Rudolph Technologies acquires Adventa Control

FLANDERS, USA: Rudolph Technologies Inc., a leading provider of process characterization equipment and software for wafer fabs and advanced packaging facilities, has acquired Adventa Control Technologies Inc.

Adventa provides a wide range of Advanced Process Control (APC) technologies to semiconductor manufacturers specifically for tool automation, run-to-run control, and fault detection and classification.

“We are excited about taking advantage of this opportunity to significantly expand our process control software portfolio with the complementary products from Adventa,” said Paul F. McLaughlin, chairman and chief executive officer of Rudolph. “Much like Rudolph, Adventa has an established and respected presence in the industry, with an estimated 18,000+ systems in use today.”

“By leveraging Rudolph’s worldwide sales and support organization, we will be able to introduce Adventa solutions to markets that had previously been left untapped, thus delivering a paradigmatic growth opportunity for these products, and making Rudolph a more significant supplier to our customers,” McLaughlin concluded.

“Adventa’s experience in providing competitive advanced process control solutions while maintaining profitability was a key reason for pursuing this acquisition,” said Mike Plisinski, vice president and general manager of Rudolph’s Data Analysis and Review Business Unit.

“The duration of the current down cycle in our industry has resulted in manufacturers needing to reduce the use of internal resources but at the same time improve factory profitability through the implementation of enhanced process control and automated analysis solutions. Adventa has been delivering unique solutions to device manufacturers for over 11 years. Their employees average over 15 years of experience in the development and deployment of enterprise level process control solutions.

“When combined with our expertise in process analysis software, we are well-positioned to meet the growing demand from customers for a single, financially stable, supplier of both process control and analysis technologies, which can easily integrate into their existing IT infrastructure.”

Terms of the cash transaction were not disclosed, however, Rudolph projects that revenues from the Adventa acquisition will be accretive in the first year and should more than double the revenues of the Data Analysis and Review Business Unit. According to Gartner Dataquest, this would make Rudolph the No. 2 supplier of process control software solutions for device manufacturers.

“As the semiconductor industry continues to evolve and the technologies become more complex, process control software will continue to play a critical role in the fab,” Plisinski continued. “We believe our customers see a distinct advantage in working with a profitable, global partner such as Rudolph who has clearly demonstrated the commitment and resources for next-generation process solutions. “

Rudolph is unique in providing a total process control solution to both front-end fabs, back-end packaging facilities as well as the rapidly maturing photovoltaic market.

The company’s process control software systems evaluate the overall performance of the entire manufacturing process, resulting in the opportunity for lower operating costs as well as faster and better automated decision making through a tighter integration of process control technologies and process analysis solutions.