Press releases 2020

The recently launched 6.1 million Euro project INNO4COV-19, funded by the European Commission (grant agreement no. 101016203), will support the marketing of new products to combat COVID-19 over the next two years, throughout Europe. The Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP is contributing its know-how in sterilization using accelerated electrons and on near-to-eye visualization.

In October 2019, the EU-funded initiative “Switch2Save” (grant agreement No. 869929) was launched to improve the availability and affordability of electrochromic and thermochromic smart glass technologies. About one year later, the first project results show that the use of these technologies in combination with intelligent switching protocols can reduce the primary energy use of extensively glazed buildings by up to 70%. During an online workshop on “Energy Efficient Technologies for Building Envelopes” from November 25 – 27, 2020, the project members will present the project progress.

PhotonHub Europe – a new pan-European photonics digital innovation hub – has been awarded €19 million investment from the EU’s Horizon 2020 program. The PhotonHub Europe will help European SMEs and mid-caps become highly competitive digital businesses through faster and smarter deployment of photonics-based technologies, directly creating over 1.000 new high-tech EU jobs and nearly €1 billion in new revenues and venture capital by 2025. Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP is pleased to be a joint partner within the PhotonHub Europe together with Fraunhofer HHI and ILT.

The heating season in Germany has started again and in terms of a sustainable energy supply, concepts for an effective heat utilization are needed. In this context, thermal storage facilities, which are flexible in use and have high storage capacities, are moving into focus. Thermal storage systems based on zeolite materials offer great potential, but have so far suffered from a lack of efficient heat transfer between storage material and heat exchanger. In the framework of the ZeoMet project (FKZ 100346109) funded by the Saxon Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Transport, the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP has found a new way to coat zeolite granulate, so that an efficient heat transfer is made possible.

As a result of modern Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, the use of radar technology has become indispensable for the automotive sector. A wide range of systems for adaptive speed control, lane-change support, collision avoidance, and pedestrian and cyclist detection has paved the way for autonomous driving. With the installation of a large and growing number of sensors together with the limited availability of suitably exposed space for them on the vehicle body, there is almost no space left for the installation of sensors. The Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP and its two partners are jointly developing a solution for the integration of radar sensors into the front headlights of a vehicle as part of the RadarGlass project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF promotional reference 03VP03202 FEP).

FlexFunction2Sustain – Open Innovation Test Bed launched on 1st April to boost innovations for sustainable plastic and paper products to reach the market faster.

The EC is now boosting the impressive research activities in the field of perovskites by the PeroCUBE project, which is funded under Horizon 2020. On April 1, 2020, 14 European partners from industry and science in ten countries launched the joint project to develop new applications in the fields of lighting, photovoltaics and telecommunications. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP in Dresden are involved in the project and will contribute their expertise over the next 3,5 years.

In thin-film technology, heat treatment – also referred to as annealing – is often used to selectively improve material properties of thin films, such as their crystallinity or density, and hence their electrical and optical properties. However, these are energy-intensive as well as time-intensive techniques, associated with large facility footprints. That makes their applicability for large-area substrate formats difficult or even impossible. Flash lamp annealing (FLA) offers a smart solution to this problem. In cooperation between ROVAK GmbH and the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP this technology has been studied and further developed for large-area applications as part of the project InnoFlash funded by the Saxony State Ministry of Economy, Labor and Transport (SMWA, project number 100349243/3698).

The Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP has been utilizing electron-beam technology for decades in the development of cleaning, sterilization, and surface-modification processes and systems. Fraunhofer researchers from the Medical and Biotechnological Applications division (MBA) now intend to develop a methodology that combines biotechnology processes with low-energy electron-beam technology. Moreover, this hybrid methodology will be combined with existing FEP expertise in the area of sensor technology. The anticipated research program will be presented at the MedtecLIVE trade show in Nuremberg, Hall 10, Booth No. 10.0.513, taking place from March 31 - April 2, 2020.