Branch »Integrated Silicon Systems« (ISS)

The Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS has been successfully conducting research and development in Lusatia since 2012 in a variety of collaborations with regional partners. In accordance with the self-image of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the institute with its Cottbus-based branch "Integrated Silicon Systems ISS" focuses on the transfer of developments and innovations of application-oriented research to industry as well as a strong networking of the stakeholders. In close cooperation with industry and science, in particular with the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU C-S), the institute provides decisive impulses for Lusatia with the aim of contributing to sustainable, regional value creation and an efficient economic region.

The Digital Holographic Microscope (DHM) captures the entire topographic information of a microscopic sample within a single image acquisition with a height resolution down to 0.2 nm (approx. two atomic layers). This allows fast vibrations to be captured with nanometer accuracy and imaged in 3D. Typical materials are: Metals, silicon, glasses (e.g. optical lenses), silicon, deposited layers on substrates etc. Individual chips as well as entire wafers are measured.

The infrared microscope with lock-in thermography can register local hotspots down to 0.001°C, which is used for thermal analysis of the encapsulated MEMS chips. Typical samples are: Semiconductor devices, printed circuit boards (PCB), electronic circuits, MEMS elements, individual chips as well as whole wafers.

Our "Photonic Professional GT2" two-photon lithography system from Nanoscribe GmbH allows three-dimensional additive manufacturing of micro- and nanostructures in a photosensitive polymer.  This process is based on the nonlinear optical effect of two-photon absorption, whereby laser pulses from the near-infrared spectral range are focused in such a way that two photons are simultaneously absorbed within a photoresist. The process is thus equivalent to the absorption of a UV photon, which is capable of initiating a polymerization process. This occurs in the transparent photoresist only at the highest radiation intensities and therefore exclusively in a volume (voxel) at the focus of the laser beam. Thus, the movement of the laser focus along a trajectory in all three dimensions enables the generation of almost arbitrary structures and this at resolutions in the submicrometer range.

To enable diverse development tasks, we have an infrastructure at the "Integrated Silicon Systems" (ISS) branch of the institute at the Cottbus site that covers the entire process chain from the design of the component concept, production in the clean room and final examination using optical and scanning electron microscopes. In addition, printed structures can be metallized in our laboratories by means of sputtering.

As a research and development service provider for electronic and photonic microsystems, Fraunhofer IPMS uses two-photon lithography in numerous projects for the production of prototypes. These include the fabrication of:

• RF and THz MEMS
• Masters for nano-bead lithography
• Electromagnetic and acoustic metamaterials
• Optical surfaces

as well as direct fabrication on our existing MEMS components.

Our services

• Prototyping
• Metallization
• Optical characterization
• SEM characterization