February 6, 2012 — Rudolph Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:RTEC), process characterization equipment and software supplier, delivered the first MetaPULSE metrology system to measure under bump metallization (UBM) and redistribution layers (RDL) in advanced package manufacturing.

The MetaPULSE system has been proven in metrology for front-end wafer processing applications. This is the first use in back-end packaging metrology. The MetaPULSE system offers nondestructive measurements with small spot size, speed, and accuracy for measurements on patterned wafers. It can measure each layer within the completed multilayer stack or separate layers as they are deposited.

The tool was shipped in Q4 2011 and has been installed at the user site, a major IC manufacturer. The evaluation program took over 12 months.

The customer decided to implement on-product metrology as decreasing feature sizes and increasing pattern densities introduced pattern-dependent deposition effects in their plating process, Rudolph representatives stated.

Numerous other logic, memory and foundry customers are considering the metrology technology to expand into additional critical back-end applications. RDL and UBM route dense I/O signals between the circuit and the electronic system. Pattern-dependent deposition effects that must be measured on patterned product wafers, rather than the unpatterned monitor wafers used in previous process generations.

Rudolph Technologies Inc. designs, develops, manufactures and supports defect inspection, process control metrology, and data analysis systems and software used by semiconductor device manufacturers. Additional information can be found on the company