Achievements

Sustainability is becoming more and more important and is also on the minds of researchers at Fraunhofer IIS. Dr. Frank Oehler, Dr. Heinrich Milosiu and Dr. Markus Eppel and their team from the Smart Sensing and Electronics division made an important contribution to a more sustainable future with the RFicient® chip and have now been awarded the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize 2022 for the development of the RFicient® chip!

With the RFicient® chip, the team was not only able to win the tenth Fraunhofer Prize in a row for Fraunhofer IIS, but also makes an important contribution to energy savings and thus to more sustainability through cutting-edge technology made by Fraunhofer.

In particular, the social relevance of this far-reaching new development tipped the scales in the jury's favor. The high energy demand associated with the use of many radio receivers in devices for use in the Internet of Things is reduced by 99 percent by the RFicient® chip. This makes the chip particularly sustainable - and yet always ready to receive. High demand from industry partners allows encouraging future forecasts for sales of the chip, which is now commercially available.

The networking of objects in the Internet of Things — or IoT for short — is becoming increasingly important, and demand for connected IoT devices is growing rapidly everywhere, from consumers to Industry 4.0. But until now, no suitable and reliable method of communication has been available for transferring many thousands of data packages at the same time. A team of researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen/Nuernberg has now overcome this challenge with the newly developed, ready-for-market mioty® wireless low-power wide-area transmission system. The team receives the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize, which is awarded to employees of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft for their outstanding scientific achievements in solving application-related problems.

For their robust, trustworthy and tamper-proof receiver technology, Dr. Wolfgang Felber, Dr. Günter Rohmer and Alexander Rügamer (from left to right) received the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize.

Many applications depend on global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) – from navigation systems to power grids, stock exchanges and communication infrastructure. But GNSS is by no means invulnerable: jammers have disrupted satnav reception data and spoofers have fooled the systems by providing them with incorrect information about the time and place. Until now, though, there has been no alternative to unprotected GNSS signals for the civilian sector.

Now a research team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Nuremberg has closed this gap with a robust, tamper-proof receiver based on European navigation signals whose output is permissible as evidence in court – more precisely the Public Regulated Service (PRS). The PRS system is the world’s first encrypted signal for use in the civilian sector. It is robust enough to foil jamming and manipulation. A great deal of critical infrastructure such as power grids, IT and cellular networks depends on satellite navigation, as do the police, fire service and customs. The first generation of PRS receivers is already being evaluated in police cars and fire engines to gain further experience for future products.

This pioneering work, especially in the field of server-based crypto receivers and systems, was honored with the 2020 Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize, which was accepted on behalf of the team by Alexander Rügamer, Dr. Günter Rohmer and Dr. Wolfgang Felber.

How does the defense formation react to the line of offense? How fast does the puck travel over the ice? Analyses and game evaluations are essential in competitive sports. So far, however, these evaluations could only be done after the puck has been in play. At the "2019 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend" ice hockey matches in San José, USA, from January 24 to 27, 2019, fans and experts experienced a new dimension of data analysis for the first time. The data of players and puck were analyzed and processed in real time – an absolute novelty.

Thomas von der Grün and Norbert Franke from the Fraunhofer Institute for Inte­grated Circuits IIS and Thomas Pellkofer from the jogmo world corp. and their approximately 20-strong research team have developed a localization technology that is specially adapted to the dynamic pace of ice hockey and is based on the measured transit times of radio signals. For the first time ever, it enables a variety of game analyses to be performed and displayed in real time. The system’s distin­guishing feature is its high measuring rate, with the position of the puck being measured 2000 times per second and the location of each player being determined 200 times per second.

On behalf of the team, Thomas von der Grün and Norbert Franke from Fraunhofer IIS and Thomas Pellkofer from jogmo world corp. received the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize. It is the seventh time in a row that Fraunhofer IIS will receive this prize.

Researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS succeeded in scanning objects as massive as freight containers, and analyzing them with three-dimensional images. As an X-ray source, the researchers use a linear accelerator with nine mega-electron volts (MeV) and combine it with an X-ray camera that works with a sensitive length of four meters and 10,000 pixels. For the first time, objects with a diameter of 3.20 meters and a height of five meters can be recorded with three-dimensional X-rays – special technology in which a large object is recorded in parts also allows the scanning of even larger objects. This makes the system the currently largest CT system in the world.

