Our fields of activity cover many areas of electronics. In the view below, some of our cases and the associated competences are listed to illustrate the scope of our work.
More and more charging stations for electric vehicles are being deployed. All in line with the idea of a green future and the switch from the combustion engine to the electric motor. An area that is enjoying rapid technological progress.
However, one of the biggest problems in the rapidly growing e-mobility market is the inadequate charging infrastructure. There are already not enough options for charging the existing number of electric vehicles. The need for innovative ways to solve this problem is therefore enormous.
In this project, we have developed an innovative control and management unit for a globally usable charging station. It uses a cellular module to enable the end customer in particular to use the system innovatively and elegantly all over the world.
Electromobility is currently determining the future of the entire automotive industry and is leading to a reformation of the sector. The European Union's decision that no new vehicles with combustion engines may be registered from 2035 and the creation of incentives for the purchase of an electric car are particularly supportive of this reformation.
Electric and hybrid vehicles are highly technologised machines that are not or only partially based on traditional technologies. These vehicles require state-of-the-art power electronics in order to function and ensure safe driving.
In this project, new power electronics were therefore developed for the latest generation of hybrid and electric vehicles. The innovation here was to optimise the control of the charging management in order to bring the technology into the future. We developed and supported the power electronics up to the pre-series stage and carried out extensive derating.
Distributors of electrical appliances are subject to legislation in the European Union. In Germany, for example, the law on the electromagnetic compatibility of equipment requires compliance with corresponding protection requirements, which are laid down in relevant standards in the form of limit values for immunity to interference or emitted interference. Complex electronic devices or machines generate electromagnetic fields, which can be in a destructive relationship to each other. In order to guarantee functionality, the design must be adapted with regard to electromagnetic fields.
This contract development included hardware simulation, hardware testing and documentation management in the automotive sector.
In the field of high-performance vehicles, partial electrification is becoming increasingly important in order to guarantee an increase in vehicle performance. This is because the physical properties of combustion engines are slowly reaching their limits. This involves the perfect combination of a combustion engine with its typical characteristics and one or more electric motors that provide the combustion engine with the necessary support at the right moment.
In this automotive project, we took on the complete new hardware development including layouting and prototyping through to the 0 series.
People want ever simpler and more time-efficient solutions to everyday problems. For this reason, the field of household cleaning appliances is large and highly competitive. With this type of consumer electronics, there is a strong trend towards using the appliances independently of a mains adapter. As a result, rechargeable batteries are finding their way into more and more of these appliances, as they can be used more flexibly without a cable. A particularly intelligent charging and control management system for this floor cleaner also formed the core of the development in this project.
We at MMD developed the electronics for this battery-powered and innovative floor cleaner, which included the entire hardware development, including layout and testing through to prototype construction.
The consumer electronics sector is developing in the direction of making one power supply unit usable for as many devices as possible. These modular systems are more efficient, cheaper and save resources. When using modern household appliances, there is also the aspect of efficiently utilising the given power supply in the form of a power supply unit. The safety aspect must always be taken into account.
In this project, we carried out the overall device development, including PCB and testing, using an agile working method.
Due to the shortage of components, the electronics industry is facing enormous challenges. In some areas, the crisis is becoming a serious threat, as entire supply chains are being endangered as a result.
The current chip crisis began at the start of 2020 and is caused by a combination of several factors:
One triggering factor was the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in lockdowns in China and pandemic-related outages in Malaysia.
A cold spell in February 2021 with heavy snowstorms in parts of the USA had an exacerbating effect. These caused production losses at semiconductor factories in Texas. As a result of power failures, production in some important factories could not be shut down in a controlled manner, which damaged machinery and equipment as well as production.
Shortly afterwards, a major fire broke out in a Japanese semiconductor plant.
The market for semiconductors is now in a situation in which increased demand for many semiconductor products is being met with limited stocks.
As some of the manufacturing processes are very demanding, production capacities cannot be increased at will and, above all, not quickly.
When considering the causes, it is important to bear in mind that production capacities for highly developed semiconductor products were already well utilised before the crisis.
This brings us to an outlook on the situation for the coming years:
Experts expect the crisis to ease slightly at best over the course of 2023 and also assume that the critical situation on the semiconductor market will continue until at least 2024.
We prepared for these challenges right from the start of the chip crisis and expanded the area of critical parts management. We can find the component you need or look for alternatives to keep production going.
We also find a solution for hopeless component problems.
Sound waves penetrate the complex microphone technology, creating current oscillations that are converted into sound by a computer. This process requires a highly efficient control unit in order to function.
We implemented the microphone control unit, including hardware testing and simulation. In addition, tasks in the area of critical parts management were added, as there was a shortage of important components.
Industrial roller shutters are used in a variety of ways and must be adapted to a wide range of conditions. Large external openings are often closed with industrial sectional doors. These should provide a safe, robust and durable closure and are used in logistics centres, warehouses, fire stations, workshops, car dealerships or in agriculture, among others, due to these properties.
In this project, we worked on the technical and theoretical development of a unit for controlling all types of industrial roller shutters. The most important components of the innovation are the implementation of intelligent automatic functions including new types of memory modules. The unit utilises the latest wireless technologies such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to ensure its long-term viability in the future. The product has been developed in accordance with the relevant standards and guidelines so that it can be used and certified worldwide.
Pumps are used in many areas of industry. From medical technology and the food industry to chemical applications. These areas require particularly fine pumps with the corresponding control systems.
In this project, we took over the management of the overall device development and certification for the development of a new type of dosing pump for fine dosing requirements in many areas of industry. The most important aspect of this project was the highly efficient control of the pump, which extends over several circuit boards. Due to the current situation in the field of component management, many new solutions were developed to ensure long-term production reliability. In addition, the device was developed to obtain UL certification, which is important for the US market.
The energy crisis has shown us that we can no longer rely on fossil fuels in the short term. The industry has been trying for a long time to find alternatives to nuclear and coal power. A rethink in the area of energy generation is focusing on the almost inexhaustible energy of the sun. This type of energy generation using photovoltaic systems is subject to complex processes, especially in order to generate a regulated flow of electricity. This complexity is offset by the urgency of a rapid switch to renewable energies.
In this project, we took on the hardware development for a new generation of photovoltaic inverters, including testing of the pre-series circuit boards.