Low-outgassing materials
A qualified material selection built around polyimide cores and copper circuitry — keeping base pressures low and spectra clean.
TU Wien spin-off project · Patent pending
Electronics for the extreme.
Invacuo makes printed circuit board technology usable in ultra-high vacuum: low-outgassing polyimide and copper builds, high-bandwidth readout circuitry, and flexible links from instrument to air side.
- Christian Doppler foundationTransfer.S2S programme
- TU WienVienna, Austria
- Patent pendingAustrian Patent Office
Milestones — hover a year
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The idea
A UHV-compatible PCB anode emerges from a master thesis at TU Wien's Physics Faculty; a patent application follows at the Austrian Patent Office.
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First results published
Picosecond ion pulses from a tungsten nanotip — Redl et al., Physical Review Research.
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Grant awarded
The Christian Doppler foundation selects the project for its Transfer.S2S programme.
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Programme launch
Three years of funded research begin in January; the segmented polyimide-core anode is published in Review of Scientific Instruments (Kendler et al.).
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Spin-off
Automating manufacturing and qualifying the technology on the road to commercialisation as a TU Wien spin-off.
The mission
PCB technology, ready for
ultra-high vacuum.
Standard printed circuit boards outgas and fail under ultra-high vacuum, so scientific instruments fall back on point-to-point wiring and ceramic parts. Invacuo develops circuit solutions that bring the design freedom of PCBs to surface science experiments and scientific instrumentation.
High-bandwidth readout
Circuit designs for fast, signal-faithful readout of MCPs, channeltrons and Faraday cups — signal fidelity under space-like conditions.
Flexible interfacing
Polyimide flex cabling that routes signals from UHV instruments to the air side of the vacuum chamber — fewer feedthrough compromises.
What we build
Four subprojects, one platform.
PCB anodes
Passive, capacitively coupled readout anodes for microchannel plates and channeltrons — including the segmented polyimide-core timing anode published in Kendler et al.
Accurate 2A
An ASIC femtoampere current-measurement chip deployed directly inside the vacuum, cutting leakage currents and signal interference to improve the accuracy of Faraday cups.
RF antennas
UHV-compatible printed 2D resonators on thin polyimide and LCP substrates. First application: a transmission electron microscope at USTEM, TU Wien.
Ultra-fast ion pulses
Picosecond ion pulses generated by laser-stimulated desorption from a tungsten nanotip, as published in Redl et al.
Peer-reviewed
Research behind the technology.
A capacitively coupled segmented polyimide core anode for a microchannel plate timing detector
Generation of picosecond ion pulses using laser-stimulated desorption from a tungsten nanotip
In the news · TU Wien
„Elektronik für Extreme: Signaltreue unter Weltraumbedingungen“
TU Wien announces four Transfer.S2S grants — among them Invacuo's programme on signal fidelity under space conditions.
The people
A research unit at TU Wien.
Invacuo grew out of the research unit of Richard A. Wilhelm at TU Wien. The Christian Doppler foundation's Transfer.S2S programme funds three years of research on the road to commercialisation.
Richard A. Wilhelm
Principal Investigator
Michael Kendler
PhD Student
Sophie Wrathall
PhD Student
Alexander Redl
PhD Student
Lisa Gmainer
Master Student
Alexander Prohaska
Master Student
Working with
Partners & collaborations.
TU Wien Innovation Incubation Center
Spin-off incubation
CERN
Research collaboration
D.I.S Germany GmbH
CEM pilot project
USTEM · TU Wien
RF antenna project
Bring PCB design freedom
into your vacuum system.
We are looking for partners in science and industry — for pilot projects, collaborations and early applications, from detector readout to flexible UHV cabling.