Intevac, Inc. (Company) (Nasdaq:IVAC) announced today the launch of its new Lean Etch™ semiconductor manufacturing system, which brings the Company’s “Lean Thinking” principles to the design of semiconductor capital equipment. The Lean Etch, developed for the Dielectric Etch market, will be officially launched at a press conference on July 17th during SEMICON West 2007.
Intevac has applied “Lean Thinking” principles throughout the design of the Lean Etch. Lean Thinking, a philosophy pioneered by Toyota for the creation of value, is a method new to semiconductor capital equipment design and has enabled Intevac to offer exceptional productivity and technology to Lean Etch customers.
Lean Etch Productivity
- High-productivity Lean mainframe is simple in its concept and incorporates an innovative wafer handling system, enabling 200 wafers per hour throughput
- Highly flexible, modular platform supports up to six independent process chambers in a compact footprint
- Exceptional “Availability Redundancy” capability – unique dual module mainframe enables the system to continue processing during routine maintenance
- Innovative linear design offers an unparalleled level of service access to the process chambers and mainframe
Lean Etch Technology
- Universal etch capability – extendible from Dielectric Etch today to Silicon and Metal Etch in the future – for both critical and non-critical applications
- Unique “T-Source” plasma technology and “Instant On” pulsing capability provide ease of process tuning and damage-free, in-situ plasma cleaning
- High conductance chamber addresses today’s etch processing requirements while offering superior extendibility to future technology nodes
“From the very beginning, our talented team designed Lean Etch to address the most pressing needs of our customers, which are to etch ever-shrinking features with continually tighter Critical Dimension control parameters, while at the same time achieving significantly enhanced productivity relative to the legacy tools in the market today,” commented Kevin Fairbairn, president and chief executive officer of Intevac. “Our team, guided by inputs from leading semiconductor customers and in conjunction with academic experts, created the industry’s first universal etch chamber. Intevac’s unique and proprietary plasma technology provides unprecedented levels of control, process tunability and extendibility for advanced etch applications.”
“Employing ‘Lean Thinking’ principles in the design of the Lean Etch has enabled Intevac to successfully address the limitations of today’s cluster tools,” added Mr. Fairbairn. “Cluster tools are wasteful of space within the fab, are prone to throughput bottlenecks, must be shut down during maintenance and are hard to service because of poor access to the process chambers and wafer handling platform. Addressing every one of these issues is a revolutionary step toward driving down the cost of semiconductor manufacturing.”
Mr. Fairbairn leads a team of semiconductor wafer fabrication equipment industry veterans at Intevac. Numerous key positions in management, sales and marketing, product development, operations and field service are held by former employees of industry-leading companies such as Applied Materials, Novellus, Lam Research and Varian.
The Lean Etch tool will be initially manufactured at the Company’s Silicon Valley facility and later at its Asian manufacturing facility, with process applications and service support available at various Intevac locations around the globe.
Lean Etch Launch Press Conference
Intevac will hold a 30-minute press conference introducing the Lean Etch in conjunction with SEMICON West 2007. The press conference will be held at Moscone Center in San Francisco, at 11:30am on Tuesday, July 17, 2007, in Mezzanine Room 200, adjacent to the South Hall. No invitation is necessary to obtain admittance. Press kits will be available during the press conference and immediately following at the SEMICON West press center and online at www.intevac.com.
About Intevac
Intevac was founded in 1991 and has two businesses: Equipment and Imaging Instrumentation.
Equipment Business: Intevac is a world leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of high-productivity manufacturing systems and has been producing “Lean Thinking” platforms since 1994. We are the leading supplier of magnetic media sputtering equipment to the hard disk drive industry and offer leading-edge, high-productivity systems to the semiconductor industry.
Imaging Instrumentation Business: Intevac is a world leader in the development of leading-edge, high-sensitivity imaging products and miniature Raman instruments. We provide sensors, cameras and systems for military applications such as night vision and long-range target identification and we provide cameras and Raman spectrometers to the industrial, physical science and life science markets.
For more information call 408-986-9888, or visit the Company’s website at www.intevac.com.
Lean EtchTM is a trademark of Intevac, Inc.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release includes statements that constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the “Reform Act”). Intevac claims the protection of the safe-harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Reform Act. These forward-looking statements are often characterized by the terms “may,”“believes,“ “projects,”“expects,” or “anticipates,” and do not reflect historical facts. Specific forward-looking statements contained in this press release include, but are not limited to, performance, capabilities, and features of the Lean Etch. The forward-looking statements contained herein involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company’s expectations. These risks include, but are not limited to: failure of the systems to perform as expected and failure of the systems to achieve commercial success, either of which could have a material impact on our business, our financial results, and the Company's stock price. These risks and other factors are detailed in the Company’s regular filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contacts:
Ian Latchford, 408-986-9888 (Media)
ilatchford@intevac.com
or
Charles
Eddy or Jeff Andreson, 408-986-9888
(Financial Community)
or
Kirkpatrick
Communications
Bruce Kirkpatrick, 925-244-9100 (Media)
brucekirk@kirk-com.com
or
Headgate
Partners
Claire McAdams, 530-274-0551 (Investor Relations)
claire@headgatepartners.com
