Rudolph has a long history of technology leadership in manufacturing highly accurate quality instruments that use polarized light as a measuring medium.
In 1940, the company, O.C. Rudolph and Sons, Inc., was founded by Otto Curt Rudolph. He imported microscopes and other scientific instrumentation and later designed and manufactured instrumentation for universities and laboratories. In 1970, the company changed its name to Rudolph Research Corporation.
Rudolph introduced the industry’s first production-oriented ellipsometer for thin-transparent film measurements in 1977 and has consistently led the industry through innovative product developments that surpass those of the competition.
In June 1996, Riverside Partners and Liberty Partners made major investments in Rudolph to support its expansion in the semiconductor metrology market. Coincident with the new partnership, Rudolph changed its name from Rudolph Research to Rudolph Technologies to reflect its new strategic focus and plans for metrology in the 21st century. In November 1999, Rudolph became a public company trading on the NASDAQ.
For opaque film characterization, Rudolph brought the revolutionary PULSE™ Technology to the fab floor. Since its introduction, over 200 systems have been sold to over 35 companies. PULSE has helped all of the top semiconductor manufacturers ramp copper processes quickly and keep production in control twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
In July of 2002, Rudolph acquired ISOA, a supplier of inspection and classification systems. A merger with August Technology was completed in February of 2006, and solidified Rudolph’s position as a major player in macro defect detection and analysis.
Rudolph accelerated its efforts to be a more complete supplier of back-end equipment and software with the acquisition of the semiconductor business of Applied Precision, LLC, in December 2007, and the purchase of the Wafer Scanner product line from RVSI Inspection LLC in January 2008. These acquisitions added precision wafer probe card metrology systems, wafer probe process management systems, and 2D/3D macro defect inspection to the companies’ growing portfolio.
2009 brought the acquisition of Adventa Control Technologies, Inc., broadening its process control software presence with a wide range of technologies including tool automation, run-to-run control, and fault detection and classification.
In 2010, Rudolph acquired selected assets related to MKS Instruments’ Yield Dynamics software business, further expanding its presence in semiconductor process control.
The acquisition of the assets of NanoPhotonics GmbH was completed in June 2012, adding unpatterned wafer and mask blank inspection to its product portfolio.
Most recently, Rudolph announced its entry into the back-end lithography market with the acquisition of Azores Corp. in December 2012, and the development of a 2x reduction stepper total lithography system.
