News

Prof. Ronald Dekker (ECTM) receives royal honour for pioneering work in microelectronics

• Wednesday, 30 April 2025

Prof.dr.ir. Ronald Dekker, was appointed Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion on Friday April 25  during the ribbon-cutting ceremony in the municipality of Valkenswaard. Ronald receives the honour because of his exceptional role in the world of microelectronics and process technology.

Ronald Dekker is honoured for his outstanding personal achievements in his main position. After graduating from TU Eindhoven, his positions included Principal Scientist at Philips and part-time Professor at TU Delft, Faculty of EWI. Ronald has made a leading contribution to the development of microelectronics and process technology. The ribbon was requested by Ronald's former colleague at Philips, Sieger Swaving, and received a recommendation from Tim van der Hagen, rector magnificus of TU Delft.

With his deep technical expertise and rare talent for making complex concepts understandable, he knows how to inspire and enthuse not only peers but also policymakers and the general public about his vision for the future. As a bridge builder between industry, science and policy, Ronald has initiated and led several leading European projects. In doing so, he developed innovative technologies with great social relevance and lasting impact. His work resulted not only in technological breakthroughs but also in the creation of new companies. Moreover, he has mentored numerous young scientists and helped them launch their careers. Ronald Dekker has left a lasting mark on the future of technology and healthcare with his work.

National Scalable Atomic Processing Line (SAP-NL) consortium project led by Sten Vollebregt gets funded

• Wednesday, 30 April 2025

Dr.ir. Sten Vollebregt, of TU Delft's Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, has received a substantial grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for his consortium project National Scalable Atomic Processing Line (SAP-NL). The project aims to develop a national facility for large-scale atomic fabrication. As part of the call ‘Research infrastructure: national consortia (RI:NC)’, NWO is investing over 21 million euros in projects for innovative scientific infrastructure.

National facility for scalable atomic fabrication

Materials innovation is essential in solving our society's challenges, such as energy transition and further digitalization. Think about developing faster and more energy-efficient chips, better batteries, solar panels and communication networks. “We are at the point where we can build materials atom layer by atom layer,” explains Associate Professor dr.ir. Sten Vollebregt. This results in materials with properties specifically tailored to the application or that do not occur in nature.

“The materials we focus on are 2D materials, thin-film wide-bandgap semiconductors, and heterojunctions of these materials,” explains Sten. The fabrication of these materials must be done under a protected environment because surface contamination degrades material properties. Therefore, the goal of this project is to establish a national infrastructure for atomic fabrication that makes this possible AND in an industrially scalable manner. “As far as we know, this facility is unique in the world,” Sten enthuses. “After its realization, the infrastructure will become part of  NanoLabNL.”

Kofi Makinwa named Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE solid-state circuits society

• Thursday, 17 April 2025

At CICC 2025 in Boston Prof. Kofi Makinwa was named Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society, for the third time.