Contact : Volker ZIEGLER volker.ziegler@eads.net

EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2009, EADS generated revenues of € 42.8 billion and employed a workforce of 119,506. The EADS Group includes the aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the world's largest helicopter supplier Eurocopter, the satellite manufacturer Astrium and the joint venture MBDA, the international leader in missile systems.

The EADS Innovation Works are the corporate research facilities of EADS, with sites in Germany, France, Spain, Singapore and Russia. They provide world-class capabilities in aeronautics, defence and space research topics consistent with the EADS research & technology strategy. Covering the skills and technology fields that are of critical importance to EADS, the EADS Innovation Works are organized in five trans-national Technical Capability Centres (TCCs): The EADS Innovation Works are an operational and strategic entity for the creation of added value by technology innovation. They foster technological excellence and business orientation through the sharing of competences and means between the various partners of the EADS Group and they develop and maintain partnerships with world-famous schools, universities and research institutes. The German part of EADS Innovation Works is legally an organizational unit within EADS Deutschland GmbH, the German subsidiary of EADS N.V.

The team “Microwave Technologies” of EADS Innovation Works itself has extensive know-how on advanced microwave devices (like RF-MEMS, GaN) and systems (obstacle warning radars, wake-vortex detection radars) and participated in several national and EU-funded projects dealing with advanced RF-transceivers, electronically steerable antennas and microwave systems (e.g. Retina, Radarauge, RF-Platform, 3D-µ-tune). Furthermore, EADS-internal projects on those topics are currently ongoing in cooperation with the EADS business units Astrium, Airbus and Eurocopter.

Besides leading different work packages in the above mentioned projects, the FP6 project “RETINA” was successfully coordinated by the team.

Resources: The German part of the EADS Innovation Works in Ottobrunn near Munich and Hamburg employs a permanent staff of 220 people, 70 % of which are senior scientists. EADS Innovation Works will dedicate permanent-staff employees as well as a Ph.D. student to contribute to the success of the project. The permanent-staff people will work on the project management, as well as on the cooperation with the EADS business units and will be supporting the Ph.D. student for the development of the demonstrator modules.

The available infrastructure at EADS Innovation Works, which will be used during the course of the project includes: Software tools for 3D-electro-magnetic simulations of the antennas, modules and interconnections, software tools for the layout of the modules and a clean-room with the facilities for special handling and assembling of the components, if necessary.

Dr. Volker Ziegler received his Dr.-Ing degree with honours from the University of Ulm in 2001. From 1998 until 2001 he was working with the DaimlerChrysler Research Centre in Ulm on the technology, modeling and characterization of millimetre wave devices and circuits. In 2001, he joined DaimlerChrysler Knowledge Exchange Group and subsequently worked at the DC Research Centre in Ulm, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, USA and at United Monolithic Semiconductors in Orsay, France. Since 2003, he is with the Microwave Technology Group of the EADS, where he is currently working as a technical expert on innovative microwave technologies from identification, to development and exploitation possibilities in the EADS business units. He successfully coordinated the FP6 project “RETINA”.

Ulrich Prechtel received his Diploma in Physics in 1985 from the TU Munich and joined the MBB Central Lab in Ottobrunn, where he was working on the technology for radiation detectors and IR-focal plane arrays. From 1995 he successfully worked on the development and industrialization of different types of MEMS-type microsensors. Since 2002, he is head of the Microwave Technology Group of EADS, in which he is focusing on the investigation and exploitation of RF-devices and RF-subsystem technologies for aerospace and security applications.