InnoEUV: HI Jena and GSI join new partnership to advance EUV radiation for metrology and imaging
17.03.2026 |
The project “Innovationspartnerschaft für Hochfluss EUV-Strahlquellen in Metrologie und Bildgebung (InnoEUV)” advances laser-driven extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation sources for metrology and imaging. The strategic innovation partnership of Helmholtz Institute Jena (HI Jena) and GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany, with Active Fiber Systems GmbH (AFS) accelerates the transfer into practical and commercial applications.
“With InnoEUV, we are strategically positioning the Helmholtz Institute Jena at the interface of fundamental EUV source development and application-oriented research,” explains Privatdozent Jan Rothhardt, head of „Soft X-ray Spectroscopy and Microscopy“ at HI Jena and project lead of InnoEUV. “The project lays the foundation for compact, coherent EUV sources, which for the first time enable the transfer of methods and findings developed at large-scale research facilities to broad industrial application, and opens up new opportunities for EUV-based metrology and imaging within the Helmholtz Association.”
The central objective of InnoEUV is the development of a novel approach for generating coherent, laser-like EUV radiation at a wavelength of 13.5 nanometers with unprecedented performance characteristics. Compared to current state-of-the-art sources, the concept promises a significant increase in output power, enabling new possibilities for spectroscopy, metrology, and imaging, particularly in the inspection and characterization of masks for EUV lithography.
Following the project launch, the partners established a close interdisciplinary collaboration that combines complementary expertise from fundamental research and industrial technology development. Joint activities address both the underlying physical principles and the exploration of technical limits and feasibility with regard to future applications.
For the challenging research work, the project can draw on the globally unique “Joint EUV-XUV Technology Laboratories” between the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF and HI Jena.
A key strength of InnoEUV is the early and continuous involvement of potential end users. The active participation of SPECSGROUP, among others, ensures that industrial requirements, application scenarios, and market relevance are systematically integrated into the development process.
“InnoEUV enables us to translate cutting-edge EUV source concepts into robust and scalable laser systems,” says Dr. Tino Eidam, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Active Fiber Systems GmbH. “The close collaboration with HI-Jena and the early involvement of potential end users ensure that the developed technologies are closely aligned with future application needs in metrology and imaging.”
Co-creation formats play a central role in the project by enabling partners to jointly refine concepts, align development strategies, and identify potential challenges at an early stage. This close integration supports application-oriented development and contributes to reducing the time required for subsequent industrial scaling.
With its strong scientific foundation and close industrial integration, InnoEUV has the potential to deliver significant technological advances and to open up new research and application fields for HI Jena within the Helmholtz Association. By developing compact, table-top-based, coherent EUV beam sources, the project is making a decisive contribution to transferring high-performance EUV technologies from basic research into broad industrial application, thereby creating new conditions for next-generation EUV-based metrology and imaging applications.
InnoEUV is funded by the Helmholtz Association within the Transfer Campaign under the call “Helmholtz Co-Creation Projects”. Designed as a co-creative collaboration between science and industry, the project brings together HI Jena as the scientific partner, GSI Technology Transfer, and AFS as the industrial partner. The consortium is further supported by for example SPECS Surface Nano Analysis GmbH as industry advisory partners, ensuring a strong application and market perspective. (CP)
