Christoph Reinhardt and Hossein Masalehdan receive DESY Innovation Award 2023

This year's DESY Innovation Award goes to Christoph Reinhardt (DESY, Department of FH-ALPS) and Hossein Masalehdan (University of Hamburg, Cluster of Excellence "Quantum Universe", Institute for Quantum Physics). Their membrane-based pressure sensor enables calibration-free measurements over an extremely wide range. Until now, this range could only be covered by typically three different sensors, which also had to be calibrated and aligned with each other in an extremely time-consuming manner. In addition, the new sensor also functions under extreme conditions such as cryogenic temperatures and strong magnetic fields.

The use of the novel pressure sensor could be used in industry and research for the monitoring of pressures, insulation vacuums and the composition of gases. A concrete application of the technology is possible in the aerospace industry as well as in safety-relevant plants in the industry.
At the outset, the research team's development arose out of necessity. "Our initial concern was actually to see how gravitational wave detectors could be made even more sensitive. Here we found that there is not yet a commercial solution to simply buy a measuring device that tells us the pressure," says Christoph Reinhardt.

The DESY Innovation Awards jury sees the research team's development as a prime example of the innovation potential of basic research. "The pressure sensor is such an interesting development because it can be transferred directly from basic research into many application areas," says Arik Willner, chief technology officer at DESY and chairman of the jury. "This is a wonderful example of innovation activity at DESY. And that's what makes this project so unique and, of course, the innovators behind it. I congratulate them from the bottom of my heart, because it's really very well deserved."

The DESY Innovation Award annually honors technology solutions or process optimizations by DESYans that have high innovation and market potential. The award ceremony takes place during DESY DAY in November. The award committee consists of five jury members, including representatives from science, industry, venture capitalists and the innovation ecosystem in Hamburg. More information about the DESY Innovation Award here.