View PDFFREMONT, Calif., June 26, 2006Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ: LRCX) today announced that it has shipped the 1,000th 2300 Exelan dielectric etch process module.
"Reaching this milestone validates Exelan's broad market acceptance and successful evolution for addressing leading-edge applications," stated Nick Bright, executive vice president, Regional Business and Global Products, at Lam. "We are extremely proud of the long-standing success of Exelan's confined plasma design and the technology leadership it represents. The Exelan family of products, which builds on this proven technology, has contributed substantially to the Company's market share growth and success in becoming the overall market share leader in the etch product sector."
Exelan products are used in numerous applications, including critical memory and logic etches for technologies down to 45 nm and below. The product line's patented Dual Frequency Confined™ (DFC™) plasma source technology is the only design in the industry to use a mechanically confined plasma. Its unique chamber design delivers outstanding CD uniformity, enabling increased die yield for demanding dielectric etch processes. In combination with in situ cleaning and Exelan's low residence time processing capability, DFC technology minimizes memory effects to enable in situ processing and consistent wafer-to-wafer performance.
In situ processing, or running a sequence of different process steps in the same chamber, results in a significant reduction in capital investment and an increase in fab productivity due to reduced cycle time and lower defectivity. For example, the latest offerings in Lam's 2300® Exelan line employ in situ processing to integrate the complex sequences of dual damascene stacks and to combine mask opens with contact etches into single in situ operations. Applying this approach, Exelan products have effectively reduced processing cycle times by up to 50 percent and cost by 2030 percent for some of the more challenging process sequences.
Statements made in this press release which are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements and are subject to the safe harbor provisions created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements relate to the Exelan's market share, the number and type of applications for its use, the uniqueness of DFC plasma source technology, the design and performance characteristics of the Exelan chamber such as CD uniformity, in situ processing capabilities, and wafer-to-wafer performance, the benefits that Exelan offers in terms of capital investment savings, fab productivity, cycle time and lower defect count and the specific cycle time and cost reductions experienced in certain processes. Some factors that may affect these forward-looking statements include: changes to the Exelan design, changing market conditions, changing customer demands and new product introductions by Lam or its competitors. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties and changes in condition, significance, value and effect as well as other risks detailed in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including specifically the report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 26, 2005, and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 26, 2006, which could cause actual results to vary from expectations. The Company undertakes no obligation to update the information or statements made in this press release.
Lam Research Corporation is a major supplier of wafer fabrication equipment and services to the world's semiconductor industry. Lam's common stock trades on The NASDAQ National Market® under the symbol LRCX. Lam is a NASDAQ-100® company. The Company's World Wide Web address is http://www.lamresearch.com.
Lam Research Corporation Contact:
Shawn Lynch, Corporate Communications, phone: 816/500-8191, e-mail:
shawn.lynch@lamresearch.com