The Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems ENAS will further expand its expertise in the field of smart systems and their integration for a wide range of applications. Under Prof. Dr. Harald Kuhn, head of the Chemnitz-based institute for the past two years, ENAS also intends to position itself closer to the value chain of intelligent systems in organizational terms.
"In terms of content, in addition to technology development and intelligent sensor and actuator systems, we are increasingly focusing on the development of application demonstrators as part of upstream product development," explains Kuhn. "At the same time, our work is also increasingly focusing on the overarching topics of reliability and artificial intelligence. The staff department of Fraunhofer ENAS with the areas of strategy development, project office, marketing/PR and infrastructure/fab management is also embedded in our organizational development." At the same time, the existing trusting cooperation with large-scale industry, SMEs, start-ups, research partners and networks is to be continued for the benefit of both sides.
The organization has been refined as follows:
Business Unit Process, Device and Packaging Technologies (Head: Prof. Dr. Stefan Schulz): The focus is on the modeling and simulation of technological processes, systems and components, micro- and nanotechnological processes, 3D/MEMS packaging, MEMS technology platforms, nanotechnological components and systems.
Business Unit Systems and Applications (Head: Rainer Kaltschmidt): The focus is on technology, methods, customer domains and regulatory competencies Business Unit Intelligent Sensor and Actuator Systems (Dr. Alexander Weiß). The focus is on inertial components and systems, microfluidics and point-of-care, optical components and systems, hybrid and wireless sensors and systems, RF components and systems.
Reliability and Artificial Intelligence (Head: Prof. Sven Rzepka and Dr. Jan Langer): This area focuses on strategies for the comprehensive testing of thermomechanical reliability, the analysis of failure mechanisms and characterization of relevant material behavior, the acceleration of reliability assessment through virtual techniques based on numerical simulation, the creation of digital twins for reliability-oriented design (design for reliability) and the prevention of unexpected functional failure through predictive self-monitoring (health management, self-diagnosis). The mutual interaction of all levels (material, process, component, system and application) is comprehensively researched and included in the analysis and optimization of reliability.
Functional Team Artificial Intelligence: This area focuses on smart systems, including for data analysis with AI, on manufacturing processes in cleanrooms, including root cause analysis, anomaly detection, predictive maintenance and digital twins, and on the support function for accelerating simulations and automating evaluations. It works across all business units in interaction with Reliability and Fab Management.
