May 24, 2011 - VLSI Research's out with its annual "Best supplier" rankings, and there's a tie atop the leaderboard.

Nine-time champ Varian Semi. Equip. Assoc. and first-timer Novellus both scored 8.18 in the "large supplier" category of chipmaking equipment. Dicing equipment supplier Disco achieved top rank for the first time among "focused" suppliers.

The study culled feedback from 550+ organizations, spanning more than two months and four languages, rating equipment suppliers on three criteria: equipment performance (seven categories), customer service (four categories), and supplier performance (four categories). Two new categories this year include "Trust in Supplier" and "Partnering," which fall under supplier performance.

Winners in this year's rankings maintained an overall average rating of 7.65, a little bit below last year's 7.69, but overall the survey results "show that equipment suppliers continue to serve customers with high levels of satisfaction," noted VLSI chairman/CEO G. Dan Hutcheson, in a statement.

Some specifics on this year's rankings:

Both Varian and Novellus excelled in customer satisfaction areas, scoring 8.18. Varian -- which has been ranked tops across the "10 best" and overall "best" rankings an astonishing 20 times in the survey's 23-year history -- received highest ratings in six categories: software, field engineering, spares support, support after sales, technical leadership, and trust in supplier. Novellus, which has climbed up the rankings in recent years, gained top marks in cost of ownership, usable throughput, commitment, and partnering. No. 3 Hitachi High-Tech (score: 7.95) topped results in uptime, build quality, and quality of results.

In the "focused" supplier category, first-time winner Disco (8.05 rating) was highest rated in six categories: Build quality, usable throughput, quality of results, product performance, trust in supplier, and partnering. Oerlikon (8.02) leapt from seventh to second, with its PVD tools scoring highest in process support, field engineering, and support after sales. Bonding equipment supplier F&K Delvotec (7.93) stayed in the top 3 with top ranks in cost-of-ownership, spares support, and technical leadership.

Kudos to most improved large suppliers: Hitachi High-Tech (eight place to third, 9% overall rating improvement), ASML (6% improvement), and Novellus (5%). Among "focused" suppliers, Suss MicroTec (9%) and Rite Track (7%) paced the top improvers; Delta Design didn't make the top 10 but jumped 14% from a year ago.

(Source: VLSI Research, 2011 Customer Satisfaction Survey on Chipmaking Equipment)

VLSI's ranking breakdowns, by tool category, are below. Some quick summaries:

Wafer processing: For large suppliers, Varian and Novellus tied (see above), followed by Hitachi High-Tech. For small vendors, Oerlikon held their No.1 spot (8.02 ranking), achieving top marks in nine categories, five of which were >8.0. Nissin Ion Equipment (7.65) held second place with top marks in cost-of-ownership and uptime. Rite Track was third (7.63), doing best in usable throughput, commitment and trust in supplier.

Assembly: Hitachi High-Tech (8.59) and its die bonders scored highest in 14 out of 15 categories, excelling particularly in customer satisfaction. Disco came in second, with nods to "supplier performance," with F&K Delvotec maintaining third place and top rankings in cost-of-ownership.

Process diagnostics: Agilent (7.81) scored tops in 12 categories, with >8.0 marks in uptime, usable throughput, quality of results, product performance, and trust in supplier. Hitachi High-Tech moved up to second place with highest scores in build quality. Applied Materials (6.87) leapfrogged to the No.3 spot, its best ever for the process diagnostics segment.

Test: No changes here -- Verigy (7.79) held the top spot for a third consecutive year, with top ratings in 13 categories, followed by Advantest (7.32) and Teradyne (7.00). Teradyne also kept its top marks among ATE suppliers for software.

Material handling: Advantest (7.67) got the No.1 nod for the first time in this segment, scoring tops in eight categories: software, process support, field engineering, spares support, support after sales, commitment, trust in supplier, and partnering. No.2 Seiko Epson came in second with best ratings in build quality, product performance, and technical leadership. TEL's prober division held third place thanks to top scores in uptime, usable throughput, and quality of results.

(Source: VLSI Research, 2011 Customer Satisfaction Survey on Chipmaking Equipment)


Finally, note the change in distribution in this year's Best Of rankings from last fall's "Five Star" ranks: Fewer surveys sent out (30.5k vs. 34.2k), more equipment models judged (>3000 vs. 2700), and distribution skewed slightly away from North America (<25% vs. 29%) and more toward Asia (China 15.8% vs. 13.7%, Korea 15.8% vs. 14.6%, Taiwan 14.0% vs. 11.1%).