Rigaku Corporation, a unit of Rigaku Holdings Corporation, has opened a training centre in Osaka for field service engineers supporting semiconductor metrology systems, as demand for advanced chip manufacturing equipment continues to grow.
The facility, called the Rigaku Solutions Center Osaka (RSC-Osaka), is located at the company’s Osaka plant and is designed to provide practical training for engineers responsible for installing, maintaining and servicing semiconductor metrology systems.
The investment comes as semiconductor manufacturers adopt increasingly advanced production processes, including smaller process nodes, higher layer counts and more complex three-dimensional chip architectures, requiring greater measurement precision and equipment reliability.
Rigaku said the centre includes a cleanroom housing multiple semiconductor metrology systems, enabling engineers to train on equipment assembly, calibration, maintenance and performance verification under conditions similar to those found at customer manufacturing sites.
The company said growing shipments of its semiconductor metrology systems have increased demand for skilled field service engineers capable of reducing equipment downtime and supporting customers operating advanced fabrication facilities.
“Our customers rely on Rigaku systems in some of the world’s most demanding semiconductor manufacturing environments,” Markus Kuhn, Executive Officer and General Manager of Rigaku’s Semiconductor Metrology Division, said in a statement.
Kuhn said the new facility would allow the company to provide more flexible training for service engineers and distribution partners while helping standardise technical support across its global operations.
Semiconductor metrology equipment is used throughout chip manufacturing to measure critical dimensions, film thickness and material characteristics, helping manufacturers maintain process accuracy as production technologies become more complex.
Rigaku said locating the centre within its Osaka manufacturing site would enable it to increase the number of engineers receiving hands-on training while expanding programmes to cover additional semiconductor metrology systems.
The company said it plans to broaden the scope of its training programmes as demand for semiconductor manufacturing equipment continues to rise.
