”With the goal of completing the mandatory internship in the Computer Engineering course of study, I became aware of IMMS through the open day and through Professor Sommer’s lectures. At the department of Industrial Electronics and Measurement Technology I developed a software to evaluate and visualise measurement data from wafer tests and automatically generate a test report based on that data.

Immediately after completing the internship, I began working on my Bachelor’s thesis – again at IMMS. This involved developing an FPGA configuration for evaluating a single-photon detector. Even though I did not have much experience in the very interesting field of FPGA development, I was able to acquire the necessary expertise thanks to Professor Töpfer’s supervision and the assistance of my IMMS colleagues. In the subsequent student assistant position at IMMS, I further deepened the knowledge gained during the Bachelor’s thesis to then work on an advanced FPGA topic for my Master’s thesis. The helpfulness of colleagues in the department of Industrial Electronics and Measurement Technology, especially for designing analogue circuits and operating the complex measurement instruments, played a key role in successfully completing the Bachelor’s and Master’s thesis.

In my Master’s thesis, I developed a time-correlated single-photon counting system that is fully integrated on the FPGA. This not only resulted in a very good Master’s degree, but has also been further developed into a complete product for X-FAB as a SPAD-EvalKit and is being used in many different measurement applications. Thanks to the supervision at IMMS and the opportunities to always learn new things, I was able to extend my knowledge in this very interesting field from a beginner’s level to an advanced level at which it was poissible to complete a research topic during a Master’s thesis.

Since then, I’m working as a scientific staff member at IMMS, developing FPGA solutions for a multitude of different measurement setups in research projects as well as industrial commissions. Due to the proximity to Technische Universität Ilmenau and other research institutes, we are always confronted with exciting new tasks and always able to learn new things. Currently I’m working on characterizing semiconductor-based single-photon detectors for application in quantum communications systems in the QuantumHub Thüringen project.“