In order to be able to implement competitive scientific projects, top-quality research also needs efficient infrastructure. TU Wien combines its high-quality scientific infrastructure to provide more efficient internal use and support, and for strategic further development and better external visualisation of the associated scientific competencies. These core shared research facilities provide major devices that are required by several working groups across different institutes and faculties.

Core Shared Research Facilities

The AIC combines traditional existing specialist competencies at TU Wien from complementary analytic fields of chemistry. Instrumental equipment from the Institute of Chemical Technologies and Analytics was incorporated in the course of the general refurbishment of the Winkelbau building at the Getreidemarkt, as part of the TU Wien infrastructure project ‘TU Univercity’ in 2015.

The Centre was set up for (bio-)chemical and physical instrumental analysis in the fields of (GC/LC)-MS, ICP-OES, IR, TOFSIMS, AFM, XPS and AES, and brings together competencies and resources for the purpose of characterising inorganic, organic and biological materials and substances.

Analytical Instrumentation Center, opens an external URL in a new window

in development

The Center for Micro- and Nanostructures (ZMNS) is utilized for both research and instructional purposes. It provides a state-of-the art environment for teaching the fundamental techniques used to fabricate new semiconductor devices. The main goal of the research and development activities is the transfer of innovative ideas from basic science to device concepts. A close collaboration with the industry and international research institutions is maintained to stimulate new product ideas for microelectronic and optoelectronic applications. The Center houses a wide range of processing, material growing, and test equipment. As such, it is of tremendous value to a wide range of disciplines, and a basic unit for industrial and research activities in Austria.

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NMR spectroscopy is a key technology for modern research in all fields of chemistry as well as in molecular biology, for tackling questions of structure. In addition, NMR represents one of the most promising analytic methods of the future.

Through an NMR alliance between the University of Vienna and TU Wien, supported by the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy as part of the university structural resources programme, experimental opportunities are available that could never have been provided to an individual user. Cost-intensive major devices are operated on a shared basis and tuned to one another in technical terms.

The way industrial goods are manufactured is set to be completely different in the future. Research is under way at the TU Wien pilot factory on how intelligent production will work. Manufacturing products now involves so much more than just setting up a machine and pressing a big green button, as industrial production is becoming increasingly more complex and interlinked. In future, the individual process steps will no longer be viewed separately; instead all areas of production will be interlinked and coordinated with one another using information technology. TU Wien is now taking an important step into the new age of production – research and testing will be carried out at the pilot factory at TU Wien to identify how the industry of tomorrow will look.

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Bereits seit mehr als fünf Jahrzehnten betreibt das Atominstitut einen TRIGA Mark II-Forschungsreaktor, der in erster Linie als Neutronenquelle für physikalische Experimente dient. Der Reaktor wird für wegweisende physikalische Grundlagenforschung verwendet. Eine wichtige Rolle spielt er außerdem für medizinische Anwendungen ionisierender Strahlung sowie für Forschung und Lehre im Bereich Strahlenschutz. Für die in Wien ansässige Atomenergiebehörde IAEA ist das Atominstitut der TU Wien durch den eigenen Nuklearreaktor seit vielen Jahren ein wichtiger Partner.

TRIGA Mark II-Nuclear Reactor

The University Service Facility for Transmission Electron Microscopy was founded in 1999 and provides transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), confocal microscopy and focused ion beam (FIB), offering a wide range of services in the field of structural and chemical microanalysis for research establishments, businesses and private customers for the purpose of carrying out research and development, for quality control or for damage assessment.

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The X-ray center was set up as the first device centre at TU Wien’s Getreidemarkt site, as part of the new ‘Lehartrakt’ building, for the purpose of characterising materials with the aid of X-ray diffraction methods. It brought together X-ray facilities from the institutes, plus newly procured equipment.

The X-ray center contains powerful equipment for analysis based on diffraction techniques: powder diffraction, single crystal x-ray analysis and x-ray fluorescence.

X-ray Centre