This year, 30 research and development teams from Germany and abroad applied for the AMA Innovation Award, which is endowed with 10,000 euros. From these applicants, the jury headed by Prof. Dr. Andreas Schütze from Saarbrücken University selected five teams and nominated them for the award. Two of them have also already prevailed against their competitors in the special category "Young Company". Companies that have been on the market for less than five years, have fewer than 50 employees and generate an annual turnover of less than 10 million euros were eligible to apply. The winners in this category are Ackinson GmbH and HCP Sense GmbH. They will receive a free exhibition stand at Sensor+Test 2022 and also remain contenders for the AMA Innovation Award.

And these are the nominees for the AMA Innovation Award 2022 (in alphabetical order of project name)

FUSE - Detecting femto- to microamperes quickly and with low noise

Dr. Ansgar T. Kirk, Cornelius Wendt, Alexander Bohnhorst, Prof. Dr. Stefan Zimmermann (Ackision GmbH, Leibniz Universität Hannover)

FUSE is a patent-pending current measurement device with a unique combination of highest signal-to-noise ratio, wide bandwidth and excellent dynamics with linearity over more than six orders of magnitude from femto- to microamperes. It represents an important enabling technology for a performance leap in sensor technology, opening up new fields of application and sensor principles for the next generation of sensors. A prototype of FUSE is already in continuous use at a pilot customer and is currently being brought to series production maturity as part of an EXIST research transfer.

H2MEMS: New H2 sensor with a wide measuring range and high selectivity

Maren Lengert, Michael Weidner, Dr. Marion Wienecke (Materion GmbH, Wismar)

The H2MEMS is the realization of a new idea for a sensor based on physically switching Pd-based layer systems in combination with micro-electro-mechanical sensor structures. Unique selling points are the wide measuring range from 100 ppm to 100 % vol hydrogen in varying gas mixtures, a high selectivity, in particular the insensitivity to methane, and a short response time. The design of the sensor is considerably miniaturized and compatible with micro-technical production (Si technology), which enables cost-effective production of large quantities.

Scanning short-coherent heterodyne IR laser vibrometer MSA-650 IRIS

Dr. Marco Wolfer, Dr. Volker Seyfried, Dr. Marcus Winter, Moritz Giesen, Christian Ehrmann, Stephan Barking, Mike Herberich, Jürgen Glauner, Babak Pourat, Dr. Frank Heimes, Polytec, Waldbronn, Germany

The Polytec MSA-650 IRIS enables the measurement of component dynamics within encapsulated microsystems. The patented interferometer design combines a short-coherent SLD light source for selecting the active component level with a special IR camera. This makes it the first optical measuring device for high-precision and area-based recording of component dynamics on MEMS and microstructures through the intact silicon encapsulation with effective short-coherent suppression of interfering signal contributions - contact-free and without impairing the real dynamics.

Sensor bearings without a sensor - measuring rolling bearing forces in a space-neutral manner

Sarah Wicker, Dr. Georg Martin, Dr. Tobias Schirra, Ansgar Thilmann, HCP Sense GmbH, Darmstadt

The sensor bearing from HCP Sense makes it possible to measure the forces acting and the lubrication condition in rolling bearings, for example for condition monitoring applications. It takes up the same installation space as a corresponding conventional bearing and can therefore be integrated into machines without major design changes, because the bearing itself acts as a sensor and no essential changes are made here. HCP Sense is a spin-off of TU Darmstadt and has been funded by the EXIST research transfer funding program since 2021.

Technology platform for highly reliable NDIR gas sensors

Steffen Biermann, Patrick Sachse, Thomas Bartnitzek (Micro-Hybrid Electronic GmbH, Hermsdorf); Prof. Dr. Thomas Ortlepp (CIS Forschungsinstitut für Mikrosensorik GmbH), Dr. Ralf Koppert (Siegert Thin Film Technology GmbH), Lars Dittrich (5microns GmbH)

An innovative gas sensor system with a novel spectrally broadband infrared (IR) emitter. The development by Micro-Hybrid Electronic GmbH and its partners combines pioneering technologies from MEMS chips to modules for gas sensors with special long-term stability even in extreme environmental conditions. A patented design, the hermetically sealed assembly technology of the IR components and IR emitter chips with micro-nano structures as optical functionalization are the innovation drivers for new cross-industry gas measurement applications.

The award ceremony

The winners of the AMA Innovation Award 2022 will be announced on May 10, 2022 at the opening event of Sensor+Test 2022 in Nuremberg.

The AMA Association has summarized the overview of all applications in the brochure "AMA Innovation Award 2022 - The Applicants". It can be downloaded free of charge from the AMA Association's website.