September 24, 2024
We believe that our customers are the heart of our business and their success is our success. Discover an inspiring story of how our products and services have helped our customer achieve his goals and transform his business.
Customer
Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology, Bristol, United Kingdom
https://plasma.oxinst.com/
About
Oxford Instruments provides high technology products and services to the world’s leading industrial companies and scientific research communities, exploiting a world-class ability to image, analyse and manipulate materials down to the atomic and molecular level.
Industry
Semiconductor
Number of employees
>2'000
Comet products
Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology showed a tremendous growth in 2023 and is truly a high-value technology company for research and production communities. What is the key to your success? What are your key success criterias in volume manufacturing and what is your differential impact?
Steve Baker: That is a good question. Part of the answer of why we were successful last year was our preparation. We recognize that we are a growing company and are confident we have the right technology and solutions positioned to be successful in our key markets. Having done that, we are moving forward with our new factory here in Severn Beach, Bristol, UK. We have increased production capacity in our new facility and everything that goes with it: the support, the people, the global operations that are needed for continuous success, and we will continue to put our customers at the centre of what we do. To be in a position to do that though is thanks to our long history of being at the technological forefront of the semiconductor industry, which really demonstrates our culture of innovation. Pushing the boundaries of technology is why we come to work. We are able to do that because we interact so closely with our customers, supply chain, and with both research and production communities to understand what is needed and produce the best solutions.
What are your expectations from your partners ? What are the next technological challenges you are facing?
Steve Baker: This question overlaps with the previous question. What leads people to join Oxford Instruments is often a shared vision for the technological and societal advancements our customers can make with our products. We use that as our driving inspiration. When looking for suppliers to develop technologies, we seek organisations with similar motivation to really work together with and develop integrated optimised supply chains, and suppliers that are proud to put their product into the market.
When we look across at our key segments we can deliver differentiated and valuable solutions for most Compound Semiconductor materials. We are able to be a leader in these applications as we work closely with the applied R&D community and be involved in those innovations which underpin the value that we can bring to mass production. All this is made possible by having suppliers with flexible and reliable components that perform in R&D, but also operate seamlessly in production environments. Key suppliers help us with the challenge of technology acceleration, which has always been a strength of ours here at Plasma Technology.
Steve Baker
Engineering Director
Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology UK
Steve Baker, Engineering Director, has joined Oxford Instruments 16 years ago as a mechanical engineer.
At that time, he remembers visiting the labs and cleanrooms at Oxford Instruments and finding learning about the semiconductor industry fascinating. Looking to get a job in a scientifically advanced industry, he has enjoyed working there ever since. Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology has gone from strength to strength, and working for this company still keeps him excited to go to work every day.
"Comet has helped us understanding the subtleties of that component better, mainly because of their confidence in expertise and transparency about the product specifications. The real value is openness, collaboration and curiosity from Comet to understand and deliver the critical requirements."
Steve Baker
Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology UK
What can you achieve with a good RF supply partner? What do you and your customers expect from an RF supplier ?
Steve Baker: There are some fundamentals: reliability, repeatability, stability, because RF supplies are a core aspect of our tools. We cannot work with a supplier that cannot provide these, but the difference with Comet is the level to which they are able to achieve those fundamentals. Every supplier we engage with would say they are reliable or stable, but how stable? The value to our customers is in perfection. The opportunity we have is to work with an RF supply manufacturer that can provide real-time insights, understand what is happening inside the tool and then react in a predictable way to increase the reliability, repeatability and uptime. For that you need measurement, integration, control, and a lot of different elements that not every RF manufacturer can provide.
Just as important for us are component quality and supply chain stability. Due to the complexity in the device manufacturing process, any delays, unexpected changes or failures bring significant impact. All our suppliers must understand this responsibility.
What was the problem or challenge that you were facing before you started using our Comet vacuum capacitors?
Steve Baker: Our products are high quality, and we must be confident when they leave the factory that they will deliver value to our customers from day one onwards. We wanted a step change improvement in the repeatability and operational efficiency of our manufacturing process because we had identified a number of different opportunities; with some components we saw avoidable scrap, unnecessary testing, or unacceptable pattern of failures under test. We were looking for an alternative supplier to help us continue our journey to operational excellence.
Specifically, with Comet's vacuum capacitors, how has our product helped you overcome the problem or challenge that you were facing?
Steve Baker: Comet has helped us to understand the subtleties of that component better - how to handle it, how to get more out of it when incorporated into our systems, and how we might assess its performance compared to alternatives in the market. You are so confident in your expertise and transparent about your products and the function they perform – so the real value is in openness, collaboration and curiosity from Comet to understand and deliver the critical requirements. That is most valuable to us and our customers in the challenging markets we serve.
What specific features or benefits of our product have you found most helpful for your business?
Steve Baker: Performance in relation to packaging size is a real benefit. Whether it’s our new state-of-the-art cleanroom or elsewhere, space is always at a premium and performance in relation to form factor is vitally important. Eliminating field failures, which would be of course a massive pain point for our customers, through using components with ultra-high reliability and longevity gives us the confidence to continue to expand into these markets, because we know we have the quality customers should expect. We want to work with suppliers who can help us guarantee that.
Challenges
Avoidable scrap, unnecessary testing and unacceptable pattern or failures under test
Solutions
Better understanding of handling, system integration and performance assess of vacuum capacitor
Impacts
Improvement of repeatability and operational efficiency of manufacturing process
How would you describe your overall experience with Comet's product solutions and the company?
Steve Baker: Our experience with Comet has always been excellent, you are very responsive and engaged with our goals, which helps a lot when we want to collaborate and identify ways to serve our customers at the highest possible level.
Would you recommend Comet's product solutions to others?
Yes, absolutely.
Is there anything else that you would like to share about your experience with Comet?
Steve Baker: As we continue to increase our presence in volume manufacturing, our focus becomes much more about reliability and stability, not only at a component level, but system and supply chain as well. To achieve this, mutually beneficial and collaborative relationships are essential, and we look forward to continuing our journey with Comet to set the standard in this respect.
Thank you Steve for taking the time to chat with us!
Find out more about this product solution.
Broadest selection of capacitance, power, voltage and drive systems in the market
Product rangeReady to start your own journey?
If you're ready to talk to a Comet expert and learn more about our RF power solutions, drop us a line and we'll be in touch shortly.
Get in touchLatest Posts
December 11-13, 2024 in Tokyo, Japan
October 28, 2024
Achieving a significant milestone with our first attendance at Semicon Japan in Tokyo, we are thrilled to showcase our innovative Synertia® integrated RF Power Delivery Platform at booth #7332 in East Hall 7.
Read moreFinding the right components for your projects is crucial
October 17, 2024
Discover how Comet's Vacuum Capacitors can help you achieve optimal results in plasma control and explore their key performance parameters.
Read moreSeptember 25-27, 2024 in Wuxi, China
September 03, 2024
Visit us at our premiere at CSEAC show in Wuxi, China! Our full suite of RF power systems will be on display at our booth C1-T32. Witness Synertia®, Comet’s integrated RF Power Delivery Platform that enables unprecedented power control. A revolutionizing system that allows to manage the complexities of multi-layer next-generation memory and atomic-scale plasma processes.
Read more