Silterra Places Large Order with Applied Materials for Copper Technologies; Production-Ready Systems to Speed Technology

Silterra Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. today announced that it has placed a large order with Applied Materials for systems to manufacture 0.13-micron copper-based chips. The order includes Applied's dielectric deposition, etch, barrier/seed, electrochemical plating and chemical mechanical polishing systems -- as well as its defect inspection and SEM/FIB defect analysis systems.

"After a careful evaluation of available copper tools, we found that Applied Materials' systems have the best capabilities," said Bruce Gray, chief operating officer and interim CEO of Silterra. "These production-ready systems will help us bring our 0.13-micron process technology on line very quickly."
As part of the order, Applied Materials, Inc., the leading supplier of products and services to the global semiconductor industry, will provide a dedicated team of technical experts from its product and local support groups to bring up and qualify the equipment at Silterra. In addition, a comprehensive training program for Silterra's engineers will be conducted at Applied Materials' facilities.
"We are very pleased that Silterra has selected our systems for their new copper production line," said Franz Janker, senior vice president of Applied Materials. "We will focus our extensive resources to help Silterra quickly and smoothly ramp its new technology into volume production. These multi-generation systems will also provide Silterra with the extendibility to move to future technologies."
Equipment installation is scheduled to begin in Q3 2004 with qualification completed in Q1 2005. Silterra plans to start pilot production of its 0.13-micron technology by Q2 2005.

The original press release can be found here.