Applied Materials Ships 100th Mirra CMP System.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 23, 1998--

Mirra CMP Rapidly Gaining Market Share; System Installed by Majority of the Top 20 Chipmakers

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ/NMS:AMAT) has made rapid gains in the CMP (chemical mechanical polishing) marketplace, shipping more than 100 of its Mirra(R) CMP systems to semiconductor manufacturers around the globe.

The 100th system was recently sent to Hitachi's Naka fab in Ibaraki, Japan. Hitachi already has multiple Mirra CMP systems in production for the planarization of dielectric films.

Atsuyoshi Koike, department manager of the Front End Manufacturing and Technology Department, Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology Center of Hitachi, said, "We join Applied Materials in celebrating the shipment of its 100th Mirra CMP system and look forward to working with the company on the continuous development of this technology to further enhance its applications."

Chemical mechanical polishing is a critical process technology required for the fabrication of many advanced semiconductor device designs. By planarizing the wafer surface between certain processing steps, CMP allows more circuit layers to be built vertically onto a device.

The Mirra CMP offers advanced processes for all critical silicon dioxide layers, including shallow trench isolation, as well as processes for planarizing tungsten films. Copper polishing capability, which will enable chipmakers using copper interconnect technology to take advantage of the system's unique multiplaten design, is in an advanced stage of development at Applied Materials.

"The Mirra system is now a major player in the CMP market because of the leading-edge technology it offers," said Gino Addiego, vice president and general manager of Applied Materials' CMP Division.

"All over the world, customers are selecting the Mirra over competing CMP systems that are already established in their fabs. The Mirra CMP system has the advanced planarization technology and extendibility customers look for to make their newest-generation devices, plus the production capability required for economic use in high-volume fab environments."

The CMP market is one of the fastest growing areas of semiconductor equipment. Widely used in both logic and memory designs, CMP is increasing its application in devices using shallow trench isolation, as well as DRAM shrink designs.

VLSI Research, a market research firm, estimates the 1997 CMP market to total $523 million, growing to $831 million by 2001. The Mirra CMP system is currently installed at the majority of the world's top 20 chipmakers, including customers in the U.S., Taiwan, Europe, Japan and Korea.

G. Dan Hutcheson, president of VLSI Research said, "Applied Materials started with a unique CMP system architecture that promised tremendous flexibility and high output. They spent the next two years developing a broad application library and refining the Mirra system's hardware, especially the polishing head which is the key to the Mirra CMP technology. This strategy is now making itself felt in a steady expansion of Applied Materials' CMP market presence."

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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