- Awards - Physik Instrumente (PI) SE & Co. KG
KIT Researcher Georg Gramlich Receives the PI Innovation Award 2025 for His Work on Key Technologies in 6G Expansion
The awarded innovation solves a key problem: Until now, there has been no cost-effective, high-performance connection technology for the high frequencies (253–322 GHz) intended for 6G between different electronic components. The award winner developed a novel method that enables the flexible and precise establishment of low-loss interconnects. This method made it possible for the first time to achieve hybrid integration of a power amplifier and a leaky wave antenna operating in the intended frequency band in the laboratory.
Success Beyond the Laboratory
The technology is currently undergoing further development in a transfer project with an industrial partner from the mobile communications industry. “This confirms the development’s high potential, as it meets our criteria for the PI Innovation Award: social relevance and practical applicability,” says Dr. Steffen Schreiber, Director Global Innovation & Scouting at PI, explaining the decision to award the prize to the winner.
„Georg Gramlich’s research is an excellent example of interdisciplinary, visionary engineering work. His printed high-frequency interconnects allow for entirely new approaches to developing sub-terahertz systems, which is directly relevant to social and economic progress in the fields of digital infrastructure and industrial automation,” emphasizes Professor Dr.-Ing. Thomas Zwick, director of the KIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (IHE). “It is also a great honor for our institute to have this work recognized with the PI Innovation Award.”
Physik Instrumente (PI) in Brief
PI with headquarters in Karlsruhe, Germany, is the market and technology leader for high-precision positioning technology and piezo applications in the market segments of Industrial Automation, Photonics, Semiconductor, and Microscopy & Life Sciences. In close cooperation with customers from all over the world, PI's more than 1,900 specialists have been continuously pushing the boundaries of what is technically feasible for more than fifty years. Various drive technologies, internally developed sensor technology, electronics, and control technology provide the basis for this. PI’s portfolio ranges from components to subsystems to tailor-made complete solutions. More than 560 granted and pending patents underline the company’s claim to leadership in the fields of precision positioning and piezo technology. PI operates on a global scale, with nine production sites in Europe, North America, and Asia, as well as sixteen sales and service subsidiaries.