The objects are rotated on a heavy duty turntable. The camera and the radiation source scan the object synchronously in vertical motion, line by line. Due to the rotation of the turntable, the camera records many viewing angles, thereby creating the basis for the three-dimensional representation.

The Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize 2018 went to Michael Salamon, Nils Reims, and Dr. Michael Böhnel for the development of XXL computed tomography. This is the sixth time in a row that Fraunhofer IIS was honored with the prize.

“Keeping an open mind – to give new ideas the room to unfold” is the 2017 theme of the „365 Landmarks in the Land of Ideas” competition. The open innovation laboratory JOSEPHS® has been rated among the top 100 projects of about 1000 submissions. At JOSEPHS®, visitors can actively participate in the development and implementation of products. JOSEPHS® harnesses the potential openness has to offer and “makes an outstanding contribution to the innovative power and sustainability of Germany”, the jury explains its decision.

Smartphones are perfect all-rounders, but their poor voice quality is still a vexing issue. The new Enhanced Voice Services (EVS) standard promises a step change comparable with the transition from analog CRT to digital flat-screen TVs. Instead of sounding muffled and distorted, the caller’s voice is as clear and natural as in a face-to-face conversation.

One of this year’s Joseph von Fraunhofer Prizes went to Dipl.-Ing. Markus Multrus, Dr. Guillaume Fuchs and Dipl.-Ing. Stefan Döhla for the development of the EVS codec. They accepted the prize on behalf of the 50-strong team of researchers and engineers who worked on this project. The jury’s decision was based among other things on “the codec’s worldwide user base and its potential to generate substantial license-fee revenues.”

Digital radio makes spherics and crackling interference in radio broadcast a thing of the past. New technologies from Fraunhofer IIS make it possible for digital radio to replace analogue short and medium wave broadcasting around the world. Even local FM transmissions are being converted to digital. As a result, Digital radio listeners benefit from clear reception, a wider range of programming, and additional information via data services without having to pay for a costly Internet connection.

Alexander Zink, Martin Speitel, Max Neuendorf and the entire development team accepted the Joseph-von-Fraunhofer Prize 2016 for developing the foundations of digital radio and its continuation to market roll-out. The jury recognized „the steady advancement of fundamental technologies and standards established in this area. For several years, Fraunhofer IIS has been able to make progress and develop groundbreaking technologies for digital radio.“

The network award »Together we are strong« is awarded to institutions or persons from the Nürnberg Metropolitan Region who demonstrated outstanding commitment to the region. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Albert Heuberger, executive director at Fraunhofer IIS, was honored with the award in 2016.

The Fraunhofer research project Automated Morphological Analysis of Bone Marrow Specimens for Leukemia Diagnostics received an award from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the 2010 Innovation Competition in Medical Engineering. Project aim is to develop an automated microscope that allows standardized classification of bone marrow smears.

The Fraunhofer “Personal Health” Innovation Cluster serves as primary liaison between partners from the areas medical technology, clinic, research, and services. The partners cooperate with broad interdisciplinary interest to develop applications and services for personal health assistant systems. As key cluster project, the Medical Technology Test and Demonstration Center METEAN received the Chosen Landmark in the Land of Ideas award.

On May 9, 2008, Dr. Randolf Hanke (2.f.l.), director of the Fraunhofer Development Center for X-Ray Technology EZRT in Fürth was honored with the 10-thousand-euro Max Grundig Memorial Award in the Field of Research of New Materials and Processes by the Max Grundig Foundation.

The prize is awarded to the BEYOND project, a cooperation of Infineon Austria, Graz University of Technology and Fraunhofer IIS in January 2007. BEYOND’s goal is to develop a highly innovative technology platform for new serial data bus systems.

