from January 27 to 29, 2009 in San José/USA

South Hall, Booth 6329

The Fraunhofer IPMS carries out customer specific developments in fields of microelectronic and micro systems technology in Dresden, serving as a business partner that supports the transition of innovative ideas into new products. The Fraunhofer IPMS develops and fabricates modern CMOS technology products in its own clean room facilities, up to small pilot series production. With modern equipment and about 230 scientists, the range of projects and expertise covers sensor and actuator systems, microscanner, spatial light modulators, lifetronics and organic materials and systems. At the Photonic West 2009 in San José the Fraunhofer IPMS presents:

1. Scanning Photon Microscope based on a 2D micro scanning mirror

The laser scanning microscopy is a well-established visualising method for different fields of application. The objects being detected are raster scanned by a focusing laser beam and the light diffused from the samples surface is collected by a suitable mounted detector. However, systems which are currently available on the market, are very voluminous and cost-intensive. That is why the possibilities for applications are limited. The Fraunhofer IPMS presents an alternative with its »Scanning Photon Microscope«. It works on a similar principle but uses a two-dimensional resonant microscanning mirror developed at the Fraunhofer IPMS for the deflection of light. Various possibilities for miniaturization of the system result from the minimal dimension of the mirror (4 x 3 mm²). The presented demonstrator with a dimension of 4 x 10 x 20 cm collects pictures of 1000 x 1000 pixels with a resolution of 10 µm per pixel. Therefore the image area is 1 x 1 cm. By changing the optical design it is possible to increase the performance parameters. Very interesting for future applications is the possibility to choose the wave length of the radiated light and therefore to activate processes like fluorescence and to evaluate them wave length specific. Non-destructive testing, e. g. to detect microcracks, or the biotechnology are potential fields of application. Measurements are possible both in the illuminated area and in the dark field. The basic principle used for the »Scanning Photon Microscope« can be extended to other fields of application. By further miniaturization, endoscopic imaging is possible. Here, the use of the micro scanning mirror offers the possibility of integration of other functions into system – like data projection and imaging at the same time – which cannot be realized with conventional video endoscopes using CMOS imagers.  In combination with »time-of-flight« measurements, extension to three-dimensional imaging is possible.

2. OLED-on-CMOS-Integration for sensor applications

Besides the standard substrate glass, Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) are suited for the integration on different application-specific materials, like silicon wafers. For the first time ever, this allows the monolithic integration of highly efficient light sources into standard CMOS Integrated Circuits. Due to the combination of OLEDs with CMOS technology (OLED-on-CMOS) advantages concerning light-brightness, efficiency, low operating voltage and spectral characteristics can be achieved. This offers a great variety of completely new applications regarding the possibilities of the integration of different sensor-devices (e. g. photo detectors) into the CMOS-circuit-technology. In addition to the advantage of the supplement of efficient and stable light-emitting devices on the CMOS-chip, using the OLED-on-CMOS-technology, CMOS-based activation and signal processing can be realized. Since the light-emitter can be placed above the CMOS-electronics, no additional valuable space on the chip is claimed. This combination allows the production and application of highly developed devices: first of all, OLED-microdisplays (based on CMOS-technology) with embedded image-receiver (bi-directional microdisplay) for an interactive adaption and control of the displayed information via eye movement and, secondly, optoelectronic sensors with an integrated light source. Since a while the Fraunhofer IPMS offers developments in this field and is able to present different technology-demonstrators. During the Photonics West 2009 the Fraunhofer IPMS will present the prototype of a bi-directional OLED microdisplay with an imaging CMOS photo diode matrix interlaced in a QVGA display (12 x 9 mm²), both are integrated and work at the CMOS chip. Furthermore, an optical flux sensor will be presented, which includes the required light source on the CMOS-sensor chip. A CMOS photo diode line allows the detection of the speed of a particle flow and an embedded OLED light source in the form of stripes in parallel to the photo diode line provides the illumination of the medium. Due to the achieved reduction of the expenditure regarding the construction and circuit technology numerous applications of those devices are enabled. Fields of application vary from chemistry, medicine to life science. Other applications of OLED-on-CMOS include light barriers, opto-couplers and optical communications.