Feature Topics

Modeling and monitoring in power modules reduces cost. Expected lifetime can be predicted more accurately and the appropriate maintenance measures can be taken. Thus, modules no longer have to be oversized and high costs caused by production losses or even damage to machinery due to un-expected failure can be prevented.

The research area “reliability” is particularly significant at Fraunhofer IZM, as different materials with diverse thermal, mechanical and thermomechanical properties are used in the packaging process.

Cyber physical systems might sound like it belongs in a science fiction novel, but in fact it has the potential to change our economy to the same extent as PCs did. Abbreviated to CPS, cyber physical systems is our future - a future in the physical world of machines, equipment and devices is networked with the virtual world of the internet or cyberspace.

One striking feature of the Internet of Things (IoT) is the unprecedented level of data being generated around the clock. Efficient collection, identification, transmission and storage of information will pave the way for new applicatioms, such as connected and autonomous vehicles, predictive maintenance, smart factories, smart energy, smart health and smart cities. 

The millimeter-wave (mm-wave) band offers enormous bandwidth that is unparalleled compared to the spectrum available for most wireless communication and radar senor systems today.

Fraunhofer IZM has been harnessing innovative techniques for photonic system integration and miniaturization to tackle the challenges posed by quantum technologies (QT) and seize their enormous potential to overcome the inherent limitations of current technology.

As robots have evolved, they have become more and more autonomous, accelerated in the recent past in particular by the aggressive pace of developments in the automotive industry and the arrival of more and more powerful computers, smartphones, and internet connections.

Progress in our understanding of biological processes and in the miniaturization of electronics have paved the way for bioelectronics as a promising and innovative area for research. The lack of any common ground between biology and electronics is deceptive: Biology seems to deal only with the basic building blocks of life, like cells or proteins, and electronics seems removed from nature with its chips and transistors.

No chain can be stronger than its weakest link: This old adage still applies in the digital world, where even vast sums spent on software security will never guarantee holistic security for the entire system.

The evolution of CPUs and GPUs, packing ever more computing power into ever smaller packages, is inexorably nearing its commercially viable and, soon, physical limits. Chips are still expected to become faster with every generation, but the rate of growth is already slowing. As the technology’s evolution is coming up to this crossroads, chiplets represent the future of processors.

The factories of the future need to be smart, adaptable, efficient, and sustainable. The idea of an Industry 4.0 was born to tackle this technological challenge with its focus on promoting the digitalization and automation of industrial manufacturing.

The vision of the circular economy speaks of closed cycles of resources and materials, of products that are maintained, repaired, reused, and recycled to stay in use for longer, and of getting the optimum out of the resources invested into a product over the longest period possible.