Applied Materials Surpasses 100th System Milestone for Silicon Etch DPS Centura; Company Sees Record Demand for Its Production-Proven Silicon Etch System.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 26, 1998--Applied Materials, Inc. has reached an important milestone with the shipment of more than 100 Silicon Etch DPS Centura systems within only 19 months of the product's introduction to the market. Achieving widespread customer acceptance, the company's decoupled plasma source (DPS) technology is currently installed in fabs at 17 of the world's top 20 semiconductor manufacturers.

More than 85 percent of the Silicon Etch DPS Centura systems, which represent nearly 200 process chambers, are currently being used in high-volume production fabs. Greater than half of these facilities are designed for 0.25 micron device production.

"The rapid acceptance of the Silicon Etch DPS Centura establishes it as one of the most successful products in the history of Applied Materials -- and the industry," said Joseph Bronson, president of Applied Materials' Etch Products Business Group. "Our DPS technology has set new standards in productivity and in providing customers with results that enable superior device performance. Both the Silicon Etch DPS and Metal Etch DPS products are now the industry benchmark for successful technology commercialization."

The market for dry etch equipment is one of the largest among all types of semiconductor processing technologies. According to Dataquest, the total market for dry etch equipment is projected to be approximately $3 billion in 1998. The silicon etch market segment encompasses a wide variety of applications driven by advanced capacitor structures, shallow trench isolation and complex gate structures.

"The wide operating window of the system's decoupled plasma source is providing excellent results on a broad variety of customer applications," said Dr. Gerald Yin, Applied Materials' corporate vice president of the Etch Products Business Group and general manager of the Silicon Etch Division. "Our DPS technology is now being used in production for more than 20 different etch applications including gate, shallow trench isolation, bit line, recess, storage poly and plug etchback. Customers are especially pleased with the system's performance on gate structures -- one of the most critical features of the integrated circuit. The DPS delivers high performance for leading edge polycide, tungsten, tungsten-poly, flash EPROM and dual-poly gate structures."

Critical dimension control and device damage performance are excellent on the Silicon Etch DPS Centura, enabling high yields and repeatable performance in production. The system features a number of non-depositing processes that significantly reduce particle contamination, eliminate the requirement for in-situ dry cleans and allow high overall system productivity. A broad portfolio of non-HBr processes is available on the system as well. The Silicon Etch DPS system also incorporates in-situ sensor technology advancements for superior process control.

"The system's high throughput and lower cost of consumables provide customers with extremely cost-effective production technology," added Dr. Yin. "Compared to other systems our chamber offers faster wet clean and recovery times, and allows more wafers to be processed between wet cleans for lower cost of ownership. The Silicon Etch DPS Centura is very unique in its capability to deliver excellent production performance for so many diverse applications."

With its extendibility to sub-0.15 micron geometries, Applied Materials' Silicon Etch DPS technology is expected to provide the critical gate, shallow trench isolation and capacitor etching that are the foundation of silicon etch applications for 300mm wafers. Advance commitments have already been received from several customers for Applied Materials' 300mm Silicon Etch DPS system for future 300mm production.

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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