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First production tool purchases mark milestone in rapid adoption of Da Vinci? Series by SEZ's global customer base
VILLACH, Austria, and ZURICH, Switzerland, July 8, 2004?The SEZ Group (SWX: SEZN), the market leader and premier innovator in single-wafer wet-processing technology for the semiconductor industry, today announced that two of the world's top three silicon foundries have selected three of the company's Da Vinci? Series cleaning tools for their 300-mm manufacturing production lines. The Asia-Pacific-based foundries, both existing customers for SEZ's standard spin processors, will use the company's DV-38F system for polymer removal on device wafers with 130-nm and 90-nm design rules. For one of the foundries, this marks its first deployment of SEZ's 300-mm tools for this highly critical application. Tool shipments will begin this quarter.
These orders represent the latest milestones in the rapid global acceptance of SEZ's multi-chamber Da Vinci tools. Since introducing the DV-38F last summer, SEZ has shipped all four Da Vinci configurations?the 300-mm DV-38F and DV-34BF and 200-mm DV-28F and DV-24BF?to customers in Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the United States. Da Vinci customers, which include the world's top foundries, integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) and memory makers, are not only using the Da Vinci tools for back-end-of-line (BEOL) polymer removal and backside bevel etch and clean, but are also evaluating new applications?illustrating the tools' flexibility and versatility.
"The industry shift to our Da Vinci Series single-wafer wet process tools?especially for 300-mm applications, which requires more effective processing at a low cost?is clearly gaining momentum," noted Kurt Lackenbucher, SEZ's executive vice president. "In the case of the latest orders for the DV-38F, these foundries' confidence in SEZ, based on their very positive experience with their existing SEZ tools, was such that they bypassed purchasing evaluation tools and will put the DV-38F units directly into production. These tools address head-on the need for effective polymer removal to ensure maximum yields following the cleaning process. We look forward to reporting further Da Vinci customer wins in the near future as global acceptance for mainstream 300-mm fab projects continues to escalate."
Customer demand prompted SEZ to accelerate its roadmap for the Da Vinci Series?the company introduced the balance of the product family in February 2004. New processing challenges resulting from continued device shrinks, where high-aspect-ratio structures and new materials are being deployed, have increased demand for innovative wafer-cleaning methods. Consequently, single-wafer tools are rapidly gaining market share from older batch technologies, with wet processing representing the fastest-growing single-wafer technology segment.
Featuring a "best-of-breed" combination of both production-proven and newly integrated technologies, SEZ's Da Vinci Series is designed to help speed the industry transition from batch to single-wafer wet cleaning?particularly for IDMs and foundries producing ICs with high-aspect-ratio, 90-nm and below geometries. Batch technologies cannot clean these structures as effectively as single-wafer tools. The innovative Da Vinci tools unite high throughput and small footprint to provide the greatest level of serviceability and reliability possible in a single-wafer approach. The modular, multi-chamber design delivers SEZ's proven process capabilities to significantly reduce cost of ownership and meet the high-volume manufacturing needs of customers worldwide.
About SEZ Group
SEZ Group is the leading provider of single-wafer, wet-processing solutions for the global semiconductor industry, with an installed base of over 800 tools. The company maintains operations in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Japan and North America. SEZ Holding AG is traded on the SWX Swiss Exchange under the symbol SEZN. Additional information about the company is available on the Internet at www.sez.com.
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