Applied Materials Delivers 300 Producer CVD Systems to Chipmakers Worldwide; Producer Selected for Ultra-High Productivity and Reliability in Both 200mm and 300mm Fabs.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 4, 2001

Applied Materials, Inc., the leading supplier of CVD (chemical vapor deposition) systems to the global semiconductor industry, announces the shipment of more than 300 Producer(R) CVD systems to chipmakers around the globe. The milestone includes both 200mm and 300mm systems, with more than 20 Producer systems already installed in 300mm fabs.

"Producer has been one of the most rapidly accepted new CVD systems in the industry in many years," noted Dr. Farhad Moghadam, vice president and general manager of Applied Materials' Dielectric Systems and Modules product business group. "Every part of its design was oriented toward ultra-high productivity in both 200mm and 300mm fabs, and customers throughout the world have proven its exceptional production-worthiness. Many customers have standardized on the Producer for their mainstream, high-volume CVD applications, including dielectric films for copper-based chips."

Introduced in 1998, the Producer system has a unique platform architecture that features a central transfer chamber mounted with up to three Twin Chamber(TM) CVD modules. Wafers are transferred in pairs to each module, allowing up to six wafers to be processed simultaneously. Producer can achieve throughputs of more than 130 wafers per hour and process more than 100,000 wafers between wet cleans. The system also provides the industry's highest level of productivity for virtually all leading-edge dielectric CVD applications, including silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, dielectric anti-reflective coatings (DARC(TM)) and low k films such as Applied Materials' TEOS FSG, BLOk(TM) and Black Diamond(TM) (k=3.0-2.0).

A key advantage of the Producer system is its ability to incorporate a growing family of inspection technologies that increase process control without impacting the system's high throughput. These options, located directly within the system's factory interface module, inspect product wafers as they enter and/or exit the system. An integrated particle monitor offers high-speed particle detection and the capability to reduce the number of costly test wafers. An integrated metrology unit enables customers to confidently run their processes at very high throughput rates while closely monitoring thickness, uniformity and refractive index of single or multiple-layer films deposited on product wafers.

"The Producer is the most advanced system in the semiconductor industry, combining a vast array of processes and the integration of inspection and metrology tools with a suite of advanced automation software tools. We are moving steadily toward the goal of developing highly automated process control that not only will operate the system with extraordinary effectiveness, but can be linked to other Applied Materials process technologies used before and after the CVD step. These capabilities are especially important as we move to the new generation of 300mm wafer fabs, where extensive automation is essential for efficient factory operation and high customer profitability," Moghadam continued.

Dielectric CVD makes up one of the largest semiconductor equipment markets. Dataquest estimates that the dielectric CVD system sales totaled $3.8 billion in 2000, with growth projected to $6.5 billion by 2005. Applied Materials is the global market leader in CVD, including dielectric and metal applications.

Applied Materials (Nasdaq:AMAT), the largest supplier of products and services to the global semiconductor industry, is one of the world's leading information infrastructure providers. Applied Materials' Web site is http://www.appliedmaterials.com.