With a highly complementary consortium, FITNESS project unites unique expertise and state of the art facilities, bridging the gap between research and application. To reach the ambitious FITNESS objectives in the area of Metasurfaces, a multidisciplinary team has been gathered with key European experts, covering electromagnetics, electronics, materials and thermal aspects.

 

In this « Spotlight » series we will present the partners involved in the project. Let’s start with one of the academic partners TUHH, Technische Universität Hamburg (Germany).

 

« Technology for Humanity » is the motto of the young university founded in 1978 based on the following principles : research priority, interdisciplinarity, innovation, regionality as well as internationality. The university employs today over 1,500 individuals and hosts 7,400 students of which 28% are international.

Based on the realization that innovations and new approaches to solutions often emerge at the boundary between disciplines, TUHH structured its research activity into five overarching research fields : environmental & energy systems ; logistics, mobility & infrastructure ; cyber physical & medical systems ; aviation & maritime technologies ; advanced material and (bio) processes.

 

In FITNESS, TUHH will be involved with the development of strechable low-loss polymer-based substrates through contributions to the synthesis of leaky-wave curved Metasurfaces (MTS) and the co-assembly of the RF-correlator with the MTS. The university will also play a very important  in the demonstration of the feasibility of new functional substrates for MTS (low-loss, flexible, stretchable) & prototyping and measurement of MTS realized by both rigid and flexible materials. To that end, TUHH is fully equipped with chemical synthesis laboratories and polymer characterization and processing facilities.

 

Prof. Dr. Franziska Lissel is a Professor of Applied Polymer Physics (IAPP) and serves as the Chair of the IAPP at the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH). Her primary research focus is on the creation and synthesis of innovative materials, including polymers, organic compounds, and hybrid materials, specifically designed for electronic devices. She is involved in the FITNESS project, working together with her PhD student Tommy Cejmer and postdoctoral researcher Emin Istif. The research team has a strong expertise in polymer chemistry and organic electronic materials, providing an opportunity to develop stretchable/flexible low-loss polymer-based substrates for FITNESS.