Blog Post posted on Jan 29, 2020
Clearly, it was a significant year for us. Onto Innovation was born in October, out of the merger of two strong companies, Nanometrics and Rudolph Technologies, each with a leading market position and a long legacy of success. The new company promises to continue that success, leveraging a greater scale of available resources across a wider scope of products and markets. Onto Innovation is now among the top 15 largest semiconductor equipment suppliers (by WFE revenue) in the world. That scale is recognized by customers as a key supplier and partner for developing next-generation innovations. Onto Innovation offers a broad portfolio of technologies, including equipment and software with applications that span the entire semiconductor manufacturing process, from wafer manufacturing through front-end process control and advanced packaging. Clearly, 2019 was a busy year for us and we have been intensely focused on integrating the two companies, a task made easier by the strong complementary product lines, a common pool of technical expertise focused on optics and software, and shared business/cultural values. At three months in, we are very pleased to see strong leaders and teams already emerging.
As for 2020, we believe 5G is poised to drive a new multiyear, multifaceted cycle of growth. It will go well beyond a refresh of the smartphone market, although, with their high chip count, 5G smartphones are likely to dominate growth in the shorter term. Major manufacturers have highlighted 5G drivers in their guidance. This means more 3D NAND and DRAM memory, advanced node logic and more wafer-level-packaging, fan-out packaging and systems-in-packages. Of course, the additional complexity for these devices drives the need for increased process control equipment and software to measure and inspect sub-10nm wafers in the fab and advanced packages in the back-end.