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Technology Stocks : Asyst Technologies (ASYT) Good Value/Where is the Bottom? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Q. who wrote (1293)	4/11/1999 4:08:00 PM
From: SemiBull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2313

Asyst's new robotic platform is optimized for advanced IC processing A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc. Story posted 1:45 p.m. EST/10:45 a.m., PST, 4/8/99 FREMONT, Calif. -- Asyst Technologies Inc. here today today introduced a robot, which the company said is designed specifically to be reliable, repeatable and robust enough for advanced IC manufacturing. According to Asyst, Titan is the first new product to emerge from its acquisition of Hine Design Inc. last year. Asyst Titan is designed for advanced processes with complex wafer transport requirements and/or harsh processing environments such as chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) and copper deposition. Built on a new, modular platform, the Titan features both mechanical and software advances. Brushless motors are designed to be nearly failure-proof, and a new backbone frame and linear bearing assembly increase accuracy and repeatability. It also features monolithic tubular arm links and a rotating mast drive coupled with enhanced software that allows for better path planning with less mechanical complexity and lost motion. "In addition to meeting a broader range of our customers' process automation requirements, Titan is expected to open up new market opportunities for Asyst by giving the company a further competitive edge in three growing areas: CMP, copper processing and 300 mm technology," said Mihir Parikh, Asyst's chairman and CEO. Robotic technology has not kept pace with advances in chip processing technology, commented G. Dan Hutcheson, president of VLSI Research Inc., San Jose. "As a result, these systems have not been optimized for today's production realities, which include harsh processing environments, increasingly intricate wafer paths, and larger and heavier wafers, as well as unparalleled accuracy requirements. Of equal concern for chip makers is the lack of reliability and robustness that will be needed to meet productivity requirements for both current 200-mm fabs and the emerging 300 mm fabs." "With the new Titan robot, Asyst is striving to be the first to meet robotic requirements of the new millennium," Hutcheson continued. "By designing Titan to be a very robust, reliable solution that offers extendibility well into the future, they are making great strides to help both equipment and chip manufacturers resolve the automation challenges that lie ahead."