Winfried Kaiser, head of Product Strategy of ZEISS Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology (SMT) and, as the highest point of his professional career Fellow of the company, has been honored with the 2020 Frits Zernike Award for Microlithography of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE). Kaiser received the prize during the SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference in San José, California. The award is considered to be the highest honor in microlithography.
25 years ago, Kaiser launched the development program for lithography with extreme ultra-violet light (EUV) in Europe. Starting in 2019, EUV lithography, a revolutionary manufacturing program using a wavelength of 13.5 nanometers, has made the volume manufacture of enormously powerful microchips with extremely fine structures possible. Kaiser was also a key figure in the development of lithography technologies such as the Deep Ultraviolet (DUV) system which are now industry standards – particularly lithography with light wavelengths of 248 and 193 nanometers as well as immersion lithography.
Dr. John Greivenkamp, President of SPIE, honored “With his technical know-how and exemplary commitment, Winfried Kaiser has advanced the development of ultra-modern lithographic optical systems including EUV lithography which has made the continuance of Moore’s law possible. As well as other products, ZEISS develops and manufactures this type of lithography optics which are used in wafer scanners for the manufacture of increasingly powerful microchips.
Professor Dr. Michael Kaschke, President and CEO of the ZEISS Group, congratulated Kaiser on the award, “Over more than 35 years Winfried Kaiser has worked his way up to the role of a designer and source of ideas who recognizes market opportunities and enjoys the greatest possible esteem among international experts. As well as contributing to global recognition of ZEISS as a technology and market leader in the field of lithography optics, he has also added impetus to greater economic value-added in innovative areas such as EUV technology.”