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Technology Stocks : Speedfam [SFAM] Lovers Unite ! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mr. Sam who wrote (3020)	5/27/1998 1:21:00 AM
From: Donald B. Fuller	Respond to of 3736

Hi Mr. Sam, Take a look at this. I think its been alluded to previously, but, this write-up describes greater detail than I have previously seen. I would appreciate the benefit of your wisdom re: the updated relative competitive position of AMAT and SFAM in the CMP market. Applied joins Sematech to test CMP tool for copper SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 26, 1998--Applied Materials Inc. here today said it was participating in a project with industry consortium Sematech to characterize chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) processes for copper interconnect technology. The work will involve Applied's Mirra CMP tool, which is scheduled to be shipped this month to Sematech's Advanced Tool Development Facility in Austin, Tex. The CMP project presents a "great opportunity for us to demonstrate the Mirra's copper process capabilities," declared Gino Addiego, vice president and general manager of Applied Materials' CMP Division. "We'll be taking full advantage of our system's versatile design to explore a variety of slurry and pad configurations for copper metalized wafers. The Mirra's flexibility, which is based on our multi-platen design and our advanced polishing head, allows us to accommodate both single- and multiple-step polishing sequences, which is the key advantage for copper applications." The Sematech work is part of the industry's efforts to replace standard aluminum wiring on ICs for interconnection of chip functions. Copper has lower resistance that aluminum but it is also a difficult material to integrated into wafer fabs without contaminating other process steps and silicon circuits. CMP processes is considered a key step in creating copper interconnect. Initially, chip makers are planning to use dual damascene processes to etch dielectric insulators while depositing copper, which must be planarized with polishing steps using CMP tools. Applied said its Mirra CMP system's architecture has been designed to overcome several current issues for commercial copper CMP processes. Its independent multi-platen, multi-head architecture minimizes dishing and erosion by enabling the use of different slurries and pads in a variety of polishing sequences, according to the company. Mirra's Titan Head has been designed to provide uniformity and support high removal rates using low polishing pressure and hard pads, said Applied, which added that dishing and erosion are minimized. "Sematech's evaluation of available consumables on CMP tools for copper is crucial to helping our members stay competitive on copper-based metalization architectures," said Jon Dahm, director of Sematech's Interconnect Division. "We will use Applied Materials' Mirra CMP system to characterize consumable sets for copper/oxide and copper/low (kappa) dielectric materials using various barrier materials in a damascene architecture. This joint project will help accelerate learning and speed the availability of production-capable equipment." Sounds like our friends at AMAT have been busy. Comments? Don