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Meet the Team: Barry Tomkins’ Lessons from a Long Semiconductor Career

7th December 2017

For some of us, a reminder of the long and successful career we’ve had might be an accolade, award or trophy. 

But for IES Senior Engineer, Barry Tomkins, it’s the time he walked past an ND6200 PECVD (Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition) machine in Jerusalem, Israel, and recognised the signature on the various tested stickers that covered it.

It was his. He’d built and tested that very piece of equipment over 30 years ago, and it was still fully operational. 

From apprentice to frequent global traveller, Barry’s semiconductor career has spanned four decades, multiple continents and a host of exciting roles where he got to head up some of the most innovative engineering projects. 

We sat down with him to learn more about his impressive semiconductor career, where he started and how he ended up at IES today.

Barry TomkinsClimbing the ranks

Born in an era, and entering an industry in which a degree was not seen as the “be-all and end-all,” Barry began his career by embarking on a five-year apprenticeship as a toolmaker.

“In those days, there was no pressure whatsoever to take up a university degree,” Barry remembers. “It was my impression that it was rich people who went to university, not people from a council house on an estate like me.”

The apprenticeship was the perfect preparation for the years to come working in a sector Barry describes as “very practical, pragmatic and hands-on.”

Soon enough, he was spotted by SPTS (originally Electrotech), a global semiconductors firm with a headquarters in Newport, Wales, and started a role manufacturing components for semiconductor tools.

During his 28 years at the company, Barry steadily climbed the ranks. From building and testing equipment to processing development, becoming a service engineer and ending up in service management.

Life on the road

Like many of our experienced engineers here at IES, Barry is no stranger to life on the road.

For him, this has meant not just temporary fieldwork, but semi-permanent postings in China, Malaysia, Japan and Taiwan. “It’s been an incredible opportunity not just for me, but also for my family,” he adds.

Despite his absence from home, his wife Sue, son Adam and daughter Hannah have been rewarded for their understanding with many once-in-a-lifetime experiences, with Hannah spending six months living in Taiwan—an experience which Barry says “brought her out of her shell.”From a 5 year apprenticeship to far flung travels: Barry Tomkins’s career in semiconductors

But while Barry says that he “loved” all of his postings (Malaysia in particular), being based overseas isn’t for everybody.

“I’ve worked with hundreds of engineers, either from the same company as me or other companies. I’ve met them in expat bars and hotel lobbies all around the world. And I think you need to be a certain type of person to tolerate being on the road all the time,” Barry explains.

“You have to like your own company. Because, sometimes, that’s all the company you have.”

Phone home 

As Barry’s progressed through his semiconductor career, modern technology has progressed immeasurably alongside him.

“When I first started travelling in 1988, I used to call my wife every single day to touch base, tell her about my day, ask her how her day went and whether our children were behaving,” He says.

But communications today have progressed so much that Barry can video chat with Sue via his mobile phone any time and from anywhere in the semiconductor world.

“We had a chat over breakfast only this week, with me eating cold cut meats and cheese in Delft in The Netherlands, whilst my wife had toast at home.”
From a 5 year apprenticeship to far flung travels: Barry Tomkins’s career in semiconductors

Economic downturn

While Barry had clearly carved out a successful career for himself, market forces began to dictate fortunes in a sector that he describes as “cyclic.”

“The global downturn hit people in their pockets so ‘Joe Public’ stopped spending money on TVs, computers, phones and anything with a silicon chip in it,” Barry says. 

“All of the engineers I had reporting to me eventually got laid off until it was just me. And I was running several different projects across different countries.”

Spread too thinly, Barry left his role in 2010 to join Oxford Instruments, the global high-tech tools provider and research company, where he played a key role in running the test department for six years.

In this high-pressure environment, Barry was responsible for completing testing in short time frames—sometimes involving systems which weren’t fully built yet.

But before long, he was ready for a new challenge. 

Barry Joins our ranks

Barry joined IES as a Senior Engineer in 2016, where his years of valuable experience, allied with his nature of being a team player, have made him an invaluable addition to our team.

At IES, Barry says he’s enjoyed the opportunity to continue sticking pins in the map with his fieldwork in Europe and appreciates the social character of our company.

“There’s always something going on socially and the company is always raising money for charity. I entered the cake-making competition here a couple of weeks ago. Me, making cakes?” He laughs. “But I came second!”

An engineering service for semiconductor tools that you can rely on

Barry is just one of our highly experienced and knowledgeable semiconductor specialists here at IES. 

From single-tool start-ups to complete production line relocations, decontamination and modifications, we’re the number-one provider of engineering services to the semiconductor sector. Learn more about our semiconductor services here.

 

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