This recognition marks the fourth major industry award for the PINovAlign system, underscoring its impact on high-speed, high-precision photonics alignment. The platform combines advanced motion control, integrated alignment algorithms, and high-performance hardware to significantly improve throughput and repeatability in photonic device manufacturing and testing.

Designed for silicon photonics wafer testing, high-throughput fibre alignment, FAU (fibre array unit) alignment, and PIC (photonic integrated circuit) alignment in both test and assembly environments, PINovAlign’s parallel, multi-channel optimisation approach addresses one of the key bottlenecks in scaling silicon photonics manufacturing. By combining high-dynamics precision motion with embedded alignment intelligence, the system enables rapid, repeatable coupling of optical components with nanometre-level accuracy.

At the core of the platform, the PILightning algorithm dramatically accelerates first-light acquisition and alignment convergence compared to legacy, sequential methods. This results in significantly shorter cycle times, higher yield, and improved process stability – critical factors for volume production.

As silicon photonics continues to emerge as a foundational technology for AI infrastructure and next-generation data centres, the need for fast, automated, and scalable alignment solutions becomes essential. By reducing alignment time from minutes to seconds and enabling parallel, multi-channel optimisation, PINovAlign helps remove a major barrier to mass adoption, supporting the growth of an industry that will underpin future high-speed data communication.

By replacing electrons with photons, photonic computer chips have the potential to save huge amounts of energy in next generation data centres.

While early cryogenic motion solutions relied on stacked XYZ stages, emerging applications now require 5- and 6-degree-of-freedom alignment systems capable of handling larger payloads and more complex optical configurations.

PI’s concept approach centres on compact, 6DOF parallel-kinematics, designed to deliver nanometre-scale precision across multiple axes within the confined environments of cryostats and dilution refrigerators. Engineered to support key optical tasks – including beam steering, lens aberration correction, polarization control, fibre alignment, and precision positioning of dispersive elements such as gratings and prisms – these systems operate at ultra-low temperatures down below 4K, while enabling motion of several hundred grams over millimetre-scale travel ranges, all with high stability and repeatability.

Hexapod-type parallel kinematics enable simultaneous control of all six degrees of freedom, reducing error accumulation common in stacked systems. Additional advantages include low inertia, requiring less energy, a programmable pivot point for precise rotational alignment, and an open aperture for unobstructed optical access.

The piezo-based architecture minimises heat generation and enables self-locking operation even when power is switched off, an advantage for thermally sensitive low-temperature environments. Non-magnetic materials and UHV compatibility further support integration near sensitive quantum devices.

With this initiative, PI is positioning its motion technologies to support the next generation of quantum research and advanced cryogenic photonic systems.

The automation programme began in 2018, when Hanover introduced its first collaborative robot to improve the accuracy and efficiency of testing electronic boards used in its LED passenger display systems. Working with automation integrator Absolute Robotics, Hanover deployed Techman collaborative robots to automate the repetitive and highly precise testing process.

Since then, the system has expanded significantly. Today, 11 Techman robots are installed at Hanover’s Lewes manufacturing facility, including TM5-900 and TM12 models, supporting continuous inspection and testing operations across multiple lines.

Automating quality control

Hanover Displays manufactures passenger information and LED destination displays used by transport operators worldwide. As the company brought PCB production back in-house, it needed a reliable way to test and inspect thousands of circuit boards each year. Previously, this process required manual handling and constant operator attention.

The introduction of collaborative robots transformed the testing workflow. Equipped with integrated vision systems, the robots load boards, operate test equipment, verify LED sequences and record the results of each test. This automation enables consistent cycle times and supports unmanned operation, including overnight production runs. The introduction of the cobots has gained significant data and insights to help improve their first-time pass rate from 94% to 99.5%, strengthened department collaboration, and enhanced how Hanover design and test new products.

Proven reliability over eight years

One of the most significant findings of Hanover’s cobot deployment has been the proven reliability of the Techman robots in daily production.

Reece Mills, Sales and Operations Control Manager at Hanover Displays, commented: “Since installing the first Techman robot in 2018, the reliability has been exceptional. In eight years of operation across our cobots, we have only experienced a single joint failure. That level of performance really demonstrates the quality and robustness of the TM robots.”

The collaborative robots have allowed Hanover to maintain extremely high testing accuracy while freeing skilled employees from repetitive tasks and enabling them to focus on higher-value production activities.

Partnership driving automation success

The automated testing solution was delivered by Absolute Robotics, an automation specialist and integration partner for LG Motion. Together, the companies developed a flexible system capable of handling the wide variety of board sizes and configurations produced by Hanover.

By combining collaborative robotics with custom tooling and automated test equipment, Hanover achieved significant gains in productivity and quality assurance, including improved traceability and the ability to run automated tests around the clock.

