CANTON, Mass., July 31 -- Robotic Vision Systems Inc. reported a $1.5 million order for chip inspection systems from a major semiconductor facility in Ireland. The sale was made by RVSI's Electronics Div. in Hauppauge, N.Y. Chip manufacturers examine packaged integrated circuits using machine-vision-based semiconductor inspection systems. RVSI's systems verify that leads on finished integrated circuits meet requirements, and perform package visual inspection to find surface defects on parts. During the rapid ramp-up in our business in the latter part of 1999, we were unable to completely satisfy this customer's inspection equipment delivery requirements, resulting in the splitting of some orders with a second source, said Michael Gray, vice president, sales and marketing of RVSI Electronics. Now, the customer is expanding capacity again and has selected our LS-series of semiconductor inspection systems as their standard.