Research Areas

Common projects with industry demand careful observations of EMC aspects. Basic investigations on the nature of electromagnetic influences on electronic circuits and data transmission means are carried out, on other hand safe circuits are designed using new circuit topologies and shielding philosophies.

Basic concepts of high resolution AD- and DA-converters as well as their system application are considered. Analog circuits in the subnanosecond domain for measurement in ultrasonic applications are developed. A further point of effort are intelligent sensor interfaces which yield new smart sensor systems.

Based on the work with sensors and interfaces instruments and systems for industrial process control and scientific laboratory instrumentation are developed with the aim of high reliability and high noise immunity. Aspects of ergonomy and the man - machine interface are considered. As microprocessors and personal computers are used extensively also software engineering is an important field of the activity.

Concepts of electronic systems as well as control units for industrial and automotive measurement applications are worked out. For special applications explosion-proof and extremly reliable versions are developed.

Mid 1988 the "Grazer Zweig" of the Austrian project UNICHIP was founded. Since that time a group of three people has been working in the field of VLSI Design. With the installed tools a complete design of an integrated circuit, including the production tape, can be done. The main point of effort are mixed analog/digital circuits. The institute is participant in the European project EUROPRACTICE and the national TMOE (Technologieverbund Mikroelektronik Österreich). Both activities within this very important field of technical science are intended to increase the transfer of technology to small industries.