Santa Clara, CA, March 15, 2001 – SITE Services, Inc., a Silicon Valley manufacturer of advanced semiconductor capital equipment, announced today the company has delivered the first in a series of innovative five-module track systems designed for the application of a variety of photolithography materials. Expanding upon its field-proven Tractrix™ platform, the five-module Tractrix™ Spin Track is an innovative, small-footprint, spin track system that can be configured as a coater or developer with up to three hot plate stages for specialized process.

Increasing throughput for extended bake recipes

The principal reason for developing this new track system was to provide an application methodology for specialized resist and other coatings such as inter-layer dielectric (ILD) material which require multi-temperature curing. The system provides improved throughput where the bake portion of the coat-bake recipe is long.

An additional benefit of the system is its relative low cost, especially when put in the context of a 200mm wafer fab. The tool has an exceptionally small footprint (19” x 81”) and may be configured for processing substrates ranging in size from 2” to 200mm. As a production and product development tool, the small footprint and price are only two valuable features. An additional feature is the automated spin and bake profile function which results in exceptionally easy spin curve generation. Additionally, the optional LAN connection makes remote monitoring of the Tractrix™ five-module tool very simple.

Some competing systems “stack” multiple hot plates and can thus offer more than three bake stations. The downside in this configuration is these systems are very large, occupying far more clean room floor space than required by the Tractrix™ system. Plus, this category of large tool may cost well over $1 million.

By comparison, the Tractrix™ five-module tool is roughly one fourth the cost of these larger track systems. The ease in which the system may be operated (icon-based, Windows® - compatible GUI, touch screen, spreadsheet programming, etc.), the straight-forward, low-maintenance design and cost-effective pricing contribute to an exceptionally low cost of ownership.

The Tractrix™ five-module track system is an excellent tool for thick coatings requiring multi-stage bake curing; inter-layer dielectric material application and developer operations requiring both a post-exposure bake (PEB) and post-develop bake and chill.

About SITE Services, Inc.

Although SITE Services, Inc. has contributed to track improvement for 20 years, for the last five years, the company has focused its efforts toward the development and manufacture of new and cost-effective spin track systems. The Tractrix™ system has a significant number of proprietary features and is the result of an extensive research and development effort which included both software and hardware improvements.

SITE Services, Inc. is a respected manufacturer of automated wafer processing equipment for the global semiconductor industry. The company designs, manufactures and markets innovative equipment used in the semiconductor photolithography process. SITE Services, Inc.'s corporate headquarters is located at: 690 Aldo Avenue, Santa Clara, CA 95054-2207 USA Tel: 408-980-1155, Fax: 408-980-1267, e-mail: .