Prof. Hubert Lakner Retires from Fraunhofer IPMS

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Phys. Hubert Lakner worked for 21 years as institute director at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems, headquartered in Dresden. At the same time, he held the Chair of Optoelectronic Devices & Systems at the Institute for Semiconductor and Microsystems Technology at the University of Dresden.

During this time, the institute developed into one of the most successful in the field of microelectronics in the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. On Oct. 1, 2024, he took his well-deserved retirement.

Prof. Dr. Lakner received the Fraunhofer Medal for his achievements at the “20 years of the Fraunhofer Group” anniversary event in 2016. The medal honors individuals who have rendered outstanding services to the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.

Prof. Dr. Lakner joined the institute in 1998, which at the time was still a Dresden branch of the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems IMS based in Duisburg. He quickly recognized the potential of the location in Silicon Saxony and worked to establish the branch of the institute as an independent Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS.

This was accomplished in 2003; Prof. Dr. Lakner took over the position of institute director. At the time of his takeover, the institute had 160 employees and a budget of around €15 million. Today, Fraunhofer IPMS is an integral part of the Dresden and national semiconductor industry with more than 500 employees and a quadrupled budget.

Under the management of Prof. Dr. Lakner, the institute underwent continuous development, which was accompanied by an expansion of the institute’s buildings and technical infrastructure. In addition to a comprehensive refurbishment of the buildings on Maria-Reiche-Straße during ongoing operations, a new clean room was inaugurated in 2007. Further modernizations followed successively.

As early as 2012, Prof. Dr. Lakner demonstrated its innovative spirit and recognized the 300 mm wafer standard as the technology of the future. When the Center Nanoelectronic Technologies (CNT), founded as a public-private partnership with Qimonda (then AMD) and Infineon, was no longer viable as an independent research facility following the bankruptcy of Qimonda, he took it over as a department within Fraunhofer IPMS.

With his foresight, Prof. Dr. Lakner also focused on a close partnership with industry when it came to MEMS technologies: in 2016, the clean rooms were systematically converted from the 150 mm to the industrial 200 mm wafer standard.

In addition to the main Fraunhofer IPMS site on Maria-Reiche-Straße and the secondary CNT site in Dresden, the institute opened the Integrated Silicon Systems branch in Cottbus in 2018 and to establish the Fraunhofer Center Erfurt together with Fraunhofer IOF and IZI. With now four locations in Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia, Fraunhofer IPMS has established itself as a major player in microelectronics in Germany.

In addition to his management activities and professorship, Prof. Dr. Lakner was intensively involved in the entire microelectronics sector. For example, he was highly committed to the Fraunhofer Group for Microelectronics, which he chaired from 2011 to 2019. During this time, he coordinated strategy development within the group’s 11 institutes and thus played a pioneering role in the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.

Under his initiative, the Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD), one of the largest associations of its kind in the field of R&D worldwide, was created from the Group in 2017 in cooperation with the Leibniz Institutes FBH and IHP.

At the same time, Prof. Dr. Lakner was keen to promote microelectronics throughout Europe. Through his involvement in numerous committees, commissions and speaker activities, he networked himself and the industry throughout Europe.

One highlight at European level was the founding of the Heterogenous Technology Alliance (HTA), a research cooperation between leading European research institutions CEA-Leti (France), CSEM (Switzerland), the Fraunhofer Group for Microelectronics (Germany) and VTT (Finland).

Fraunhofer IPMS also maintains close cooperation with imec, based in Belgium, which is reflected in numerous joint projects, particularly in the field of quantum computing. 

The fact that the European Chips Act is now in the starting blocks at the end of his term of office shows the continued relevance of Prof. Dr. Lakner’s vision of strong, joint European microelectronics for industry and research.

Prof. Dr. Lakner has now retired as of Oct. 1, 2024. There will be a call for applications to succeed him as head of the institute. Until then, Prof. Dr. Harald Schenk will act as the sole managing director of the institute.