Bernold Richerzhagen

Bernold Richerzhagen is Founder and CEO of Germany – Switzerland-based Synova S.A., the world pioneer in water jet guided laser technology. Synova’s proprietary technology was incubated at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) where Mr. Richerzhagen championed its transition from concept to today’s reality.

Recognised worldwide as the inventor of water jet guided laser technology, Mr. Richerzhagen has received several prestigious accolades including: Technology Innovation Awards from the Swiss Secretary of Economy (SECO) and the Cantons of Central Switzerland (1997); the Technopark Zurich Foundation and the Swiss Minister of Economy (1998); Entrepreneur of the Year from Ernst & Young Switzerland (2004); and the Frost & Sullivan’s European Technology Innovation Award (2005).

He is author of several hundred articles and has addressed numerous conferences on the subject of water jet guided laser technology. He also holds several patents on the development of the water jet guided laser and related inventions such as laser dicing tape, water film for surface protection, laser trenching of semiconductor wafers, and gas enveloped liquid jets.

Mr. Richerzhagen received his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen (RWTH) in 1986 and 1988, respectively, and a Ph.D. in Microtechnics from EPFL in 1994. For his thesis, he joined EPFL’s Optical Applications Institute as an assistant working on medical lasers.

In 1996, Mr. Richerzhagen founded an engineering office where he developed the first prototype of a water jet guided laser machine, before founding Synova S.A to bring the Laser MicroJet® to market in 1997.