The Microelectronics Research Laboratory for High Frequency Beam Forming - ForLab SmartBeam - is being established at the University of Duisburg-Essen, funded by the BMBF. The research infrastructure at the Center for Semiconductor Technology and Optoelectronics (ZHO) at UDE will be upgraded with a total of 3.96 M€ to research innovative semiconductor components for applications in robotics and future communication networks.

In research-intensive microelectronics, universities represent a central innovation factor. ForLab SmartBeam is one of twelve "Research Laboratories Microelectronics Germany" that are opening up new research fields for the microelectronics of the future and training young scientists on state-of-the-art equipment.

At the launch event in Aachen on February 5, 2019, Thomas Rachel, Parliamentary State Secretary at the BMBF, emphasized the importance of the Research Laboratories Microelectronics Germany as an investment in the future: "We want to live self-determined lives even in a rapidly changing world. To achieve this, we must have a strong technological basis in Germany and Europe. The Research Laboratories Microelectronics Germany make an important contribution to this. In the labs, the electronics of the next decades are being developed and made ready for application so that new ideas and new knowledge quickly reach our everyday lives."

In the ForLab SmartBeam, Prof. Dr. Nils Weimann, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andreas Stöhr and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Kaiser in the Faculty of Engineering are researching electronic and photonic chips for environment detection and observation, e.g. for robots or autonomous vehicles, and for terahertz sensor technology. These applications require both innovative THz transistors and infrared components based on special semiconductor materials studied at ZHO. In addition to the automotive industry, the resulting components can also be used prospectively in mechanical engineering, medical technology and future wireless and optical telecommunication networks, which will have a major broad economic impact for Germany as a production location.