Wilmington, Mass. (12/11/2018)—Rudolph Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: RTEC) today announced the receipt of over $12M in new orders for its recently-released NovusEdge™ system for edge and backside inspection on bare silicon wafers. The new orders are for capacity expansions at our existing customers as well as orders from two additional large wafer manufacturers based in Asia. These orders are in addition to the $3M previously announced and will ship throughout the calendar year 2019.
“With these orders, Rudolph has expanded its customer base to include the top wafer suppliers with over 75 percent of the bare wafer market share,” said Mike Plisinski, Rudolph Technologies’ CEO. “We believe the early acceptance of these new systems is being driven by the accelerating demand for high-quality bare silicon wafers for sub 20nm nodes. To meet that demand, customers require an inspection solution with increased sensitivity on the wafer edge and backside. The Rudolph team worked closely with bare wafer manufacturers in order to introduce a new product with compelling capabilities and value of ownership. As the rate of die shrinks slows at the advanced nodes, more wafers are required to make enough die to meet growing market demand, especially for advanced memory and logic chips.”
Chips and micro-fractures at the edge readily propagate as cracks into active areas of the wafer, especially when the wafer is thinned. Backside contamination can distort the front side of the wafer during lithography, consuming focus budgets that are already thin and will become even thinner with the adoption of EUV lithography.
Edge and backside inspection have requirements that are very different from conventional frontside inspection. The NovusEdge EBI (Edge, Backside Inspection) system’s image-based approach provides full coverage of near-edge, bevel and apex regions, both top and bottom. Compared to existing technology, it is faster, more sensitive and better at classifying types of defects, especially for the complex shapes and curvatures at the notch. Backside inspection can use the same light scattering techniques used on the front side but requires special handling capabilities to avoid contacting or contaminating the frontside. In all cases, sophisticated software provides analysis and automatic defect classification.
For more information about Rudolph’s process control solutions, visit www.rudolphtech.com.
About Rudolph Technologies
Rudolph Technologies, Inc. is a leader in the design, development, manufacture, and support of defect inspection, lithography, process control metrology, and process control software used by semiconductor and advanced packaging device manufacturers worldwide. Rudolph delivers comprehensive solutions throughout the fab with its families of proprietary products that provide critical yield-enhancing information, enabling microelectronic device manufacturers to drive down costs and time to market of their devices. Headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts, Rudolph supports its customers with a worldwide sales and service organization. Additional information can be found on the Company’s website at www.rudolphtech.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the “Act”) which include the benefit to customers of Rudolph’s products, Rudolph’s business momentum and future growth and the market demand for semiconductors generally as well as other matters that are not purely historical data. Rudolph wishes to take advantage of the “safe harbor” provided for by the Act and cautions that actual results may differ materially from those projected as a result of various factors, including risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Rudolph’s control. Such factors include, but are not limited to, Rudolph’s ability to plan and manage its resources and production capability, including its supply chain and fluctuations in customer capital spending. Additional information and considerations regarding the risks faced by Rudolph are available in Rudolph’s Form 10-K report for the year ended December 31, 2017 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As the forward-looking statements are based on Rudolph’s current expectations, the company cannot guarantee any related future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Rudolph does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.
