The past: how imec led to the creation of Coretecs

In the not-so-distant past, Mathias and Jurgen met each other at Yokogawa working as an Application Engineer and a DCS System Engineer respectively. One of their projects was maintaining and upgrading imec’s gas detection systems, where they met Adrien. The three of us quickly noticed that we were coordinated, booking progress rapidly and keeping the communication transparent while focusing on a common goal.

As the years progressed, we pursued different professional ambitions and decided to become freelancers, not knowing yet what was about to happen. Eventually, we ended up back at imec and reconnected over our shared interest in IT-OT integrations. One thing led to another, and Coretecs saw the light of day, continuing where we left off: imec’s gas detection systems.

The present: technical advisory and various projects

Since our founding two years ago, we have been helping imec wherever possible. As we got to know their needs and ambitions, we matched them with several of our experts and gradually grew our presence. We currently assist imec in two ways as part of our ongoing partnership.

First and foremost, we continuously provide technical advisory and project management services. In this role, we translate their various goals and ambitions into concrete projects and follow up on them. This can include everything from sourcing the right materials or people to managing resources. Of course, we never stop thinking about the possibilities of digital transformation, so we often come up with practical solutions and improvements proactively.

This brings us to the second aspect of our partnership. Our experts are currently helping imec in several stand-alone projects, some of which resulted from our own proposals. Most of these projects focus on imec’s FAIN (Facility And Infrastructure) department and its many teams, although we don’t limit ourselves to just one department. Some examples of these projects include:

• We conducted an analysis for FAIN’s team specialising in connecting their clean room tools to their facilities. We realised that this required a lot of manual actions and proposed an alternative that reduced their workload and increased efficiency.
• We helped replace, upgrade, or otherwise improve various applications used by FAIN’s automation team. This includes the gas detection system, data historian, and a tool that sends out emergency alerts through SMS.
• We installed a High-Availability Computing (HAC) setup to run various systems, increasing performance, improving the data flow, and filling up the support gaps from imec’s suppliers. We also helped them with vendor management, so they don’t have to deal with contacting several support teams at once.
• We used our E&I expertise to design electrical distribution cabinets and systems. We unburdened their internal E&I team by drafting intricate electric schemes based on imec’s specifications.
• We designed and built an ATEX cabinet and gas bunkers to increase operational safety in hazardous environments and ensure regulatory compliance.
• We improved the clean rooms’ gas detection systems with Selected Ion Flow Tube Mass Spectrometry (SIFT-MS), which measures their many gases at a molecular level. This drastically cut down on the number of measurements that were needed and increased operational data transparency. In the future, we will add artificial intelligence to further optimise the gas distribution analysis.
• We supported imec during the biannual maintenance shutdowns, supplying them with extra resources during these critical, time-gated windows to keep downtime to a minimum.
• We facilitated collaboration and communication at an organisational level by introducing imec to ClickUp, boosting their productivity and transparency. We configured it to meet their unique needs, customised it with their branding, and connected it to their Active Directory.

The future: ambitious plans, promising prospects

In the coming months and years, we will continue to lend our expertise to imec by aiding them in their ambitious plans. We are looking into offering other services, as well as continuing some of our currently running projects, such as the analysis for the hookup team. We also have several new projects in the pipeline, including an exciting standardisation project that will help the FAIN automation team align which PLC programming technology they use.

Since we started at imec, we grew from a contractor to a preferred partner for everything related to digital transformation. We are helping to translate their vision into concrete projects, with plenty of exciting things ahead. Make sure to keep an eye on our website and LinkedIn page for more details!