Research Areas

Research in CRYSTALLINE is organized in alignment with the five main research foci at SAL:

• Embedded systems address the trends of EBSs becoming more intel­li­gent, distributed, energy effi­cient and sustain­able. Special attention is laid at SAL on the growth of AI in the embedded computing continuum and offering dependable, secure as well as resilient AI solutions in fields like computer vision, anomaly detection, or diagnostics and reasoning. For our efforts on secure and efficient computation engineering, we focus on both soft- and hardware.
• Intelligent wireless systems address research questions mainly focused on wire­less commu­ni­ca­tion and radar tech­nolo­gies in the radio frequency spec­trum from MHz to the very high GHz range. RF systems provide the connec­tion over the air for wire­less commu­ni­ca­tions systems (incl. RFID, WPAN, LPWAN, 5G/6G). One of the main foci is to develop analog and mixed signal circuits for high bandwidth and data rate communications towards 6G communications. Further addressed research challenges in these areas are broad­band connec­tivity for mobile devices (such as smartphones, tablets and laptops), wire­less “machine-to-machine” commu­ni­ca­tion (M2M) for connecting billions of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, deployment of wire­less sensor networks in indus­trial appli­ca­tions, and radar based environmental sensing concepts.
• Microsystems aim at developing beyond state-of-the-art technologies for novel micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and MEMS devices, covering development steps from design and proof-of-concept to product prototypes. Focus is especially laid on piezoelectric MEMS, thin films, integrated photonics, magnetic microsystems, as well as advanced microfabrication of MEMS sensors and actuators at SAL cleanroom facilities.
• Sensor systems encompass developing new sensor modalities from design, materials, manufacturing to applications. Challenges arise in finding the optimum combination out of a multitude of sensors, supported by intel­li­gent algo­rithms and recent devel­op­ments, in order to expand the hetero­ge­neous inte­gra­tion of smart sensor systems for various appli­ca­tions.
• Power elec­tronics aim at new and more powerful solu­tions for all types of elec­tric energy converters in all power classes, from the system and control design, over switching struc­tures to inte­gra­tion methods and construc­tion elements in new tech­nolo­gies.

Within these five research areas, SAL covers the entire span from fundamental research (see e.g., SAL-UNI labs) to propelling academic ideas and practice together with industrial partners to a market-ready level (see e.g., list of selected projects).

This perspective is unique in the sense that our ESRs and experts can pursue academic research excellence, while still learning about industry demands which enables them to connect ideas to market demands and thus future funding opportunities. Being able to profit from all these options and parties in the SAL network is a unique asset in terms of career planning that the future CRYSTALLINE ESRs will profit from.