Together with Dr. Jan Blochwitz-Nimoth (Novaled AG) and Dr. Martin Pfeiffer (Heliatek GmbH), Prof. Karl Leo, Director of the Fraunhofer-Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS, has been nominated by the Federal President Christian Wulff for the »Deutscher Zukunftspreis 2011« in Hannover on August 27, 2011. The »Deutscher Zukunftspreis« is awarded annually to innovative researchers, who work on promising technologies, which change the living and working environment fundamentally. The award ceremony takes place in Berlin on December 14, 2011. Among the researchers from Dresden, there are two other research teams who are nominated. Due to Leo's, Blochwitz-Nimoth's and Pfeiffer's activity in the field of organic semiconductors, implemented in environmentally- and eco-friendly energy-efficient luminary and novel photovoltaic systems, they have been nominated.

»I am very delighted of being nominated and I consider it as an appreciation of our work at TU Dresden, Fraunhofer IPMS and in the spin-offs Novaled and Heliatek. Together with my nominated colleagues and a great number of dedicated employees of the institutes and companies we were able to successfully realize the transfer of a technology from basic research into products. I expect that this technology of the organic semiconductor will enable a variety of exciting applications«, explains Prof. Karl Leo.

Since 2001 Leo has been working at Fraunhofer IPMS. Within the Center for Organic Materials and Electronic Devices (COMEDD); part of Fraunhofer IPMS, Leo and about 70 employees work on electronic devices based on organic semiconductors. The focus of COMEDD lies in the application-orientated research and development of electronic devices like organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) as novel panel light, OLED microdisplays (e.g. Head-Mounted Displays) and organic solar cells.

About Prof. Karl Leo

Karl Leo obtained the Diplomphysiker degree from the University of Freiburg in 1985, working with Adolf Goetzberger at the Fraunhofer-Institut für Solare Energiesysteme. In 1988, he obtained the PhD degree from the University of Stuttgart for a PhD thesis performed at the Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung in Stuttgart under supervision of Hans Queisser. From 1989 to 1991, he was postdoc at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, NJ, U.S.A. From 1991 to 1993, he was with the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) in Aachen, Germany. Since 1993, he is full professor of optoelectronics at the Technische Universität Dresden, since 2002, he is also working at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems, presently as director. His main interests are novel semiconductor systems like semiconducting organic thin films; with special emphasis to understand basics device principles and the optical response. His work was recognized by the following awards: Otto-Hahn-Medaille (1989), Bennigsen-Förder-Preis (1991), Leibniz-Award (2002), award of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy (2002), and Manfred-von-Ardenne-Preis 2006. He is cofounder of several companies, including Novaled AG and Heliatek GmbH.

About COMEDD

In recent years Dresden has evolved into a research center for organic materials and systems. In order to transfer the results to production further improvements in the production process and the establishment as well as the testing of first pilot-production lines are necessary. The Center of Organic Materials and Electronic Devices Dresden (COMEDD) – meanwhile an independent branch of the Fraunhofer IPMS – combines research and development works for the production, integration and technology of organic devices. The focus of COMEDD lies in customer and application orientated research, development and pilot fabrication of novel module concepts and fabrication methods for these organic materials. COMEDD is a European-wide leading production-related research and development center for organic semiconductors focusing on organic light-emitting diodes and vacuum technology.

The COMEDD clean room consists of the following equipment:

• a pilot line for the fabrication of OLEDs on 370 x 470 mm² substrates,
• two pilot lines for 200 mm wafer for the OLED integration on CMOS substrates as well as
• a research line for the roll-to-roll fabrication on flexible substrates.

COMEDD offers a wide range of research, development and pilot production possibilities, especially for OLED lighting, organic solar cells and OLED microdisplays.