Rudolph Receives Multiple Inspection and Metrology Systems Orders

Rudolph Technologies, Inc., in high-performance process characterization systems for the semiconductor manufacturing industry, announced that a major disk drive manufacturer has ordered a suite of inspection and metrology systems. The purchases were driven by the need to increase manufacturing capacity as the data storage industry strives to meet growing consumer demand, and by the movement of macro inspection into new applications within the head manufacturing process.

The multi-million dollar orders include seven NSX Inspection Systems for macro defect inspection, one MetaPULSE-II Metrology System for use in characterizing thin metal films and one PrecisionPoint VX3 Probe Card Inspection System. Shipments started in February 2008 and will continue through Q2 and Q3, with completion scheduled for Q4.

"The data storage industry has experienced dramatic growth despite the current economic environment," said Alex Oscilowski, chief operating officer at Rudolph. "This growth is being driven by storage requirements for a wide variety of consumer products, including digital/video cameras, home servers and removable storage devices, music and gaming products, as well as the increased storage requirements for automobiles."

Rudolph’s process characterization systems include inspection, metrology and software that allow the data storage manufacturers to optimize their process yields and increase profitability. Oscilowski continued, "Interestingly, we are seeing growth driven not only by expanding capacity, but also by the migration of automated inspection to earlier stages in the manufacturing process."

Macro defect inspection has been traditionally used for outgoing quality assurance. Customers have found remarkable yield benefit by applying the same technology to monitor macro defects during the lithography process, where timely inspection permits rework of correctable defects. Rudolph’s NSX macro defect inspection system delivers exceptional value for magnetic head manufacturing. Developed originally for back-end semiconductor processes, the NSX System is able to deliver the same sensitivity and throughput as Rudolph’s front-end inspection tools without the cost burden of cleanroom compatibility.

The MetaPULSE-II, which uses Rudolph’s patented picosecond ultrasonic laser sonar (PULSE) Technology, is designed to provide accurate, low-noise measurements of the multilayer metal stacks used in head manufacturing. The VX3 probe card inspection tool is designed to provide critical information for testing and maintaining probe cards and optimizing the parameters of the probing process.