TechBlog of Fraunhofer ISIT

For the qualification of materials used in electronics manufacturing, such as flux and solder resist, measurements of the surface insulation resistance are carried out at ISIT, among other things. For this purpose, e.g. flux or solder paste is applied to test structures, subjected to a soldering heat load and then aged under applied DC voltage in a test climate.

The Group for Advanced Power Transistors at Fraunhofer ISIT develops new types of power devices. For decades, these power devices have used silicon (Si) as semiconductor material. A few years ago, our group started investigations on using gallium nitride (GaN) for manufacturing semiconductor devices. The reasons for using this wide band gap material are the superior properties of GaN, such as a higher switching speed and an improved RDS(on)/VBR(DSS) – ratio, compared to silicon. In the Fraunhofer project “Vertigo” GaN based diodes and transistors are developed. During the project, our knowledge, technology and equipment for processing silicon based power devices will become the working platform for processing the new material.

In this article, we give a short status report about the procurement of further specific equipment for GaN processing that is founded by the “Research Fab Microelectronics Germany”.

Women in management are still underrepresented in companies in Germany. According to Statista, the proportion of women in management positions in Germany is 29.5%. Do such phenomena as the glass ceiling, backlash effect, think-manager-think-male continue to shape the everyday work of female executives in companies? The fact is: a woman fulfills the leadership role just as much as a man does. A healthy awareness of gender stereotypes and one's own leadership personality is important when faced with leadership tasks. Namely, this is what the interview with Dr. Marie Christin Wolff - Team Leader for Electroplating, CMP & Wet Chemistry in the Fab of Fraunhofer ISIT, which we conduct on the occasion of International Women's Day, is about.

While chlorine and ultraviolet light are the standard means of disinfecting water, ozone is equally effective in killing germs. To date, ozone has only been used as an oxidation agent for treating water in large plants. Now, however, a project consortium from Schleswig-Holstein is developing a miniaturized ozone generator for use in smaller applications such as water dispensers or small domestic appliances. The Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology ISIT has provided the sensor chip and electrode substrates for the electrolysis cell.

At Fraunhofer ISIT, the working group Module Services of the business unit Micro-Manufacturing Processes realized the cycle time reduction on a convection soldering oven while maintaining quality as part of a final thesis for the training of a microtechnologist.

Contactless temperature measurement: Infrared heat sensors make this possible by converting the heat radiation of an object into an electrical voltage. In the BMBF-funded project "Midget Infrared Sensor Systems" (MIRS), Fraunhofer ISIT and its partners have developed new technologies that make high-quality sensor technology affordable for mass production. Fields of application are, for example, spot thermometers for measuring fever by smartphone, low-cost in-ear thermometers or sensors for personal detection.

Material screening, process development and machine qualification are typical scenarios for the use of test wafers. While product wafers are usually expensive and difficult to procure, test wafers can be produced cost-effectively and tailored to the respective requirements. In addition to standardized components for typical applications, ISIT also offers customized solutions.

CAMPTON Diagnostics, a spin-off from Fraunhofer ISIT, manufactures and markets complete measurement systems using the electrical biochips developed at ISIT. These are primarily suitable for point-of-care diagnostics, i.e. for on-site examinations of patients.

The Research Group Battery Systems for Special Applications of the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology ISIT sees itself as a research and development partner for all those who want to use rechargeable lithium-ion cells in applications but cannot use "off-the-shelf" batteries due to given conditions. ISIT's researchers design custom-made cells that are exactly tailored to the customer's needs. Due to the established production technology, so-called pouch cells can be realized in a wide range of different shapes and sizes, so that the cell is adapted to the available space in the device. Even the operation of battery-powered applications at extreme temperatures (-20 to 150 °C) or pressures (>600 bar) pose a challenge that cells made by ISIT can meet.

Eight billion devices were connected to the Internet of Things by the end of 2019, without PCs, laptops or smartphones. And the trend is rising sharply: By 2025, the figure is expected to be 20 billion. "A major challenge that lies ahead of us in the next 20 years is to reduce the energy consumption of the Internet of Things by designing devices that use every conceivable source of energy such as vibration, heat and light," sums up the expert Professor Dauskardt from Stanford University. In addition to the Internet of Things, there are many other applications where devices have to work autonomot wearables. Harvesting" energy from light with solar cells has long been common practice on a large scale. If the light falls directly into an outdoor environment, this is also an excellent source of energy, as the diagram shows. But in other application environments without direct sunlight, other sources such as mechanical vibrations or electromagnetic radiation must be tapped to supply microcomponents with energy or to wake them up from a loss-free stand-by (zero power stand-by). usly, for example in medical technology or smarHarvesting" energy from light with solar cells has long been common practice on a large scale. If the light falls directly into an outdoor environment, this is also an excellent source of energy, as the diagram shows. But in other application environments without direct sunlight, other sources such as mechanical vibrations or electromagnetic radiation must be tapped to supply microcomponents with energy or to wake them up from a loss-free stand-by (zero power stand-by).