How a strange insect put Philips on the litho path

Compared to the US, Europe was another planet in the decades after World War II, in both economic and technological terms. Countries like England and France were putting money into defense technology, but not the billions the Americans were investing. Large industrial companies like Philips and Siemens primarily served consumers and other companies. There was barely room for tiny semiconductor startups; they lacked both the capital and the customers.

In America, it was mostly the Department of Defense that was stimulating research into the miniaturization of electronics. US companies had emerged from the war at full speed and were continuing to profit from a generous government budget for the development of military electronic applications. Modules filled with vacuum tubes and later transistors formed the new ‘brains’ in weapons systems. The big difference with Europe: inventive small companies were also raking in defense contracts.