Creative Design Engineering was founded in 1995 by Dr. David Cheng, formerly of Bell Labs and Xerox PARC.  Dr. Cheng was one of the five leaders who developed Applied Materials' P5000 system and later the WCVD system.

CDE's mission is to develop and manufacture production-worthy, high-performance, low cost-of-ownership metrology products for the semiconductor and allied industries.

CDE has manufactured and delivered more than 500 ResMap resistivity mapping systems of which almost 15 percent are 300mm capable.  Recently, the company has delivered a number of systems in support of the development and production of solar cells.

CDE is located in the heart of Silicon Valley and is supported by a worldwide network of sales and service representatives.