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

To: Tito L. Nisperos Jr. who wrote (15376)	2/3/1998 11:43:00 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 70976

From SBN: Applied pushes into wafer inspection SANTA CLARA, Calif.--Aiming to become a $1 billion supplier of wafer inspection and metrology equipment, Applied Materials Inc. here is making a big push into the fast-growing market for defect detection tools. This week, the semiconductor equipment giant is officially introducing two new defect detection systems, which are capable of finding flaws that measure 0.1 micron and below with the combination of darkfield and brightfield imaging technologies. Applied's WF-736 DUO engineering analysis tool is aimed at process development while the WF-731 is targeted at production monitoring applications. The new WF-73X series of defect detection systems is based on technology developed at Orbot Instruments Inc., an Israeli company acquired by Applied one year ago as part of its expansion in measurement and inspection markets. The new tools employ what Applied calls a proprietary four-channel perspective darkfield imaging (PDI) technology with a new integrated normal perspective (INP) brightfield technique. In addition to the two tools, Applied is also offering an "on-the-fly" automatic defect classification option. The WF-736 engineering analysis tool has been optimized for process development with laser-based inspection technology and five detectors for PDI and INP imaging. It is priced at $2 million in the United States. The WF-731 has been designed for in-line manufacturing applications with the ability to inspect up to 34 wafers per hour. It is priced at $1.45 million in the United States. With the official launch of the WF-73X series, Applied is challenging rival KLA-Tencor Inc. of San Jose for a growing share in the wafer inspection market. Worldwide spending on wafer inspection equipment is expected to increase from $571 million in 1997 to $1.39 billion in 2001, according to VLSI Research Inc. in San Jose. Applied--a $4 billion supplier of process equipment--aims to have a significant share inspection and metrology markets. Managers said the company has set a goal to grow its Process Diagnostic and Control Group by four times to about $1 billion by 2001, when Applied hopes to have 35-50% market share. While the WF-73X series is being introduced this week, Applied has already received more than $20 million of orders for the new tools, according to PDC Group managers. Initial systems were shipped last fall, and tools are now installed in fabs located in the United States, Europe and Taiwan, said Applied managers.