Fraunhofer Group for Light & Surfaces
The group institutes share essential expertise on simulating various system components as well as laser and plasma machining processes. Only by a comprehensive simulation in combination with a deep analysis with high temporal and spatial resolution, different effects and influencing variables of a machining process can be understood. In addition, simulation models serve to shorten process chains when they are being designed or to transfer the processes to different fields of industrial application.
The simulations can be divided into
- Laser and Optical Simulation
- Material Simulation
- Simulations of Coating Processes
- Simulations of Laser Manufacturing Processes
The institutes Fraunhofer IOF und Fraunhofer ILT offer a wide range of simulations of laser and optical systems. Additionally, the high level of expertise in optical design faciliates the design of optical systems with a high degree of integration density and with a minimum number of optical components. The simulation covers simple raytracing tasks up to complex, wave-optival calculations.
In the field of material modeling, the institutes offer a wide range of services, such as material simulation for alloy and layer development, the design of heat treatments, diffusion treatments (e.g. nitriding or boriding of alloys), carburizing of steels, homogenization annealing of complex alloys or layers, and dissolving of carbides during austenitization.
Fraunhofer IST and Fraunhofer FEP have a comprehensive understanding of how to simulate coating technology processes. In particular, Fraunhofer IST deals with the simulation of low-pressure coating processes (magnetron sputtering, ion beam sputtering, evaporation, hot-filament CVD and plasma-active CVD) in the field of process simulation. The institute has developed a parallelized simulation environment to model the gas and particle transport in the low-pressure range. This includes the methods »Direct Simulation Monte Carlo« (DSMC) and »Particle-in-Cell Monte Carlo« (PIC-MC). Fraunhofer IST’s services include conducting simulation studies to optimize processes and coating sources or providing customer-specific simulation tools. Alternatively, its software can be licensed.