Faculty of Engineering

Research Highlights

One of the most successful medical technology research activities in General and Theoretical Electrical Engineering has been a new 8-channel coil system for the high field 7-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging. By the addition of high impedance metamaterial surfaces and specially designed dipole elements, extremely homogeneous, magnetic irradiation of the inhomogeneous patient body has been possible and therefore also optimal imaging. Research projects in the field of telemedicine for examinations and treatments have been developed between the Chair of Technical Information Technology, the National University of Malaysia (UKM) and two Malaysian hospitals. The development of highly-specialised integrated circuits has become a strength of the Chair of Electronic Components and Circuits. These seek to restore sight by technical means in the case of retina dysfunction. The DFG supports the two collaborative projects “BiMEAs” and “OptoEpiret” in this area. In the “PAnalytics” junior researcher group supported by the BMBF, the Chair’s doctoral students are developing a sensor system for determining peoples’ emotional states.

In the field of radio systems, the DFG project “Tera50” has established a research collaboration in Duisburg as part of the DFG Priority Programme “100 Gigabit per Second Wireless”. The Chairs of Optoelectronics, Communication Systems, Digital Signal Processing and Microwave and RF Technology are involved in this research collaboration. A world record was achieved here in terahertz communication. For the first time it has been possible to demonstrate a radio system with a spectral efficiency of 6 bit/s/Hz and a data transfer rate of 60 Gbit/s per channel. Further work is now focused on developing data rates significantly above 100 Gbit/s per channel. In the Chair of Communications Technology radio transmission systems are being developed in cooperation with external partners, which aim to minimise disruption to other users in a widely used frequency band and still enable reliable transmission.

In the field of micro, nano and optoelectronics, gallium indium nitride and gallium nitride heterostructure layers combined with nanowires are being developed and manufactured by the Chair of Semiconductor Engineering and the Chair of Technology and Electronic Materials and Nanostructures. This has enabled light-emitting diodes to be developed with the highest switching speeds in the world. In the Chair of Automatic Control and Complex Systems, a real time capable hardware-in-the-loop system has been implemented with the aid of a process control system widely used by industry, and has been examined in terms of its security against attacks by hackers.

Flexible energy conversion and distribution is also a key theme in the EIT department, as it is in the MBVT department. Research is conducted here by the Chair of Electrical Systems and Networks and the Chair of Energy Transport and Storage into the system-compatible integration of regenerative energy generation in energy networks taking into account their information technology aspects. Both Chairs were involved in two of the six collaborative projects that were supported as part of the E-Energy model regions.