Full Description

Novellus Systems, Inc., develops, manufactures, sells and supports equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits, which are called chips or semiconductors. Customers manufacture chips for sale or for incorporation in their own products, or provide chip-manufacturing services to third parties. Novellus Systems, Inc., also develops, manufactures, sells and supports grinding, lapping and polishing equipment for a range of industrial applications. The Company provides products that are used in a number of different manufacturing process steps. The advanced deposition systems use chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD), and electrochemical deposition (ECD) processes to form the interconnects in an integrated circuit. The Company’s High-Density Plasma CVD (HDP-CVD) and Plasma-Enhanced CVD (PECVD) systems employ a chemical plasma to deposit dielectric material within the gaps formed by the etching of aluminum, or as a blanket film which can be etched with patterns for depositing conductive materials into the etched dielectric. In December 2008, the Company's Industrial Applications Group acquired Micron Machine Tools, Inc. (Micron), a privately-held manufacturer of high-precision manufacturing tools.

Semiconductor Group

Novellus Systems, Inc. offers products that address the needs of manufacturers across a number of different deposition technologies, such as CVD, PVD and ECD. Novellus Systems, Inc. offers a range of processing systems for dielectric and metal deposition. The Concept Two platform is a modular, integrated production system capable of depositing both dielectric and conductive metal layers by combining one or more processing chambers with a common, automated wafer handler. The Concept Two enabled semiconductor device manufacturers to increase production throughput and system capability by adding process modules, without having to replace existing equipment. The Concept Three platform is built on the foundation of Concept Two to offer greater throughput in 300-millimeter wafer manufacturing applications.

In the CVD process, manufacturers place wafers in a reaction chamber, introduce a variety of metered gases into the chamber, and then add a form of energy to activate a chemical reaction that deposits a film on the wafers. Manufacturers also use CVD to deposit conductive metal layers, particularly tungsten.

The Concept SPEED NExT system for 300 millimeter wafers is designed specifically to address the challenges of dielectric gap fill at 65 nanometers and beyond. SPEED Max offers significant processing flexibility and productivity advantages over the SPEED NExT system, and extends the HDP CVD application to the 45 and 32 nm technology nodes.

The ALTUS DirectFill tungsten nitride/tungsten deposition system is designed for advanced contact and via-fill applications at 65 nanometers and below. ALTUS DirectFill simplifies the tungsten deposition process by replacing the standard multi-tool approach with a single three-module system. The ALTUS Max CVD tungsten deposition system delivers advanced contact and via fill technology in a high-productivity platform that delivers more than 120 wafers-per-hour throughput.

VECTOR is a PECVD system for depositing dielectric films on 300 millimeter wafers. The VECTOR Express, optimized for deposition of thin films of less than 1000 angstroms; the VECTOR Express AHM for ashable hard mask film deposition, and the VECTOR Extreme, designed for the demands of high-volume memory megafabs.

SOLA is an ultraviolet thermal processing system (UVTP) used for the low-temperature, post-deposition treatment of dielectric films. SOLA is designed for advanced materials, such as high-stress nitrides and porous low-k dielectrics that are used to deliver increased device speeds and lower power consumption in sub-90 nanometer chips.

INOVA NExT is a 300-millimeter metallization system designed to deposit highly conformal copper barrier-seed films at 45 nanometers and beyond. On the INOVA NExT, the single target Hollow Cathode Magnetron (HCM) technology has been extended to the 45 nanometer node. INOVA NExT HCM IONX incorporates a copper resputtering technology called HCM IONX.

The Company’s Electrofill products are used to build the copper primary conductive wires in advanced integrated circuits. Electrofill uses a copper electrolytic solution to create lines and vias in a dielectric layer, which has been etched with the pattern of the circuitry, in a process called copper damascene. The SABRE copper Electrofill system, featuring a plating cell. When coupled with the INOVA PVD product, SABRE provides a complete manufacturing module for building advanced copper interconnects. The SABRE NExT builds on the SABRE xT’s production track record, offering a chemistry, a new anode cell design and other hardware refinements to tackle the complex process requirements of 90 nanometer, 65 nanometer and 45 nanometer interconnect structures. The SABRE Extreme is an advanced Electrofill system that has been qualified at 45 nanometers and has demonstrated fill at 32 nanometers.

Novellus Systems, Inc.’s GAMMA Express is a high productivity resist strip system designed to meet the technology requirements for 45 nanometer manufacturing. GAMMA Express performs high dose implant strip (HDIS) and incorporates non-oxidizing processes for advanced silicides and low-k dielectric films. The redesigned GAMMA Express platform offers a new direct-drive wafer handling subsystem, as well as a new high ash rate source.

The Company's CMP systems polish the surface of a wafer after a deposition step in order to create a planar surface before moving on to subsequent manufacturing steps. The XCEDA copper CMP system is an advanced 300 millimeter platform designed to exceed both the technical and economic requirements of CMP at 65 nanometers and beyond. Refurbished Systems Business (RSB) is 200 millimeter factories manufacturing lower-cost products, typically at device geometries that are greater than 150 nanometer.

Industrial Applications Group

Novellus Systems Inc.’s Industrial Applications Group supplies high-precision machines for grinding, deburring, lapping, honing and polishing the outer surfaces of parts made of metal, glass, ceramic, plastic, silicon or similar materials. The Company's customers are manufacturers in sectors, such as automotive, aircraft and electronic products, parts and components. Other customers are in the glass and ceramics industries, as well as manufacturers of products, such as pumps, transmissions, compressors and bearings. The industrial product range includes single-side machines, double-side machines, which operate in batch process mode, and thru-feed grinding machines and deburring systems. During the year ended December 31, 2008, the industrial applications group contributed for 17% of the net sales.

The Company competes with Applied Materials, Inc., ASM International, Mattson Technologies, Inc., Semitool, Inc., PSK, Inc., Mattson Technologies and Ebara Corporation.