Who is Tuomo Suntola? The winner of the Nobel of Technology 2018
The Finn wins a €1 million prize for receiving the Millennium Technology Award, defined as the Nobel of Technology. Tim Berners-Lee and Linus Torvalds also won before him.
The physicist Tuomo Suntola won the ” Nobel of Technology ” for having created several years ago a method that not only offered a notable contribution on electronic devices a few years later, but that still today is being exploited with profit within the devices of everyday. Thanks to its technology called Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), today’s smart devices are possible, such as smaller and smaller personal computers and smartphones.
The 74-year-old physicist, originally from Finland, won the Millennium Technology Award, a prize that is defined as the ” Nobel of Technology “, for being able to make the modernization and miniaturization of smart devices and computers possible. And this is not just a matter of prestige, given that Suntola wins, together with the award, a total of 1 million euros thanks to its intuition that is still today the basis of miniaturization in electronic components.
The idea behind ALD is that extremely thin layers can be produced, with the thickness of even one atom, of different materials, in order to be implemented on electronic and technological devices, such as microprocessors, components for smartphones, computers and memory chip. The materials used by the ALD technology do not transfer electrical current but are subject to electrostatic forces, and are still used on today’s devices.
Suntola developed the method in 1974, with the aim of replacing the large and heavy monitors used at the time in flat and small screens. The technology became more peremptory only in the 90s when the technology industry had to face the need to use smaller materials in the name of miniaturization of electronic gadgets: ” ALD has made it possible to increase the density of components significantly, ” said the scientist in an interview with AFP.
” Without it today, we would not have the performance and capabilities that we consider normal on smartphones or computers today “. Suntola’s technology is also used on medical and biomedical devices, in lithium batteries, in LED lights and in solar panels, contributing to markets that produce hundreds of billions of dollars. Before him to win the same prize there were some celebrities from the technological world, such as Tim Berners-Lee and Linus Torvalds.
