The prototype of this highly precise driving system is called Mag6D. It makes a slider float solely using magnetic powers (magnetic levitation) and positions it in 6 coordinates. Mag6D is the result of a cooperation of IMMS, the Mechatronics department of the Ilmenau University of Technology and the Physik Instrumente (PI) GmbH. It provides a driving area of 100 x 100 x 0.12 mm³ in translatory coordinates. Only 6 planar motor coils are necessary to carry the slider's weight including a payload of 500g and to move it in 6 freedom degrees. Also, the runner works completely without feed line. A new, compact integrated sensor head – consisting of optical and capacitive sensor elements – allows positioning and control of the slider in all 6 degrees of freedom. When positioning on a set point, a standard deviation of < 6 nm is currently measured in the translatory axis, in the tilting axis of < 250 nrad. The system features a very simple structure, a close-to object integration of a compact 6D sensor system and high efficiency of the actor tempering. Carrying just the load of the runner causes the actor coil temperature to increase by approx. 1 K. Perpectively, this difference is further going to drop. First approaches to impement this technology into a customer's application have started already, This project was funded by the German Ministry of Economy and Technology (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie), code KF-2534501BN9.
IMMS Institute for Microelectronic and Mechatronic Systems GmbH  with »Mag6D« was nominated for the Thuringia innovation award in autumn 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRLpo6Fi2s8

Micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) mostly are structures with a size of only a few micrometers, consisting of sensors, actors and control electronics on a substrate or a chip. MEMS are increasingly used in places where miniaturizing and improved functionality are essential. They are an important foundation for innovation. MEMS trigger airbags, are used for stability control in vehicles and as blood pressure sensors in intensive care facilities.

Nondestructive Indirect Parameter Identification
If, for example, the gyroscope sensor for position detection of a smart phone and its microphone are tested, both are quality checked at the earliest to minimize the reject rate of assemblies or even complete phones. The tiny MEMS structures of a gyroscope or a microphone, which are only a few micrometers in size, are too delicate towards mechanical touching and would be destroyed by such a check-up. Therefore, recently IMMS has developed a procedure for nondestructive indirect parameter identification. It checks production relevant geometry and material parameters and has been used for beam and membrane structures. Before taking further production steps, the procedure checks directly on the wafer. It is based on a vibrometric measurement of resonance frequencies of test structures. On the other hand, in a finite elements simulation, the functional relationship between resonance frequency and the parameters to be measured is described. Currently, IMMS is taking part in the USENE MS project, further developing this procedure. It can nondestructively identify the mechanical characteristics of new materials and can be integrated into production processes.

Piezo-Electrically Coupled MEMS Resonators
The use of vibrating quartzes that control the clock signal of computers, could soon be a story from the past. Vibrating quartzes cannot be produced together with microprocessors, but must be integrated later on. Therefore, MEMS are about to be used as clock generators in future. To implement this, IMMS is involved in the PR IMOS project, developing piezo-electrically coupled MEMS resonators. Already at frequencies up to 125 MHz, they are a real alternative to conventional vibrating quartzes. In addition, they can be integrated into production processes, are really tiny and lower in cost. To significantly extend the frequency spectrum and to make such resonators available for new applications, the institute attempts to create HF clock generator frequencies from 200 MHz up to GHz values.

A dream could come true: to make the blind see again. A vital IMMS contribution to this is the development of an ASIC¹ used in an intraocular implant. Based on the circuit specification of our research partner IMI Intelligent Medical Implants GmbH, the institute designed and tested within minimum time. At present, it is further developed to extend the range of functions.
 ¹ASIC - Application Specific Integrated Circuit

