So, what do you do for work?

When people ask what I do for work, I usually answer something like "I do control systems for a semiconductor equipment manufacturer". That’s a bunch of words that’s kinda hard to parse after a few drinks, I wish I could explain it more simply and still get the point across. The Wikipedia article on Ion Implantation isn’t a bad start, but that’s a terrible picture of an implanter. A Google image search on ion implanters turns up some good shots of our machines and our competitors machines, and some goofy engineers. A Slashdot article linked to this powerpoint that’s a cute overview of semiconductor manufacture, machines like my company makes are on page 16. So, there you go. My company makes big machines that make computer chips. And the stuff I do mostly is the wafer handling systems, which star in much of the Postal Service Such Great Heights video (though those machines are from like 20 years ago). It’s pretty cool.