Kiyosu, Japan, November 30, 2020: Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. has invested¹ in Ball Wave Inc., a startup from Tohoku University that develops practical applications of ball SAW sensors.² These sensors use natural collimation of surface acoustic waves (SAWs), a physical phenomenon predicted and experimentally verified by researchers at Tohoku University, and can instantly detect various kinds of matter in air and other gases at the nanoscale.

Toyoda Gosei and Ball Wave will leverage Toyoda Gosei’s surface treatment technologies, such as painting and plating technology cultivated in the development and production of automotive interiors and exteriors, to achieve coatings for better ball SAW sensor performance. In the future, the two companies aim to develop a sensor that can detect viruses in the air with a view to combining it with Toyoda Gosei’s deep UV LED technology that can eliminate the novel coronavirus and other viruses.

Toyoda Gosei will continue to tackle social issues through collaboration with startups that are promising for synergy with its core technologies.

^*1 100 million yen was invested in November 2020.

^*2 Ball Wave has commercialized devices such as a high-performance trace moisture sensor that can be used in semiconductor manufacturing processes and drying rooms.

Company outline of Ball Wave

Company name	Ball Wave Inc.
Headquarters	Tohoku University Business Incubator T-Biz 501, 6-6-40, Aza Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba, Sendai, Miyagi
President & CEO	Dr. Shingo Akao
Founded	November, 2015
Capital	JPY100 million (as of October, 2020)

Ball SAW sensor(A sphere of a few millimeters in diameter)