Research
The researchers of Łukasiewicz – IMiF are keen to support business. They develop ready-to-market technologies and products. Do you run a business? With our know-how, we can help you solicit funding for joint projects.
Our researchers are currently engaged in over 100 national and European research and development projects, including projects of the EU research and innovation programme Horizon 2020. Our researchers have developed dozens of patents and submitted many patent applications.
The Institute’s scientists work in ten Research Groups developing new technologies and instruments in photonics and microelectronics.
Our researchers have developed dozens of patents and submitted many patent applications both in Poland and abroad, including graphene-based paint, a method for joining semiconductor wafers, a method for active optical cable manufacturing, and an active optical cable.
History of microelectronics in Poland
Jan Czochralski (1885-1953) was a chemist and metal expert. He is the most cited Polish scholar. He began his career in a pharmacy to later work as the head of steel and iron research laboratory at Allgemeine Elektricitäts Gesellschaft.
He discovered metal B, which he patented in 1924. Six years later, he became a chemistry professor at the Warsaw University of Technology.
During World War II, he ran a Materials Research Plant to protect the university’s employees and equipment. The Plant worked for many civil institutions, including the Polish underground movement and… the Wehrmacht, products for which he sabotaged.
The method of monocrystalline silicon growth, developed by Jan Czochralski, is the basis in the production of integrated circuits – the foundation of electronics. This method continues to be used today.
He cooperated with the (resistance) Home Army and thanks to his personal contacts with Germans he saved museum collections, got people out of prisons and concentration camps and helped combatants fighting in the Warsaw ghetto. Although he was accused of collaboration with Germany after the war, he was cleared. Unfortunately, the accusations significantly impacted his health.
A film still from the series “Geniusze i marzyciele” (Geniuses and Dreamers)