Eindhoven, Netherlands,  June 13^th, 2021

 Nearfield Instruments (NFI) and VDL ETG have signed a memorandum of understanding to further strengthen their long-term strategic partnership. The partnership aims to support Nearfield Instruments’ continued development, delivery, and value engineering of several critical modules for NFl’s products, starting with the QUADRA product line.

VDL ETG will develop, industrialize and deliver assigned modules, focusing on performance, production volume increase, lead time reduction, and value engineering – accordingly with NFl’s product roadmap.

In addition, both companies will cooperate to enable a timely and reliable production ramp-up of the product lines developed and manufactured by NFI.

NFI has developed and released its first semiconductor metrology product based on the revolutionary mechatronics architecture of HT-SPM. Currently, NFI is preparing for series production.

NFI intends to work with VDL ETG to further industrialize and value engineer some of its product’s sub-systems through the signed memorandum. The intention is that VDL ETG will further grow and expand its role as a qualified mechatronic module/sub-system supplier.

Hamed Sadeghian, CEO of Nearfield Instruments, commented:

“After the successful introduction of the QUADRA product line and soon the second product line, being subsurface probe metrology, the next priority and focus are to meet our customers’ demand, with shorter delivery times and higher quality. To achieve this, the role of our solid strategic supply chain is even more essential than before in the success of Nearfield Instruments.

Nearfield Instruments and VDL ETG have been working together closely over an extended period already. I’m glad to see that VDL ETG, as an established and reputable supplier to the semiconductor equipment industry, has the commitment and ambition to be the strategic partner of Nearfield Instruments. This partnership means VDL ETG will help Nearfield Instruments grow, not only in terms of people and production capacity but also in the continued development of the critical modules of our systems. We are determined to continue and elevate our relationship with VDL ETG to this strategic level.”

Geert Jakobs, CEO of VDL ETG commented:

 “As  contract manufacturer with development capabilities, VDL ETG strongly believes in in–depth cooperation from early-on in the product development phase up until volume production to get the best overall results. Therefore, working with an innovative young company like Nearfield Instruments on novel technology and state-of-the-art products is exciting for all involved in VDL ETG.

Our experience and industrial setup will support Nearfield Instruments in its Go-to-Market challenge. We like to be the industrial partner to rely on.”