Applied Materials Releases New High-Performance SACVD System for Pre-Metal Dielectric Applications; SACVD BPSG DxZ Centura Boosts Throughput and System Uptime, Cuts Operating Cost for PMD CVD Applications at 0.35 micron and Beyond.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 1, 1997--Applied Materials, Inc., the world's leading supplier of CVD (chemical vapor deposition) systems to the semiconductor industry, announces its newest pre-metal dielectric (PMD) system, the SACVD BPSG DxZ Centura. The system combines the company's successful Sub-Atmospheric CVD (SACVD) BoroPhosphoSilicate Glass (BPSG) technology with its high-throughput, resistively-heated DxZ chamber on the Centura platform. This combination offers exceptional technical and economic advantages in high-volume manufacturing over the large, batch-type Atmospheric Pressure (AP)CVD systems that have been in use for doped pre-metal dielectrics since the 1970s.

"Migrating the industry-leading SACVD BPSG process to our zero-consumables DxZ chamber demonstrates our strategy of rapidly moving leading-edge process technologies toward higher levels of economic performance. This gives our customers the ability to use the most advanced technology in cost-sensitive applications," said Dr. Farhad Moghadam, general manager of the Advanced Technologies Products Division of Applied Materials' CVD Product Business Group.

"PMD is largely a cost-driven CVD application, but one whose technical requirements have increased dramatically in deep submicron geometries. The incredibly fast escalation of our SACVD BPSG technology from PMD market entry to market leadership in only two years, shows our customers' desire for this single-wafer process solution that brings PMD technology into the modern age technically, yet with competitive or superior operating cost. With more than 1,000 chambers installed worldwide, Applied Materials' xZ chamber technology has now overtaken our own previous chamber designs, as well as our competitors, as the industry's global standard for low-cost, high throughput CVD," noted Dr. Moghadam.

Applied Materials introduced its first SACVD system in 1994 for critical 0.35 micron intermetal dielectric (IMD) applications. That product rapidly became the industry's preferred 0.35 micron gap-fill technology. In 1995, SACVD deposition technology was extended to address the pre-metal dielectric market. Dataquest sizes the 1996 PMD market at $708 million and projects it to grow to almost $1 billion by the year 2000. The SACVD BPSG product more than doubled its market share in 1996 in the doped PMD segment. With more than 300 SACVD systems shipped, Applied Materials is the global market leader in both 200mm doped and undoped TEOS/ozone CVD.

The combination of system throughput and uptime is a key indicator of operating cost, and the SACVD BPSG DxZ Centura delivers major improvements in each category. Throughput with the xZ chamber is 25 percent higher than the previous chamber design, delivering 60 wafers per hour with a four-chamber system. System uptime is dramatically increased with an industry-leading mean-wafer-between-clean (MWBC) frequency of more than 20,000 wafers per system for typical 5000 angstrom BPSG deposition; this is several times longer than the cleaning frequency possible with conventional APCVD systems. Faster and more efficient cleans, with 50 percent lower PFC emissions, are also possible as a result of the DxZ chamber's optimum pump design and high-powered generator.

Applied Materials has already received over $20 million in commitments for the new SACVD BPSG DxZ Centura from customers in Asia and North America. System shipments will begin in the second calendar quarter of 1997.

"With the SACVD BPSG DxZ Centura, we continue our tradition of providing leapfrog pre-metal dielectric technology while also offering significant improvement in operating economics over APCVD systems," said Dr. Bang Nguyen, senior director of Applied Materials' SACVD Product Division. "This TEOS/ozone technology has gained wide acceptance for pre-metal dielectric layers by providing extendibility to void-free 0.25 micron, high-aspect ratio topography with a low reflow temperature."

Applied Materials, Inc. is a Fortune 500 global growth company and the world's largest supplier of wafer fabrication systems and services to the global semiconductor industry. Applied Materials is traded on the Nasdaq National Market System under the symbol "AMAT." Applied Materials' web site is http://www.AppliedMaterials.com .

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