Rudolph Technologies Announces Shipment of 1000th NSX Inspection System

FLANDERS, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rudolph Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: RTEC), a leading provider of process characterization equipment and software for semiconductor, solar and LED industries, announced today that is has shipped the 1000^th NSX^® Inspection System from its manufacturing operations center in Bloomington, Minnesota.

“Over time, new and challenging applications have driven new NSX System designs and improvements”

The NSX-80 inspection system was launched in 1997 by Minnesota-based August Technology Corporation, and gained the attention of the industry’s top chipmakers who quickly saw the benefit of replacing manual inspection— widely recognized as slow and inconsistent— with automated processes. By August 2000, the 100^th NSX System had been shipped and the company was firmly positioned as a leader in automated macro inspection.

“Following receipt of our first purchase order, the emphasis from the onset was two-fold: meet customers’ expectations and deliver on-time,” recalls Rudolph employee, Doug Larsen, one of two mechanical engineers on the original NSX-80 design team.

Rudolph Technologies merged with August Technology in 2006 and has continued to introduce new NSX models to meet the increasingly complex inspection needs of high-volume semiconductor manufacturers in the back-end packaging arena. Each new NSX model has been designed to help continuously reduce cost of ownership while improving production yields by offering new capabilities to inspect wafer-level packaging, microbumps, MEMs devices and LED wafers.

“Over time, new and challenging applications have driven new NSX System designs and improvements,” Larsen continued. “Today, over 150 NSX Systems are performing probe mark inspection (PMI), over 200 are doing bump inspection and it has become the de-facto standard for 100 percent inspection among automotive semiconductor device manufacturers.”

In June 2011, Rudolph announced the first order for the latest addition to the NSX family, the NSX 320 Inspection System. Based on years of research and development combined with extensive field experience, the NSX 320 System is optimized for advanced packaging processes that use through silicon vias (TSV) to connect multiple die in a single package.

Due to the continued acceptance of the NSX System combined with the addition of the Wafer Scanner^™ Inspection System to its back-end portfolio, Rudolph has maintained #1 market share in Semiconductor Wafer-Level Packaging Inspection (Gartner Dataquest) since 2005.

Rudolph Technologies, Inc. is a worldwide leader in the design, development, manufacture and support of defect inspection, process control metrology, and data analysis systems and software used by semiconductor device manufacturers worldwide. 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 the costs and time to market of their products. The company’s yield management solutions are used in both the wafer processing and final manufacturing of ICs, as well as in emerging markets such as LED and Solar. 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
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the “Act”) which include the benefits to customers of Rudolph’s products, Rudolph’s existing market position and its ability to maintain and advance such position relative to its competitors and Rudolph’s ability to meet the expectations and needs of our customers as well as other matters that are not purely historical data. 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. Such factors include, but are not limited to, delays in shipping products for technical performance, component supply or other reasons, the company’s ability to leverage its resources to improve its positions in its core markets and fluctuations in customer capital spending. Additional information and considerations regarding the risks faced by Rudolph are available in Rudolph’s Form 10-K report for the year ended December 31, 2010 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As the forward-looking statements are based on Rudolph’s current expectations, the company cannot guarantee any related future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Rudolph does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.