Semiconductor Equipment OEM Marks 15 Years Relying on Boston Engineering’s Product Innovation

Semiconductor industry success requires the ability to innovate while also navigating the industry’s boom-and-bust cycles. This challenges industry executives to balance the need for immediate access to technical expertise with the workforce scalability required to address dramatic market shifts.

Rather than maintaining all technical expertise internally, executives at a global semiconductor equipment provider selected Boston Engineering to play an integral role in advancing the company’s innovation pipeline. For the past 15 years, Boston Engineering has provided turnkey product development services – including software and electromechanical engineering, and product optimization for manufacturability. Boston Engineering also collaborates seamlessly with internal client teams and applies its deep understanding of company processes to accelerate time to market.

Boston Engineering’s nearly 50 projects have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in sales and have helped the client maintain its leadership position. Select projects include:

• Custom Motor Controllers: Innovated real-time embedded controllers for high performance, precision analog measurements, power conversion, and EMI/EMC compliance.
• Automated Test Equipment: Improved reliability and time to market via automated product testing. This enables the OEM to identify and eliminate costly product defects before shipping products. And it also provides traceability.
• Protocol Test Software: Developed automated test software that fully exercised a client’s proprietary communications protocol. This accelerated software verification and validation capability and quickly identified unintended software bugs created by firmware updates. 
• Redesign for Mid-life Boost and Obsolescence: Revitalized mature products by adding new features and reducing production costs. Also replaced obsolete components to extend product life while maintaining original form, fit, and function.
• Failure Analysis: Identified the source of a failure responsible for escalated product returns in a critical product category. We developed a practical solution that minimized re-engineering and component replacement requirements. After the design update implementation, there were no service calls or product returns related to this failure.

As a trusted extension of the product development team, Boston Engineering continues to work closely with the client to innovative reliable products for semiconductor and other highly technical industries