Hauppauge chip inspector firm shuts, lays off 40

Long Island Business News, Feb 1, 2008 by Pete Weiss

RVSI Inspection of Hauppauge has shut its doors, eliminating 40 manufacturing, engineering and administrative jobs, in the wake of an acquisition by industry rival Rudolph Technologies Inc. of Flanders, N.J.

The company is also shuttering its 30,000-square-foot manufacturing and engineering facility.

The firm's closure surprised employees, who knew the company was on the block but were unaware a deal was close. They received virtually no notice before being terminated.

Rudolph bought RVSI Inspection, formerly Robotic Vision Systems, on Jan. 22 for an undisclosed amount. The maker of inspection equipment for computer chip manufacturers had been on the block for about 18 months.

All but the administrative jobs, which have been completely eliminated, and six engineering jobs, were shifted to Rudolph's operation in Bloomington, Minn.

A Rudolph spokesperson said that the company has not decided on what to do with the Hauppauge warehouse. He added that a 5,000- square-foot facility in Bohemia would house six former RVSI engineers in a support operation that Rudolph will call its "New York Engineering Center."

Rudolph, a publicly traded company, and private firm RVSI were competitors, both selling automated inspection equipment in the chip manufacturing industry prior to the sale. Rudolph concentrated on equipment for inspecting silicon wafers from which computer chips are cut. RVSI concentrated on three-dimensional "back end" inspection, the part of the process during which the raw chips are packaged in plastic epoxy and connected to the metal tabs that extend outside the familiar black plastic squares.

But according to Frank Jacovino, former vice president of engineering and chief technology officer of RVSI, "We started getting into the wafer inspection business around the year 2000. That's when we started clashing." He added that in 2004, Robotic Vision Systems had its best year ever in terms of market share for wafer inspection, even though there were financial problems. The company went bankrupt and emerged, after purchase by Greenwich, Conn.-based Ancora Management, as RVSI Inspection.

Then "we started to take more market share from Rudolph about 12 months ago," Jacovino said. "I guess it was enough of a reminder of what we'd been doing before bankruptcy. They apparently got nervous and decided to acquire RVSI."

The chip manufacturing sector racked up nearly $350 million in sales in 2007 and is expected to continue to grow 25.6 percent annually, a rate that has been steady since 2004, according to Gartner Research.