Technology Offerings

Tailored to the current practical requirements, the FoBt Sensor has been developed by the Institute of Nanotechnologies and Optical Technologies (iNano) at the Niederrhein University of Applied Science. Persistent and unrecognized moisture lead to moisture damage and loss of quality on different kinds of products. The novel optical fiber sensor (FoBt Sensor) from iNano combines the detection of water condensation on the probe tip surface with an active determination of the condensation rate and the temperature measurement at the sensor head. This is made possible through the application of the optical fiber sensor principle and the special design of the probe tip.

Interference is one of the most performance-limiting factors in wireless communications systems. The standard of 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) employs Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) in the downlink, where orthogonality between different users within one cell can be guaranteed by scheduling simultaneously in frequency and time domain. However, LTE is designed to consider a frequency reuse factor of one between adjacent cells leading to strong inter-cell-interference between adjacent cells.
Users especially located at cell edges may experience strong interference by transmissions from neighboring cells, scheduling their users at the same physical resource. Thus, intercell interference coordination (ICIC) techniques are an indispensable and widely discussed topic in the standardization process of LTE.
Scientists at the Department of Communications Engineering at the University of Bremen developed a coordination scheme to improve the reallocation procedure of succeeding pre-coding matrices, while avoiding sudden change in the inter-cell interference experienced at neighboring cells. To do so, they use the fact that different matrix combinations exhibit lower variations in the inter-cell-interference than others. The advantage of this approach is that the variation of the interference level is only determined by the two pre-coding matrices of the allocation, and not by further network, mobile devices or transmission specific parameters
This will lead to significant improvement on system performance on mobile devices to an edge of a cell or located next to base stations as well of base stations without impact on LTE standard. Besides, network stability is also improved.
Up to now, simulations of the computer-implemented method are successful.

At Aalen University, a novel composite material and a production process thereof was developed which makes the structural and material separation of current collector and cathode material unnecessary. The cathode material can be manufactured and formed in a continuous single stage electroplating process without the need to add binding material and electrically conductive particles. The proportion of active material in the cathode can thus be increased. Moreover, the mechanical stability and the efficiency of Li-Ion cells and Li-Sulfur cells improve.

The presented technology is a newly developed sucrose supported synthesis of transition metal doped zinc oxide nanoparticles, which can be used as active material for the fabrication of high capacity anodes for lithium-ion batteries. The general formula of these materials is TMxZn(1-x)O (0.02 ≤ x ≤ 0.14), with the transition metal TM being, for instance, Fe or Co. The obtained nanoparticles show a homogenous particle size distribution between 20-30 nm. Anodes made of such material exhibit specific capacities exceeding 900 mAh/g,an enhanced cycling stability, as well as an improved high rate capability, particularly after applying a carbonaceous coating. Extended laboratory tests have already demonstrated the advantages of the invented material for use in lithium-ion battery anodes. Further improvement is currently under development at the MEET battery research center. PROvendis offers licenses for this invention to interested companies on behalf of the University of Muenster, Germany.

Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed a novel, simple and potentially cost-saving production process for macro-porous ceramics. The process is based on the use of the capillary effect in a three phase suspension of nano- to micro-sized solid particulates. In this manner, it is possible to fabricate ceramics and polymer foams with macro-pores of diameter 50 nm or greater and narrow pore size distribution.

The invention describes a charge equalizer which connects a strong with a weak cell directly via a multiplexed DC-bus and a DC/DC-converter. Due to the direct connection the energy dissipation is much lower compared to systems where the energy is only transferred from one neighbour to the next.
The direct connection only requires low voltage components which simplifies the circuit design, reduces its costs and increases the efficiency. By additional implementation of an energy buffer, the technical complexity of switching cells with differing voltage levels can be reduced and hence the design of the multiplexed DC bus can be simplified.