Press releases 2022

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.

As part of the project "BioIntElekt" (Development of an innovative small-scale, low-energy electron beam source integrated in a bioreactor system, funding reference: 601015) funded by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in an internal program, metals should be mobilized with the help of bacteria. At the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP, a new process for enhanced microbial ore leaching (bioleaching) is under development and initial successes were achieved. The institute will present the process principle at ACHEMA 2022, August 22–26, 2022, in Frankfurt/Main, Germany at the Fraunhofer joint booth no. A52 in hall 6.0.

The partners of the EU project FlexFunction2Sustain have committed themselves to create a network for innovative solutions for sustainable and smart products powered by nano-functionalized paper and plastic in order to support SMEs, start-ups and industries in the development and market launch of pioneering products. After the first two years, a number of promising results and prototypes have emerged and will be presented at the Conference for Industrial Technologies IndTech 2022 in Grenoble, France, June 27–29, 2022. Among them, a recently finalized highlight: the first working organic photovoltaic cell on recycled plastics.

In addition to an energy-saving design, microdisplays for wearables must also display information in a way that they are sufficiently bright under daylight conditions, at best in colored versions and recognizable with the naked eye. The OLED microdisplay family of the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP has now been extended: Microdisplays in a new design for ultra-high brightness. The new versions will be presented for the first time at the SID Display Week, May 10 - 12, 2022, in San José, USA, booth 1320 (German Pavilion).

The development of resource-efficient manufacturing processes for next-generation battery anodes was the aim of the joint project „nextBatt“ funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, funding reference: L1FHG42421). At the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP, new material combinations and efficient production technologies have been realized for this purpose. The Institute will present recent results at SVC TechCon 2022, May 3 – 5 2022, in Long Beach/USA, at booth No. 436.