V2023 - At a glance

Rapid changes in the Earth’s climate and increasingly important geopolitical considerations have led to an urgent need for the introduction of self-sufficient sustainable energy technologies in Europe. Surface plasma technologies play a key role here, ranging from hydrogen and battery technologies to plasma-based chemical synthesis and photovoltaics. This session will therefore provide an overview of the relevant approaches.

Surface coatings often determine the utility value of tools and components. Hard coatings improve machining speed through the use of coated tools. Super-lubricating coatings reduce friction losses during machining, making them economical and environmentally friendly, and innovative surface solutions can replace critical materials. The workshop with expert speakers from research and industry offers a look behind current solutions in surface technology.

Coatings are playing an increasingly important role in many areas of medical technology. Implants become more compatible or receive a barrier coating that prevents the penetration of body fluids, for example. The demands on biocompatibility and functionality, mechanical resilience and durability are increasing visibly with the development of new types of high-tech implants that are based on electronic components and now even send information from the patient to the doctor without contact or regulate the release of active substances independently.

In the manufacture of almost all optical components, surface treatments or coatings are required to improve performance. Vacuum and plasma processes are frequently used. In this workshop we will discuss different vacuum coating methods with their advantages and disadvantages, coatings for EUV up to high power lasers as well as cleaning, measurements and data analysis to support optical applications.

The trend towards higher productivity, complexity and precision of coating products runs counter to the demand to reduce the environmental footprint. A solution of this requires improved coating processes, model-based process control as well as an overall assessment of complete process chains. This implies, on the one hand, a systematic collection of the data generated in the process and, on the other hand, a representation of processes and coating products by physical or chemical models and real-time capable digital twins.

For this purpose, the workshop addresses techniques for data acquisition as well as simulation methods from various scales, which span from detailed physical models to purely data driven digital twins, such as artificial neural networks.

A description will follow soon. Please be patient a little longer.