Summer interview with Günther Irlbacher
Short interview with the Technical Director of the Irlbacher Group
In this year's summer interview, Günther Irlbacher outlines our strategy for staying able to deliver in these times with our high-tech HMIs — despite complex chips and powerful computing power. This is because printed electronics on glass are the ideal “enabler” for extremely slim device structures.
Five questions to Günther Irlbacher
1) Does Irlbacher see itself as a glass specialist or as an electronics development house?
Günther Irlbacher: Both On the one hand, we are probably the company with the most extensive range of processing options for flat glass in the world. For almost 20 years, however, we have also been an electronics company that develops microcontroller components, prints circuits on glass and assembles SMDs. During this time, we have developed a dozen technology platforms, including an embedded HMI solution kit.
2) What exactly do you understand by “embedded HMI”?
Günther Irlbacher: The possibilities of modern HMIs are immense and sometimes very complex. We often combine proximity sensors, lighting effects and background lighting, display functions and the control of displays. We make it easier to navigate the flat glass surfaces with sanded or elegated haptic elements. Combining these diverse options correctly and using them to form the optimal HMI for an application requires deep knowledge of the technical-physical relationships.
By embedded HMI, we mean that we process all sensor and display data directly on the HMI, thus relieving the customer system. For this, we use powerful PSoCs with ARM Cortex M0 and M3 cores. If we place them directly on the glass, we achieve very slim device structures.
3) What other options does this technology offer?
Günther Irlbacher: Because no internal knowledge has to be shared, development processes can be parallelized. While we are developing the embedded HMI and designing the cover glass for it, the customer is implementing their application. This saves time and money.
The PSoCs contain a great deal of computing power; there are therefore already a whole range of devices that do not require a control board: The hardware and software of the customer application is also integrated into the embedded HMI.
4) How does your approach impact your customers' supply chains?
Günther Irlbacher: We supply our customers with embedded HMIs with the designed cover glass, display, mounting and mounting frames, seals, etc. as a ready-to-install mechatronic module. Internally, we attach great importance to designs with standard components, which are relatively readily available even in these times. This allows us to keep our own warehouse lean, even though we have significantly increased it in recent months. With this strategy, we and our customers have been able to get through the current situation quite well so far.
5) What are your expectations for the future development of embedded HMI technology?
Günther Irlbacher: Practically every embedded system needs an HMI in some form. It doesn't always have to be a 21.5-inch touch. Accordingly, we have, for example, touch control solutions without a display, or touch solutions that are based on a combination of our technology with easy-to-obtain standard, no-touch displays. We have all the technologies for this under one roof — including optical bonding and plastics technology.
October 2022 addendum: The summer interview has now been published in numerous specialist journals, including outside Germany, such as the November issue of the Technische Rundschau published in Switzerland.
