The Society cites his outstanding achievements in photopolymer science and technology and the “Development of new advanced photoresist for microelectronics.” Ober is the Francis Bard Professor of Materials Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University and he and his students and post-doctoral associates have been long-time collaborators and codevelopers of techniques and technology for small-angle x-ray scattering capabilities with CHESS staff scientist Detlef Smilgies. In detail they cite his innovations in photoresists that are processed in non-polar “orthogonal” solvents, a number of firsts in the use of block copolymers in photoresists, using molecular glasses as possible replacements for polymer based photoresists, and, in recent work, showing that metal oxide nanoparticles 2 to 3 nm in size can act as superb EUV photoresists and have excellent resolution and extremely high sensitivity.
Great work all around!
Reference:
[1] http://www.spst-photopolymer.org/award/2015-awardees/