I’m Antti and this is my third summer in Murata Finland’s validation laboratory. I’m an electrical engineering student at Aalto University and currently, I’m in the final stages of my master’s studies with plans to graduate by the summer of 2025. Let’s go through my journey at Murata and my expectations for this summer as Test Equipment Development Engineer!

Returning to Murata for the third summer – Why?

I joined Murata for the first time in the summer of 2022. Since then, I have worked on Test Equipment Development in the R&D department. The summers I have been here as a summer employee and along with my studies, I have had the opportunity to work as part-time.

The work that I have done here, and my engineering studies have gone hand in hand and supported each other wonderfully. I have been able to put the knowledge from my studies in practice at Murata. And on the other hand, the skills and experience gained here have supported my studies. I get to work with state-of-the-art test equipment every day and test the capabilities and limits of Murata MEMS products. For me, this has been a great opportunity and the main driver for working part-time as well.

The Test Equipment Development team consists of wide range of specialists. The development of test equipment and measurement systems requires knowledge of measurement principles, signal processing, dynamic systems, electronics, mechanics, and good data analysis skills. These are all topics either covered in my studies or self-taught through my own projects. Shortly summarized, I have found a team optimal for my interests, and I’m surrounded by a great team of colleagues from whom I have learned a lot. In my position, I also get to collaborate with technicians, product developers, and business developers.

Test Equipment Development – What do I work on?

Over the years I have gotten more familiar with the test equipment and the development of the R&D laboratory. As I have gained more experience, I have been more involved in the daily operation of the team alongside my own research and development projects. I have become more independent and capable of doing my own valuable research, and I have also come up with new development ideas.

The main target of the team is supporting the R&D laboratory and ensuring the testing capability is up to date with the constantly improving product line. This means development of high-performance equipment and designing solutions to all R&D needs. The tools and reference sensors we are using are typically top-of-the-line models. In general, our work is very reactive and includes support tasks. These are usually problem solving and maintenance tasks or requests for quick modifications.

My first summer started from learning the basics and the equipment and tools we were using. I was initially assigned with a single bigger development project. Since the success of this project, it has become a valuable tool for the laboratory. It is used in MSAs* (Measurement System Analysis) of our test equipment and also for testing our products’ capabilities. In addition to this, I have worked on many things over the years. These include maintenance and supporting the use of laboratory equipment, data processing and analysis, and development of test concepts, laboratory tools, measurement sequences, and much more. 

Part of the job description also includes presentation of results and achievements. During my internships, I have had the opportunity to interact with business development and colleagues in Japan. One of my recent tasks has been sourcing of an export-controlled equipment and this has required communication with manufacturers and the sourcing team. To sum up, I have gained valuable experience through many projects and learned a lot about working practices, workflow, and project management.

Expectations for the coming months

For this summer, I have a variety of development projects and I’m ready to provide support in the R&D laboratory related issues when needed. The projects themselves are mainly new in nature and I’m looking forward to what they will bring along. The projects will include learning and discovering new things and a good level of challenge.

In general, I’m expecting to conduct many test equipment and product related experiments, hopefully with promising and beneficial results. I’m also expecting more responsibility and possibilities to collaborate with other people. At this point of my career, I particularly appreciate learning and gaining valuable experience!

Stay tuned – I will report later about my summer at Murata!

*MSA = Measurement System Analysis. The analysis provides information for users about the capabilities and accuracy of the equipment.

Antti Chen
Engineer Trainee, Test Equipment Development