CHIPS 2020

Bernd Hoefflinger started his career as an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. Returning to Germany, he served as the first MOS product manager at Siemens, Munich. With that background, he became a co-founder of the University of Dortmund, Germany, and later head of the Electrical Engineering Departments at the University of Minnesota and at Purdue University, IN, USA. In 1985, he became the director of the newly established Institute for Microelectronics Stuttgart (IMS CHIPS), a public contract research and manufacturing institute. In 1993, IMS CHIPS became the world’s first ISO 9000 certified research institute. He launched rapid prototyping with electron- beam lithography in 1989. He established the institute as a leader in high-dynamic- range CMOS imagers and video cameras from 1993 onwards. Among the develop- ments in CMOS photosensors was the chip design and manufacturing for the first sub-retinal implants in humans in Europe in 2005. He retired in 2006.