From coat hangers to chip packaging: Richard Fierkens’ workshop in rural Herwen grew into a cornerstone of the Dutch semiconductor industry.
Arthur del Prado’s ASM and Philips are widely seen as the pioneers of the Dutch chip sector. But that view overlooks the role of semiconductor pioneer Richard Fierkens, founder of Fico Toolings, which helped lay the groundwork for BE Semiconductor Industries (Besi). Fierkens passed away on Sunday, 3 May, at the age of 90.
Fico started in 1956 from a workshop in Herwen, in the Dutch province of Gelderland, producing molds for simple plastic products such as coat hangers and milk crates. This expertise in fine mechanics proved transferable to the semiconductor industry. From 1966 onward, the company supplied molds for the encapsulation of electronic components to Philips, which had established semiconductor production in nearby Nijmegen in 1953.
Fico grew into a specialized supplier of molds and related equipment for chip assembly and packaging. The company later built an international customer base that included Texas Instruments, Motorola and Bosch, becoming an early global player in the back-end of the semiconductor industry.
Big Four
In the early 1970s, Fierkens came into contact with ASM founder Del Prado. In 1972, the two began a collaboration, with ASM taking responsibility for sales of Fico products outside the Netherlands. Two years later, ASM acquired a majority stake in Fico, bringing the company into a fast-growing semiconductor equipment group.
Fierkens remained responsible for the Fico activities within ASM. Maintaining a relatively independent position, he expanded the division. During the 1980s, this led to increasing tensions within the group. ASM’s upper management pushed for further international expansion, including the establishment of ASM Pacific Technology in Hong Kong. Fierkens, however, didn’t see this overseas arm as a partner but as a competitor – one that brazenly copied Fico’s machines.
By 1989, the situation had become untenable and Fierkens stepped down as managing director of ASM Fico. A bitter split followed. Fierkens remained frustrated for the rest of his life about the way he was forced to leave his own company.
In the years that followed, ASM decided to divest its back-end activities. ASM Fico was sold in 1993 and, after a series of restructurings, became part of the company that continued as Besi from 1995 onward. Today, with a market capitalization of around 20 billion euros, Besi is one of the Big Four of the Dutch semiconductor sector.
Although never a public figure, with Fierkens’ passing, the industry loses an entrepreneur who helped lay the foundations of the Dutch high-tech sector.
