Interview with Frank Altmann

What successes can you point to for the “Materials and Components for Electronics” business division in 2024?

Three events stand out in my view: firstly, the funding approval for the establishment of a pilot line for “Advanced Packaging and Heterogeneous Integration for Electronic Components and Systems” (APECS). We have already been involved in the conception phase and will now work together with the Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD) to intensively support the development and implementation of APECS and thus the competitiveness of European industry in the field of chiplet innovations. In particular, we are contributing our expertise in the characterization of materials for modern microelectronic components. Secondly, the Outstanding Researcher Award from Intel was a highlight for us. Sebastian Brand and Michael Kögel were honored for their groundbreaking work on the AI-supported further development of lock-in thermography, and our institute was one of only two research institutions in Europe to receive an award from Intel. Thirdly, our annual CAM workshop was once again a great success. We once again had a very inspiring exchange within the failure analysis community and were also able to contribute our own research results.

Which clients does your business unit work with and how can they benefit from working with the Fraunhofer IMWS?

Our customers are part of the entire electronics supply chain - from the semiconductor to the assembly to the system level. We offer them high-performance fault diagnostics and combine an impressive variety of state-of-the-art analysis techniques under one roof. Our deep insight into the microstructure and defect structure and our broad technological background enable us to draw valuable conclusions about the operational behavior of components and identify electrical malfunctions. This knowledge forms the basis for innovative solutions that significantly improve the reliability, service life and quality of electronic components, as well as maximizing production yield and shortening development times, which reduces costs. To this end, we are also working on the continuous further development of analysis processes, increasingly using machine learning methods.

From 2025, the Fraunhofer IMWS will cooperate even more closely with the Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD). What expertise will you bring to the FMD and how can the institute's clients benefit from this?

We are contributing our internationally recognized core expertise in the field of fault diagnostics and reliability assessment of microelectronic and power electronic components as well as micromechanical sensors and actuators to the FMD and are actively involved in the QNC and APECS projects. In this way, we support the development of new innovative semiconductor technologies with a view to real industrial application potential, as ensuring functionality, quality and service life in use is essential and must be taken into account in technological developments. As part of the APECS pilot line, we are part of the new characterization, testing and reliability platform and support specification, design, technology development, production and qualification at all levels of heterogeneous integration, from the wafer to the chip(let) and the components through to modules and systems. To this end, we are expanding our equipment and existing research fields in the area of 3D defect localization, efficient target preparation and physical defect diagnostics with planned innovations in the area of analysis technology.

What are you looking forward to in the new year and what will be a particular challenge in 2025?

I am very curious about new projects such as FA2IR, where we are working with partners on solutions to consistently develop digital tools for error analysis. I'm also very much looking forward to a new EU project in the research field of advanced packaging, as well as this year's CAM workshop. Of course, the start of the APECS project will be very exciting for us. This will involve the procurement and commissioning of a number of new devices - but this is a welcome challenge that we will certainly master well.