VDL ETG was capable of pulling off the wafer handler job for ASML, but the willingness to invest simply wasn’t there. VDL remains ASML’s most important supplier of mechatronic modules. In recent years, however, the industrial group has suffered damage in its relationship with its largest customer. With the arrival of the NXE:3800, it became clear that independently developing the wafer handler for this EUV machine was a bridge too far for VDL ETG. It was precisely for these modules that the key supplier had taken on full product responsibility around 2012. From that point on, they had total control in Acht. ASML continued to define the requirements, but ETG was free to work out the rest itself: Design and material choices all shifted to Acht. Building high-tech equipment was, after all, what they were good at. The deal potentially elevated VDL ETG to a status comparable to that of Zeiss, Trumpf and Heidenhain. When the requirements for the NXE:3800 were formulated, however, VDL ETG was given too much to handle. In an interview with those involved, it’s striking that the lithography company, in a rare move, takes much of the blame. “What we at ASML asked of VDL ETG’s development organization was doomed to fail,” is the remarkable statement by Senior Director Sourcing & Procurement Manon Hendriks. “The product we wanted to outsource simply wasn’t outsourceable.” Credit: VDL ETG Brink ASML is now eating humble pie, but to what extent is VDL ETG itself to blame for this ambitious project running aground? Before the official interview with ASML and VDL, Bits&Chips spoke anonymously with ten people who were personally involved in the wafer handler developments, five formerly connected to ASML and five to ETG. What emerged from those conversations above all was that the engineers in Acht were given little room to innovate. There were even cases where they proposed improvements but didn’t get the green light from management. The reason given was that “the customer wasn’t asking for it.” Because VDL ETG couldn’t bill the hours, improvement programs were frustrated. Engineers also felt that their management didn’t support them in the sometimes heated exchanges with their ASML counterparts. The picture that emerges is of a culture that wasn’t open to taking product responsibility and adopting the business strategy that goes with it. Spreadsheets mattered more than showing courage. Telling in this respect is a remark Martin van den Brink made at the end of his keynote presentation at VDL ETG’s technology conference in Acht in June 2024. The event was modeled on the kind of meetings ASML organizes annually. Van den Brink, who had been retired for just six months at the time, almost casually told a packed room: “VDL has to take ownership of its products. I’ve been saying that for years to the old Van der Leegte and to the new Van der Leegte. If you don’t take ownership, your production will move to Asia.” It was a humiliation for VDL ETG’s management sitting in the front row. That same year, ASML took back design responsibility for the wafer handler. Extraordinarily successful To be clear, ETG’s manufacturing competence isn’t at issue here. The Enabling Technologies Group, acquired by VDL from Philips in 2006, is the sole supplier to ASML of the vessels for the EUV source and the base module for the wafer stage. Both are strategic components for chip lithography. Within ASML’s supply chain, this gives both ETG Eindhoven and ETG Almelo unique and crucial positions. This has now been reaffirmed by a multi-year agreement between the lithography giant and the Brabant-based development and manufacturing company. VDL doesn’t report separate figures for ETG, but we can assume that the business currently accounts for by far the largest share of the 2 billion euros in revenue the group generates in “high tech.” Philips ETG’s revenue in 2005 was 231 million euros. Set that amount against the 4 billion euros in total revenue of the entire VDL Groep, a