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Luc Van den hove’s central leadership lesson is simple: set ambitious goals, make difficult decisions, and remain humble enough to keep learning. His career at imec—the Belgian semiconductor research organization he joined at its 1984 founding—shows how that principle can guide both technical innovation and institution-building.
Who is Luc Van den hove?
Luc Van den hove is a semiconductor researcher and executive who joined imec in 1984 through a research fellowship. He became imec’s chief executive officer on 1 July 2009. Imec announced that he was scheduled to become chair of its board on 1 April 2026; the material available for this article does not establish his status after that scheduled transition.
His technical work began with silicides and interconnects. He later led research involving micro-patterning, lithography, dry etching and silicon processes. That progression gave him experience across the manufacturing steps that determine whether an advanced chip concept can become a practical process.
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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallBefore choosing electronics, Van den hove had wanted to become an architect. In the 19 December 2024 EE Times Silicon Grapevine interview, he connected that early interest in designing structures with his eventual career in designing and scaling semiconductor technology. The episode is listed as 31:10.
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What is imec?
Imec is an independent semiconductor and nanotechnology research organization headquartered in Belgium. It was created in 1984 by 70 scientists from a Belgian university. Four decades later, its scale is reported in two different ways that should not be treated as interchangeable:
| Figure | Scope and date |
|---|---|
| More than 5,000 | Researchers and scientists, as described in the 2024 EE Times interview |
| More than 5,500 | Employees worldwide, according to imec’s 2024 history of the organization |
Imec is not primarily a consumer-product company. Its role is to help the semiconductor industry solve manufacturing and scaling problems before those problems reach volume production. It brings together suppliers, universities, integrated device manufacturers (IDMs), foundries and startups around shared technical roadmaps.
Imec’s work also has an entrepreneurship pathway. Imec says that more than 100 spin-offs have been launched since 2009 and that its imec.istart program has supported more than 300 startups. Those figures describe separate measures—spin-offs launched and startups supported—rather than a single count of companies created.
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Van den hove describes imec as aligning the semiconductor ecosystem around a common roadmap “typically 3-4 nodes ahead of [today’s] manufacturing.” In practical terms, the organization researches process technologies and integration choices years before they are ready for widespread factory deployment.
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Partners across the value chain
- Equipment and material suppliers: contribute tools, chemicals and process capabilities needed to test future manufacturing steps.
- Universities: add scientific expertise and train researchers.
- IDMs and foundries: connect research results to production requirements and manufacturability.
- Startups: provide routes for specialized ideas to become companies or products.
Why shared roadmaps matter
A leading-edge process depends on many interlocking decisions. Lithography, etching, deposition, materials, metrology, design rules and packaging must work together. No single supplier can validate the entire chain alone. Patrick Vandenameele, discussing imec’s leadership transition, said Van den hove understood that the organization could achieve its goals only through worldwide collaboration with suppliers, IDMs and foundries.
Infrastructure, not just ideas
Imec’s model also relies on expensive wafer-scale infrastructure. Its 2004 transition from 200mm to 300mm wafers was described by imec as a major and risky investment requiring a new cleanroom and coordination with partners making the same transition. The episode illustrates a recurring reality of semiconductor research: a promising concept is not enough unless researchers can test it on equipment and wafer sizes relevant to future factories.
What did Van den hove say about Moore’s Law?
In the EE Times interview, Van den hove said Moore’s Law could likely continue for another 20 years. He did not present that as an effortless continuation of historical scaling. Imec’s own commentary frames the industry as approaching physical boundaries, with progress depending on cooperation across the whole value chain.
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That outlook changes what “continuing Moore’s Law” means. Improvements may come from new transistor structures, advanced lithography, materials, three-dimensional integration, packaging and system-level design—not only from making a single planar transistor smaller. The further technology moves toward physical limits, the more each generation depends on coordinated advances in several disciplines.
