Santa Clara, California-based Applied Materials Inc is living proof of the revitalisation of the US semiconductor capital equipment industry: the company has won an order worth more than $40m from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to supply Precision 5000 Mark II dielectric chemical vapour deposition for subatmospheric deposition and passivation applications; Precision 5000 Mark II Metal depositor for blanket tungsten and tungsten silicide; Precision 5000 Mark II MxP Etch for polysilicon etching; Metal Etch MxP Centura for aluminium etching, using Applied Materials’ latest Centura-based technology; Endura physical vapour deposition system and the Precision Implant 9500 ion implantation system; it also won an even bigger, $123m order for similar equipment from Hyundai Electronics Industries Co Ltd to equip two new wafer fabs.
