The Role of Process Engineers in OEM Tool Sales

1 - OEMs do most of the R&D process development and are responsible for finding, driving, and establishing a process/material/layer for a specification defined by the Fabs.

2 - The OEMs employ engineers ranging from electrical, mechanical, systems, process, marketing, support, etc., who mostly have a Ph.D. or M.S., sometimes with a B.S. and a lot of work experience.

3 - But the unique vantage point of the PEs in an OEM are as follows,

• PEs get to work hand in hand with the Fabs and are responsible for driving the process/material/layer (product) development.
• They get to introduce new products right from scratch (varies with OEMs) and own them.
• They do the design of experiments (DOEs), extensive data analysis, and troubleshooting for making their new product Fab worthy.
• Are responsible for driving new equipment designs (in tandem with other engineers are in standalone) if the existing ones are insufficient/ limiting for a customer-defined product spec., so in a way are responsible for driving innovations and therefore patents.
• So, the scope for driving patents is higher and is part of the job description for PEs in an OEM.
• In short, PEs are responsible for driving the most "sciencey" stuff in an OEM.

4 - If the product matures and the Fabs like it, the next step is Fab scale tool sales.

5 - So, PEs get a lot of limelight when they convert their product development into a tool sale i.e., selling their OEM tool with an almost mature product!