"At Rudolph, we recognize that increased competitiveness and demand in the solar industry requires PV manufacturers to focus on cell efficiency to maximize margins," said Paul McLaughlin, chairman and chief executive officer.

"Our new fab management software, Discover Solar, was designed to help PV manufacturers accomplish this, while at the same time, produce cost reductions that will further help the industry reach 'grid parity'. While it builds on our extensive experience and leadership in integrated circuit manufacturing, Discover Solar was specifically designed to accommodate the critically important differences in the PV fabrication process."

Mike Plisinski, vice president and general manager of the company's Data Analysis and Review Business Unit adds, "Based on our success with Discover analysis and data management software for the semiconductor industry, Discover Solar incorporates a completely re-engineered database structure and analysis engine optimized for the unique requirements of high-volume photovoltaic production.

"It provides comprehensive analysis of process performance information, allowing manufacturers to discover and act upon opportunities to improve the energy conversion efficiency of their products.

"Using Discover Solar, PV process engineers can monitor the health of a complete production line and quickly identify tool and sub-component problems as well as incoming material issues that could impact the line. If even possible, this kind of analysis would take hours to perform without Discover Solar."

Discover Solar accepts all available data from each step in the solar manufacturing process. Statistical process control with automated reporting gets critical information to the right people fast. Discover Solar is available now for purchase.

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