Dr. Hans C. Pfeiffer

A physicist best known for his contribution to the development of electron beam lithography (often abbreviated as e-beam lithography); the practice of scanning a focused beam of electrons to draw custom shapes on a surface covered with an electron sensitive film called a resist ("exposing"). Its primary advantage is that it can draw custom patterns (direct-write) with sub-10 nm resolution. This form of maskless lithography has high resolution and low throughput, limiting its usage to photomask fabrication, low-volume production of semiconductor devices, and research & development. He received his Ph.D. from the Technical University of Berlin, Germany in 1967 and joined IBM the following year. During his career he established a world class team and led the development of several generations of IBM's electron-beam lithography systems. He is recognized for building the industry's first shaped beam lithography systems. His work provided the technological base for IBM's five generations of high throughput exposure tools, EL-1...El-5. More recently, he invented and pioneered PREVAIL, IBM's E-Beam Projection approach for Next Generation Lithography. His activities in electron optics, electron beam physics and electron beam lithography are recorded in more than 130 publications and 27 issued or pending patents. Elected an IBM Fellow in 1985, he has received numerous other IBM awards for his Inventions and for Outstanding Innovation, and was a member of the IBM Academy of Technology. He is retired from IBM and currently is a consultant in the area of electron optics for lithography, inspection and test. He has been a member of the Continuing Education Institute (CEI)-Europe Faculty since 1997.