It all started with the idea of revolutionizing time measurement in motor racing, using a portable lap-timing system. After two years of research, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Holger Heuermann and his colleague Dipl.-Ing. Kai Hanisch successfully tested their microwave transponder-based laptiming system, MicroLap. Unlike conventional systems, Microlap allows for accurate chronometry not only on asphalt, but also, for the first time, off-road, in the water and in the air.


In order to develop and market MicroLap and other innovative high frequency technology inventions worldwide, Prof. Heuermann has founded Heuermann HF-Technik GmbH (HHF), a spin-off of the Aachen University of Applied Sciences. Prof. Heuermann and colleagues Dipl.-Ing. Kai Hanisch and Dipl.-Ing. Kokulathasan Thalayasingam, who will also be working for HHF, are all members of the University’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology.

Prof. Heuermann enjoys the opportunities of the Aachen University: “A perfect infrastructure to start a spin-off is in Aachen. Very good students are here and we have perfect conditions for research work at the university”.

The focus of the company is the planning, development, manufacture and delivery of services for information, communication, plasma and microwave technology systems. In addition to manufacturing standard products, HHF develops and builds special-purpose and customized products tailored to clients’ specific requirements.

In addition to the MicroLap laptiming system, which is already on the market, HFF offers a number of other products. For example, an invisible security system based on microwave technology designed to monitor corridors and rooms, Microwave Gate MS-MG1. Installed within walls, it can detect intruders without ever revealing itself. Another HHF product, NonLin-S measurement software for electrical components, Dipl.-Ing. Thalayasingam’s research focus can measure electrical effects in components with a precision that conventional systems cannot achieve, for example mobile telephone transmission frequencies. NonLin-S can be used to determine whether or not a provider is operating within required transmission frequencies and not interfering with the frequencies of other instruments.

The spin-off of HHF from the Aachen University of Applied Sciences was supported by an EXIST Foundation grant from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, which supports innovative business ideas and entrepreneurs. For young researchers such as Hanisch and Thalayasingam, the spin-off provides a special opportunity: While the marketing of their research developments can be good business, they can also continue to use the facilities of the university for further research. “In this way creative ideas that come out of the university can influence the company´s work and enrich its range of products,” Prof. Heuermann explained.