View PDFSan Jose, Calif. December 6, 2005 Novellus Systems Inc. (NASDAQ NM: NVLS), the productivity and technology leader in advanced deposition, surface preparation and chemical-mechanical planarization processes for the global semiconductor industry, today announced the shipment of its 100th 300mm SABRE® Electrofill™ system to Renesas Technology Corp. in Japan. With increasing order momentum for its 300mm systems and an installed base of more than 200 SABRE tools worldwide more than 40 in Japan alone Novellus continues as the market leader in copper electrochemical deposition.
Novellus has partnered with Renesas to meet their Enhanced Equipment Quality Assurance (EEQA) initiative, and the 100th SABRE will be the first tool deployed by Renesas to address the requirements of that program. "We have asked Novellus to adapt EEQA using their very advanced equipment data collection system to further enhance the productivity benefit at 90nm and 65nm," said Mr. Akira Nishimoto, general manager, Renesas Technology. "We anticipate that SABRE will play an integral part in helping us meet production demands while lowering chemical consumption and overall cost of ownership."
SABRE's success in the marketplace is largely attributable to the platform's extendibility and low operating cost. "We shipped the first 300mm SABRE xT in 1999 for 0.18 m technology production," said Tim Archer, senior vice president and general manager of Novellus' PECVD and Electrofill business units. "Since that time, continuous product upgrades have allowed us to extend the same SABRE platform down to 45nm processing. SABRE has clearly proven its extendibility to multiple technology nodes."
Successive generations of SABRE tools are now processing approximately 3 million wafers per month, routinely achieving production availabilities of greater than 90 percent.
About Novellus:
Novellus Systems, Inc., an S&P 500 company, manufactures, markets and services advanced deposition, surface preparation and chemical mechanical planarization equipment for today's advanced integrated circuits. Our products are designed for high-volume production of advanced, leading-edge semiconductor devices at the lowest possible cost. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with subsidiaries throughout the United States, as well as in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, Israel, India, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, we are a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ stock exchange (NASDAQ: NVLS) and a component of the Nasdaq-100 Index®. Additional information about Novellus is available on our home page at www.novellus.com.
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including the statements regarding increasing order momentum for 300 mm systems; continuing market leadership in copper electrochemical deposition; SABRE's ability to address the EEQA program's requirements; product upgrades extending the SABRE platform; SABRE's ability to improve production availabilities; as well as other matters discussed in this news release that are not purely historical data. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, adverse economic conditions that affect semiconductor industry demand and orders; customer adoption of competitive 300 mm systems and copper electrochemical deposition products; SABRE's failure to meet customer expectations and improve productivity at 90 nm and beyond; engineering or design flaws and operating difficulties that limit SABRE's extendibility at 45 nm; performance difficulties that preclude optimal processing of copper interconnect output, as well as other risks indicated in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). For more details, please refer to our SEC filings and the amendments thereto, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K and 10-K/A for the year ended December 31, 2004, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and 10-Q/A for the quarters ended July 2, 2005, April 2, 2005 and October 1, 2005 and our Current Reports on Form 8-K. Forward-looking statements are made and based on information available to us on the date of this press release, and we assume no obligation to update them.
SABRE is a registered trademark and Electrofill is a trademark of Novellus Systems, Inc.