In San Diego, CA, USA, the Consumer Electronics Association inducts Professor Karlheinz Brandenburg, Professor Dieter Seitzer, and Professor Heinz Gerhäuser (f.l.) on October 16, 2007, into their Hall of Fame. The three scientists are honored on behalf of the large team of Fraunhofer researchers and engineers that had been developing the world famous mp3 audio coding format since the early eighties.

In recognition of their joint achievement “development of a digital, wireless conference system for mobile applications under difficult ambient conditions”, Jürgen Hupp (r.), Fraunhofer IIS, and Berthold Herner, CeoTronics GmbH, receive the Georg Waeber Innovation Award 2006 on October 12.

Fraunhofer IIS has been honored at this years Embedded World with the Embedded Award 2004 for its trade show guide based on indoor navigation.

This award pays tribute to especially future-oriented products and developments in the category software.

Honoring “AudioID – Content-based identification of audio material”, developed at Fraunhofer IIS and Fraunhofer IDMT, Eric Allamanche, Dr. Jürgen Herre, and Markus Cremer (f.l.) receive the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize 2004 from Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft on October 20.

Stefan Mödl (m.) and Dr. Norbert Weber (l.) receive the Georg Waeber Innovation Award 2003 from Förderkreis Mikroelektronik for their outstanding performance in the area of microelectronics, and especially the development of “velocity sensors based on the microwave Doppler-effect”, on July 14, 2004.

On October 24, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft awards the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize 2001 to Dr. Randolf Hanke (l.), Dr. Ulf Haßler (r.), and Thomas Wenzel (m.), honoring “ISAR – the Intelligent System for Automatic Radioscopy".

On December 3, Rainer Perthold, IZT GmbH (m.) and Gerald Ulbricht receive the Georg Waeber Innovation Award 2001 from Förderkreis Mikroelektronik for their outstanding performance in the area of microelectronics, and especially the development of “compact transmitters for digital broadcasting".

The German Future Award 2000 for the audio coding method MP3 honors (f. l.): Harald Popp, Prof. Karlheinz Brandenburg and Dr. Bernhard Grill. The prize was awarded by the German Federal President Johannes Rau (2nd f. r.) on October 19, 2000. 

On October 6, Martin Dietz (r.) and Otto Witte, Micronas / Intermetall (l.) receive the Georg Waeber Innovation Award 1999 from Förderkreis Mikroelektronik for their outstanding performance in the area of microelectronics, especially for programming the world's first “MP3 single-chip decoder".

On the occasion of their 50th anniversary, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. honors Ernst Eberlein (r.), Robert Friedrich (l.), and Stefan Meltzer (m.) on behalf of a team of 40 scientists for their contribution to “Worldspace – digital satellite broadcasting". The Fraunhofer 50th Anniversary Award was awarded on October 27 for one of the most outstanding accomplishments of the decade.

For their outstanding performance in the area of microelectronics, especially for their development of “new system and terminal technology for TV audience and panel research”, Dr. Roland Plankenbühler (r.) and Michael Darkow, GfK Nürnberg, (m.) receive the Georg Waeber Innovation Award 1997 from Förderkreis Mikroelektronik on June 16, 1998.

On October 24, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft awards the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize 1996 to Christian Backert (l.) and Hans Bloß (r.), honoring the development of a “digital high-speed video system".

On October 26, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft awards the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize 1995 to Stefan Rudischhauser (l.), Thomas Reichel (m.), and Thomas Desel (r.), honoring the “development of a multi-channel sensor for medicinal applications".

On October 27, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft awards the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize 1994 to Dr. Friedrich G. Böbel (l.), Dr. Norbert Bauer (m.), and Heino Möller (r.), honoring their work on “pyrometric interferometry – a new measuring system for in-situ control of coating processes".

On October 22, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft awards the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize 1992 to Ernst Eberlein (l.), Jürgen Herre (r.), and Bernhard Grill (m.) honoring their work on “data rate reduction for the transmission and storage of digitally coded audio signals".

Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize 1991 On October 24, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft awards the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize 1991 to Hans Hauer (l.), Armin Deierling (r.), and Franz Cepl (m.), honoring their development of a “monolithic integrated single sideband transmission and receiver module for the realization of a decentralized speech and signal transmission system".