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Van den hove’s roadmap claim is therefore an ecosystem argument as much as a prediction. If research remains several technology nodes ahead of manufacturing, suppliers and chipmakers can identify integration problems early enough to solve them before production schedules are fixed.
Van den hove’s career and the technology arc
From 3-micron CMOS to smaller milestones
In an official imec interview, Van den hove recalled that in 1984 the organization had completed development of 3-micron CMOS technology and had already begun pursuing the ambitious 1.25-micron milestone. That starting point helps explain the scale of the change over his career: he entered when imec was a new research center and later led an organization working on technologies far beyond those early process generations.
Lithography and ASML
The EE Times conversation discusses Van den hove’s early lithography work and his relationship with ASML. Lithography is one of the critical steps in defining nanoscale patterns on a wafer, so close interaction between research institutes and equipment makers is essential when a new exposure technique or process must move from laboratory demonstration toward manufacturing.
Decisions under uncertainty
The move to 300mm wafers is a useful example of the leadership challenge behind the technical milestones. It required substantial capital, a new cleanroom and confidence that partners would align their own transition. Such decisions cannot be made by waiting for certainty; they require a credible long-term roadmap and the willingness to accept near-term risk for future capability.
What is Van den hove’s leadership advice?
Asked what he would tell his younger self, Van den hove said: “Aim high, be ambitious, don’t be shy of taking bold decisions, but stay humble.” He paired that advice with a warning: “Success of the past is no guarantee of the success of the future.”
Aim high
Ambition sets a destination that is larger than incremental improvement. For imec, that meant pursuing difficult process milestones from its earliest years and building facilities capable of testing technologies before industry adoption.
Take bold decisions
Boldness is not the same as gambling. It means making a consequential choice when delay would close off the opportunity, while grounding that choice in technical evidence, partners and a long-term plan. The 200mm-to-300mm investment exemplifies this kind of decision.
Stay humble
Humility is a practical discipline in a field where each successful generation exposes new problems. It keeps leaders open to evidence from researchers, suppliers and manufacturing partners, and prevents past achievements from being mistaken for a guarantee of future results.
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- Author: Bungay Stanier, Michael.
- Publisher: Page Two
- Pages: 244
- Publication Date: 2016-02-29
- Edition: 1
Why this story matters beyond imec
Van den hove’s career illustrates a model for research organizations that work between basic science and commercial manufacturing. The useful comparison is not with a consumer brand, but with other ways of organizing industrial R&D:
| Comparison axis | Imec’s distinctive approach |
|---|---|
| Distance ahead of manufacturing | Roadmaps generally positioned three to four technology nodes ahead of current manufacturing, according to Van den hove |
| Partner breadth | Open collaboration among suppliers, universities, IDMs, foundries and startups |
| Infrastructure | Wafer-scale facilities and cleanrooms capable of testing production-relevant processes |
| Path to commercialization | Research partnerships plus spin-offs and the imec.istart startup-support program |
| Leadership continuity | Van den hove joined at the 1984 founding, became CEO in 2009 and was scheduled for a board-chair transition in 2026 |
The broader lesson is that difficult technology programs need both ambition and institutional humility. Ambition supplies the target; collaboration supplies capabilities no single organization owns; humility keeps the roadmap adjustable when experiments, economics or manufacturing constraints change.
Where can you watch the interview?
The source interview is the EE Times Silicon Grapevine episode published on 19 December 2024. EE Times lists its duration as 31:10 and identifies Nitin Dahad as the interviewer. The supplied material does not include a direct viewing URL, so availability should be checked on EE Times’ current Silicon Grapevine listing.
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When did Luc Van den hove become imec CEO?
He became imec’s chief executive officer on 1 July 2009.
How large is imec?
The 2024 EE Times interview describes more than 5,000 researchers and scientists, while imec’s 2024 history describes more than 5,500 employees worldwide. The figures use different scopes.
How far ahead of manufacturing does imec work?
Van den hove said imec typically aligns the ecosystem around roadmaps three to four technology nodes ahead of current manufacturing.
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