Ken Rygler receives 2021 Bacus Lifetime Achievement award

On 27 September, BACUS honored Ken Rygler, of Rygler and Associates, with their 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award. This award recognizes an individual who has made distinct contributions of outstanding business or technical significance to the photomask industry.

Rygler was recognized for influencing the entry of the E.I. Dupont Company into the merchant mask business in the 1980's. At that time, semiconductor chip manufacturers were divesting their photomask operations in order to focus on their core competencies. Rygler recognized this as an opportunity to aggregate small mask operations into a global presence, maximizing the economy of scale of process and equipment. This ultimately led to the of creation DuPont Photomasks, and to what is now one of the world's largest merchant mask manufacturers.

The award was announced during the 2021 Photomask Technology + EUV Lithography Digital Forum.