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Rudolph Technologies' acquisition of Adventa Control Technologies for an undisclosed wad of cash has immediate implications for those trying to keep their semiconductor manufacturing processes, equipment, and factories under tight control. ACT's software lurks in some 80% of those fabs, with somewhere upwards of 18,000 of its systems installed. The buy certainly won't hurt Rudolph's bottom line either, as the addition of ACT is expected to double the revenues of the company's data analysis and review biz unit.

But the move by Rudolph, which launched its own photovoltaic-specific Solar Discover process control and yield management package earlier this year (and which is already an option on Spire's turnkey cell lines), may also end up benefitting the PV production crowd.

Though no mention was made in Rudolph's official press release of ACT having any solar involvement or the possibility of using ACT's prodigious advanced process control (APC) capability bundle in the solar PV arena, I did receive a comment via email indicating that the parent company is eager to see what it might be able to do with its new-found technologies.  

"While Adventa has not commercialized the product for solar customers, they have come to Adventa, and we know that, basically, they are experiencing the same run-to-run control needs [that] we have experienced in the semiconductor industry," said Ardy Johnson, Rudolph's VP of marketing. "Rudolph fully expects to leverage their experience and our expanded product offering to look at process control solutions for solar (cell) manufacturers."

Rudolph's not the only one parlaying its semiconductor APC/yield management software expertise into the photovoltaic production space. Magma Design Automation recently (re)launched its own Yield Manager Solar solution, which is based in large part on the Knights' IP that the company acquired years ago and has since proliferated into the chip fab world.

Magma did a soft rollout of its PV-focused Yield Manager last year (see my blog-interview with company exec Ankuish Oberai), but now, after lots of validation in the field, the company has the official commercial product out, its "version 1.1," as Oberai told me at Intersolar/Semicon.

Both Rudolph and Magma know that if their toolsets can contribute toward increased cell efficiencies as well as faster PV fab ramp and yield learning velocities, solar factories would be keen to check out their product offerings--especially if said offerings were at an "attractive" [AKA cheap] price point.

Oberai said that the equipment and metrology companies have been very receptive to such software solutions, so his company is focusing more on the OEM side, with hopes for end-customer demand-pull as time goes on. Magma has already partnered with inline inspection system start-up, Orion Metrology. "A couple of other inspection tool companies would like to see YMS sold with their tools," he revealed, adding that a few deals should be finalized soon.

Oberai noted more acceptance of YMS software than a year ago, though he doesn't see much emphasis on enterprisewide yield approaches in the solar-cell factories...yet. Perhaps, he believes, they'll take to it in another five years or so. In the meantime, showing how YMS can trend parametric extraction data and help monitor the dissipation of carrier cell energy, for example, will likely help the cell makers "get it" sooner rather than later, he hopes.  

Curiously absent from the solar-cell manufacturing yield-management competitive space is KLA-Tencor. Silent so far on the comprehensive fab-level software solution front, the dominant defect reduction/APC/yield enhancement player in the semi sector has demonstrated a modicum of serious solar intent with its purchase of ICOS and launch of the PVI-6 automated optical inline inspection tool. But it has yet to come out with something comparable to Magma's or Rudolph's packages.

Since KLA-Tencor has done quite well, thank you very much, selling premium gear at a premium price to the semiconductor and other micro/nanoelectronics industries, perhaps its execs are furiously pondering how to leverage all that in-house expertise and knowledge to make a top-drawer offering at the fire-sale prices expected and demanded in the PV marketplace.

They would not be the first solar seeker from the semi sector to exclaim, "Dude, where's my margin?!"