Budi Sastra gathered geniuses in his group at Philips Research (Natlab). It was also home to some of the most headstrong characters. They made inventions that ASML and Philips Healthcare still benefit from today. Bits&Chips visited Sastra in Singapore, where he continues to coach high-tech companies. He’s lived in Singapore for eighteen years, but the researchers who were part of his research group at the Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium (Natlab) from 1988 to 1998 still call themselves Sastrians. It’s a tribute to Budiman “Budi” Sastra, who, at the renowned laboratory, brought out the best in its most headstrong characters. He accepted their quirks and made sure their genius could flourish. Members of Sastra’s group went on to become influential figures, such as professor Maarten Steinbuch and Frank Baaijens, the former rector of Eindhoven University of Technology. But his group was also a refuge for engineers such as Ad Bouwer, the designer of Philips’ very first wafer stepper, whose ego had grown to formidable proportions. Working with Sastra’s people, Bouwer was once again able to unleash his genius. Among other things, he created the first mechanical designs for the EUV machine during that period. Bits&Chips’ Dutch state of semicon 2026 This article is part of the Bits&Chips special edition on the Dutch state of semicon, published on 23 October 2026. Order your hard copy of the special at info@techwatch.nl. In 1998, Sastra’s research group was forced to move to Philips CFT – a traumatic experience for the Sastrians. In the years that followed, many of them ended up at ASML, where they became part of the “Hertz mafia,” the influential mechatronics experts whose numerous inventions helped put Dutch wafer scanners miles ahead of their Japanese competitors. Over the years, Sastra came to take a sober view of the dismantling of the Natlab. “Fortunately, my group was disbanded a little earlier than the rest. That gave my group members more time to find good places elsewhere.” Tall shoulders Budi Sastra was born in Indonesia into a family of Chinese origin. In the post-war years, the Netherlands wasn’t exactly eager to welcome students from its former colonies. Only children of senior Indonesian officials were given the opportunity to study here. Sastra’s father and aunt, however, had Dutch connections through their work for the construction company Ballast Nedam and arranged for Budi to study in Delft. Sastra received a two-year exemption based on the four years of mechanical engineering he’d already studied in Jakarta, but struggled during his first years. Language was his biggest problem, even though his mother liked to speak Dutch at home. “Most of my fellow Indonesian students didn’t make it because of that. I learned formal Dutch, but that was hardly enough to follow the lectures.” He realized that if he wanted to integrate, he had to immerse himself much more deeply in the Dutch language. “After a few years, I could understand the comedians’ jokes as well.” Budi Sastra’s group at Philips Research was a breeding ground for influential figures. Frank Baaijens, Bert Roozen and Maarten Steinbuch, among others, started their careers there. It was Evert Muijderman, the pioneer and founding father of spiral-groove bearings, who recruited Sastra to the Natlab – the only one from his cohort to be hired there. Muijderman, a committed pacifist, was an advocate of unrestricted scientific research. Sastra focused more on applications. At the Natlab, among other things, he worked on design tools that enabled other engineers to more easily design Muijderman’s bearings for a wide range of applications. The calculations also helped make the bearings leak-free and more stable. When Muijderman stepped down as department head in 1988, Natlab management, as usual, consulted all the researchers in his group. To his surprise, Sastra learned that they had unanimously nominated him as their new group leader. A few years later, deputy director Ad