The Centre de Recherche Public (CRP) - Gabriel Lippmann, the leading research institute in Nanotechnologies in Luxembourg, and AIXTRON SE announced  the start of a cooperation agreement. The main goal of the new project is the mutual development of advanced polymer materials focusing on establishing a wide range of processes that contribute to the fabrication of advanced organic/inorganic materials.

The technological platform in this 3-year cooperative project is AIXTRON´s Polymer Vapor Phase Deposition technology (PVPD™) for the deposition and in-situ formation of polymer thin films. The CRP – Gabriel Lippmannn focuses on the development of innovative materials technology and novel production methods. The Center´s main interest in this joint project is the development of novel deposition technologies that overcome the current limitations of the state-of-the-art techniques. This will allow the development of advanced nanomaterials, like responsive nanofilms for bio-sensing, chemical-sensing and active membranes targeting highly promising and challenging applications in medical, environmental and consumer markets.

Dr. Damien Lenoble, Head of the Nanomaterials Research Unit at the CRP – Gabriel Lippmann, comments: “We chose AIXTRON´s PVPD™ R&D tool due to its high versatility. The modular concept and its extensibility perfectly match our need to address a wide range of polymerization processes and materials. The system will not only serve in the R&D role but, utilizing AIXTRON’s Close Coupled Showerhead® technology, also provides the industrial scalability of the processes we intend to develop. Another reason for our decision is the wide range of solutions AIXTRON is offering in the deposition of functional thin films.”

”This common R&D development program, based on proprietary Intellectual properties, should lead to innovative technology transfers. This high-level collaboration with such a leading high-technology equipment manufacturer illustrates the efficiency of our research model”, adds Dr. Fernand Reinig, Managing Director at the CRP – Gabriel Lippmann.

“We are looking forward to our cooperation with the CRP – Gabriel Lippmann. The institute has broad-based know-how and an excellent reputation within the scientific community,” says Dr. Frank Schulte, Vice President Europe at AIXTRON. “In fact, we see the markets being targeted by the CRP – Gabriel Lippmann as a complementary addition to the markets already addressed by us, and the new configuration to be delivered as a perfect technological match for our existing PVPD™ product portfolio.”

“With our novel line of PVPD™ systems, we are focusing on the wide area of functional polymer thin films offering great potential in many applications,” adds Jürgen Kreis, Senior Department Manager Business Development at AIXTRON. “However, we understand that organic electronics is a market of growing importance and we will be able to particularly explore the deposition of conductive polymer layers within this collaboration. We are very honored to have the CRP - Gabriel Lippmann as our partner for this project. Their skills in advanced nanomaterials processing and characterization will allow an objective quantification of the results obtained using this key-enabling technology.”