VLSI Research Ranks Top Equipment Vendors
Staff -- Semiconductor International, 6/11/2008
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VLSI Research Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) announced the results of its annual customer satisfaction survey by vendors of process diagnostics equipment and small and large suppliers of wafer processing equipment. VLSI Research said the top-rated suppliers in the three categories are Keithley Instruments (Cleveland), SEN Corp. (Tokyo) and Varian Semiconductor (Gloucester, Mass.).
The results are based on 4565 surveys completed by people working at the chipmakers. Each equipment supplier was rated on 13 different categories that encompass both equipment performance and customer service.
Within the process diagnostics equipment sector, Keithley and Agilent Technologies (Santa Clara, Calif.) were first and second, respectively. Keithley scored well on equipment uptime. Hamamatsu Photonics (Tokyo), the third-place contender, achieved the best scores in throughput and quality of results. Hitachi High-Technologies (Tokyo) and FEI Co. (Hillsboro, Ore.) rounded out the top five.
| Source: VLSI Research Inc. |
Customers filling out the surveys were most critical of cost of ownership (CoO), software and process support, said Ha Pham, a senior analyst at the market research firm.
Small wafer processing equipment suppliers
SEN Corp., the winner in the small suppliers of wafer processing equipment segment, saw its best scores coming from spares support and technical leadership. The category saw a tight distribution of scores with only a small separation between the number one and the number 10 companies.
| Source: VLSI Research Inc. |
Second-place Rite Track (West Chester, Ohio) achieved the best scores in field engineering and support after sales. Aixtron AG (Aachen, Germany) scored the highest ratings in quality of results and product performance. SUSS MicroTec s(Garching, Germany) cored the highest for build quality. Brooks Automation (Chelmsford, Mass.) won the best results in the process support category. Mattson Technology (Fremont, Calif.) scored the best rating for CoO and equipment uptime.
Pham said that once again this year customer service fell into the lower end of the scoring spectrum.
Large wafer processing equipment suppliers
Among the 15 largest companies, Varian Semiconductor, for the fourth year in a row, received the best ratings among the large suppliers of wafer processing equipment, with its best score coming in the quality of results. Novellus Systems (San Jose) ranked second overall and received the highest score in CoO. The best rating in technical leadership went to ASML (Veldhoven, Netherlands), which was third overall. Tokyo Electron (TEL, Tokyo) and Ulvac (Methuen, Mass.) were fourth and fifth, respectively.
| Source: VLSI Research Inc. |
Customers said they were most satisfied with equipment uptime and most critical of CoO. Software continues to be one of the lowest-rated categories in VLSI’s survey, year after year, Pham said.
