Fraunhofer Group for Microelectronics
Fraunhofer Group for Microelectronics

20 years “Microelectronics News“ – Throwback 2004

Highlights of 2004 / Fraunhofer IIS

Automatic blood counts

© Fraunhofer IIS / Kurt Fuchs
A trained laboratory worker needs about a quarter of an hour to generate a blood count under the microscope.

Draw blood and take it to the laboratory. Until now, the usual blood count examination had to be performed manually in case of abnormalities – after all, this was the case in 40 % of the patients. A computerassisted blood cell analysis will now take over this task. With HemaCAM, researchers at Fraunhofer IIS in Erlangen have developed a technique to automate such analyses and increase the quality of the findings.

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We would like to invite you to join us for a small time travel through the highlights of 20 years of Microelectronics News, and we hope you enjoy reading our selection of research and development from the member institutes of the Fraunhofer Group for Microelectronics.

Highlights of 2004 / Fraunhofer IAF

Bluray Disc replaces more than ten conventional DVDs

© Fraunhofer IAF / Osram
If all of Mozart’s symphonies fit comfortably on one DVD in high quality, this is thanks to the DVD called “Bluray Disc“ or “Blue Disc“ with a capacity of up to 50 GB.

Listening to the “Flying Dutchman“ without changing the CD, recording the film opus “Lawrence of Arabia“ only on a Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) – the blue semiconductor laser, developed by Fraunhofer IAF and IMS together with the Osram company, made it possible by generating a light beam with a wavelength in the range of 410 nm.

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Highlights of 2004 / Fraunhofer HHI

Optical chips from Berlin

© Fraunhofer HHI
Compact pulse laser module with monolithic integrated 40 GHz pulsed laser chip, coupled fiber optics (left) and electrical High frequency connector (right), mounted on an electronic plug-in card. Chip production: Fraunhofer HHI, Berlin; module design: u2t Photonics AG, Berlin.

Compact and cost-effective semiconductor lasers which can generate short light pulses in a very fast time sequence play a central role in fiber optic networks for high-speed data transmission.

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Highlights of 2004 / Fraunhofer ISIT

German Future Prize 2004

© Fraunhofer ISIT
(From left to right) Dr. rer. nat. Walter Gumbrecht, Dr. rer. nat. habil. Rainer Hintsche, Dr.-Ing. Roland Thewes.

The team of Dr. Rainer Hintsche from Fraunhofer ISIT, Dr. Roland Thewes from Infineon Technologies and Dr. Walter Gumbrecht from Siemens was awarded the German Future Prize 2004 for their project “Laboratory on the chip - electrical biochip technology“ on November 11 in Berlin. Then German Federal President Horst Köhler presented the award during a ceremony in Berlin.

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