Asia foundry purchases multiple AXi 935 Systems to obtain high resolution required for OQA and etch applications
San Francisco, CA (July 11, 2006) -- Rudolph Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: RTEC) today announced the sale of multiple AXi™ 935 Macro Defect Inspection Systems to a major foundry in Asia. The systems are destined for a Singapore facility where they will initially support etch processes and outgoing quality assurance. Additionally, the same customer is evaluating AXi performance at a second fab in Taiwan.
"We are very excited to have won this major sale," said Roger Lao, Rudolph general manager, Singapore/China. "The customer required a thorough performance evaluation, and our AXi System met their combined needs for throughput, resolution and ease-of-use."
Lao adds, "It is particularly interesting that this application was previously served by a micro inspection tool. The customer was able to meet its resolution requirements with the AXi while significantly increasing the throughput in order to inspect every wafer, ultimately giving them faster awareness of process excursions. It is no longer necessary to rely on statistical inference from a sample; they have hard data on every wafer."
The AXi 935 Inspection System occupies an important niche with higher throughput than micro tools and higher resolution than other macro tools. This is important for outgoing quality assurance (OQA) and etch applications that require higher resolution than most macro tools can provide.
Rudolph Technologies was named market leader in macro defect inspection by Gartner-Dataquest in an April 2006 report. The company's AXi Macro Defect Inspection Systems have been widely accepted, and the AXi 935 is the latest-generation tool in this successful product line. Compared to its predecessor, the AXi 930, the 935 offers significantly improved throughput while maintaining the sensitivity to detect defects down to 0.5 micrometers. It provides the base (frontside) platform for Rudolph's all-surface inspection technology which, when configured with edge and backside inspection modules, can detect and correlate defects on all surfaces of the wafer.
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.
Safe Harbor Statement
The press releases in this July 11, 2006 Press Kit contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). In some cases, you can identify those so-called "forward-looking statements" by words such as "may," "will," "would," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "feels," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," or "continue," or the negative of those words and other comparable words. 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. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements, include, but are not limited to, the impact of the slowdown in the overall economy, the uncertainty of the current global political environment, the potential for terrorist attacks, the potential for business disruptions due to infectious diseases, changes in customer demands for our existing and new products, the timing, cancellation or delay of customer orders and shipments, the timing of revenue recognition of shipments, new product offerings from our competitors, changes in or an inability to execute Rudolph's business strategy, unanticipated manufacturing or supply problems and changes in tax rules. Rudolph cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements. The matters discussed in this press release also involve risks and uncertainties as summarized in Rudolph's Form 10-K report for the year ended December 31, 2005 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), which are available at http://www.sec.gov, the SEC's website, and at http://www.rudolphtech.com, the Rudolph website. While these factors may be updated from time to time through the filing of reports and registration statements with the SEC, Rudolph does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.
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