(EMAILWIRE.COM, March 21, 2002 ) Applied Materials, Inc. is leading the way to a new era in chipmaking with the announcement of its Process Module Technology Center, the equipment industry's most advanced facility for semiconductor process technology development. The state-of-the-art facility, equipped with a full complement of process, yield enhancement and automation technologies, can greatly speed customers' development and introduction of future faster, more powerful, sub-100-nanometer copper-based chips.

"This new world-class facility reflects Applied Materials' strong commitment to pioneer cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing solutions with our customers," said Dr. Dan Maydan, president of Applied Materials. "In the extremely competitive semiconductor market, our customers will need to rapidly reach volume production and high yield to meet critical market windows for their next-generation chips. Closely simulating customers' fab environments, this facility allows us to better understand their challenges and work hand-in-hand to provide the most effective and optimized solutions possible."

The new center is Applied Materials' second dedicated technology development facility in Silicon Valley and further extends the success of its Equipment Process Integration Center (EPIC) that opened in November 1998. Located in Sunnyvale, California, the new 166,000 square foot facility features 39,000 square feet of clean room space with ISO Class 3 air handling and capacity to house over 300 individual pieces of process and support tools, making it the largest process facility operated by an equipment supplier. Combined, these facilities represent the greatest concentration of process integration experience and investments in future technology ever made by an equipment supplier, providing unmatched support for customers as they make the critical transitions to the nanochip era and beyond.

The combined facilities incorporate Applied Materials' latest 100nm and below generation process and inspection technologies for transistor and copper interconnect fabrication to enable the world's highest performance chip designs. The exceptional complexity of 100nm generation chips has led Applied Materials to develop a new business model for the semiconductor equipment industry with its Process Module( approach. Both facilities are dedicated to this concept of integrating multiple individual systems to function as single highly automated units, reducing the need for customers to perform costly and time consuming process integration themselves.

Applied Materials' investment in the new facility includes the most advanced DUV photolithography support available, including both 248nm and 193nm wavelength 300mm wafer patterning capability. Complete analytical and testing capability is available for electrical and reliability verification of device performance. Combined with world-class metrology and inspection systems for optimized wafer processing quality and yield, the center is an exceptional resource for next generation device production.

As a fully equipped facility, the new center provides Applied Materials with extensive construction, equipment installation and maintenance experience that strengthen its capability to support customers with new Total Service Solution programs such as RPM (Ramp Performance Management(tm)). The RPM is the equipment industry's first turnkey service for installing process equipment in customers' new and existing fabs.

"Applied Materials has continuously invested to deliver new technologies and services that provide our customers with strategic cost, yield, quality and productivity advantages," said Maydan. "At our two facilities, customers will be able to work side by side with Applied Materials technologists to develop and qualify next generation chips and manufacturing processes, working on critical challenges such as low and high ??dielectrics, copper interconnects and smaller, faster transistor designs."

Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT), the largest supplier of products and services to the global semiconductor industry, is one of the world's leading information infrastructure providers. Applied Materials enables Information for Everyone(tm) by helping semiconductor manufacturers produce more powerful, portable and affordable chips. Applied Materials' Web site is www.appliedmaterials.com

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Produced for Applied Materials

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