About us

FBK-SD is a research and innovation center with unique characteristics in Italy and with only a few similarity internationally. This comes from the wide base of diverse knowledge and competencies, supported by state-of-the-art research infrastructures, to attain outstanding results in both research and innovation. The ability to design and produce silicon-based devices and to functionalise them with advanced surface treatments, to develop photonics circuits, to use MEMS techniques and hybridisation methods for combining the performance of the various technologies constitutes a research and development environment rarely found within a single Institute.

Our vocation for research is testified by a significant number of publications (about 100/y) with a high fraction of them (> 30/y) ranking in the top 10% (according to Scopus) or in the Q1 range (according to WoS).

Our scientific results of excellence are brought to exploitation thanks to an international network that involves research institutions, universities, companies, end users and public agencies. Our research has produced devices at the frontier of science: our sensors are deployed in the most modern and demanding experiments like ALICE and ATLAS at the Large Hadron Colllider (LHC) at CERN, AMS on the International Space Station, Limadou on the Chinese Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES), or microfluidics devices in satellites like ESA missions GAIA, LISA Pathfinder, MICROSCOPE.

Our impact to market and society is realised with various approaches tailored to the needs of our partners (innovation partnerships, research contracts, joint laboratories or knowledge exchange through our network of industrial collaborations).

We feel the responsibility for disseminating scientific culture, as we believe in its power for improving the quality of life of society at large. Our initiatives include educative actions at various levels from high school education, professional training and under- and post-graduate education in collaboration with several Universities.

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MANAGEMENT – VISION AND MISSION 

Keywords:

Silicon sensors, Silicon Photomultipliers, Single Photon Sensors, CMOS Imagers, Photonics, Quantum Optics, Surface Functionalisation, Bio-Sensors, Lab-on-chip, micro-Bolometers, Josephson Junctions, MEMS, nano-technologies.

Energy systems, low carbon emission, hydrogen technologies, co-generation, concentrated solar power.