Although main stream multibillion dollar fabs get most of the attention,
there are numerous chip companies that have profitable, small to medium sized wafer fabrication facilities. These fabs serve
the mixed signal, mature digital and digital chip aftermarkets.
Evergreen Enhancement is a start-up that caters to these fabs and
tier-two fab lines at tier one semiconductor companies. According to William Kerr, Evergreen Enhancement Founder and CEO,
"While taking care of legacy equipment is hardly as sexy as working with state-of-the-art 'bleeding edge' products, many high
tech manufacturers such as microchip and integrated circuit makers are dependent on older systems. They simply can't change
to the newest equipment overnight and expect to meet deliveries and remain competitive.
Mr. Kerr went on to say, "Unfortunately, many of the engineers responsible
for these embedded technology systems are long gone. And the original manufacturers usually only want to see an update replacement.
That's where Evergreen Enhancement comes in, with outsourced engineering for legacy equipment and systems."
Evergreen indicates it applies the latest technology to give old
fabs new features, such as Internet based diagnostics. Mr. Kerr explained "In effect, it's like old wine in new bottle - bringing
the best solution to users who simply cannot replace legacy systems without major disruptions, downtime, lost business and
impending calamities."
Other policies that Evergreen emphasizes include risk reduction,
cost avoidance and system uptime. The company uses its expertise to predict equipment and fab line failures before they occur
– allowing fabs to keep manufacturing costs low.
