Nearfield Instruments (NFI) and VHE Industrial automation (VHE) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a strategic partnership for development, delivery and value engineering of Electronics cabinet and related cablings for NFI’s series products, mainly the QUADRA product line. VHE will develop, industrialize, and deliver these modules, with a focus on improving manufacturability, value engineering, SEMI compliancy and performance enhancement, closely related to NFI’s product roadmap. The partnership has a spirit of transparency, accountability and reciprocity and aims for long term cooperation.

NFI has developed and realized its first semiconductor metrology product, named QUADRA, based on the revolutionary mechatronics architecture of HT-SPM. Now, NFI is preparing for series production. NFI intends to work with VHE in a strategic partnership to further industrialize and value engineer the assigned product’s sub-systems.

Hamed Sadeghian, President and Chief Technology Officer of Nearfield Instruments commented: “VHE’s technical expertise helps to enable our series production development, allowing Nearfield to focus on the core of its products, being complex mechatronics systems development and metrology applications. Today’s MoU signing is the next step in collaboration with VHE, which has started about two years ago.”

Joop Essing, Managing Director of VHE Industrial automation commented: “VHE has the ambition to enter into long lasting, transparent partnerships with innovative, high-tech customers and help them become more successful in their markets. NFI is an excellent example of such a company. With great ambition and passionate people, they push VHE to the next level. Working with Nearfield Instruments is a pleasure. The fact that NFI has chosen VHE as one of their strategic partners makes us proud.”

About Nearfield Instruments

Nearfield Instruments B.V. (NFI), was founded in January 2016 as a spin-off of TNO. NFI is a semiconductor metrology equipment company developing and delivering ground-breaking process control metrology solutions for the worldwide advanced semiconductor IC manufacturing industry.

QUADRA, the first product of NFI, is a high throughput Scanning Probe Metrology system (HT-SPM) that enables an entirely new approach to in-line 3D process control metrology for both wafer fab Process Window Discovery as well as Process Window Expansion & Control. QUADRA provides unique, angstrom level precise, non-destructive high-aspect ratio 3D metrology on even the most challenging critical layers, such as Gate and FinFET structures.

About VHE Industrial Automation

VHE was founded 63 years ago and is the preferred choice of innovative OEMs in semicon and other markets to help them develop and industrialize their products. VHE designs, develops, produces and services industrial automation and control systems for high mix/low volume markets, leading to the lowest Total Cost of Ownership in the shortest time.