About us

Fraunhofer IKTS was founded in Dresden in 1992 as the “Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Sintered Materials IKTS”. The goal of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and the former Central Institute for Solid Body Physics and Materials Research was to sustain the research potential in the field of construction and functional ceramics after 1989 at this location and to develop it for the future. The institution rapidly evolved into an established research partner in the field of high-performance ceramics. In order to document the enhanced focus on “ceramic systems solutions”, the IKTS was renamed “Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems” in 2006.

In February 2010, the Hermsdorf Institute for Technical Ceramics HITK – including the research activities of the former inocermic GmbH – was fully integrated into Fraunhofer IKTS, in order to bring together the comprehensive experiences with and expertise in materials, procedural technologies, and applications of both facilities in the area of high- performance ceramics into a combined portfolio of services. Over and beyond the development of ceramic materials, production technologies and components, the focus of Fraunhofer IKTS was thereby consistently further broadened to cover intelligent systems solutions.

In January 2014, the Dresden-based location of the Fraunhofer Institute for Non-Destructive Testing IZFP was integrated into Fraunhofer IKTS. The new branch expanded the research portfolio to include the fields of materials diagnostics, structural health monitoring and test electronics, nanoanalytics and sensor technology as well as biotechnology and environmental technology. As part of the integration process, the Dresden-Klotzsche location is to be further expanded and developed into a center for materials diagnostics. With this integration, the now three sites form Europe’s largest ceramics research institute.