Videos
With our video series we want to give you insights into our competences, accompany our scientists and introduce you to our superwomen in science. Find out what motivates our employees and why they enjoy working at SAL, which innovative projects we are working on and how we want to unfold the future along the entire ESBS value chain.
SAL MicroFab - 1,500 m² of research cleanroom in the south of Austria
Over the last years, SAL has established a 300 m² ISO-5 R&D cleanroom facility at the High Tech Campus in Villach: a contamination-free environment with controlled temperature, humidity and pressure, furnished with state-of-the-art equipment to carry out microfabrication and prototyping of micro(opto)electromechanical systems (M(O)EMS), and advanced wafer level packaging.
In July 2022, a new building was inaugurated, hosting an additional 1,100 m² of cleanroom space, making the SAL MicroFab the largest research cleanroom complex in Austria with a total area of 1,400 m².
The new facility will be equipped with batch processing tools that will enable industrial R&D and small series prototyping, thus positioning SAL MicroFab at the junction between research development and high-volume manufacturing.
From Sound Waves to Silicon Wafers: Contrabass Elegance Meets Cutting-Edge Research Cleanroom
Jochen Bardong, Staff Research Engineer for Heterogeneous Integration Technologies, gave us a special private concert on his contrabass. At SAL, Jochen is responsible for the lab management of the Characterization Lab and the HIT Lab. He works on back-end services for small device amounts and test and qualification measurements, such as assembling prototypes, characterizing (sensing) devices and designing test jigs.
"Schuhplattler" take over the SAL MicroFab
Traditional Austrian dance meets high-tech cleanroom! Our Research Engineer Christian Jankl has put on his best Lederhosen, gathered his dance troupe and practiced his Schuhplatteln moves in our new cleanroom in Villach. When he is not dancing, Christian is responsible for the equipment in the cleanroom, making sure everything is working properly and all processes are running smoothly.
Over the last years, SAL has established a 300 m² ISO-5 R&D cleanroom facility at the High Tech Campus in Villach. In July 2022, a new building was inaugurated, hosting an additional 1,100 m² of cleanroom space, making the SAL MicroFab the largest research cleanroom complex in Austria with a total area of 1,400 m².
The new facility will be equipped with batch processing tools that will enable industrial R&D and small series prototyping, thus positioning SAL MicroFab at the junction between research development and high-volume manufacturing.
Dancing through the SAL MicroFab
At Silicon Austria Labs, we are dancing through our cleanroom! Junior Scientist Augusto Daniel Rodrigues works in our Heterogeneous Integration Technologies team, where he is responsible for the integration of chips into different substrates with various methods. He also does research on wafer level integration by wafer bonding. Instead of dicing a wafer into chips and then bonding each chip to a substrate, he investigates the possibilities of bonding wafers and then dicing them into already integrated chips. In his free time, Augusto is an avid Samba dancer. This summer, he was able to combine both his passions for dance and his work.
Over the last years, SAL has established a 300 m² ISO-5 R&D cleanroom facility at the High Tech Campus in Villach. In July 2022, a new building was inaugurated, hosting an additional 1,100 m² of cleanroom space, making the SAL MicroFab the largest research cleanroom complex in Austria with a total area of 1,400 m².
The new facility will be equipped with batch processing tools that will enable industrial R&D and small series prototyping, thus positioning SAL MicroFab at the junction between research development and high-volume manufacturing.
Cookies from the SAL MicroFab
Have you ever seen someone baking in an R&D cleanroom? Only at Silicon Austria Labs! Madeleine Petschnigg is a Junior Scientist in Thin Film Technologies at SAL. Last year, SAL enabled her to go on a research stay abroad at Penn State University. Now she is back at SAL Villach, finishing her PhD and conducting research on ferroelectric thin films in the cleanroom, pushing the boundaries to even better device performance.
Over the last years, SAL has established a 300 m² ISO-5 R&D cleanroom facility at the High Tech Campus in Villach. In July 2022, a new building was inaugurated, hosting an additional 1,100 m² of cleanroom space, making the SAL MicroFab the largest research cleanroom complex in Austria with a total area of 1,400 m².
The new facility will be equipped with batch processing tools that will enable industrial R&D and small series prototyping, thus positioning SAL MicroFab at the junction between research development and high-volume manufacturing.
Bat2Share
The bat2share project aims at the development of charging infrastructure for sustainable zero-emission e-mobility in Austria. In the project we develop both hardware and software needed for e-bike battery sharing.
bat2share is supported by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund and implemented by Silicon Austria Labs together with two Austrian SMEs, Erfideo from Graz and GP Motion from Villach.
Digineuron
The project "Digineuron" has been dedicated to improving the performance of embedded systems for AI algorithms by orders of magnitude within a limited energy budget. The result - a hardware accelerator for AI in 65nm technology - sets an international benchmark in low power consumption and performance efficiency.
Cooperative research with SAL
The unique SAL cooperation model is characterized by the rapid implementation of innovative ideas and offers partners access to infrastructure and know-how along the entire value chain of electronic based systems.
With this model, we enable our partners to implement their research idea not only quickly and unbureaucratically, but we also finance 50% of the project costs. The industry partner contributes 25% in cash and 25% in in-kind services.
The IP rules for all our projects are in accordance with the European state aid law and every cooperation project is publicly and anonymously advertised for four weeks to enable other suited partners to take part.
Learn more: https://silicon-austria-labs.com/zusammenarbeit/kooperationsmodell
SAL's vision for a better future
With the pillars “EBS for Green”, “EBS for Austria” and “EBS for Europe”, SAL wants to further strengthen the Austrian and European EBS ecosystem and become a one-stop-shop for research in the field of electronic based systems.
Silicon Austria Labs - Your research center for electronic based systems
Silicon Austria Labs (SAL) is Austria's top research center for electronic based systems (EBS), which are the technological backbone of digitization. At three locations (Graz, Villach, Linz), SAL is conducting research in the areas of Microsystems, Sensor Systems, Power Electronics, Intelligent Wireless Systems and Embedded Systems to develop future-oriented solutions for industrial production, health, energy, mobility and safety.
SAL brings together key players from industry, science and research and thus valuable expertise and know-how and conducts cooperative, application-oriented research along the value chain. Cooperative projects are co-financed by SAL and enable a fast and unbureaucratic project start. SAL is thus shaping the high-tech locations Austria and Europe and "unfolds the future".