Annual Report 2022 ‒ Associated campuses ‐ EPFL

EPFL is a key player in the Neuchâtel Innovation Cluster. Over the past few years, we have focused on ensuring the development of EPFL in Neuchâtel, and on strengthening EPFL’s relations with our neighbors and main partners CSEM and Microcity SA.

The development of the advanced manufacturing competence cluster and the enhancement of synergies between EPFL’s various laboratories, in particular through the creation of shared laboratories, are among the topics that are particularly close to our hearts.

In 2022, a new professor has been appointed to strengthen EPFL’s Advanced Manufacturing Competence Center in Neuchâtel. This new professor started on March 1, 2023, and major works had to be planned to adapt our building to these new activities. This work is still in progress and will be completed by summer 2023.

We also organized numerous events with our partners over the past year, the most important being the inauguration of the M2C with CSEM and Micro’22, organized jointly with all our Neuchâtel partners.

The 12 professors and 3 senior lecturers manage the activities of 11 laboratories and 1 research group.

In addition, in 2022, the Neuchâtel campus laboratories welcomed 63 semester and master’s students, as well as 28 interns from other universities.

In 2022, several Neuchâtel researchers received awards for excellence in research:

Prof. Roland Logé (LMTM) received the Albert Portevin medal awarded by the Société Française de Métallurgie et de Matériaux (SF2M), December 2022, Paris – France
Gian Luca Barbruni, doctoral researcher (SCI-STI-SC) won the prize for best paper in electronics at the MOCAST 2022 conference, Bremen – Germany
Prof. Sandro Carrara (SCI-STI-SC) has been elected IEEE Sensors Council Vice President Publications for the period 2023-2024.
Dr Fabiana Lisco (PV-LAB) received the Best Poster Award for her poster entitled “BIPV demo-site with novel glass-free colored lightwight modules”, WCPEC-8, September 2022, Milan – Italy
Prof. Yves Bellouard (GALATEA) was elevated to the highest level of Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OPTICA, formerly OSA) at the Society’s Board of Directors meeting
Enrico Casamenti (GALATEA) received the Best Paper Award for “3D Printing 2022” at the LASE Plenary Session, Photonics West 2022, January 2022, San Francisco – USA

Since the COVID measures are finished, we have had the pleasure of hosting events and conferences on our premises at the associated campus in Neuchâtel, such as :

SOPHIA Reliability Workshop
Holographic optical engine by Prof. Yoshio Haysaki of the Center for Research and Education in Optics (CORE), Utsunomiya University
Neighbors’ Day (EPFL, CSEM, Microcity SA)
Official inauguration of the Advanced Microfabrication Center (M2C)
Workshop on Micro Optics
Micro’22

The 6th edition of the Micro’22 event, entitled “Microtechnologies at the heart of sport”, was organized from October 20 to 22, 2022 in the Neuchâtel Campus in collaboration with our various partners and institutions (CSEM SA, Microcity SA, Univ. de Neuchâtel, CPNE, FSRM…) and with the support of our loyal regional sponsors.

For 3 days, the visitors were able to discover recent industrial developments in the sports sector, as well as the creative and inspiring ideas of our researchers, through public conferences, exhibitions and workshops for children organized by the FSRM.

The speakers at Micro’22 offered an overview of the issues, challenges and technological advances at the heart of sport, to help the public understand the role we play in these developments.

EPFL is committed to the quality of knowledge and technology transfer, and to making an important contribution to Switzerland’s innovation ecosystem. We support researchers in their collaborative efforts with industry, as well as any company or institution interested in collaborating with EPFL research.

Technology transfer to industry is also achieved through the creation of new companies that aim to commercialize the innovative results of research laboratories.

Between 2013 and 2022, a total of 14 startups were created by or in conjunction with the laboratories of the Neuchâtel Associate Campus, making a significant contribution to innovation and job creation potential in the Canton of Neuchâtel.

LMTS: Soft Transducers Lab

Textile-based glove – LMTS has presented a textile-based glove using ultra-thin, energy-efficient actuators to reproduce the sensation of objects of different stiffnesses in virtual reality (VR). This work has been published in the journal Advanced Intelligent Systems.

Integrated Circuits Laboratory (ICLAB)

First prototype of bare neural dust compared to human fingerprints

Photovoltaics and Thin Film Electronics Laboratory (PV-LAB)

Perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells – For the first time, an efficiency of 30% for perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar cells has been exceeded, thanks to a joint effort by scientists at EPFL’s Laboratory of Photovoltaics and Thin-Film Electronics in partnership with the renowned innovation center CSEM SA. Independently certified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the USA, these results give a boost to high-efficiency photovoltaics and pave the way for even more competitive solar power generation.

Micromechanical and Horological Design Laboratory (INSTANT-LAB)

Surgery: A flexible needle for greater precision. To improve surgical precision and reduce the consequences for the patient, researchers at EPFL and INSA Strasbourg have developed a needle whose trajectory can be modified. Intended for use in image-guided surgery, the stiffness of the tip can be controlled by the surgeon’s fingertips.

Laboratory for the study of laser processes for microfabrication and integration (GALATEA)

The researchers used their new manufacturing approach to create a variety of structures combining chalcogenide IR glass and fused silica glass. These include a set of pillars of different dimensions. The dotted white rectangle in the image indicates the smallest silica cavity used in this work.