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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Shoibal Datta who wrote (44306)	3/22/2001 3:41:54 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 70976

Applied offers CVD process for next-generation barriers in copper interconnects Semiconductor Business News (03/22/01 10:28 a.m. PST) SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Targeting next-generation copper interconnect processes, Applied Materials Inc. today (March 22) announced a chemical vapor deposition technology for titanium silicon nitride (TiSiN) barriers in ICs with feature sizes below 100 nanometers (0.10 micron). The thin-film barriers are needed to prevent copper from diffusing into other areas of devices from interconnect structures. In today's copper processes, physical vapor deposition (PVD) has been the main vehicle for depositing these protective barriers, but now Applied Materials said it is the first to introduce a CVD TiSiN process for sub-100-nm copper technology. "In production manufacturing, PVD is expected to continue to be the preferred process for both barrier and seed layer deposition for the next several device generations due to its low cost, high-throughput and simplified process and hardware," said Fusen Chen, vice president and group general manager of Applied's Copper, PVD & Integrated Systems and Modules Business Group. Applied supplies PVD tools and technologies for both copper barriers and seed layers on its Endura Electra Cu platform. The new CVD TiSiN process is designed to work with the PVD seed chamber on that platform to provide chip makers with an optimized single-system solution for development of advanced copper and low-k dielectric processes for 200- and 300-mm wafers. The worldwide market for barrier/seed layer PVD systems was $763 million in 2000, and it is expected to grow to $1.36 billion by 2005, according to Dataquest Inc. Applied Materials said Dataquest's forecast does not include the transition of barrier processes to CVD technology. "Multiple systems with the CVD TiSiN chambers have already been shipped to customers in the U.S. and Asia, where they are being used for the development of both logic and memory devices," said Chen. Applied Materials did not identify those early tool customers.