Tech News

WLAN routers made from aluminum, equipped with a versatile multifunctional surface, and made according to the newest EU ecodesign standards: That is the objective of a German-Polish consortium of research and industry partners. With much less plastic used in the design and its circuit boards substantially brought down in size, the proposed routers offer far greater resource efficiency and circularity.

On-board chargers are the great equalizers for electric vehicle charging - and can be a game-changer for the future of e-mobility. Fraunhofer IZM has managed to bring together some of the most innovative ideas in power electronics to pave the way for a new generation of on-board chargers. Twice the performance at half the size, bidirectional capabilities, and efficiently machine-made: The resulting on-board charger is the economical ticket to the fast lane into the future.

The Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC), sponsored by the IEEE Electronics Packaging Society, takes place every year in the USA. For years, Fraunhofer IZM scientists have regularly presented the institute's latest research findings to an international audience of experts. At this year's conference, which took place from May 28 to 31, 2024 in Denver, Colorado, Laura Wenzel, research associate and doctoral candidate at Fraunhofer IZM-ASSID, was honored with the "ECTC Student Travel Award".

Rapidus Corporation, Japan‘s high-end microelectronics manufacturer founded in 2022, and Fraunhofer IZM, a world-leading research institute for advanced microelectronic packaging, join forces for advanced packaging solutions for 2nm node high performance computing modules.

Germany and France are moving closer together. Close cooperation at the research level has already existed for years and is now being intensified, for example in the field of microelectronics for electromobility, integrated sensor technology and the protection of critical infrastructures. To see the success of the collaboration for himself, French Ambassador François Delattre came to Fraunhofer IZM in Berlin.

Fraunhofer IZM has been hosting Girls' Day for more than 20 years. In 2024, curious schoolgirls once again visited our institute, gained an insight into the laboratories and lent a hand with their own research projects.

Can consumers in the EU rely on electronic products meeting high environmental standards in the future? According to a regulation on the ecodesign of sustainable products, which will be voted on this Thursday in the European Parliament, this will soon no longer be a dream of the future. Sustainability specialists from Intel, Google, Apple and Microsoft will be discussing these and other committed climate targets beyond the EU with over 300 expected participants at the "Electronics Goes Green 2024" conference in Berlin from June 18 to 20.

Overheating components significantly limit the performance of drivetrains in electric vehicles. Inverters in particular are subject to a high thermal load, which is why they have to be actively cooled. In the Dauerpower project, Fraunhofer IZM is working with project partners from the automotive industry to develop an electric inverter that can work at a lower operating temperature thanks to optimized cooling management, resulting in a lower power loss. In addition to longer full-load utilization, the required semiconductor area can also be reduced as a result, which can further decrease the costs of the electric mobility transition.