Accomplished technical milestones
- Installation and launch of Orion NanoFab Scanning Ion Microscope (October to December 2014)
- Training of MCI’s personal for work with Orion: the Orion team (three persons) went through three training cycles (November 2014 to June 2015)
- Completion of the Orion lab facilities (October 2015)
- Upgrading Orion hard- and software ( November 2015)
- Development and administration of the Orion-Lab facilities
Research activities
Imaging trials
- Organic nanofibers for optoelectronics (SDU_MCI)
- Multilayer photovoltaic systems (SDU_MCI, Abengoa (Spain))
- Multilayer thin films on Si for applications in sensor technology (Danfoss-IA)
- Graphene layers (free and on Cu-substrates)
- PEMFC fuel-cell electrodes (SDU_KBM)
- Streptococcus bacteria (SDU_BMB)
- Lipid’s nanostructures (SDU_SPSE)
- Porosity in anodized Al films (SDU_MCI)
- ZnO nanostructures (CAU (Kiel))
Micro-and-Nanofabrication trials
- Nanostructures in Au (films and bulk) for plasmonic applications (SDU joint projects)
- Semiconductor devices cross-sectioning (development of tomography capabilities)
- Cross-sections of the multilayer photovoltaic systems (SDU-MCI)
Scientific links (established so far)
- Within SDU: with the research groups within MCI, FKF, KBM
- Within Denmark: iNano (Aarhus University), DTU
- Worldwide: Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), Fraunhofer-ISIT(to be established), CAU Kiel (Germany), NINa (Germany)
- The work is currently underway for expanding scientific cooperation on both regional and international levels
Networking with industry, government and cluster organizations
Regional Industry
- Danfoss A/S: Power Electronics, Silicon Power, Industrial Automation, Technology Centre
- Banke Accessory Drives
- NewTec Engineering A/S
- Governmental and cluster organizations
- Sygehus Sønderjylland
- Clean
- IDA Denmark
R&D projects with external funding
2015 projects
Innovation network for cross border development of energy efficient micro-components (BHJ Fonden)
The project is dedicated to one of the main problems of the innovation in sustainable energy, namely the reliability of the electronic components, and is aimed at transforming the laboratory based inventions in this area into sellable company products. The ORION microscope gives an unprecedented insight into the way the components work and fail, and thus allows one to optimize them towards a commercially acceptable failure rate.
Power Electronics for Green Energy Efficiency (Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme (5B))
(20116-2019)
The project is dedicated to advanced power electronics, i.e., the application of solid-state electronics based on new materials for the efficient control and conversion of electrical power, reducing energy losses in all stages of the energy supply chain and consumption.
Despite high expectations, the market uptake of energy efficient Advanced PE is still challenged by technical and economic barriers ,which are expected to be overcome in the next 3-7 years. The project aims at overcoming knowledge gaps and increasing the capacity of companies from the energy supply chain to adopt their business and R&D strategies to the expected potentials of advanced power electronics.
The project sets up a cross-sector consortium consisting of 7 research institutions with expertise in advanced power electronics, 9 companies from the energy supply chain, as well as 8 partners from business development associations, technology transfer institutions, and cluster organisations. The consortium allows for an effective establishment of collaboration in the Baltic Sea region, which accelerates the market uptake of energy efficient advanced power electronics.
CellTom - Molecular cell tomography for improving cancer surgery (Interreg Deutschland-Danmark (5A)
The project is intended to combine different microscopy and spectroscopy techniques to develop new strategies for early diagnosis of diseases. This involves two advanced state-of-the-art diagnosis optical imaging techniques being pioneered at Institut für Biomedizinische Optik BMO in Germany and capabilities of Helium ion microscopy that has been recently been installed at NanoSYD.
Orion marketing activities/events
- ORION launch event (December 2014)
- Presentation of ORION capabilities to the SDU management (December 2014)
- Presentations of ORION capabilities to Danish companies and organizations including Danfoss A/S divisions (such as Power Electronics, Silicon Power, Industrial Automation, Technology Centre), Banke Accessory Drives, NewTec Engineering A/S, Sygehus Sønderjylland, and IDA Denmark
- Presentations of ORION to Siemens, Adidas, and a delegation from Chinese Universities
- Presentation of IRCA ORION activities at the IRCA workshop (November 11, 2015)
IRCA /Orion related publications
[1] Titanium nitride as a strain gauge material. Nis Dam Madsen, Mathias Hausladen, Serguei Chiriaev, Peter Johannesen, Zacarias Eduardo Fabrim, Paulo F. P. Fichtner, and Jakob Kjelstrup-Hansen, Sensors and Actuators, submitted
[2] Microstructural characterization of PEM Fuel Cells with He-ion microscopy. Serguei Chiriaev, Shuang Ma Andersen, and Nis Dam Madsen. Applied Physics A (to be submitted)
[3] An article submitted to PLUK