- 08 September 2006 -

Customer to Push Rudolph Inspection Tools across Multiple Fabs

Rudolph Technologies, Inc., announced significant new orders received in July and August 2006 for advanced all-surface macro defect inspection tools from a major U.S.-based memory manufacturer. The proliferation of Rudolph's all-surface macro inspection systems across multiple fabs has resulted from extensive validation work carried out in a production environment.



Each inspection tool includes an AXi 930(TM) platform for frontside inspection, plus E25(TM)and B20(TM) systems for edge and backside inspection, respectively. The customer, an independent device manufacturer (IDM), reportedly will begin installing the tools throughout its manufacturing operations worldwide--and in many of its partnership fabs--in the third and fourth quarter of 2006.

"This important new business underscores the market's acceptance of all-surface macro inspection as a critical new technology for advanced processes," said Nathan Little, executive vice president and general manager of Rudolph's Inspection Business Unit, "and solidifies our products' position as this customer's 'Tool of Record' for automated macro defect inspection throughout its process. The tools are part of an aggressive 'vertical ramp' with multiple system deliveries scheduled to add capacity quickly at several global sites."

Rudolph's AXi 930 System offers industry-leading resolution, while still delivering the high-throughput required for macro inspection applications. In combination with the E25 System and the B20 System, manufacturers have the ability to inspect and correlate defects on all surfaces of all wafers in multiple processes. This inspection capability, unique among macro inspection equipment providers, allows fabs to ramp more quickly with knowledge about yield-killing defects, and to detect process excursions more quickly after the process has been established.

"It is particularly satisfying that this customer's decision was based on extensive experience with our tools," said Mayson Brooks, vice president of Rudolph's Global Inspection Sales. "They required a high-resolution, all-surface solution for after-develop inspection (ADI), and relying on previous evaluations, selected the AXi system because it delivered improved resolution over competing tools. In addition, this purchase demonstrates our customer's commitment to push this technology aggressively throughout its own manufacturing operations and into partnership fabs as well."

"This same manufacturer has also recently purchased multiple NSX(R) systems from Rudolph for final manufacturing inspection applications," Brooks added. Regardless of location in the process, macro defect inspection systems provide valuable process feedback to support process-enhancing decisions, increasing yields, reducing costs and accelerating time-to-market for new products and processes.

www.rudolphtech.com.