Suppliers top customer satisfaction survey
Tegal was named top in the Small Suppliers of Wafer Processing Equipment category. In the same category, Suss MicroTec was second, Aixtron was fourth, Unaxis Semiconductors was sixth and EV Group was eighth.
ASML was third in the Large Suppliers of Wafer Processing Equipment category, while Accent Optical Technologies was fifth in the Process Diagnostics Equipment category.
Tegal was also named top of the Focused Suppliers of Chip Making Equipment category. "Tegal has earned a strong reputation for consistently developing and producing effective and dependable tools. The resulting customer satisfaction has gained Tegal the lead spot in our annual rankings," said Dan Hutcheson, CEO and president of VLSI Research.
"Tegal has always maintained an intense focus on customer service, and this commitment is more important than ever in today s economic climate," said Mike Parodi, chairman and CEO of Tegal. "Our customers have repeatedly ranked us as a top supplier in two separate categories, which is a strong indication of Tegal s long-term success in meeting and exceeding customer needs through the most reliable etching solutions."
In determining the 2003 "10 BEST" winners, VLSI Research Inc distributed more than 40,000 questionnaires in six languages to semiconductor companies worldwide. The double-blind survey reaches about two-thirds of the total decision-making managers and engineers within the semiconductor industry.
Survey respondents are asked to rate suppliers in 13 categories on a 10-point scale. These 13 categories include seven measures of equipment performance and six measures of customer service. Cost of ownership, uptime, software, build quality, usable throughput, quality-of-results, and product performance are the equipment performance measures.
Customer service measures include process support, field engineering support, spare support, support-after-sales, technical leadership, and the supplier s overall commitment to supporting its customers needs.