Jobs in Singapore: “How I became the first female Manufacturing Technology Senior Engineer at Pall Corporation”

When Jacklyn Toh, 33, first joined advanced manufacturing tools and technology supplier Pall Corporation in Singapore, she actually spent quite a bit of time in Japan. The reason? To get hands-on experience at an established Pall factory in Japan. Today, she’s a seasoned senior engineer at the US company’s state-of-the-art manufacturing facility here, responsible for the development of advanced filtration, purification and separation solutions for semiconductor manufacturing. Jacklyn holds a Bachelor of Chemistry and Master’s in Material Science and Engineering from the National University of Singapore.
 

1. What is your role exactly and can you describe what a regular day at work is like?

My job is to oversee the development of advanced filters which are used for equipment cleaning during the chip fabrication process. Cleaning is an integral step in semiconductor manufacturing and the filters we produce help ensure that the chemical solutions used to clean equipment are free of contaminants by filtering out nanoparticles. This is critical to reducing impurities and defects in semiconductors.

My day-to-day work can range from desk work where I review datasets to assess if our filters are performing well to being situated in the cleanroom to test equipment modifications. I also work closely with our vendors and internal teams to design new equipment that can better meet customer needs. This includes speaking with our facilities team to understand the requirements for equipment set-up in different environments and running Factory Acceptance Tests to ensure that our products meet customer specifications and quality standards before delivery.
 

2. How did you end up in this role at Pall Corporation, and what have you learnt through your experience at the company?

I started my career in semiconductor manufacturing after graduating from NUS. After a few years on the job, I decided to pursue a Master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering, which allowed me to make the shift to a more engineering-focused role.

What was appealing to me about the position at Pall was the fact that I would have the chance to work on a new plant set-up which is not a common opportunity in Singapore. Pall was also one of the vendors that I had collaborated with in my previous job, so I was already familiar with the work they do.

The learning curve was quite steep when I first joined as I didn’t have in-depth knowledge about the different cleaning equipment that we use during the fabrication process. To draw an analogy, while we might know how to use an oven, we might not necessarily be aware of what its components are or how an oven actually works. Being in meetings with my colleagues and seniors helped me better understand how individual components and parts can affect the behaviour of the equipment we produce. I also had the chance to go to Japan to learn more about the filter manufacturing process and collaborate with teams at overseas sites in running Factory Acceptance Tests, which broadened my knowledge of equipment development.
 

3. What’s most meaningful to you about your role?

The challenges that we face can differ on a day-to-day basis and I find myself learning something new every day during the problem-solving process. What’s most exciting about this job is getting to work with people from different teams to come up with innovative solutions that can further optimise the performance of our equipment for chip manufacturers.

Filter manufacturing is a very niche sector but we are moving towards digitalisation and automation, and looking at how we can get sufficient information to build up a database for this. I’m excited to continue driving innovation at Pall to help strengthen Singapore’s role in the global semiconductor industry.