Profiting From Metrology in the Age of Advanced Packaging

The growing complexity of semiconductors is spurring innovation in metrology: the theory, practice, and application of measurement.

In semiconductor manufacturing, metrology encompasses the measurement and characterization of tiny structures and materials. It plays a key role in ensuring the precision and quality control of devices at the nanometer (nm) and, increasingly, angstrom scales (1 angstrom is equal to 0.1 nm).

Within metrology, advanced packaging has become a focal point for innovation as the semiconductor industry seeks to push for increased transistor density and higher performance. Once treated as a commodity back-end step, advanced packaging has now become a core driver of semiconductor system performance, particularly in chiplet-based architectures and AI accelerators. This shift from commodity to high-value-added chip packaging has created new growth opportunities.

The battle for global dominance in metrology and inspection for packaging is heating up, with Paradigm Portfolio companies Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ: NVMI), KLA Corp (NASDAQ: KLAC), and Camtek (NASDAQ: CAMT) each staking different strategic positions to capitalize and profit.

Headquartered in Israel, NVMI has long been a leader in precision semiconductor metrology. For much of its history, it has lacked the scale and investor recognition of giants like KLAC or the inspection-driven momentum of CAMT. Nova’s lack of recognition with investors provided a stellar chance to profit for subscribers of our Gilder’s Moonshots advisory service (not a subscriber? Sign up here). Added to the Moonshots portfolio on May 22, 2020, NVMI rose over 365% before we advised its sale in August 2024. We then added it to the Gilder’s Technology Report Paradigm Portfolio.

Nova Stock Price

Source: www.Finviz.com

Nova’s ascent reflected crossing a critical threshold in 2024 amid increasing demand for advanced packaging. The company’s advanced packaging revenue more than doubled to $80 million, accounting for 15% of product sales and marking its entry into a high-growth segment increasingly viewed as a front line of chip innovation.

Table 1 below shows how Nova’s packaging revenues last year stacked up against KLA and Camtek. KLA leads in absolute dollars ($350 million) and Camtek remains highly concentrated in packaging (~40% of total company revenue), while Nova shows the fastest-growth momentum among the three.

This table matters because it highlights how each company is positioned within the packaging value chain–not just by size, but by strategic exposure. Investors often overlook smaller packaging revenue contributors like Nova, yet their growth trajectories are sometimes steeper and more technically focused.

Differentiation Matters

Unlike Camtek, which focuses heavily on visual inspection, Nova emphasizes integrated optical critical dimension (OCD) metrology and modeling software that can be embedded in fab workflows (see Table 3). KLA, meanwhile, straddles both inspection and metrology at massive scale. What this table reveals is not just a checklist of capabilities–it reflects each company’s underlying strategy.

KLA focuses on platform extensibility and volume across both front-end and back-end. Camtek leans on high-resolution defectivity tools optimized for die-level packaging. Nova, however, specializes in precision measurements that become more critical as packaging moves toward finer TSVs, micro-bumps, and hybrid bonding. Its integrated metrology enables real-time feedback loops, while software modeling allows predictive process optimization–functions that align perfectly with packaging’s growing complexity.

This technical positioning is not cosmetic–it affects win rates with the top five packaging manufacturers. Nova has landed tools at four of those five in 2024, not because it offers everything, but because it offers highly focused tools that solve a growing class of dimensional and material control problems in chiplet packaging.

Beneath the Radar
KLA remains the safe compounder, and Camtek is the cyclical inspection play. Nova is the technical specialist moving toward strategic relevance. Its tools are already in the right customer fabs. Now it is a matter of broadening adoption, growing packaging revenue above 20% of total sales, and showing that its edge in precision translates to margin expansion and long-term compounding.