The 10 best suppliers of chip making equipment for 2010

SANTA CLARA: VLSIresearch is pleased to announce the 2010 10 BEST Customer Satisfaction Awards in Chip Making Equipment. Varian Semiconductor Equipment and Renesas Eastern Japan Semiconductor achieved the highest rankings by winning the 2010 10 BEST Large Suppliers and Focused Suppliers, respectively.

Varian achieved its fifth consecutive win in Large Suppliers and Renesas garnered its first top ranking in Focused Suppliers. VLSIresearch’s annual Customer Satisfaction Survey on Chip Making Equipment has been the industry benchmark since 1988.The survey provides chip makers – such as Intel, Samsung, Nvidia, Toshiba, TSMC, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, ASE, AMKOR, and more – an opportunity to evaluate how their equipment supplier’s customer service compares to their peers, as well as see how the various tools they need are performing.

Equipment suppliers use this data to quantitatively assess and improve their service and equipment performance to meet and exceed their customers’ expectations. In addition to public recognition, the survey contains detailed ratings by equipment type, area of the world, and yearly rating trends. The survey also provides insight into customer loyalty and user preferences.

Despite a tremendously challenging economic and operating environment, equipment suppliers maintained an outstanding overall average rating of 7.69, compared to the previous year’s 7.68. “The 2010 Customer Satisfaction Survey results prove that equipment suppliers are dedicated to serve their customers from the recession to an extremely fast ramp,” commented G. Dan Hutcheson, chairman and CEO of VLSIresearch.

He continued: “No other industry can go from a 40 percent decline to 100 percent growth in a period of two quarters, and continue to maintain high customer satisfaction through the cycle. Congratulations to the 10 BEST winners for their achievement in this environment.”

Varian has been ranked the highest rated supplier across all segments 18 times during the history of the survey. This year it has received the highest Large Supplier rating in 11 out of 13 categories. Continued commitment to customer satisfaction in both equipment performance and customer service increased their overall rating to a five-year record of 8.24. Equipment performance continues to be Varian’s strong suit, with customers commending them with comments such as, “An excellent tool - very reliable and excellent build quality”.

Renesas Eastern Japan Semiconductor reached the top rank in the Focused Suppliers of Chip Making Equipment. Equipment users rewarded Renesas with high ratings as the company received ratings above 8.0 in 9 out of 13 rating categories. Chip makers appreciated Renesas’ equipment and service with comments such as “Stable platform” and “Support is very good”.

Customers awarded the #2 rankings to Novellus in Large Suppliers and F&K Delvotec Bondtechnik GmbH in Focused Suppliers. Novellus continues to be a valued equipment supplier, earning exceptionally high ratings in usable throughput, quality of results, and product performance. Their deep focus on serving the semiconductor industry at all levels of management is really paying off.

This year’s results presented Renesas and F&K Delvotec with a tie for the highest 10 BEST rating; the winner was determined by a single-sided 97.5 percent confidence margin. Customers were pleased with F&K Delvotec’s process and field engineering support, as well as support after sales and technical leadership, rewarding them with the highest rating of all suppliers in these categories.

Verigy and DISCO Corp. rounded out the top three spots with overall ratings of 7.72 and 7.91, respectively. Verigy excelled in product performance and quality of results, with customers commenting, “Excellent hardware - by far superior performance and quality”. DISCO achieved the highest rating in build quality of all Focused Suppliers.

Most improved suppliers
Even with the economic headwind, chip equipment companies continued to invest in customer satisfaction. As a result of these investments, the most-improved suppliers are KLA-Tencor in Large Equipment Suppliers and Tesec in Focused Equipment Suppliers.

KLA-Tencor’s overall rating improved 11 percent from 2009 and Tesec’s overall rating increased by 16 percent. Other companies with notable rating improvements include Advantest (5 percent), BE Semiconductor (12 percent), Dainippon Screen (7 percent) and Oerlikon (4 percent).