Reaching one million automated PCB board tests represents a major milestone for Hanover Displays and highlights the long-term value of collaborative robot automation in electronics manufacturing.

The project demonstrates how advanced robotics can deliver consistent quality, improved efficiency and long-term reliability in demanding industrial environments.

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Azur Space Solar Power, which is based in Heilbronn, is one of the world’s leading companies that develops and produces highly efficient multi-junction solar cells for space and terrestrial concentrator systems (CPV). All solar cells are based on the latest triple and quadruple junction technology, in which the layers are built up on a germanium substrate.

During the production process, the 4-, 6- and 8- inch (100, 150 and 200 mm) diameter wafers undergo a PECVD process (plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition) in systems from Singulus Technologies. The solar cells are supplied in cassettes, removed from them and placed in the nests of special carbon fibre workpiece carriers, which are just a few hundred micrometres larger. Depending on the cell size, the 1000 x 600 mm carriers can hold four, nine or 16 wafers. To avoid collisions, a positioning accuracy of ±0.1 mm must be reliably met when loading the workpiece carriers. After being coated on one or both sides, the solar cells must then be placed back into cassettes.

Azur Space wanted to automate this previously time-consuming and cost-intensive manual process using suction pipettes. The position of the solar wafers with flats in the cassettes can deviate by ±5 degrees and ±3 mm and the gripping points are precisely defined, making this quite a challenge. In addition, the production-related tolerances of the carriers have to be compensated for, as must the shrinkage caused by cooling. This is due to the falling temperature of the workpiece carriers, which come out of the coating process at up to 350 °C and cool down during unloading and loading.

Positioning accuracy ensured

To realise this task, automation specialist acp systems developed an intelligent, vision-assisted handling solution with an industrial robot. Due to the limited space available, this was mounted on the ceiling of the loading area of the coating system and has a reach of 1,000 millimetres. The SCARA robot is equipped with a special flat vacuum gripper system that can be quickly exchanged to handle wafers of different sizes.

The robot takes out the wafer from the cassette and places it on a backlit alignment table. A camera system with a 12-megapixel camera is located above the table at a working distance of 680 mm. It detects the exact position of the wafer and sends this information to the Cognex Vision Pro software. Based on this, the software calculates the position and angle of compensation required to insert the wafer into the carrier nest and transmits the data to the robot controller. Any distortions in the camera system were compensated for during commissioning by calibrating it with a checker plate.

In order to overcome the manufacturing tolerances of the carriers and the shrinkage caused by cooling, each workpiece carrier is first centred by pulling it against a stop and indexing it. This allows the coordinate zero point of all carriers in the handling system to be reproducibly defined. Furthermore, to compensate for manufacturing tolerances, all carriers were accurately measured beforehand in their cold, new state and each was given a data matrix code for identification. This code is used to store relevant data in the controller so that the position tolerances of the carrier nests can be calculated and compensated for.

To compensate for the thermal shrinkage caused by the workpiece carriers cooling down, a fiducial mark was first placed in the corner of each carrier opposite the coordinate zero point, and this was also accurately measured precisely when cold. A second camera system is located above this, enabling the offset of the fiducial mark compared to the cold state to be determined. The software uses this information to calculate the compensation needed to set down the wafer accurately in position. This process is repeated for each wafer to be inserted.

Flipping station for turning the wafers

acp systems also integrated a flipping station for turning the solar cells so that they can be coated on both sides. This receives the corresponding wafers one by one from the robot and grips them at defined points with vacuum suction dots. After the wafer has been rotated by 180 degrees, the robot gripper picks it up again and transfers it to the alignment table.

Before the coated solar cells are placed back into the cassettes, a final quality check is carried out by the camera system on the alignment table. This checks whether the edges of the wafers are free of damage.

The vision-assisted robotic solution described above ensures that the extremely delicate solar wafers are handled with high precision and care. This is demonstrated above all by the fact that there have been no handling-related wafer breakages since commissioning. Overall, replacing manual handling with a fully automated system has resulted in significantly improved productivity and efficiency.

Pictured left to right: Rosenheim Lord Mayor Andreas Marz; PI location manager Markus Unterharrer; PI Group CEO Markus Spanner; Economic Development Agency of the City of Rosenheim Carla Kirmis; PI SVP of Operations Dr Axel Widenhorn (Image: Philipp Wermuth)

The expansion will enable production capacities of precision motion control and nanopositioning technology products to be further increased in order to meet the demands of customers from the semiconductor, photonics, laser processing, and life sciences industries.

For 2025, another investment of $2M has been approved.

Electronics manufacturers facing highly labour-intensive processes such as masking components and hand spraying conformal coatings can address that burden with an automated solution. It is clear that manufacturers in the UK and Ireland are grappling with a shortage of available highly skilled labour to support these processes, and sees the PVA Delta 6 a great solution to assist in streamlining processes and improving efficiency.

