed Professor, the Institute) “Although more than 130 years have passed since their discovery and the fundamental principles of X-rays appear to have been fully elucidated, I am convinced that X-rays still hold numerous possibilities that have yet to be revealed. Unlocking these possibilities will require the contributions of the next generation. At the Institute, we aim to explore uncharted territory in collaboration with Tohoku University’s academic expertise, while nurturing the next generation of talent to take on these challenges.”
“X-ray metrology is a fundamental technology that supports a wide range of fields, including semiconductors, materials, and life sciences,” says Daichi Chiba, Director, International Center for Synchrotron Radiation Innovation Smart, Tohoku University (Operations Support Officer, the Institute). “Continued innovation is essential to unlock its full potential. The Institute aims not only to serve as a platform connecting Rigaku’s advanced technical capabilities with Tohoku University’s research infrastructure, including NanoTerasu, but also to create an environment where diverse ideas inspire one another across disciplines, generations, and industry-academia boundaries, generating new ideas and technologies. True to its name, “Beyond The Limits,” we hope to break free from existing frameworks and, together with the next generation of researchers and engineers, shape the future of X-ray metrology technology. We hope this Institute will become a launchpad for innovation that pushes beyond today’s technological limits.”
Overview of the Co-Creation Research Institute
About the Rigaku Group
Since its establishment in 1951, the engineering professionals of the Rigaku group have been dedicated to benefiting society with leading-edge technologies, notably including its core fields of X-ray and thermal analysis. With a market presence in 136 countries and regions and some 2,000 employees from 9 global operations, Rigaku is a solution partner in industry and research analysis institutes. Our overseas sales ratio has reached approximately 70% while sustaining an exceptionally high market share in Japan. Together with our customers, we continue to develop and grow. As applications expand from semiconductors, electronic materials, batteries, environment, resources, energy, life science to other high-tech fields, Rigaku realizes innovations “To Improve Our World by Powering New Perspectives.”
For details, please visit: rigaku-holdings.com/english
Overhead view of NanoTeras ©Tohoku University
Inside the Institute
WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of protesters are rallying Friday on the National Mall in support of voting rights and racial justice ahead of the midterm elections, following a wave of changes to voting laws and redistricting that civil rights groups have condemned as detrimental to Black Americans.
The 2026 “Defend the Vote” March on Washington, organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, echoes the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 march. The event follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark April decision in Louisiana v. Callais that reinterpreted key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, allowing Southern states to redraw their congressional maps in a way that erodes equal representation in Black communities.
“We’ve been doing these marches for years, but this is probably the most important because this is the first year we are marching that the voting rights bill has been nullified by the Supreme Court,” Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network, said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“Marches are designed to grab attention and then go into the trenches and organize around that,” he said.
The march opened with prayer and statements from Interfaith Alliance representatives. They spoke on diversity, equity and inclusion practices, voting rights and systemic racism.
“Creator of all, let us draw on each other, with love and mercy, and hold each other up as we march, wipe each other’s tears, heal each other’s wounds,” Ambereen Kahn, an Interfaith Alliance representative, said. “Most compassionate, protect our leaders who guide, instill in their hearts the values of our shared humanity.”
This year’s march, which Sharpton's group is co-hosting with King's Drum Major Institute, a progressive think tank and community action group, features dozens of speakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
Sharpton said thousands of civil rights activists from across the southeastern U.S. were traveling to the capital by bus for the rally.
On Thursday, Courtney Pope, 48, was marching across the King Bridge to the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. But on Friday, she and other members of the National Handmaid Army were at the Washington march with plans to travel to New York and New Jersey over the next few days.
For Pope, the rally is about finding community alongside promoting voting rights.
“I know that we’ll only be successful if we band together despite our differences,” Pope said.
Friday's event harkens back to King Jr.’s historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, when more than 200,000 people gathered at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. That march, an inflection point in the Civil Rights Movement, came at a fraught moment for the country, when economic headwinds, civil unrest, political division and the Vietnam War bitterly divided Americans.
Sharpton said the Trump administration’s immigration policy for Haitians and white South Africans, as well as cuts to social programs like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s health subsidies, are unifying policies for this year's ideologically diverse march attendees. But the redistricting efforts by Republican-led states set to reduce the number of Black lawmakers in Congress loom large over Friday's march.
“This march is about people who refuse to be counted out. When the courts and the legislature broke apart District 6, they did not just redraw lines,” Rep. Cleo Fields, D-La., said in a texted statement. “They told hundreds of thousands of Black families from Baton Rouge up through the Delta that their voice could be taken away at any moment.”
Fields was the central character in the Supreme Court decision that hollowed out the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The court ruled that his district, created just one term ago to permit a second majority-Black district in a state where Blacks make up 33% of the population, was unconstitutional because it relied too heavily on race.
The court has held that maps can be redrawn for partisan reasons.
Louisiana's legislature rushed to redraw the district after the high court's decision, reshaping Fields’ district to cluster it around predominantly white communities in the Baton Rouge area and southern Louisiana.
Fields has opted not to seek reelection to Congress and instead is pursuing a seat in the state Senate.
“The people taking part in this historic march are answering back, and history will remember that they did,” Fields said.
Rep. Shomari Figures, an Alabama Democrat whose majority-Black district was targeted by the state’s Republican-led redistricting effort, said the original voting rights fight required local movements, national figures, lots of coordination and strategy. He sees this year's march as a continuation of that legacy.
“My district includes Montgomery, which was the birthplace of it all. It started with a bus boycott in 1955 and that, ultimately, morphed into a broader struggle for civil rights and led to a more broad Civil Rights Movement,” Figures told the AP.
“It led to a Civil Rights Act, led to the Fair Housing Act, led obviously to the Voting Rights Act, and the voting rights movement,” Figures added.
Ahead of Friday, organizations participating in the march, including the NAACP, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Black Voters Matter, filed new claims in federal court in their existing lawsuit against President Donald Trump's executive order restricting mail-in voting. The Supreme Court cleared a path Monday for possible implementation of the order, though it remains unclear how much can be put in place before the midterms.
“We will not stand idly by while the voices of the people are silenced,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement Thursday. “We must protect every eligible citizen’s right to cast their ballot.”
Associated Press writers Gary Fields in Washington and Kimberly Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed.
A demonstrator shields herself from the sun with a fan before the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A young demonstrator takes photos near the Lincoln Memorial before the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Demonstrators gather near the Lincoln Memorial before the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A demonstrator holds a sign near the Lincoln Memorial before the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Members of the National Guard walk past the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool before the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Workers installing bulletproof glass around the podium at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington in preparation are made ahead of tomorrow's anniversary of the March on Washington, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Workers installing bulletproof glass around the podium at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington in preparation are made ahead of tomorrow's anniversary of the March on Washington, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
