Two U.S. Chipmakers Formally Recognize Rudolph All-Surface Macro Inspection System with Best of Breed Status


Flanders, New Jersey (May 17, 2006)-Rudolph Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:RTEC), the market leader in advanced macro defect inspection technologies, announced today that two major U.S. semiconductor manufacturers have designated Rudolph's all-surface, macro defect inspection system as best of breed.

"As automated inspection has brought frontside macro defects under greater control, chip manufacturers have become aware of the increasing significance of defects on the edge and backside surfaces of the wafer," said Ardy Johnson, vice president of marketing for Rudolph. "Our customers have documented significant reductions in defectivity and measurable increases in yield from the detection, correlation, diagnosis and correction of edge and backside defects in their most advanced processes."

In both cases, Rudolph systems were thoroughly evaluated in an actual process environment, and the top yield inhibitors were identified. "Yield managers have suspected that material was flaking from the edge and re-depositing on the front-side of the wafer," said Johnson. "All-surface inspection gives process engineers the ability to establish root cause of the defect without employing additional, time-consuming inspection processes."

Rudolph's E25(TM) (edge) and B20(TM) (backside) Inspection Modules, combined with the AXi(TM) (frontside) Advanced Macro Inspection System, form an integrated all-surface solution that is the first to automatically detect, classify and correlate macro defects from the front, edge and backside of 200mm and 300mm wafers through multiple front-end processes, including deposition, lithography, etch and CMP. This integrated approach is uniquely capable of linking edge and backside "source" defects with frontside defects that can directly impact yield, without the increase in inspection time and analysis complexity that is associated with separate, standalone inspections.

"As a result of edge inspection, our all-surface customers are taking corrective actions that have reduced defects on the edge bevel and, in some cases, improved wafer final test yields by ten percent from the baseline," said Johnson. "Edge and backside defects pose unique challenges, and the key is being able to correlate data from all surfaces and all processes to extract significant, actionable information."
Rudolph Technologies' all-surface solutions are used by fabs around the world for both front-end wafer processing and final manufacturing macro defect inspection.

About Rudolph Technologies, Inc.
Rudolph Technologies is a worldwide leader in the design, development, manufacture and support of high-performance process control metrology, defect inspection and data analysis systems used by semiconductor device manufacturers. Rudolph provides a full-fab solution through its families of proprietary products that provide critical yield-enhancing information, enabling microelectronic device manufacturers to drive down costs and time to market. The company has enhanced the competitiveness of its products in the marketplace by anticipating and addressing many emerging trends driving the semiconductor industry's growth. Rudolph's strategy for continued technological and market leadership includes aggressive research and development of complementary metrology and inspection solutions. Headquartered in Flanders, New Jersey, Rudolph supports its customers with a worldwide sales and service organization. Additional information can be found on the company's web site at www.rudolphtech.com.

For more information, please contact:

Investors:
Steven R. Roth
973.448.4302
steven.roth@rudolphtech.com

Trade Press:
Virginia Becker
952.259.1647
virginia.becker@rudolphtech.com

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