WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-High-Tech Tools

Colchester, Vermont - February 13, 2009

It may look as if an engineer in Colchester is playing with a giant Erector Set, but he's assembling a serious tool, not a toy.

SemiProbe makes complicated devices that test semiconductors. Those chips are the brains behind cell phones, remote controls, iPods, and more. Just about every consumer electronic item needs chips working to their potential. If not, a car could break down, or a cell phone's battery may not last long.

Company president Denis Place explains, "At one point or another, they all have to be tested."

Major brand-name electronics manufacturers and their suppliers rely on companies like SemiProbe for test equipment. Only a handful of companies in North America make machines to check chip strength and effectiveness. SemiProbe is the new kid on the block, at just three years old.

Place adds, "It's an exciting industry. It's constantly changing."

A Winooski native, Place has more than 20 years' experience working as an electrical engineer for the semiconductor industry. He has shipped his machines to companies across the US and even overseas, marketing them as more easily adaptable for eventual upgrades than his competitors'. Still, one of SemiProbe's units can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

The company's vice president for sales, Don Feuerstein, says, "Certainly the recession is affecting everyone in every industry."

But SemiProbe knows electronics developers are working on products today that will hit the market two years from now, hoping by then, consumer spending will be robust. Manufacturers will need chips to power a new generation of cell phones, music players, and other gadgets.

Feuerstein says, "There are some areas that actually pick up during a downturn, that's where we're focusing right now. Part of it is that research and development segment is looking to develop chips and products to [spur consumer interest and] help them get out of the recession."

The company is now operating out of the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, run by UVM. It's an incubator space aimed at promoting Vermont as more than a place for maple syrup. The high-tech industry tends to pay well and bring money into the local economy from out-of-state.

Engineer Mostafa Daoudi explains, "One of the challenges we've faced with this is to make everyone know there's a lot of software growth, technology, knowledge, and ideas that come out of Vermont."

While some of SemiProbe's component pieces like cameras are imported, the company does use Vermont metal shops and other contractors whenever possible.

Denis Place smiles, and says, "It's pretty special to be doing this in Vermont."

SemiProbe hopes if its growth continues as it has for the past few years, that it will be able to add dozens of new jobs down the road.

Their "Made in Vermont" systems help make electronics the world over run smoother.

Jack Thurston - WCAX News - Made in Vermont