Micro-(Opto-)Electro-Mechanical Systems (M(O)EMS) detect the fall of a laptop to park the read head of the hard disk in time, control inkjet printing heads or warn in car tyres in case of a sudden pressure drop. Therefore, M(O)EMS are a vital driving force of developing innovative products. With a size of only some millimeters, they unite sensors, actors and control electronics in a compact setup on one chip. All these elements are created directly on the wafer using procedures, some of which are established in the semiconductor process already and have been further developed for M(O)EMS production. Worldwide, about 6 billion M(O)EMS are produced per year. According to estimates of the market researcher Yole Développement, this number is going to double within 5 years. At the same time, the microsystems become more and more complex, as well as their reliability requirements. To succeed in competition, this means that the production costs have to be reduced continuously. The MEMS production requires a number of tests securing quality and performance parameters. In general, M(O)EMS elements are being tested at the earliest stage in the production process. This way, in case of a defect element, the following
steps like separation, contacting and housing can be omitted. The trend towards larger wafer diameters and smaller elements leads to a higher number of units that have to be tested per wafer. In addition, the rising quality requirements demand a 100% test of all elements. All these requirements cannot be efficiently met with the currently applied test methods, since
by now, single elements are measured sequentially. This is very time and cost intensive. Therefore, the test methodology has to be improved significantly.
With this motivation, the SMARTIEHS project was established, funded by the European Union (SMART InspEction system for High Speed and multifunctional testing of MEMS and MOEMS, code FP7-ICT2007-2, project ID 223935). After three years, it was sucessfully finished in October 2011 and united research groups from 6 European countries. IMMS was leading the implementation
of the whole inspection system. The project resulted in a scalable, parallel measurement system able to test 25 M(O) EMS structures on a wafer at the same time in the first run.

Being able to detect and evaluate cracks in aircraft wings is one of the major goals in the BMBF Leading-Edge Cluster “Cool Silicon”. IMMS cooperates in the “CoolConSens” sub-project (code 13N10401) in order to gradually approach this goal. Aircraft wings are made of composite materials. If wireless sensor nodes
were to be used inside them to detect cracks, they would have to be operated in an energy-autarkic manner throughout their operational lifetime. IMMS researches suitable energy management solutions for wireless sensor systems for acoustic
condition monitoring in buildings as an example. The results of this research are later to be applied to sensor nodes in aircraft wings.

Imagine a company with total assets of 5 Million Euro and an  annual profit of 130,000 Euro. The enterprise acts as a supplier  for the automotive industry, certified according to ISO/TS 16949,  which is important in this sector. Their business activities include spray-painting of body components. Automakers require highest quality, the varnish providers give detailed handling
directions. To meet these requirements, the company makes an investment of 500,000 Euro. The acquired spray booth is to optimize the production process and to make sure all required parameters are met exactly. The company assumes that the cabin is going to be fully utilized according to the order situation, so the investment will have paid off after a short time. After
several months of extensive tests and adjustments, it turns out that the error rate of the new facility cannot be brought below 40% – despite its correct setup according to the paint provider's directions. Defect notices to the producer of the cabin amount to nothing. The manufacturer refers to the flawless state of the cabin upon delivery and insists on the user's responsibility for all configurations.
Pressure of time and cost are increasing. They decide to outsource the varnishing in order to meet the automaker's quality requirements and deadline. The costs for that have not been planned for.
IMMS has a solution for such scenarios, which has led to the successful identification of the cause of the faulty processing inside the booth. The modular hardware and software platform for wireless sensoric networks developed at IMMS includes a multi-sensor system which can be configured flexibly. Due to
the open source operating system approach employed in the project, this can furthermore be adapted for specific application purposes and environments. IMMS has used this system to analyze the production conditions inside the spray booth, including the equipment within.

Microelectronic analog circuits in mixed analog-digital systems  are usually designed for a certain semiconductor technology  and specification, then tediously manually transferred for being  re-used in a different environment. By now, there is no system  allowing a fully automatized technology transfer of analog circuits.  Therefore, IMMS took part in the research project SyEnA¹.
It designed semi-automatic tools covering the whole design chain from specification to layout. One component is the Tool Framework EDADB (Electronic Design Automation Data Base) developed at IMMS and working independently from commercial design tools.
Its modular structure supports the circuit designer  with a variety of features. A speacial focus is the support  for the transfer of designs with intelligent algorithms controlled  by an easy to use graphical user interface.  As a result, a sized circuit complying with most specifications is  created that can be instantly further developed and optimized  using commercial tools. The tool replaces old process design  kits (PDK) as well as original symbols and models. It adopts
the circuit diagram to new pin setups and symbol sizes, translates  parameters, carries out a rule-based feasibility analysis  and calculates an initial sizing. With the new tools, several circuits  have been successfully ported. Using the IMMS software,  the transfer of a Folded-Cascade operational amplifier from a  0.6 μm technology of X-FAB Semiconductor Foundries AG (XB06)  into a 0.35 μm technology (XH035) took only a few hours. A  manual porting would have taken two days.
¹SyEnA This project was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), IKT 2020, funding code: 01 M 3086.