Joe Booth, CEO of Altus Group said: “Many manufacturers rely on traditional manual methods that are extremely labour-intensive and can lead to inconsistencies. The Delta 6 provides an automated alternative, allowing these critical coating and dispensing processes to be brought in-house with minimal labour while ensuring high repeatability.”

The PVA Delta 6 features a three-axis motion platform with servo-controlled motion featuring valve tilt and rotate. Designed for selective coating, potting, bead dispensing, and meter-mix dispensing in both inline and batch production environments, it offers high accuracy, consistent process control across the gantry system, and the ability to handle multiple applications or materials.

“For manufacturers looking to improve efficiency and cut costs, automating labour-intensive processes is crucial,” said Joe. “The Delta 6′s flexibility, small footprint, robust construction, and versatile programming make it an ideal solution to reduce labour demands.”

Engineered to excel in selective conformal coating and dispensing tasks within moderate to high volume manufacturing settings, the PVA Delta 6 offers enhanced accuracy and repeatability.

“Our latest SCARA addition broadens our portfolio, offering our customers even more automation choices” said Marc Segura, president of ABB Robotics. “Whether 3C, automotive electronics, electric vehicle battery cells or solar panels, our new IRB 930’s higher payload and longer reach brings the performance advantages of our wider SCARA range to new and traditional segments alike.

“With the global SCARA market predicted to grow to $15.54 billion by 20271 at a compound annual growth rate of 14.4%, the IRB 930 positions ABB well for growth.”

Engineered for fast point-to-point tasks that demand high payloads and large work areas, the IRB 930 has three variants capable of providing what ABB claims is the highest payload of any SCARA robot in its class. In addition, the 22kg variant delivers a 10% increase in throughput by handling more and heavier workpieces at once.

The IRB 930 also provides a 200% increase in push-down strength (with a maximum downward force of 250N), making it ideal for force-intensive operations such as screw-driving and assembly tasks re-quired when working with components such as battery cells, display panels and solar modules.

ABB’s OmniCore controller will power the new IRB 930. The company says the OmniCore controller offers best-in-class motion control through TrueMove and QuickMove alongside built-in digital connectivity and scalable functions. The motion control delivers a cycle time of 0.38 seconds, with a repeatability deviation position of only 0.01 mm. This performance empowers the IRB 930 to enhance hourly production rates while upholding high-quality manufacturing standards.

The new IRB 930, along with the IRB 910INV, IRB 920 and IRB 920T, completes ABB’s range of SCARA robots to customers with a 3-22 kg payload requirement. These high-performance SCARA robots are designed for use in various industries such as packaging and manufacturing where high speed and high repeatability pick-and-place and assembly operations are required.

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The focus of the restructuring was the optimisation and relocation of the entire hexapods production area to newly designed premises, as well as the expansion of the workforce. The measures are an integral part of the company-wide investment program with a volume of more than €63m. The aim is to capitalise on PI’s above average growth opportunities in the industrial automation, semiconductor and photonics markets, as well as microscopy and life sciences.

“The demand for hexapods has been increasing significantly for a number of years,” says Markus Spanner, CEO of PI, describing the market situation. “Expanding capacity in this product division at the Karlsruhe site was therefore a logical step as part of our investment program based on which we are preparing all PI product divisions for a further increase in demand.”

The factory layout for the new hexapod production was developed by PI experts, with the support of specialists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA. It takes the latest findings in the fields of ergonomics, digitalisation, and automation, as well as lean approaches into account.

“We have analysed all process steps and optimised and reorganised assembly in the form of matrix production,” explains Dr Axel Widenhorn, director operations for the PI development and production sites in Karlsruhe, Eschbach, and Rosenheim (Germany). “In addition to an overall increase in production capacities, our goal was to significantly reduce lead times. This has been fully achieved.

“We have already reduced lead times to less than half of what they were at the beginning of the year and will be down to a few weeks for standard products by the end of the year. Additionally, we now have the potential of increasing the output by more than 100 %, which will allow us to respond flexibly to further increases in demand,” adds Dr Widenhorn.

Hexapods are compact, parallel kinematic motion systems with six degrees of freedom that are being used in an increasing number of applications – whether in production lines, for example as a component of pick-and-place machines, for aligning glass fibres in assembly and connection technology for silicon photonics, or as a subsystem in large systems such as space telescopes. PI has an extensive portfolio of configurable solutions of various sizes and capabilities for these and many other applications.

Find out more about how PI has increased its hexapod production capacity in this video.

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The photovoltaic cell manufacturing plant handles a large number of fragile silicon wafers using a high level of automation. One such automation is the use of compact two-finger robot edge-grippers to transport trays of silicon wafers between operations. To avoid impacts on the wafer’s surfaces, process engineers require reliable confirmation that the gripper’s jaws are fully open before the gripper descends to pick up a tray.

