Christian Shu recently sat down with Marketing’s Alexis Wellong to explain his new customer facing role in Assembly Services. In this interview he explains what it means to be the point of “first contact”, the immediate improvement this will mean for our customers, but also how the position will develop over time. This is the second in a two-part series. (Read part one here)
“How do we approach customers? We look at all our clients first of all as investors, then fellow adventurers and partners who need to be treated as we ourselves like to be treated by others. We have all been placed ‘on hold’ calling various service lines, negotiating the mine field of AI, just trying to get ahold of a human being, only to find we are put on hold to speak to someone else. Internally we refer to it as the ‘tall building syndrome’ because you feel at the end of it you just want to drop off one. My key role is to ensure our clients never feel like that.”
“Another word I would add to this list is ‘co-creator’. At this juncture in the history of the semiconductor industry we are living at the cusp of an era of extraordinary change. You read it everywhere in the technical media, and the sense of anticipation is only growing—much of it built on the move into chiplet technologies, itself driven by quantum computing, quantum communication and generative AI.”
“Chiplets have been likened to LEGO bricks because what you can build with them is limited only by the imagination. My preferred metaphor is DNA, because like DNA the chiplet has been around for a long time; what is changing is not only how we can ‘splice’ chiplets to create new devices and technologies, that coupled with the standardization of the interface has caused the opportunity to participate in this process to be thrown open far and wide. It is literally a wave of technological democratization that is unleashing a torrent of talent and imagination.”
“Nowhere is this witnessed more than in the number of new companies coming into the ecosystem, the expansion of SMEs, and the direction of the bigger players all finding a common focus in research, development, proof of concept, and prototyping. Add to this the breadth of ideas and the ambition of various projects and you start to get a real idea of where all this energy is taking us.”
“We work with companies of all shapes and sizes, but increasingly what they have in common is boldness and ambition. People come to us with really clear technical concepts and confident purpose of where they want to take these. Where Assembly Services comes in is in helping these companies make the necessary leap to create prototypes and establish the first set of packaging protocols.”
“It is often assumed that companies that use us operate within tight budget constraints, but this is often not the case. Even where it is, the driver is not money but risk management. Risk management because it is important to get there before the competition. Risk management because no one want to waste time going down rabbit holes. Risk management because investors feel so much more confident with a prototype in their hands. Risk management because shared knowledge is reduced risk.”
“Earlier I mentioned chiplets. I could have equally alluded to quantum computing, quantum communication, or generative artificial intelligence. To many people, words like these conjure up images of Star Trek-like engineers working with cryogenics and perfect holographic simulations, but the real world is not like that. Some may involve expensive high-tech processes, but none start there. Semiconductors are, in the end, nothing more than devices that manipulate the laws of physics to make things happen, taking the building blocks of electrons and photons and delivering something practical.”
“It is perhaps this awareness that allows me to do my job with confidence. Packaging electronics is a bit like math—you need a basic understanding of algebra before moving on to advanced calculus. New ideas nearly always involve that starting point. That is how the laws of physics work—or do not work—as is the case. Appreciate this, and mere enthusiasm gives way to a fully rational confidence to helping our customers step up, step out, and try new ideas. We have good systems and proven engineering capabilities that cover a range of expertise. As a result we are a company that is not backwards in coming forwards. One more point: ‘basic’ does not mean simple. It means straightforward. There is a huge difference.”
“Looking to the future, what do I see? Nicholas’ (Palomar's Operations Manager of Assembly Services) business plan is built on the general consensus that growth in research and development has become exponential and will remain there for the rest of the decade, at the very least. While the end game is driven by a number of very well-known people, our own experience tells us that this is the age where the unknowns may make the biggest difference. I am sure we are set to be an ever present part of these changes.”
“More personally, I enjoy the window my role gives me into the dynamics of so many companies and the engineers who come through our doors. This is a huge opportunity for learning, much more than many of our customers realize. That learning gets passed on in one way or another. I do not mean IP, but the principles grasped along the way benefit us all. Of course, it is a two way window, which I trust from the repeat business we get, means that the same learning process is enjoyed by our customers.”
“In closing I do not want to give the impression that we can do everything. As I said, our expertise lies in the area of beginnings. Sometimes we can go all the way to the manufacturing stage with our customer; though for the majority, that is not the case. What we can do—and do well—is lay solid foundations, and where needed, help customers dove-tail into the next stage of commercialization.”