The German Future Prize - the President's Prize for Technology and Innovation - has honored outstanding achievements in research and development since 1997. This year four teams are nominated for the award. Two groups of experts from the industrial and research sectors were nominated for the renowned prize for outstanding achievements in optical technologies. ...

The nominees for the 2007 German Future Prize have done an exemplary job of demonstrating how to get from identifying a problem to finding a scientific/technical solution and how to turn an idea into a convincing product. One product that has a good chance of winning this year's award is a revolutionary optical solution for manufacturing the computer chip of the future, which was developed by a team at Carl Zeiss SMT AG in Oberkochen. However, the development work in the sector for thin-film LEDs conducted by Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH in Regensburg and the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Mechanics IOF in Jena is also prize-worthy.

Revolutionary optics for manufacturing the computer chip of the future
The EUV (extreme ultraviolet) optics developed by Dr. rer. nat. Peter Kürz, Winfried Kaiser and Dr. rer. nat. Martin Lowisch at Carl Zeiss SMT establishes the foundation for ongoing miniaturization in microelectronics. It can be used to increase packaging density on computer chips by a factor of ten, which would improve performance considerably. This would also pave the way for new applications in microelectronics that are unforeseeable at this time.

Enormous requirements must be met when manufacturing optical components for EUV lithography. The surfaces of the mirrors, which are made up of approximately 100 reflective layers, must be polished with extreme precision: on average, each mirror may deviate from its stipulated shape by no more than 0.2 nanometers - less than the diameter of an atom. Each mirror must also maintain its exact position.

The new EUV optics developed by Carl Zeiss SMT can meet these requirements. The first prototype was introduced at the end of 2005, and the technology should be ready for series production by 2009.

Light from crystals - light-emitting diodes take over our everyday lives
A team of researchers at Osram Opto Semiconductors and the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Mechanics has set off a revolution in LED technology with innovations in the field of chip manufacturing, housings and special-purpose optics. PD Dr. rer. nat. Klaus Streubel and Dr. rer. nat. Stefan Illek have found a way to produce particularly strong light-emitting diodes (LEDs) using thin-film technology and special housings. Because the same technology is used to produce light-emitting diodes in all colors, including invisible infrared light, different colored light can easily be mixed in the housings to create any color tones or white light.

Dr. rer. nat. Andreas Braeuer from the Fraunhofer Institute for Appilied Optics and Precision Mechanics has developed special-purpose optics that collect the light emitted from the chip surface and focus it in the desired beam direction. Another optical element makes it possible to give the light intensity almost any profile.

The first products based on this new LED technology such as automobile headlights have been on the market for a few years now. However, LEDs are also expected to have a bright future in conventional lighting and as background lighting in flat screens.

A panel of prominent experts from the scientific and commercial sectors will decide the winner of the 2007 German Future Prize. The award will be presented on December 6, 2007. Additional information: www.deutscher-zukunftspreis.de