Anders Thuren, Hans Buhre, Tor Sandstrom and Gerhard Westerberg (deceased) were honored for their work in developing laser pattern generation technology, which is used in the manufacture of semiconductors and flat panel displays (FPDs). The team began their work in 1971 and developed the first commercial laser writer sold to the IC photomask industry in 1976.
The Micronic team was honored along with a team of scientists from Etec Systems, an Applied Materials Co.