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

To: Gottfried who wrote (46348)	5/7/2001 12:01:38 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 70976

Applied Materials Leads the Copper Technology Wave with Shipment of 100th Endura Electra Cu Barrier/Seed System 200mm and 300mm PVD Systems for Cost-Effective Manufacturing of Copper Interconnects Used by Every Major Copper Chipmaker SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 7, 2001-- Applied Materials, Inc. continues its leadership in copper (Cu) manufacturing with the shipment of its 100th Endura® Electra Cu® Barrier/Seed systems for 200mm and 300mm wafers. This cost-effective product, which has played a major role in enabling the transition to copper chips, is used by virtually every fab in volume production or R&D for depositing the critical tantalum nitride/tantalum (TaN/Ta) barrier and Cu seed layer sequence in the interconnect structures of copper-based devices. ``Our global market leadership in PVD (physical vapor deposition) enabled Applied Materials to be the first company in the copper deposition market with a production-ready, low cost of ownership barrier/seed system, which is now being used by every manufacturer of copper chips,'' noted Dr. Fusen Chen, vice president and general manager of Applied Materials' Cu, PVD & Integrated Systems and Modules Group. ``Our sustained leadership has played a key role in enabling the transition from the early exploratory work to today's 0.18 micron volume production. The system is also now fully qualified for 0.13 micron 200mm and 300mm applications.'' Introduced in December 1997, the Endura Electra Cu Barrier/Seed system has continuously extended its technology to meet the requirements of new-generation devices. Last year, the company announced its SIP (Self-Ionized Plasma) chamber technology that extends the deposition of very thin, conformal barrier and seed layer films to high-aspect ratio (greater than 7:1) features for device designs down to the 0.10 micron device generation. Uniquely capable of depositing both TaN and Ta in the same chamber, the SIP process allows chipmakers to tune the nitrogen content of the films for optimized barrier properties and excellent integration with low (kappa) dielectric materials. The SIP chamber also features a simple target design that enables the industry's lowest cost of consumables for copper barrier deposition. Continuing its pioneering leadership in barrier/seed technology, last month Applied Materials introduced the industry's first CVD TiSiN (titanium silicon nitride) barrier process on its new Endura® Electra Cu(TM) Integrated Barrier/Seed system. The product combines CVD TiSiN barrier technology with a PVD SIP(TM) seed chamber for the development of future sub-0.1 micron copper/ultra-low (kappa) chip designs on 200mm or 300mm wafers. The Endura Barrier/Seed systems are a key part of Applied Materials' Copper Wiring Equipment Set that combines barrier/seed technology with the Electra Cu Integrated ECP (electrochemical plating) and Mirra®/Reflexion(TM) CMP (chemical mechanical polishing) systems to offer customers an integrated processing approach for increased efficiency and productivity. In addition to optimizing system capacity to match fab throughput and WIP (work in process), the equipment set enables customers to minimize risk and shorten the time to achieving high yield in new copper chip designs. Applied Materials' barrier/seed systems are based on the company's Endura mainframe, the most successful deposition platform in the history of the semiconductor equipment industry. As a result of the Endura system's legendary reliability and productivity, more than 2,500 Endura systems have shipped to customers since its introduction in 1990. Applied Materials (Nasdaq:AMAT - news), 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 appliedmaterials.com.