Editorial

To stay ahead of the pack you need to know just where you’re going, you need to have something to offer – and you also need high public visibility! The building that’s home to our Institute can hardly be overseen, and now our brand-new ‘skyscraper’ Newsletter is also appearing as another kind of landmark designed to carry our ideas and solutions around the whole world – and not just into the clouds!

Hans-Joachim Grallert, Executive Director

Panorama

Minister Gabriel – a bringer of good news!

The new generation of solar cells with “black silicon” and “black zinc oxide”

It was an occasion Sigmar Gabriel, Federal Minister of the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety, didn't want to miss. On 21 August 2009, at the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute in Goslar, he personally handed over the official notice of approval for some 850,000 Euros funding for the NEPHOS joint research project. Prof. Wolfgang Schade, who was appointed as head of the newly founded project group on Fiber Optic Sensor Systems at the HHI in Goslar, is the spokesperson of the research alliance. Its other partners are the Energy Research Center in Lower Saxony (EFZN) and the University of Bremen.

The NEPHOS project aims to use shaped femtosecond laser pulses to bring about targeted changes to the material structure of silicon to achieve a higher "rate of yield". The results will be applied to cheaper materials like zinc oxide.Read more on the project in one of the next issues of skyscraper.

Panorama

World Markets – All a Question of Where You Stand

COGO Optronics Inc., Boulder, Colorado, moves close to HHI

The two year long close partnership between the Photonic Components department at HHI and the American company COGO Optronics for development of high bitrate lasers is now taking on a totally new dimension. In early fall COGO is locating its German subsidiary COGO GmbH within easy walking distance of the Heinrich Hertz Institute!

"The alliance between HHI and COGO is a genuine milestone on the way to world leadership in the field of optical components," says Hans-Joachim Grallert commenting on the move. "HHI is already the world leader in development of components in the field of 40 to 60 Gbit/s data transmission. With COGO and the commitment of investors, we can now secure Berlin as the hub for implementing our work in the high end product sector of the telecommunications market where worldwide demand is consistently high."

Solutions

Real-time Test Interference? That was Yesterday!

CoMP techniques for LTE-Advanced enable use of total bandwidth

T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom Laboratories and the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute have demonstrated the first interference-free, real-time downlink transmission simultaneously from two base stations to two mobile end devices in two overlapping mobile radio cells. The technique deployed in the demonstration – Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) Transmission -is considered as one of the key technologies for the future "LTE-Advanced"(Long Term Evolution) mobile communication standard.  As its radio frequency spectrum can be used more effectively, this means that users of future mobile communication networks based on it will have much more bandwidth at their disposition.

Solutions

Handheld TeraHertz

Breakthrough brings complete system that much closer

A handheld TeraHertz Spectrometer will be available in the next two years! Of this Martin Schell, head of the Photonic Components department at the Heinrich Hertz Institute – is quite certain. His team succeeded in developing a photomixer – a device for transforming light and electrical voltage into terahertz waves, and vice versa - for 1.5 mue. This is the necessary precondition for realizing all the components of the Spectrometer in optic fiber technology, and thus for avoiding overlarge structures. TeraHertz waves are used for spectroscopic analysis of a variety of substances, including hazardous materials.

Focus on

What’s the outlook on 3D, Mr. Schäfer?

Dr. Ralf Schäfer is head of the Image Processing department at the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute

3D is written big at this year’s IFA in Berlin. Why just now?

In itself 3D is nothing new. At HHI, we've been researching the topic now for over 20 years and have set some milestones on our way. 3D has come into such recent prominence because – taking into account the background of digitalization and extension of network bandwidth, and the increasing availability of 3D displays – new applications for the mass market are now becoming feasible. At the moment it's the cinemas that are taking the lead. But television providers too will have to develop a strategy – if they are to survive in the competition for viewers!

Applications

Designer Kitchens aren’t all that special!

Celebrity TV chef Johann Lafer loves “gesture interaction”

"I wanted my new kitchen to be absolutely way-out cutting-edge."So Johann Lafer started looking about. "And when I got to HHI, I knew I'd come to the right place!" The famous TV chef now has a kitchen he can operate with touchless controls using his fingers or his whole hand. The system has two infrared cameras which record each little movement with millimeter precision and send the information to a computer which translates movement into operating commands. Such a control by gesture system isn't just cool – it's important in all places where touching a screen or pushing a button is unhygienic or simply impossible – like in operating theatres, manufacturing or public spaces.

