If Wim Troost had not raised his finger, ASML probably would not have existed
Wim Troost, founder of ASML at the kitchen table © Kees Martens/DCI Media
The unprecedented success of ASML has many fathers. Wim Troost will not deny it, but if he had not raised his hand, the Veldhoven-based chip-machine manufacturer probably would not have existed.
Chris Paulussen 04-07-21
He is now almost 96. At the kitchen table in his farmhouse in Nuenen, Wim Troost talks at length about his career at Philips, his role as a founder of ASML and the book he wants to write about the TQ building on Strijp‑T in Eindhoven, where he has spent a large part of his working life.
And to think that Philips wasn't even his first choice when he graduated in Delft as an engineer.
War
But first there was the war. ,,I didn't want to sign a declaration of loyalty to the Germans, and because of that I could only start studying after the occupation. During the Hunger Winter I was in hiding in The Hague to avoid the labor service. I then lost thirty kilos.
After his graduation in measurement and control engineering, Troost would have started at Shell if the oil company had not made it a condition that he work abroad on the production fields for the first two years. So it became Philips, which had already had him in its sights during his studies.
He couldn't say no.
On 1 September 1951 he started working in Eindhoven at the main industrial group PIT (Products for Industrial Applications), later renamed S&I (Science & Industry). He rose there to deputy director. The fact that he, as someone who devoured files, also delved into matters that did not directly concern his business unit and meddled in them during board meetings was not always appreciated.
Another trait that made him stand out: he couldn't say no. He took on all kinds of projects. Mail-sorting machines, automating lead typesetting at newspaper companies, measurement systems for air and water pollution, a radio telescope in Dwingelo. Technical feats and a very different world from the consumer products most people associate Philips with, according to Troost.
,,The projects we worked on were complex, international and required an integrated approach in which we worked closely with the client. Very different demands were placed on them than on mass-market items such as razors and vacuum cleaners."
Philips thought it could do everything
It was a time when a lot was possible at Philips and when Philips often also thought that it could do everything. Especially in the sixties when Frits Philips led the company.
Troost still remembers how Frits Philips returned from a visit to the Verolme shipyard in Rotterdam. ,,He had said that we could supply the electronics and control systems for supertankers. The next morning I was expected in Rotterdam with several colleagues. On the way in the car we discussed whether we were capable of delivering seaworthy systems and the accompanying service. The conclusion was: we can do a lot, but this is one step too far."
Besides assignments for third parties, S&I was also expected to create production systems for other Philips business units. "And those always had to be better than those of the competition," said Troost.
That is also where his involvement with the later ASML begins. ,,In a meeting with the Natlab the lithography technology for the production of chips came up. The research into it at the Natlab had advanced so far that a product division had to take on the further development. No one said anything. When I raised my hand, it was met with a somewhat smirking reaction."
Enough people and a 'secret' pot
The superior technology existed, but it would take a lot of effort before there was a turnkey lithography system. In the meantime, about ten companies with competing systems were already on the market.
,,Because of my good contacts in the personnel department I could quickly recruit employees who were redundant elsewhere. In addition I had a 'secret' fund. I always charged a surcharge for setbacks on internal assignments. That fund began to grow and flourish.
That could not prevent Troost, as the lithography development lasted longer and cost more, from seeing the doubt around him grow. Not only within Philips but also at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which threatened to end its support for the Natlab project. ,,More than once I was told: stop with that damned lithography machine. At one point the board of directors even forbade carrying on with it."
ASMI was not the dream partnhe
Troost saw only one possibility left to save the business: a joint venture with an American company. When that failed, a partner was eventually found in ASM International in Bilthoven, the company of Arthur del Prado, who made a name for himself as a pioneer in the chip industry.
Philips employees saw the joint venture as a death trap. I needed all my powers of persuasion to get just under fifty Philips people to agree to make the switch.
,,It was not the dream partner. ASMI was eager, but it was small, had little financial leeway and had no knowledge of lithography. Philips employees saw the joint venture as a dying concern. I needed all my powers of persuasion to get almost fifty Philips people to make the move."
Troost persevered and on 1 april 1984 the founding of ASM Lithography was a fact. ,,I was happy, the business was saved."
As a member of the supervisory board he remained involved with ASML on behalf of Philips. When he retired his role seemed to have been played out, but at his farewell reception on 1 september 1985 a surprise awaited him. "The directors of ASML appeared at the reception with a request. They were swamped with work, asking if I could come and help with all matters that had nothing to do with lithography."
Troost rolls up his sleeves again. ,,The move of the wooden barrack on Strijp to the new building in Veldhoven, the flag protocol for foreign visits, the key organization, the security, the garden, the list of tasks added up to seventy items."
Mind the business until a successor is in place.
In maart 1987 he has had enough. He is once again not granted much rest. In the summer of that same year George de Kruiff, general director of Philips S&I, knocks on his door. Director Gjalt Smit has resigned from ASML, and Troost is asked to mind the business until a successor is found. It's only for a while. He must above all ensure calm and continuity. The chip market is struggling, ASML is by no means in safe waters yet and substantial cutbacks are required.
If it turns out that the arrival of a new director is delayed and Troost gets the feeling that he is being strung along, he formally demands to be appointed as director. He steers ASML through the crisis year 1988. Hard work is underway on a new generation of machines. Costs still outweigh the benefits. If ASMI can no longer financially keep up with the developments, Troost finds himself in 1988 forced to part ways with the partner he had brought in as a 'saviour'. Philips is then still the sole shareholder. Midway through 1990 his work at ASML is over and he retires again.
Not that he is going to rest on his laurels. He remains active as an advisor until 2003 and even serves for several more years as director of Delft Instruments when that company runs into serious trouble because of an American boycott over the supply of night-vision goggles to Iraq.
Philips had become too sticky.
What remains is the ambition to write a book about the colossal building TQ on Strijp-T. It pains Troost that when it comes to the Philips of the past, so little attention is paid to the professional activities that were based there. Yet it is the cradle of, among other things, ASML's chip machines and Thermo Fisher's electron microscopes.
With mixed feelings he also looks at the decline of the broadly diversified Philips of his time, which now focuses exclusively on medical technology. ,,Philips people take that to heart, that is the sentiment Frans van Houten as chairman of the board is now speaking about. The question is whether it could have been different. Philips had become too sluggish and fell behind technologically in a number of areas. But not everything is lost. Just look at ASML. It literally determines developments in the world with systems with which increasingly complex chips are made."
Could he ever have imagined that ASML would take off like this, 28,000 employees, billions in revenue and by far the market leader in lithography systems? Troost answers with some hesitation: "Well, a bit, yes. That ambition was indeed in our business plan."