In the Sensor Systems research division, the team uses the basis of state-of-the-art technologies to work on different sensors that collect information from the environment, inspired by all five senses. From the multitude of sensors, it is important to find the optimum combination in order to use it, with the help of intelligent algorithms and recent developments, to expand the heterogeneous integration of smart sensor systems for various applications.

MAIN AREAS OF RESEARCH

• Design, modeling and co-simulation of MEMS/NEMS components
• Conception and prototyping of microsystems: magnetic, optical, acoustic, piezo-electric materials and packaging
• Optical sensor and measurement systems for various applications – from optical detectors for nanoparticles in (automotive) emissions through to highly-integrated imaging systems for biomolecular analyses
• Solutions for photonic systems on the basis of M(O)EMS to develop functional complete systems with suitable optical, mechanical and electronic microcomponents, such as various micromirrrors for example
• Multiphysical and co-simulation of sensor structures through to 3D-integrated systems (‘More than Moore’), in order to detect the dependencies of different physical effects
• Packaging research for sensors, MEMS and sensor systems, in order to achieve optimization of application-specific mechanical and electric interfaces, also taking various environmental conditions into account
• Back-end services: packaging, microassembly, bonding, design, test and verification systems

RESEARCH COMPETENCIES

• Interdisciplinary team covering wide-ranging expertise including electronics, optics, physics, chemistry, material sciences, system integration, algorithms and more
• Design, modeling, and multi-physical simulation (thermomechanical, magnetic, CFD) of sensor components (MEMS, optical) as well as 3D-integrated micro systems and smart sensor systems
• Availability of clean rooms with ISO classification 5 and 8, which allow handling of chips, wafers and the latest packaging technologies
• Flexible functional split (analog/digital) of sensor signal processing to allow design of efficient system architectures