President and CEO, imec

Luc Van den hove is President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of imec since July 1, 2009. Before holding this position he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. He joined imec in 1984, starting his research career in the field of silicide and interconnect technologies. In 1988, he became manager of imec’s micro-patterning group; in 1996, Department Director of Unit Process Step R&D; and in 1998, Vice-President of the Silicon Process and Device Technology Division. In January 2007, he was appointed as imec's Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer (COO).

Under his guidance imec has grown to an organization with a staff of around 3500 people, operating with an annual budget of around 500M€ (2016) and with offices in Belgium, the Netherlands, US, Japan, Taiwan, China and India.

Currently, Luc Van den hove is also professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Leuven. He is also a member of the Technology Strategy Committee of ASML.

He has authored or co-authored more than 150 publications and conference contributions. He is a frequently solicited speaker on technology trends and applications for nano-electronics at major top conferences. He has presented more than 50 key note presentations.
Luc Van den hove received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Leuven, Belgium.
Topic: IC innovation - the heartbeat of yesterday, today, tomorrow

Abstract: Today, we are in the middle of a decennium of disruption. Disruption that brings us unseen innovations, thanks to companies that dare to take a different view. And all this is driven by innovative IC technology, especially by transistor scaling as predicted 50 years ago by Gordon Moore.

Going into the era of the IoT (Internet of Things), the question that many ask is whether Moore’s law will continue. Moore’s law will continue, not only through the conventional route of scaling, which becomes increasingly challenging, but also taking different forms to enable disruptive innovations.

One domain where IC technology is poised to bring revolutionary changes is healthcare. It will allow for real precision medicine, with a faster and more precise diagnosis and a finely tuned treatment.

The automotive domain is another game-changer. Most innovation in cars today is realized with IC technology, and there is much more to come. The car will become truly the first and most intelligent machine in our daily life. These developments for the connected driverless car will spill over in all domains of our lives, making all tools in our environment intelligent.

All this will come together in the Internet of Everything. The coming decade we will witness a tsunami of smart connected systems, driven by the innovation in hardware and software that is taking place today.

We are looking towards an exciting future. A future with huge business opportunities if companies adapt their development approach and business to this changing environment. Companies will have to co-optimize systems and technologies to bring disruptive innovation.