Formula 1 system architecting – Part 1: Good design reflects the organization

“We’ve done lots of things wrong at Mapper, otherwise we wouldn’t have had to file for bankruptcy. But we’ve also done a few things well,” says Guido de Boer. He was developing an electron lithography machine at Mapper from 2004 until the company closed its doors at the end of 2018. While Marco Wieland was the scientific brain and Bert-Jan Kampherbeek managed the organization, De Boer was responsible for the development and construction of the entire e-beam device.

Being asked what he did at Mapper, De Boer’s answer is “architecture”. “It’s thinking about what you need. To be able to do lithography with electrons, I needed a vacuum wall, a frame and a mu-metal shield to block the earth’s magnetic field. We also had to be able to maintain the machine and its footprint had to be ten times smaller than the competition’s.”