The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication at Brno University of Technology, together with the Czech Semiconductor Centre (CSC), will participate in this year’s Electron Microscopy Days. The event will introduce the public and experts to the world of technologies that allow us to look into the structure of materials and devices with extreme precision – down to the level of individual atoms. The program for the public is scheduled for Saturday, March 28.
Electron microscopy and semiconductor technologies form an interconnected world. No electron microscope could function without highly specialized chips that control its extremely precise movements, image processing, and work with enormous amounts of data. Conversely, electron microscopes are a key tool in the actual production of chips, as they allow their structure to be checked and even the smallest manufacturing deviations to be detected. “This creates a technological circle: without chips, we cannot manufacture electron microscopes, and without electron microscopes, we cannot manufacture chips,” explains Jana Drbohlavová, deputy director of the Czech Semiconductor Centre.
Saturday’s engaging and accessible talk on what semiconductors are and how chips are made is open to anyone interested without registration. Visitors will learn why chips and electron microscopes belong together and how important they are for modern technology. This part of the talk will be presented by Jana Drbohlavová from CSC together with Martin Balabán from the SPICE student association. The program is tailored to a wide audience – students, parents, and children.
Brno’s electrical engineering is historically closely linked to Armin Delong, one of the pioneers of electron microscopy in Czechoslovakia. It was in Brno in the 1950s that the first Czechoslovak electron microscopes were developed, laying the foundations for a field that gradually became world-renowned. “The laboratory staff succeeded in developing a tabletop transmission electron microscope and introducing it into production at Tesla Brno. This device was extremely successful and won a gold medal at the EXP058 World Exhibition in Brussels in 1958,” recalls Jana Drbohlavová. The tradition of cutting-edge research and development in the field of electronics and instrumentation continues at FEEC BUT to this day.
Visitors will be able to see this for themselves in two blocks from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., directly in the faculty building at Technická 8, Brno. Those interested will have the opportunity to take part in an excursion to the electron microscope, during which they will look directly into the laboratory and see how the microscope can display details that are invisible to the human eye.
“The biggest surprise comes when you realize that you are looking at structures many times thinner than a human hair – and yet they determine how the technologies around us will work. The micro world is not an abstract concept, but a reality that we can study live,” says Nikola Papež from the Institute of Physics at FEEC BUT. Due to capacity reasons, prior registration is required for this part of the program.
This year’s Electron Microscopy Days (DEM) in Brno, which will take place from March 23 to 29, 2026, will focus on the theme “75 Years – Discovering the Invisible” and celebrate the significant anniversary of 75 years since the creation of the first Czechoslovak electron microscope in Brno. After all, the Moravian metropolis is a mecca – every third electron microscope in the world was manufactured here. Brno will once again become the center of the micro world, where science literally “sees what is hidden” – from the structures of bacteria and materials to nanotechnologies that influence modern technology and research.
