Rudolph touts installations of its process control software
May 22, 2014. Rudolph Technologies Inc. announced that it has completed a record number of installations for its ARTIST fault detection and classification (FDC) and ProcessWORKS advanced process control (APC) software solutions for manufacturers in the U.S., Japan, and Europe during the first quarter of 2014.
Wins include multiple customers in the mobile communications supply chain and in the hard disk drive (HDD) and the burgeoning power-device market. Expanding on nearly 800 tools connected in 2013, recent wins will add another 1,000 tool connections in 2014. With FDC and APC software in place, customers are making plans to install Rudolph’s advanced yield analysis and data mining applications to further optimize their manufacturing operations.
According to Richard Beaver, director of APC product management in Rudolph’s Data Analysis and Review Business Unit, “This is a very competitive market and we are delighted that customers recognize and appreciate the unique value proposition that our advanced process control systems provide. In each account, the ARTIST and ProcessWORKS software solutions were selected through competitive evaluations. We were selected, in large part, because of our ability to deploy the systems into our customers’ manufacturing lines within days, where they will run 24-7, to help improve the manufacturing process and increase yield. Our expertise in equipment integration and extensive equipment model libraries developed over the last decade further differentiated us from the competition and provided demonstrable value to our customers.”
Mike Plisinski, vice president and general manager of Rudolph’s Data Analysis and Review Business Unit, added “The Rudolph team has done an excellent job improving time to value for our customers and offering clear paths to adopting additional Rudolph products as their needs grow. Each sale represents a long-term relationship with our customer. Our customers will roll out our product to multiple process areas, then multiple sites. After which, we work with them to identify further opportunities for yield improvements by leveraging our broad product portfolio and low integration costs. As we continue to roll out our solutions to new process areas and new factories, we identify additional opportunities to help our customers improve yields and productivity.”
Rudolph’s ARTIST FDC software helps customers increase yield by detecting equipment fault conditions before they can destroy product wafers, damage equipment or cause extended downtime for repairs. The ProcessWORKS APC software improves process performance and overall yields by making run-to-run adjustments based on measurements of process results. The systems are fully integrated with each other and can be quickly and easily deployed in any factory, process or tool.