Advanced Silicon wafers for low power applications; ATMI's Epitronics & Nippon Steel announce North American and European Delivery of 8-inch SIMOX wafers.

DANBURY, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 16, 1996--Epitronics, a business unit of Advanced Technology Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATMI), and the Advanced Technology Research Laboratories of the Nippon Steel Corporation (NSC) today announced that they had shipped advanced 8-inch SIMOX silicon wafers to selected North American major semiconductor manufacturers.

These customers are evaluating SIMOX in next-generation low power and high speed integrated circuits.

Standard SIMOX (Separation by Implanted Oxygen) wafers are created by implanting oxygen atoms below the surface of a silicon wafer in sufficient quantity to transform the silicon (Si) to silicon dioxide (SiO2), while maintaining a thin surface layer of circuit-quality single crystal silicon. After implantation, the wafers are carefully annealed to repair defects introduced by the oxygen implantation and to crystallize the silicon dioxide. The insulating silicon dioxide separates the top silicon layer from the substrate; integrated circuits are then built in the top silicon layer.

The advanced SIMOX wafers manufactured by NSC in Hikari, Japan offer substantial improvements over earlier generations of SIMOX wafers. Integrating a novel annealing process technology transferred from Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT) - the ITOX process - and a fundamental annealing process licensed from AT&T, the uniformity and integrity of the buried oxide layer is substantially improved and leads to significantly higher device yields.

Potential advantages of integrated circuits built in this silicon-on-insulator substrate include improved speed, 50% lower power consumption, and improved reliability - while eliminating interference problems relating to the need for circuit element isolation. NTT researchers demonstrated circuit performance enhancements on 0.25 micron, 120K gate array ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) test circuits. The NTT results, presented at the December 1995 IEDM and February 1996 ISSCC technical conferences, drew considerable attention from rival semiconductor manufacturers. NSC SIMOX wafers, although more expensive than standard silicon wafers, are expected to cut overall integrated memory and logic circuit processing costs as circuit geometries fall below 0.25 microns in the next several years.

Timothy Murray, Director of Marketing and Sales for Epitronics commented, "In order to accelerate our customers' entry into the new wireless and dense memory chip markets enabled by these SIMOX wafers, Epitronics and NSC will work closely with the customers to ensure that wafer quality and supply keep pace with demand for volume manufacturing of commercial circuits."

Epitronics, with offices and manufacturing facilities in Danbury, CT, and Phoenix, AZ, was formed by the combination of the operations of the Epitronics Corporation and ATMI's Diamond Electronics Division in March of 1996. Epitronics supplies advanced semiconductor wafers and epitaxial thin films including SIMOX, gallium arsenide, silicon carbide, and gallium nitride to the display, wireless communications, and power electronics markets. NSC is a diversified steel company with strong silicon wafer and specialty semiconductor manufacturing subsidiaries. -0- http://www.atmi.com

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Dean Hamilton

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