Projects

THESEUS

New Technologies for the Internet of Services

The THESEUS research program is the largest of the Federal Government's ICT research projects. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology alone has earmarked funding to the tune of 100 million Euros for the period of its duration (2008 – 2012), while the research partners involved in it are providing the same amount. Expectations are running high! In the future competitive knowledge society, everyone – from young people to small companies and major corporations – must be able to use the complex knowledge stored on the Internet conveniently and efficiently. This means that new services, new technologies and new business models must be created. Within the THESEUS program, the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute has been charged with coordinating the development of basic technologies.

Awards

Prof. Thomas Wiegand received the Vodafone Foundation Award for Special Services to the Advanced Development of Mobile Communications.
30 June 2009

Tobias Oechtering received the Vodafone Foundation for Research’s Förderpreis (Advancement Award) for Research in the Field of Natural/Engineering Sciences.
30 June 2009

Dr. Matthias Seimetz won second place in the category of Natural Sciences from among 550 candidates in the competition for the Deutsche Studienpreis (German Study Award) for outstanding dissertations funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF).
His winning subject – More Bits in Light!

At this year’s international ‘Kiosk Europe’ trade fair in Essen the organizers, the European Association for Self-Service designated the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute’s Virtual Mirror as the most innovative product at the fair.
May 2009

Prof. Thomas Wiegand received this year’s Group Technical Achievement Award of the European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP) for his scientific contribution to researching and standardizing video coding techniques.
May 2009

Next Generation

For men only?

Girlsday 2009

The very first Girlsday at HHI was a resounding success! On 23 April 30 girls toured the Heinrich Hertz Institute and were wowed by stereoscopic 3D pictures, wafer production in the clean room, and data transmission with the power of light. Perhaps the seeds for future careers were sown that day!

Next Generation

Fraunhofer-Talent-School 2009

We support the rising generation! It’s your talent we’re looking for!

On the initiative of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and MINT – the National Joint Initiative for Women in MINT (Mathematics, Informatics, Natural Sciences and Technology) Professions, and with funding from Deutsche Telekom, Talent Schools are to be organized in various Fraunhofer Institutes. On 19-21 October 2009 school students in the Berlin-Brandenburg area aged from 15 to 19 can take part in workshops organized at the Heinrich Hertz Institute and the Fraunhofer FIRST and IPK Institutes and have a chance to talk to experts.

Next Generation

upstairs!

The Newsletter for School Students and Students in Higher Education

It's never too early to start! We were so overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and keenness shown by the next generation of aspiring scientists and engineers at events like Girlsday, Family Day and the Long Open Night of Sciences that we've decided to keep in regular contact. Our 'upstairs' Newsletter gives valuable tips for education & careers planning, info on work experience and student jobs and much more.

Inside

What does my mum do, what does my dad do ...

.. the whole day long?

To answer this question, the kids and relatives of people working at HHI dropped in on the Institute on 13 June 2009 to try their hands at the technology, paint the building and win the HHI quiz! At the end of the day, they all agreed – this was something they wanted to do again!

Inside

Athletic

– and sure of victory

The Berliner Firmenlauf (Berlin Company Run) trembled in its running shoes at the contingent of some 100 stalwart top-fit Fraunhofer runners! Best of the team was HHI's Andreas Koher who came in 16th of no less than 10,000 runners!

Meet us

Mensch & Computer, TU Berlin, 7 – 9 September 2009

IBC 2009, Amsterdam, 10 – 14 September 2009

ECOC 2009, Vienna, 21 – 23 September 2009

CEATEC 2009, Makuhari, Japan, 6 – 10 October 2009

3D Media Workshop, 15./16. October 2009, Berlin, Platform for Research, Standardization, Production and Application
http://3dmedia.hhi.de

discuss & discover, Munich, 20 – 22 October 2009

MEDICA 2009, Düsseldorf, 18 – 21 November 2009

Germany and China, BMWi Expo 2009, Wuhan, China, 23 October – 1 November 2009

Make a date for your diary!

Fraunhofer Innovationscluster ‚Secure Identities Berlin-Brandenburg’ ++ Annual Conference ++ 19/20 November 2009 in Berlin ++ Workshops ++ Tutorials ++ Lectures +++ Discussions ++ Exhibition++ Please note the dates ++ www.sichere-identitaet.de ++