Welcome to the Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT)

IMT is a one-stop-shop for advanced micro and nano system development and upscaling. For every posed challenge, our skilled multidisciplinary teams develop novel technological and application-oriented solutions at forefront of the state-of-the-art. Our up-to-date technology platform is also accessible through the KNMFi services. The in-house lithography capabilities range down to 6 nm lateral resolution, and is coupled with our extensive know-how in fabrication process development. Our talented young scientists cover a wide range of applications and technology platforms. We extensively educate M.Sc. and Ph.D. thesis students, and our alumni hold key positions at the top technology addresses.

Xu-J
Prize of the Leopoldina for young scientist Jingyuan Xu

With the Leopoldina Prize for young scientists, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina honors Dr. Jingyuan Xu, who researches novel heating and cooling technologies for the energy transition. The award ceremony will take place on Monday, March 18, 2024 at the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in Halle (Saale). Dr. Xu will present her research in a lecture. The young engineer is currently the recipient of two other awards: the Hector RCD Award and member of the Global Young Academy.

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Kohl
There is much unused energy in low-grade waste heat at 40 to 60 °C. In the framework of the EU doctoral network HEAT4ENERGY, researchers at IMT are working on the development of thermomagnetic generators to produce electricity.

Thermomagnetic generators are based on novel alloys that exhibit strongly temperature-dependent magnetic properties near room temperature. The change of magnetization induces an electrical current in an applied pick-up coil. The required temperature changes are only a few degrees Celsius. A possible field of applications are microgenerators, for instance, to power sensors in hardly accessible places or to energize electronic components in order to operate them without batteries. In the next four years, researchers of the EU doctoral network HEAT4ENERGY will advance this technology and implement first functional prototypes. Among the partners is the spin-off company memetis GmbH (https://www.memetis.com) found in 2017 by three former PhD student at IMT that specializes on innovative actuator technologies.

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PerowskitTobias Abzieher
Weltweit arbeiten Forschung und Industrie an der Kommerzialisierung der Perowskit-Photovoltaik. Forschende am IMT heben im Rahmen einer internationalen Initiative hervor: Industriell erprobte Vakuumverfahren könnten mit gewissen Verbesserungen zur schnel

Perowskit-Silizium-Tandemsolarzellen haben in den vergangenen zehn Jahren eine rasante Entwicklung durchlaufen: In der Forschung konnten Wirkungsgrade von mehr als 33 Prozent erreicht werden. Damit liegen sie bereits heute über den herkömmlichen siliziumbasierten Solarzellen. Die Marktreife steht allerdings noch aus. Eine der Hürden ist die ungeklärte Frage, mit welchem Verfahren sich Perowskit-Solarzellen als Massenprodukt am besten herstellen lassen. Dabei stehen lösungsmittelbasierte Herstellungsverfahren, die in den Laboren weltweit angewandt werden, Dampfphasenabscheidungsverfahren im Vakuum gegenüber, die auch heute noch Standard in der Herstellung von Dünnschichten in der Photovoltaik oder bei der Produktion organischer Leuchtdioden (OLEDs) sind.

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InnovativeARTIS Uli Deck
Innovative materials: NEO2023 goes to spin-off from the IMT

nanoshape GmbH, founded by former IMT employees Litsy Hütschelrath and Dr Partick Doll, has won the NEO2023 innovation prize of the Karlsruhe TechnologyRegion (TRK), which is endowed with 20,000 euros. nanoshape GmbH received this prize for its development of a surface technology to combat inflammation in implants at a ceremony held at Agilent Technologies Deutschland GmbH.

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Mager-Cocima
IMT-Students won COSIMA 2023

COSIMA is a yearly event where student teams from all over Germany compete in designing an open topic microsystem-related product. A jury of industry and academic experts evaluates each team based on their technical solution, prototype, pitch performance as well as their concepts in marketing and business development. The top three teams are granted an attractive money prize as well as the opportunity to attend the international ICAN competition to prove themselves on an international stage.
This year, KIT’s competitor from IMT was “StraightUp - A Novel Approach To Posture Control”. The team developed a smart wearable that detects a user's posture by measuring their shoulder-position. To achieve this, the three students came up with a novel sensing solution, based on a shape memory alloy wire integrated into textile. The team, mentored via the product design class of Dr. Dario Mager and Professor Jan Korvink, was able to convince the jury in Dresden and won an amazing first prize. Congratulations to the students for this great success.

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Innovative Student teams from IMT at the International ICAN Competition

By winning at the national German competition for the development of Microsystem-related product design – COSIMA (https://www.cosima-mems.de) in 2021 and 2022, two teams from IMT had qualified for the international ICAN competition held in June 2023 in Kyoto (https://www.ican-x.com/contest). At this event 23 Teams from around the world presented their product prototypes to a jury of seven international experts. After an exciting day of inspiring presentations, the team upGRADe won an amazing  third place with their upgrade kit that converts a conventional stove into an app-controlled cooking machine. The students have developed their ideas at IMT’s microsystems product development course (https://www.imt.kit.edu/lectures_3167.php). They join the ranks of successful graduates of the course, the most prominent example being our team that won ICAN in 2018 with their stitch healer “heat-it” that became a successful company. We wish the current teams a similarly bright future.

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ERC Funds Prof. Uli LemmerMarkus Breig, KIT
ERC funds Prof. Uli Lemmer under the Advanced Grant to develop low-cost thermoelectric generators

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded an Advanced Grant to Prof. Uli Lemmer from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). In the ORTHOGONAL project, a cost-effective and scalable process for manufacturing thermoelectric generators (TEGs) will be developed and tested. TEGs convert ambient heat directly into electrical energy and offer multiple potentials for recovering unused waste heat. Likewise, sensors for the Internet of Things (IoT) and portable electronic devices (wearables) can be sustainably supplied with energy. The ERC will fund the project with 2.4 million euros over the next five years.

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Magnetresonanz Amadeus Bramsiepe, KIT
Prestigious Funding For Developing High Performance Tabletop NMR Units

Under the management of spokesperson Prof. Jan G. Korvink (IMT), 15 projects of scientists from the universities of Karlsruhe, Kaiserslautern, Konstanz and Stuttgart are funded within the “High Performance Compact Magnetic Resonance (HyPeriOn)” CRC (in German „SFB“). The team aims to reduce the volume of high-performance magnetic resonance systems by a factor of 200. (Photo: A. Bramsiepe, KIT).

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PaetzoldM. Breig, KIT
Ulrich W. Paetzold Receives ERC Consolidator Grant

T.T. Prof. Ulrich W. Paetzold has been awarded a highly endowed ERC Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). He leads an international and highly interdisciplinary research group on new materials and processes for next generation photovoltaics. The ERC award will further strengthen his research on perovskite (tandem) photovoltaics. The proposed project aims to develop a radically new manufacturing process for high quality perovskite semiconductor that has the potential to overcome key challenges of perovskite thin film processing.

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