News Article
Drive manufacturer chooses automated macro defect inspection tool
Rudolph Technologies, Inc. has announced the receipt of orders for six of its NSX 105 automated macro defect inspection tools from a leading manufacturer of disk drives.
Rudolph Technologies, Inc. has announced the receipt of orders for six of its NSX 105 automated macro defect inspection tools from a leading manufacturer of disk drives. The tools will be used to monitor the performance of the lithography process for magnetic head manufacturing. Three of the systems have already shipped and the balance is scheduled for delivery by year end."We are very pleased to receive these orders," commented Mayson Brooks, Rudolph's vice president of global sales. "Although we have a long-standing relationship with this customer, with a large number of systems already installed for outgoing quality control (OQC), this business was secured only after a thorough competitive evaluation in this new application."The move from outgoing quality control to photolithography points to an important expansion opportunity for macro defect inspection in head manufacturing. Other front-end processes such as etching and chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) are also candidates for automated inspection. The market for disk drives has also grown rapidly in recent years, driven largely by falling prices and increased demand for consumer devices such as music players, digital video recorders, video surveillance systems and automobiles. The combination of expanding applications space and growing market demand constitutes a significant opportunity for automated inspection tools.