Applied Materials, Inc. recently announced that its TEOS FSG dielectric film is proving to be the semiconductor industry's low k material of choice for volume copper chip manufacturing. Customers worldwide have adopted the company's FSG solution, which enables an efficient extension of low k technology using Applied Materials' industry-standard Producer(R) CVD (chemical vapor deposition) system. Dr. L. C. Hsia, vice president of technology development at Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, a leading chip foundry based in Singapore, said, "TEOS FSG is a good starting point for our low k dielectric technology roadmap, offering a combination of manufacturability, device performance and economy, with minimal risk. Applied Materials' Producer system has demonstrated both productivity and efficiency, and it is currently our production tool of record for depositing TEOS FSG in our copper chips."

The company's website is located at http://www.appliedmaterials.com.