André Egli receives the Heinz Leuze Prize
Lucerne/Leipzig - André Egli has received the Heinz Leuze Prize. The former president of the Verein Luzerner Unternehmen and current member of the board of directors of the Luzerner Sektion des Gewerbevereins was awarded the science award in Leipzig on September 11.
According to a press release, André Egli has received the science prize from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Galvano- und Oberflächentechnik e.V. (DGO). The former president of the Verein LU – Luzerner Unternehmen and member of the board of directors of the Sektion Luzern des Gewerbevereins received the Heinz Leuze Prize at the ZVO-Oberflächentage conference in Leipzig on September 11, 2024. Egli is the owner of galvano republic GmbH based in Rothenburg in the Swiss canton of Lucerne.
Since 1985, this honor has been awarded to celebrate an excellent publication in a German-language specialist journal with particularly a clear, didactic depiction of an important, technical scientific issue. André Egli received the award for his article “Speed matters: Whiskerwachstum galvanischer Zinnschichten” (Speed matters: whisker growth of galvanic tin layers), in which he describes the solution to a problem that was first observed by the world-famous Bell Labs in the 1940s.
The phenomenon of the growth of needle-like crystals (whiskers) on tin layers poses a challenge for the electronics industry even today. Whiskers present a huge threat to almost all electronic devices due to their electrical conductivity. They can lead to short circuits, which cause system failures. Although these defects have less serious consequences in consumer electronics and can often by covered by warranty services, they can have catastrophic effects in critical areas such as aerospace, medical technology, the arms industry, and the automotive industry.
However, the formation mechanism of whisker growth as newly described by Egli may help with countering these effects in a more targeted manner.
