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Controlling light and heat radiation through windows and glass facades at the push of a button, saving energy and still maintaining a clear view? Switchable electrochromic films that turn dark but remain transparent are expected to make this possible in the future. The fact that this can also be retrofitted in existing buildings is to be demonstrated by the joint project "EnOB: FLEX-G 4.0 - Technologies for innovative switchable films as a retrofit solution for energy-saving windows and glass facades" (funding reference: 03EN1048), which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action BMWK. Coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP, the project will work with six other partners to advance the state of the art to the prototype stage over the next four years. In doing so, the project aims to kill two birds with one stone - on the one hand, the windows of a Dresden school are to be retrofitted, and on the other, the pupils are to be actively involved in the technology development as a contribution to promoting career orientation.

OLED microdisplays researched and developed at the Dresden Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP have already been offered for several years as evaluation kits for potential exploitation partners. In addition to the design of application- and customer-specific microdisplay chips made possible by means of integrated circuit design, the industry-compatible, standardized manufacturing process technology development up to testing and characterization methods plays an important role. For the latter, a 64-device microdisplay test unit for characterization upon delivery or/and receipt of goods by customers will now be presented for the first time at embedded world 2023, at the Fraunhofer joint booth (Hall 4, No. 422).

Cleaning glass facades and solar installations is expensive and time-consuming. Dirt reduces the yield of solar modules. Reasons enough to research surfaces that minimize this effort. The Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP has now succeeded within the European Union-funded NewSkin project (GA: 862100) in applying crystalline titanium oxide to ultra-thin glass using a roll-to-roll process, thus achieving hydrophobic surfaces that become superhydrophilic under UV light. Initial results of this showcase of some of the NewSkin open access upscaling facilities will be presented at the Fraunhofer joint booth, No. C2-528, during BAU 2023, April 17 – 22, in Munich, Germany.

Miniaturized optoelectronic systems with emitter and/or sensor functions on a single chip can be realized with OLED-on-silicon technology. Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP have now used this technology, which has reached industrial maturity in OLED microdisplays so far, to develop an advanced organic-on-silicon photonics platform that can enable new generations of microdisplays and image sensors. The latest research results will be presented and actual demonstrators will be showcased at Photonics West 2023, January 31 – February 2, 2023, in San Francisco, USA.

After two years of development, the European Commission-funded project INNO4COV-19 (FKZ 101016203), which supported the commercialization of new products to combat COVID-19 in Europe, has come to an end. The Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP developed, among other things, a prototype of a portable thermal camera system with integrated, low-power microdisplays for early and contactless detection of infected persons. This system will be presented at CES 2023 in Las Vegas, USA, January 5-8, 2023, at the Fraunhofer FEP booth, No. 55823, German Pavilion, in the Venetian Expo Center.

Within the project “BIOSYNTH- Modular High-throughput Micro-Platform for Future Mass Data Storage from Synthetic Biology”, funded by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in an internal program, an innovative microchip platform for efficient cell-free and digitally controllable biosynthesis will be developed. The Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP is the consortium leader and will work together with the Fraunhofer Institutes for Photonic Microsystems IPMS, for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine ITEM, for Cell Therapy and Immunology, Bioanalytics and Bioprocesses IZI-BB on the fundamentals for the mass data storage devices of the future with extremely high storage density.

Within the project secureAR (funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research), a cross-industry and open cloud-based service platform with open industry interfaces is being developed. Within secureAR, the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP is researching a novel hardware platform that is used in an innovative AR assistance system for the location- and situation-specific provision and visualization of data in different industrial scenarios. This hardware platform will be presented at electronica 2022, from November 15 to 18, 2022, in Munich/Germany, at the Fraunhofer joint booth B4.258, in Hall B4.

Electron beam technology can be used to reliably treat and functionalize surfaces. Now the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP has succeeded in producing anti-adhesive coatings on plastic film by applying low-energy-accelerated electrons without the use of additional chemical crosslinkers. The institute will present this topic at BIOEurope 2022, from 24 to 26 October 2022, in Leipzig, at Bio-Saxony booth No. 100, among others.

Within the InnoVET project “CLOU – Future Cluster for Innovative Vocational Training” (FKZ 21IV007D) funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), an adaptive and path-opening initial and continuing education in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry is being developed which at the same time makes technical innovations accessible to vocational education and training. The training course “Certified Professional Specialist (m/f/d) for Industrial Parts Cleaning” developed in this project was modularly designed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP together with the Sächsische Bildungsgesellschaft SBG and started its test phase in September. At parts2clean 2022 from 11 to 13 October 2022 in Stuttgart, Germany, the contact persons for this training will answer questions from all interested parties at the booth of the Fraunhofer Business Area Cleaning; Hall 4, Booth B20.

Glass facades characterize modern architecture. While solar radiation serves to support heating in winter, the building interior heats up in summer and requires active cooling. Smart windows can regulate the solar radiation according to the weather situation – a forward-looking solution in times of energy saving. Fraunhofer FEP has now succeeded in producing the world's first thermochromic layer on ultra-thin glass in a roll-to-roll process. These results will make mechanical blinds superfluous in the future and at the same time reduce the cooling and heating energy requirements of a building.