The event, excellently organized by the team around Conference Co-Chairs Barbara Rothen and Alke Fink, both from the Adolphe Merkle Institute in Fribourg, finally brought the Swiss nano community together again in presence at the Forum Fribourg on July 5 and 6. The organizers of the Swiss NanoConvention 2022 also conjured up a record 38% female speakers on stage, with the session "Highlighting Women's Contributions in Nanoscience" playing its part. In addition to the aforementioned medtech and bio-nanotechnologies, the thematic spectrum also included two other blocks of topics: So-called PIC (photonic integrated circuits) and the technologies behind quantum computing. SNC 2022 was accompanied by the excellently booked exhibition - also with silver sponsor nano.swiss and innovation partner Hightech Zentrum Aargau - and a poster session.

An inspiring Güntherodt Lecture was given on the first morning by Eli Zeldov from the Weizman Institute of Science on the topic of nanoscale thermal and magnetic imaging. Fascinating how a few single atomic defects can be made visible on a large graphene flake!

PICs, active or passive optical integrated circuits, are increasingly complementing and replacing "normal" ICs. With their inherent advantages, they are becoming increasingly important as building blocks for faster and more energy-efficientdata processing and transmission - not only between data centers, but also within them or even on the same circuit board.

As demands for speed and integration grow, several material platforms (silicon-on-insulator SOI, barium titanate BTO, lithium niobate on insulator LNOI) and technologies are currently competing. In order to be able to integrate as many functions as possible on an optical chip, the structure dimensions are extending into the nanoscale. Clean rooms and high-end surface technology are therefore a must for fabrication - all of which Switzerland can provide, right up to ELENA, an EU-funded open-access foundry for electro-optical components. It is particularly pleasing to see that Swiss companies are also at the forefront of the PICs themselves worldwide, and various ultra-fast circuits with over 100 Gbps could be demonstrated. The packaging of the finished PIC is also becoming increasingly important, as several speakers pointed out. Only this achieves the necessary protection of the sensitive structures and connects them to external signal sources, detectors and "normal" electronic semiconductor and conductor structures.

A similar race is taking place with the enormously powerful quantum computers. Here, the dimensions are already atomic, i.e. below 10-9 m. Various technologies are currently available, and all candidates must achieve a reliability of at least 99% so that the available error correction methods can have an effect. The session "Quantum Computing" showed the current approaches based on silicon, germanium and hybrid semiconductor/superconductor qubits. Special attention was given to future 2D integrability; today's qubits are still somewhat reminiscent of the first transistor in terms of volume.

The session Applied Projects in the Swiss Landscape focused on industrial and practical applications of nanotechnologies and nanomaterials. The chairs were Marcus Morstein, Head of Materials and Nanotechnologies at the HTZ, and Jerry Krattiger, Director of the Fribourg Economic Development Corporation. Here the important field of additive manufacturing came into play, taking dental restorations made of zirconium oxide (iPrint, Giole Balestra) as the example. Then it was on to a real nanomaterial: metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). As Daniel Steitz, founder and CIO at the Zofingen-based startup novoMOF, explained, these "nano-sponges" are a rapidly growing class of substances with record-high specific surface areas and immense potential, for example in carbon capturing. Finally, Rolando Ferrini (FEMTOprint SA) showed what can be done with glass using laser-based advanced manufacturing: from microfluidic chambers to additively manufactured high-tech glass components that make it possible to connect the highly shrunk optical chips to the relatively thick optical fiber bundles. Which brings us back to PICs.

At the end of the program, five PhD students were honored in the Awards Ceremony for outstanding scientific publications in the field of nanotechnologies. It was a great pleasure for me to present one of the awards to Ms. Claudia Lotter from the University of Basel on behalf of the Hightech Zentrum Aargau. Congratulations!

By the way, it was striking that many contributions from industry ended with a final slide showing a sometimes impressive list of vacancies. This shows two things: skilled specialists are not easy to find, and recruiting young talent can be an additional reason to come to the SNC.

Die Swiss NanoConvention is over, time to look ahead to the next edition : The next SNC will take place in Neuchâtel on June 15-16, 2023. Hosts and Conference Co-Chairs are Alexandra Kaempfer-Homsy (HE-ARC) and Michel Despont (CSEM). We look forward to seeing you again at Lake Neuchâtel!

(MMo / nano.swiss)

More Images from Siwss NanoConvention 2022:
Image gallery