A typical photovoltaic solar panel consists of an array of 100+ silicon wafers, so their manufacturing involves handling and placing a very large number of thin and fragile silicon wafers. The high levels of cleanliness, high volumes and repetitive nature of the assembly lead to extensive, fast-moving automation.

In the panel assembly area, robotic systems handle the silicon wafers, position them on the panel, assemble and wire the panel and present it for automated testing. The silicon wafers are transported to the panel assembly area in trays which are picked up by compact two-finger robot edge-grippers. These grippers were prone to damaging the wafer’s surface if the gripper malfunctioned or was inaccurate.

Analysis showed that open/close errors accounted for a significant proportion of the gripper malfunctions which led to scrap being produced. The primary issue was that on occasion the jaws only partially opened causing the fingers to impact and damage the surface of the wafers. A cost-effective solution was therefore required to prevent the robot from attempting the pick operation if the jaws were not fully open.

Contrinex offers a very large choice of inductive sensors, including tiny Ø3mm inductive proximity sensors. Despite their diminutive size, they offer high performance and reliability, with for example a 1mm sensing range, a V2A stainless-steel housing with an LED indicator, up to 3,000Hz switching and IO-Link connectivity included in a sensor which is only 22mm long.

Two of these inductive sensors are mounted above the two top faces of the gripper fingers to sense their presence when the jaws are in the fully open position. This verification of the jaws being open eliminates the risk of scrap being caused by partially open jaws impacting the wafers.

These miniature inductive sensors are popular with robot and gripper OEMs and system integrators because of their small size, high performance and reliability, which offers a fit-and-forget solution. Even including a 2m long robust PUR sheathed cable, the whole sensor weighs only 25 grams, with the cable contributing the majority of the weight. Therefore, fitting them to small grippers adds only a very small (Ø3mm x 22mm) sensor with a small additional mass.

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Energy chains and other components designed for cleanroom environments must be certified to international standards. Cleanroom-compatible energy chains of the e-skin flat series still meet the highest cleanroom class, as the Igus test demonstrates.

The unique test was carried out in a cleanroom laboratory set up by Igus together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA).

Cleaning and dusting are never-ending; as soon as you’re happy about squeaky clean surfaces, the first new dust particles land. The situation is similar for manufacturers of displays and semiconductors, but with far more serious consequences. In such super-clean environments every particle, no matter how tiny, can damage electronic components.

In the strictest cleanroom class, ISO class 1 according to DIN 14644-1, there can be a maximum of 10 particles of 0.1 micrometres in one cubic metre of ambient air. To achieve this purity, all suppliers of components for cleanroom production plants must meet the strictest requirements. Igus has developed the e-skin flat for these applications.

The flat cable routing system made of abrasion-optimised, high-performance plastic ensures safe and particle-free management of power and data cables in moving production plants and thus achieves the standard for ISO class 1.

“The cleanroom energy chain e-skin flat is ideally suited for robots and other automation systems in electronics production, for example in semiconductor and display production,” says Justin Leonard, director of chain and e-chain systems at Igus UK. “They are so abrasion-resistant that contamination by suspended particles is no longer an issue.”

But until now, it was unclear how strong the particle abrasion in plastic is after very long and intensive use. To find out, Igus started a test setup that is unique in the e-chain industry. Part one of the experiment took place in Igus’ in-house laboratory. The energy chain moved in an environment with normal dust and dirt exposure for about 18-months, carrying out 60 million double strokes during this time.

Part two of the test took place in a cleanroom laboratory, which Igus built with the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA), the development and certification partner of Igus for over 17-years, in Cologne. At its heart are three so-called laminar flow boxes with high-performance filters that enable tests in uncontaminated air. Here, the e-chain moved for 100 minutes, while sensors detected the concentration of particles in the ambient air. “Even after 60 million double strokes, our e-chain e-skin flat has still reached the highest cleanroom class. It is an insight that gives operators of cleanroom productions additional security,” says Leonard.

Modular design for flexible filling

The e-skin flat performs both with its extreme abrasion resistance and also its modular design. If a defect occurs on a profile in which the cables are inserted, the user only needs to replace this single module. Many commercially available solutions would require the entire system to be replaced. In addition, the module plug-in mode allows individual profiles to be connected to each other. The cable routing system thus grows with the requirements and guarantees protection of your investment.

When combined with the specially adapted chainflex stranding structure called CFCLEAN, the complete system offers a very high level of reliability. In addition, the complete system has globally recognised certification from the renowned US standards organisation Underwriters Laboratories (UL). And last but not least, the cable guides are 9dB (A) quieter and 20% cheaper than standard ribbon cables on the market.

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