Applied Materials' Producer GT Wins Rapid Acceptance, Achieves 100th System Shipment Milestone

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Applied Materials, Inc. today announced that it has shipped 100 Applied Producer^® GT systems to leading logic and memory manufacturers worldwide since its launch nine months ago. Considered the industry’s most productive CVD¹ platform, the Producer GT has quickly found worldwide acceptance. The Producer GT has nearly twice the throughput density of any competing system and supports a comprehensive range of proven advanced chipmaking applications.

“The Producer GT has truly become a ‘dream machine’ for our customers, creating high demand from both logic and memory chipmakers,” said Dr. Hichem M’Saad, vice president and general manager of Applied Materials’ Dielectric Systems and CMP Business Group. “As the pressure on fab utilization intensifies, manufacturers must maximize the output of their existing production facilities. In the same floor area, Producer GT systems can process 75% more wafers than the previous best-of-breed Producer system and 100% more than competing systems.”

Key to the Producer GT’s benchmark performance is a compact design that maximizes the productivity of its three Twin Chamber^® architecture. The four wafer FX robot and double-decker loadlocks deliver lightning-fast wafer handling with excellent particle performance. The Producer GT's architecture also offers remarkable application flexibility, allowing multiple process steps to be combined in a single continuous sequence. Material properties can be modulated within a film to provide the sophisticated atomic interface engineering capability that is vital for the integration of new materials in cutting-edge devices. In addition, innovative in-situ chamber clean technology extends preventive maintenance intervals to an unprecedented 150,000 wafers, dramatically improving customers’ factory output. For more information, please visit: http://appliedmaterials.com/products/producer_gt_4.html.

The benefits of the Producer GT’s impressive wafer handling performance are most compelling in the manufacture of state-of-the-art devices, where very thin films, such as Applied’s APF™¹ carbon hardmask, are common. The patented APF process, widely adopted across the industry since it was pioneered by Applied in 2002, is a key enabling technology for advanced lithography and etch patterning down to the 22nm technology node.

More than 1,000 300mm Producer CVD systems, including Producer GT systems, have shipped worldwide. The Producer is used by every chip manufacturer in the industry for fabricating all types of devices through the most advanced technology node. The Producer system has established Applied’s leadership in all advanced CVD chipmaking applications, including low k, strain engineering, litho-enabling films, thermal films and high-temperature PECVD¹.

Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMAT) is the global leader in Nanomanufacturing Technology™ solutions with a broad portfolio of innovative equipment, service and software products for the fabrication of semiconductor chips, flat panel displays, solar photovoltaic cells, flexible electronics and energy efficient glass. At Applied Materials, we apply Nanomanufacturing Technology to improve the way people live. Learn more at www.appliedmaterials.com.

¹ CVD: chemical vapor deposition; APF: advanced patterning film; PECVD: plasma-enhanced CVD