  Within the CALICE collaboration, several concepts for the hadronic
calorimeter of a future lepton collider detector are studied. After having
demonstrated the capabilities of the measurement methods in "physics
prototypes", the focus now lies on improving their implementation in
"technological prototypes", that are scalable to the full linear collider
detector. The Analogue Hadronic Calorimeter (AHCAL) concept is a sampling
calorimeter of tungsten or steel absorber plates and plastic scintillator tiles
read out by silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) as active components. The
front-end electronics is fully integrated into the active layers of the
calorimeter and is designed for minimal power consumption (i.e. power pulsing).
The versatile electronics enables the prototype to be equipped with different
types of scintillator tiles and SiPMs. In recent beam tests, a prototype with
$\sim$3700 channels, equipped with several types of scintillator tiles and
SiPMs, was exposed to electron, muon and hadron beams. The experience of these
beam tests resulted in an optimal detector design with surface-mounted SiPMs
suitable for the automated mass assembly. The proceeding will cover topics
including the testbeam measurements with the AHCAL technological prototype, the
improved detector design and the ongoing development of a large prototype for
hadronic showers.
