Editorial

Dear Readers,

In July 2022, I took over the management of Fraunhofer ISIT. The change in the institute's management had become necessary because the Senate of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft elected my predecessor Prof. Dr. Axel Müller-Groeling as Executive Director for Research Infrastructures and Digitization.

I would like to thank the Executive Board for its confidence in appointing me as acting provisional director of the institute. I am looking forward to the task that now lies ahead of me and to the good cooperation with my colleagues. I would like to continue the positive development of the last five years and the chosen path of growth for ISIT with energy.

For the time being, I have taken over the management of the institute on a provisional basis until a new institute management for Fraunhofer ISIT is finally determined by a joint appointment committee of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel within the framework of a public call for applications.

Prof. Müller-Groeling, has earned great recognition with his work at ISIT. He has set up ISIT in a scientifically and economically efficient way - with many exciting projects and a promising economic perspective. Under his leadership, we have built up an excellent infrastructure in recent years and we have excellently trained colleagues. This means we are well equipped to meet the high demands of industry on our development work. In the near future, we would like to make greater use of ISIT's competencies to provide decisive impetus on major future topics such as quantum computing and neuromorphic data processing with new ideas, new collaborations and new research results.

Expansion of the ISIT Electronic Energy Systems Working Group at the CAU

It is particularly important to me to expand the cooperation with the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel and to ensure that ISIT has a strong branch at CAU. For this reason, the ISIT working group "Electronic Energy Systems" has already been established at the CAU Faculty of Technology in 2021, with the perspective of becoming an ISIT sub-institute in Kiel in the future. The group deals with future-oriented power grids, with intelligent storage technologies for electromobility and active reliability from the combination of ISIT's core competence in device development with CAU's long-standing experience in innovative control strategies and thermal modeling. In the future, the group will be led by Prof. Dr. Marco Liserre.

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FAB-SH in Itzehoe

In Itzehoe, the focus will be on advancing the establishment of the Research Center for Applied Battery Technology Schleswig-Holstein (FAB-SH), which began in 2021.
The research center will be located in a former logistics building in the immediate vicinity of Fraunhofer ISIT. Around 30 employees will work there on the further development of battery storage systems for various applications and develop new production technologies for battery storage systems. The FAB-SH aims at a prominent position in the national and international research competition. The basis for this already exists at ISIT. With the dry coating of electrodes and an ISIT-own separator technology, production processes have been developed and patented, which represent a unique position of ISIT.

In recent years, Itzehoe has developed into a hot spot for battery research. The company Customcells, one of our important industrial partners in the field of battery technology, is also committed to the Itzehoe location.
In the summer, the company purchased a 10,000-square-meter plot of land from the city and began construction of a new office building in November. Employees are expected to move in there before the end of 2023.

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Vishay builds new chip factory in Itzehoe

However, the most pleasing news last year for the Itzehoe technology site came from our strategic partner Vishay. The chip manufacturer plans to build a new clean room and expand its production in Itzehoe at a cost of around 300 million euros. In the first expansion phase, an additional 150 new jobs are to be created. The company primarily wants to expand its position in the European automotive market. We at ISIT hope that the expansion will put our constructive research cooperation on an even broader footing.

Relaxed corona situation allowed numerous trade fairs and events to be held in the presence of visitors

Fortunately, the corona wave gradually subsided in 2022, so that restrictions could be lifted and presence events became possible again. Thus, after a two-year break due to the pandemic, Microtec Nord took place at ISIT in September. The topic of the event "Intelligent Systems - Learning Capable Hardware and Software" met with a great response; about 100 participants from northern Germany discussed the application areas of artificial intelligence. After a forced break of almost two years, Fraunhofer ISIT also presented its research and development results at numerous trade fairs in Germany and abroad: at Photonics West in San Francisco, the Battery Seminar in Orlando, the Hannover Messe, Laser and Electronica in Munich, or Medica/Compamed in Düsseldorf, to name just a few.

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Thesis Prize of the InnoQuarter

The joint efforts of all partners at the location to attract young scientific and technical talent were gratifying. There were various excursions by students to the Itzehoe Innovation and Technology Park and the InnoQuarter Itzehoe Thesis Prize was launched for the first time in 2022. The companies and institutions at the high-tech location Itzehoe offered a competition for the best three thesis papers or dissertations related to the InnoQuarter Itzehoe. With the competition, the initiators wanted to strengthen the attractiveness of Itzehoe as an innovation location and show appreciation for the young scientists*. The first prize of 3000 euros was won by Vincent Krull for his master's thesis, which he wrote at the company Oqmented, the second prize of 1500 euros was awarded to Tom-Niklas Kreutzer from ISIT for his master's thesis on the material and process development of aluminum scandium nitride double layers, and the third prize of 500 euros went to Prince Sackey. The initiators were delighted with the standard of all the work submitted and intend to repeat the competition in 2023.

Climate-neutral high-tech location Itzehoe

The climate crisis, which can no longer be ignored, and the explosive rise in energy prices due to the Ukraine war pose major challenges for ISIT and all other companies and institutions. As a first step, the companies located at the Itzehoe site have drawn up a joint greenhouse gas balance sheet. For many partners, this is the first step on the way to reducing greenhouse gases. The project is scientifically accompanied by the Nordakademie Elmshorn and aims to make the Itzehoe Innovation Park climate neutral. This is because rising energy prices, growing transparency requirements from investors and the question of the future viability of business models are generating a lively interest in corporate climate protection.

ISIT has also initiated a whole series of measures in the area of climate-neutral production. For example, photovoltaic systems will be installed on various buildings and open spaces, ventilation systems will be optimized, many motors for supply/exhaust air systems as well as pumps will be replaced with energy-efficient variants, lighting will be converted to LED, and the heating system will be expanded to include a propane gas substitute supply. In addition, seven charging stations for e-cars will be installed at ISIT.

In September, the Green ICT@FMD competence center of the Microelectronics Research Factory began its work. The Fraunhofer and Leibniz institutes that cooperate in the Forschungsfabrik Mikroelektronik Deutschland (FMD) - including Fraunhofer ISIT - are involved in Green ICT@FMD and form a cross-location competence center. Green ICT @FMD aims to protect the climate with modern electronics for resource-saving information and communication technology and to contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of digital technologies through research and development. The project, which was launched in the summer, is part of the German government's Climate Protection Program 2030 and is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research with 34 million euros. As part of this sustainable electronics project, ISIT will reduce energy consumption in the production of volatile gases and optimize the consumption of these gases in different facilities.

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