We have been developing low power cryogenic readout electronics for space borne large format far-infrared image sensors. As the circuit elements, a fully-depleted-silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) CMOS process was adopted because they keep good static performance even at 4.2 K where where various anomalous behaviors are seen for other types of CMOS transistors. We have designed and fabricated several test circuits with the FD-SOI CMOS process and confirmed that an operational amplifier successfully works with an open loop gain over 1000 and with a power consumption around 1.3 µW as designed, and the basic digital circuits worked well. These results prove that the FD-SOI CMOS process is a promising candidate of the ideal cryogenic readout electronics for far-infrared astronomical focal plane array sensors.

An experiment was conducted to measure and compare the physiological effects of three types of CRT on users. We proposed a new strategy for measuring the user's level of relaxation. In this strategy, called "Task Break Monitoring (TBM)," the subjects took a break with eyes closed after each interaction with the computer. During each break, electroencephalogram (EEG), especially alpha 1 waves, electrocardiogram (ECG) and galvanic skin resistance (GSR) were monitored and recorded. The results show that the type of CRT display which emits far-infrared rays modulated by a FIR-fan induce less fatigue in users while they are working and reduce the recovery time after the task was completed. We believe "TBM" to be an important innovation in human computer research and development because the after effects of computer use have an obvious bearing on recovery time, user endurance and psychological attitude to the technology in general etc.

The development of a far-infrared imaging system based on ultrafast THz time-domain spectroscopy has opened a new field of applications of femtosecond technology. We describe the principle of this new imaging technique and report recent progress to augment the possibilities of "T-ray" imaging. These include sub-wavelength-resolution near-field imaging and three-dimensional tomographic reconstruction of a samples refractive index profile.