Martin van den Brink, president and CTO of ASML, a supplier of photolithography systems for the semiconductor industry, has been awarded the Imec Lifetime of Innovation Award 2019.
The presentation of the award will take place today during the Imec Technology Forum in Antwerp, Belgium, one of the three conferences that are part of FutureSummits 2019 – a series of international events hosted in different countries by Imec, the research and innovation hub for nanoelectronics and digital technology.
The annual Imec Lifetime of Innovation Award has been awarded since 2015 to people who have left an important mark on the chip industry. Dr Morris Chang (TSMC), Dr Gordon Moore (founder of Intel), Dr Kinam Kim (Samsung) and Dr Irwin Jacobs (Qualcomm) have all previously received the award.
‘They are all pioneers in the field of, respectively, the foundry model, more powerful compute and memory chips, and mobile communication. And for each of these domains, Martin van den Brink's lithography roadmap was an unmistakable “enabler”.’ remarked Luc Van den hove, president and CEO of Imec.
With the bestowment of the award Imec has therefore acknowledged the personal contribution of van den Brink in the realisation of more powerful microchips.
‘Martin van den Brink has practically become synonymous with ASML, which over the past 35 years has grown into the absolute world-leader in the development of lithography equipment for the chip industry,’ commented Van den hove. ‘Through his technical talent and perseverance, and as a major pioneer of technical innovation, he has contributed significantly to this success story.'
‘ASML has worked for more than 20 years on the development of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, aiming at the 7nm technology node and smaller,’ he continued. 'The road was full of challenges, but thanks to the long-term vision and the “never-give-up” mentality of van den Brink, the first chips with EUV-printed structures will go into production this year. In addition, ASML is celebrating its 35th anniversary, just like imec. We started together, we have had intense collaboration for years, and we have become successful together.’
Martin van den Brink, an engineer and physicist, was an early employee when ASML was launched in 1984, and has held various positions within the company. In 1995, he became vice president of technology, and in 1999 he was appointed as the executive vice president of marketing & technology and a member of the board of directors. In 2013 he became president & CTO of the company.
Martin van den Brink has received various awards over the past years, such as the IEEE Cledo Brunetti Award in 2014 for his contributions to nanotechnology, and the IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal in 2015 for his exceptional contributions to the microelectronics industry.
