by Dr. Phil Garrou, contributing editor

June 10, 2010 - Prof.-Dr.-Ing. Herbert Reichl, director of Fraunhofer IZM and professor of packaging and interconnection technologies at TU Berlin, was awarded the IEEE Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology Society (IEEE CPMT) field award at the recent Electronic Component Technology Conference (ECTC) in Las Vegas.

Established in 2002, the field award is given for meritorious contributions to the advancement of components, electronic packaging, and/or manufacturing technologies. Reichl was honored for his pioneering contributions to microelectronics and microsystem technology including heterogeneous integration, 3-D packaging, and embedded passive and active components.

Previous recipients include Yutaka Tsukada (IBM Japan), CP Wong (AT&T / Ga Tech), Dimitri Grabbe (AMP), Paul Totta (IBM) and George Harman (NIST).

Professor Reichl received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Institute for Integrated Circuits at TU Munich in 1974, and went on to head the Fraunhofer IFT's department of semiconductor technology and sensors at until 1986. After publishing a series of studies about modern packaging technology and sensor technology concepts, he accepted an appointment to the TU Berlin in 1987. He has been director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM) since 1993.

Professor Reichl has authored 60 patents, over 950 scientific publications, and co-authored six books. In 2005 IEEE awarded Prof. Reichl with a Special Presidential recognition for his "lifetime of technical achievement in microelectronics as a scholar, mentor, and global leader." Also in 2005 he was honoured with the highest award of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (the "Fraunhofer Muenze") and received the iNEMI International Recognition Award. In 2006 the Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies (VDE) honored Prof. Reichl with their "Golden Ring of Distinction" for his "contributions to integration technologies for microelectronics and microsystem technology."