The Materials and Devices for Smart Systems research area focusses on the development of innovative solutions for a digital society by bridging the gap between humans, the environment and technology. The main goal is the realisation of sustainable systems with bespoke mechanical, electrical, optical, and biological properties based on biocompatible, recycled, and organic materials as well as their equipment with embodied artificial intelligence. The resulting systems are individually optimiszed for their application in automotive, mobility, healthcare, agriculture, construction, environmental monitoring, or Industry 4.0 production processes.
To accomplish these goals, our research area connects electrical engineers, physicists, chemists, as well as materials and computer scientists combining fields such as large-area and organic devices, material science and thin-film technology to realise wearable, ingestible, and/or unobtrusive electronics for intelligent systems, customised sensor systems, and biomimetic electronics. Furthermore, synergies between these fields lead to entirely new products such as next-generation interfaces, artificial skins, smart textiles, or smart labels