Tech News

Commercial aviation uses radar technology in their air traffic control systems to guarantee safe and smooth flights everywhere. For the AKIRA project, Fraunhofer researchers have teamed up with industry partners to develop a novel ground-based radar platform to take the same monitoring capabilities to the world of unmanned aviation. Their vision is one of secure passenger and cargo flights with automated drones in the skies above Germany’s urban centers. Starting on 28 February, a special two-day workshop on »Drone Technology for Logistics Applications« will be hosted by four Fraunhofer Institutes in Wachtberg.

Civil aviation is committed to making progress on the road towards a climate-neutral future. To make current and future aircrafts more energy-efficient and use less jet fuel, the industry needs reliable data about the durability of materials and aerodynamics in actual flight. Researchers at Fraunhofer IZM are working on behalf of Airbus Central C&T to show how sensors could be integrated in the outer shell of aircraft fuselage to achieve robust and reliable measurements even in the tough conditions in the air.

In order to consolidate and expand the existing microelectronic re-search and development in Germany regarding quantum and neuro-morphic computing, the FMD launched on December 1, 2022, a joint project together with four other Fraunhofer institutes, the Jülich For-schungszentrum and AMO GmbH: The Research Fab Microelectronics Germany — Module Quantum and Neuromorphic Computing (FMD-QNC). The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is fund-ing the equipment and structural setup required for the project.

An independent comparative lifecycle assessment (LCA) of SIM card and eSIM balances conducted by Fraunhofer IZM demonstrates a clear lead for the embedded SIM (eSIM) in terms of environmental compatibility. This confirms the merits of Giesecke+Devrient‘s (G+D) eSIM strategy, which is focusing on the further development of this environmentally friendly technology.

At this year’s fall session of the microelectronics association IMAPS Germany, Lars Stagun, research assistant at the Technical University of Berlin, was given the Best Presentation Award.  

For their commitment to providing effective support for female students at Fraunhofer IZM, Christina Lopper and Michael Schiffer have been honored with the »BestChance« award for 2022. The award was presented on 8 November 2022 as part of the 17th networking day of the Equal Opportunities Representatives, again hosted in virtual form. Professor Albert Heuberger, Director of Fraunhofer IIS in Erlangen and speaker of the Microelectronics Association, praised the recipients of the award in his speech; the actual presentation of the €3000 prize was taken over by Professor Martin Schneider-Ramelow, Acting Director of Fraunhofer IZM, on site in Berlin. 

This year’s Electronics System Integration Technology Conference (ESTC 2022) brought 350 attendees from 28 countries to the central Romanian city of Sibiu from 13 to 15 September. Among them, our colleague Steffen Bickel, researcher at Fraunhofer IZM-ASSID in Dresden, won the Best Paper Award for his contribution on “Metallurgical Aspects and Joint Properties of Cu-Ni-In-Cu Fine-pitch Interconnects for 3D Integration”. 

Tiny particulates or noxious gases: From the day they are born, all people are exposed to a range of environmental forces. These forces constitute the exposome and affect the health and wellbeing of people around the world. A European research project has been set up to explore how the exposome affects the course of lung diseases. The microelectronics specialists at Fraunhofer IZM are on board and have developed a unique sensor bracelet that can pick up even tiniest concentrations of more than 40 individual harmful substances.

The Electronics Design and Manufacturing Association (FED) presented the PCB Design Awards 2022 for the sixth time at its annual conference in Potsdam, Germany. The award, sponsored by the FED, recognizes PCB designers for outstanding work every two years. A panel of six experts judges the designs in terms of technical merit, manufacturability and documentation.

Cybercrime incidents are on the rise: To protect information in electronic components from tampering or illicit use, a crack consortium of research institutes, private enterprises, and universities have formed the »Silhouette« project to develop solutions for encrypting data in the optical domain that is considered safe from tampering and eavesdropping.