BOC EdwardsThe company
Piyal spent his gap year 2002-2003 working for BOC Edwards based at Crawley, West Sussex. As a leading global supplier of vacuum technology to the semiconductor industry, it welcomed a £688m turnover in FY2002.
The development of extreme ultra-violet (EUV) lithography should advance microchip production well into the next decade. It is the company's intention to establish itself as a leading supplier in this field.
The Placement
During the year Piyal carried out the duties of a Development Engineer within the Lithography Subsystems Group based in Burgess Hill. This was a new team, tasked with establishing the company as a key supplier of know-how and solutions, in a market niche in the Semiconductor Chip Industry, in which BOC Edwards has not traditionally been active.
The multi-disciplinary team in which Piyal worked, was tasked with developing opportunities with key lithography suppliers. The team also was responsible for generating revenue through consultancy activities, equipment or subsystem sales in a highly technical environment.
Value of the work carried out
The results of Piyals' work with sensors have proven to have potential application and maybe developed in future commercial products. The experimental work with pumps has supported the sales of BOCE products resulting in an income exceeding £150K.
As well as receiving direct payment for consultancy work worth £60K, critical decisions have been made on product suitability based on Piyal's reports. These decisions are important, as large company investments are involved.
Example of a project
One project was to design a mobile structure to support a gas sampling system worth approximately £10,000. Piyal made AutoCAD drawings of the system and performed engineering calculations to prove its feasibility. The equipment he constructed was mobile, durable, compact, light and within the specified budget. When the construction exceeded his technical abilities he liased with the external companies to produce components to his specification.
Main Challenges that faced Piyal
Piyal began his placement with no experience in vacuum science and EUV lithography. Over the 10 months he attended formal training courses, had on-the-job training from his colleagues and gained practical skills to acquire sufficient knowledge.
In order to meet deadlines he also had to learn new programming languages to process data from tests more efficiently.
Piyal acquired practical skills in research and development, analysis of data and presentation of results. As a team member he learnt from others and contributed his own ideas that were followed through.
Once Piyal has completed his final year of academic study at university, we would be extremely interested to hear from him should he wish to apply for a full time position at BOC Edwards.
Andy Harpham, Project Manager |
