Process Engineer Packaging

Susanne Koeppl
Sensor: SHTC1
Drink: passion fruit spritzer
Actor: Mark Wahlberg
Susanne Koeppl works as a process engineer in packaging at Sensirion. She came into contact with the company back when she was doing her doctorate at ETH Zurich: “Various events made me increasingly aware of Sensirion,” she says. “What really excited me was the chance not only to use my own knowledge, but to learn a lot of new things as well.”
As a packaging process engineer, Susanne is responsible for process control in current operations as well as the development of new processes. For the latter, she focuses on the best possible packaging for the sensor chip: How can a chip be packed in a way that protects it effectively and still allows it to communicate with the outside world? “The individual packaging processes are very complex. That's why we have one or two experts for each process,” explains Susanne, who is responsible for the wire bonding and plasma cleaning processes. Together with the R&D packaging project manager, the process engineers develop a project flow that defines the sequence of the individual packaging processes. After that, the specifications are defined and the processes are developed step-by-step.
For Susanne, this means setting up, executing and analyzing the results of testing – always with the goal in mind of defining a process window in which a process required for producing a sensor package functions as desired.
One of the best things about Sensirion: It never gets boring because there are always new challenges.
To date, Susanne has been responsible for the plasma cleaning and wire bonding processes for our humidity and temperature sensors. Soon though, the development process for a completely new sensor will begin – and this is a task that she is already looking forward to.