Newport Corporation (Newport) develops a variety of products for the semiconductor research industry, including motion control devices that move silicon wafers with the precision required during the microchip fabrication process. As the semiconductor industry continues to miniaturize electronics, Newport’s products offer resolutions at the nanometer level and smaller. At such a small scale, a tenth of a degree drop or rise in temperature can affect movement and the success of microchip fabrication.
Measuring these changes requires precise instrumentation, including thermal sensors, laser interferometers, autocollimators, and accelerometers. It also requires quick and accurate analysis of test data. Newport acquires and analyzes measurement results from these instruments quickly and easily using MATLAB® and related toolboxes.
“Because we use Instrument Control Toolbox and Data Acquisition Toolbox, all the test data is in MATLAB, and I can obtain the results immediately,” says Reed Farrar, a manager in the System Test and Quality Assurance Department at Newport. “We used to spend days on just one test. With MATLAB, we can run the same test and analyze the results in a few hours.”