From Research to Application: Projects at Fraunhofer EMFT

The research project »Velektronik - Vertrauenswürdige Elektronik (ZEUS)« of the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), aims to establish a networking platform for trusted electronics as an interface between research and industry.

The semiconductor industry and manufacturers of electronic components and systems test their products carefully to ensure that they function flawlessly. An important aspect is the tolerance of chips to ESD (electrostatic discharge). Fraunhofer EMFT and High Power Pulse Instruments GmbH (HPPI) have jointly developed a 2-pin test system that offers many advantages to the semiconductor industry.

In areas where personal or security-critical data is processed in particular – such as medical technology, autonomous driving and critical infrastructures – trustworthy electronic ICT components and systems are becoming increasingly important as digitalization gathers pace. Researchers at Fraunhofer EMFT primarily focus on the hardware level here.

SENNA Connect develops a developer kit for the SENNA neuromorphic processor, so you can run spiking neural networks on real hardware instead of in simulation.

In the European project SpikeHERO, Fraunhofer EMFT develops input neurons that turn photocurrents into spikes, plus a SENNA redesign targeting spike rates up to 500 MHz.

In the CFP project, Fraunhofer EMFT, Fraunhofer IZM, and Yamagata University are developing novel chip foil packages for flexible electronics. Together, they are working on materials, interconnection technologies, and an end-to-end process chain to reliably integrate electronic functions into soft, curved, or flexible surfaces. The goal is to create chip foil packages less than 150 micrometers thick that can be manufactured efficiently and sustainably in high volumes and used in medicine, industry, mobility, and other fields of application.

The SUE project (Self-driving Urban E-Shuttle) developed an autonomous people mover designed to serve as a highly automated feeder vehicle for regional public transport. The aim was to enable reliable and safe autonomous driving under real infrastructure conditions - at speeds of up to 50 km/h. A key component in achieving this is a robust, redundant localization technology developed at Fraunhofer EMFT.

Cynergy4MIE is an EU-funded research project aimed at developing a platform for sensor technology, electronics and AI in mobility, infrastructure and energy systems. The goal is to accelerate innovation and strengthen Europe's competitiveness.

How can supply chains for the chip industry become more independent and better protected? The coronavirus pandemic in particular has highlighted the problems for Germany and Europe. In the "Semiconductor-X" research project on the digitalization of supply chains in the semiconductor industry, Fraunhofer EMFT is working with over 20 partners to make supply chains more sustainable and resilient and to promote decentralized, sovereign data exchange.

For Bavaria, the agricultural sector has a significant economic importance with a turnover of around 121 billion euros per year. However, conflicts with the economic goals of farmers and the sustainable goals of environmental and animal protection initiatives occur from time to time due to the different interests involved. Especially the emission of ammonia gases leads to social discussions. Researchers at Fraunhofer EMFT are developing a more efficient measurement method for detecting ammonia gases in agriculture. The aim is to contribute to more environmentally friendly and animal-friendly agriculture.