Bern, 14 July 2005 — Heike Riel of IBM's Zurich Research
Laboratory has received the 2005 Applied Physics Award of the Swiss
Physical Society (SPS) for her outstanding scientific achievements
in the field of organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) for display
technologies. The SPS Applied Physics Award is sponsored by the
Unaxis company.
 The
SPS award recognizes Heike Riel's excellent contributions to establishing
OLEDs as a competitive technology for flat-panel displays. The breakthrough
of this technology occurred in 2003 with the successful demonstration
of a 20-inch full-color display driven by an active matrix of amorphous-Si
thin-film transistors (a-Si-TFT, AMOLED) developed at IBM Research
in collaboration with International Display Technology (IDTech)
and Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO). AMOLED displays, which feature
low power consumption and low-cost fabrication, are expected to
become the leading challenger to active-matrix LCDs, which currently
dominate the flat-panel display market.
Heike Riel's key contributions to the field of AMOLED technology
include the development of highly efficient, long-term stable OLEDs
with excellent red, green, and blue color coordinates. She developed
a novel OLED architecture with improved light outcoupling, tailorable
viewing angle and high contrast ratio.
Heike Riel has been employed at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory
since 1997. Her current research interests are in the field of nanoscale
devices based on inorganic nanowires and single molecules, as well
as their potential applications as post-CMOS technologies. After
completing an apprenticeship as a cabinet maker, she studied physics
at the University of Erlangen, Germany, and received a PhD from
the University of Bayreuth, Germany, for her work on the optimization
of multilayer organic light-emitting devices.
Every year, the Swiss Physical Society award recognizes young physicists
working in Switzerland or Swiss physicists abroad for outstanding
scientific contributions to the fields of general physics, applied
physics, or condensed-matter physics. This year, in recognition
of the International Year of Physics, the SPS prize has also been
extended to include researchers in aerospace physics. Each prize
is endowed with 5000 Swiss francs.
About the Swiss Physical Society
The Swiss Physical
Society (SPS) is a nationwide organization of physicists working
in or associated with Switzerland. The society's objective is to
represent the interests of the physics community in Switzerland
and to promote public awareness of the increasingly important role
played by physics in today's high-tech world. With nearly 1200 members,
the SPS is the largest organization of the Swiss
Academy of Sciences (SCNAT).
About the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory
The IBM Zurich Research Laboratory (ZRL) is the European branch
of IBM Research. This worldwide network of some 3500 employees in
eight laboratories around the globe is the largest industrial research
organization in the world.
The Zurich laboratory currently employs some 330 persons, representing
more than 30 nationalities. World-class research and outstanding
scientific achievements, most notably two Nobel prizes, are associated
with this lab, which was founded in 1956. The spectrum of research
activities at ZRL ranges from basic science and fundamental research
in physics and mathematics, to the development of computer systems
and software, to the design of novel business models and services
that are becoming available "on demand".
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