Rudolph Technologies,
Inc. (NASDAQ: RTEC), a worldwide leader in process characterization solutions
for the semiconductor manufacturing industry, announced today that Touch Micro-System
Tech (tMt), a major manufacturer of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS)
located in Taiwan, has reported a substantial reduction in per-wafer inspection
time using Rudolph's NSX® Inspection System and Discover® Data
Analysis software. Discover, which is the NSX's automated data analysis
program, allows the user to rapidly identify, classify, sort and diagnose defect
causes.
“The success of this effort reflects a growing market segment among MEMS
manufacturers seeking to reduce defects and improve manufacturing yields as
they bring numerous new applications into high-volume production,” said
Rajiv Roy, Rudolph's vice president of business development and director
of back-end marketing.
“Automated macro defect inspection with the NSX System is a key component
of our strategic plan to improve the yield of our manufacturing processes and
ensure the quality of our products,” said C. S. Yang, project manager,
CEO Office at tMt. “We have dramatically reduced our per-wafer inspection
time with the automated NSX System. Although we use processes similar to those
found in semiconductor manufacturing, we face many unique challenges, such as
complex patterns and extreme topography. In this regard, the tool's ability
to automatically classify defects is extremely valuable.”
Roy added, “While some MEMS applications are well established, such as
vehicle accelerometers and print heads, a host of exciting new applications
are in development and promise explosive growth in the MEMS industry. A few
examples are micro projectors and orientation detectors for cell phones. We
believe that automated macro defect inspection will be a critical enabling technology
as manufacturers move these new applications into high-volume production. This
order clearly demonstrates the value tMt sees in the unique capabilities of
the NSX Inspection System and Discover Data Analysis software.”
Rudolph's NSX automated macro defect inspection tool uses image-based
optical inspection technology to detect defects occurring in microelectronics
manufacturing processes. It offers significant improvements in speed, accuracy,
repeatability and reproducibility when compared to manual inspection procedures.
Discover Data Analysis software automatically classifies detected defects based
on operator defined characteristics, allowing the user to quickly direct appropriate
attention to those defects with the greatest impact on process yield.