Applied Materials nods to MESC com standard

Electronic News, July 25, 1994 by Jeff Dorsch

SAN FRANCISCO - After years of hostility and indifference, Applied Materials is softening its stance on the Modular Equipment Standards Committee (MESC) standards, agreeing to adhere to the MESC communications software standard, it was learned at Semicon/West 94.

Applied is years away from toeing the MESC line on hardware interface standards, and probably won't do so until the next generation in wafer diameters, if ever. But the signature of its vice chairman and chief operating officer, James Bagley, on a letter circulated among top executives in the semiconductor equipment industry pledging to support the MESC communications standard is an indication of a potential detente in the area of cluster tool architectural standards.

The MESC movement was started in 1989 with the founding of the Modular Equipment Standard Architecture (MESA) group by several equipment vendors. They were reacting to the growing acceptance of Applied's proprietary clustering architecture. MESA eventually became part of the Semiconductor Equipment & Materials International standards organization as MESC, and several of its proposed standards have been adopted by SEMI, usually with Applied in opposition.

Market forces have generally been in Applied's favor, however, as there are hundreds of installations of its Precision 5000, Centura and Endura cluster-tool mainframes around the world, and relatively few installations of fully MESC-compatible equipment.

A cluster tool is a type of wafer processing equipment which generally combines two or more different types of semiconductor fabrication processes on one platform, or mainframe. They are often characterized by several process chambers clustered around a central core, where a robotic arm in a vacuum moves wafers from one chamber to another.

Lam Research and Novellus Systems are among the larger vendors which have championed the MESC cause, and those companies are Applied's leading competitors in plasma etching and chemical vapor deposition, respectively.

SEMI held a Cluster Tool User/Supplier Forum at Semicon/West here last week, and Bob Graham, chairman of Novellus, used the occasion to promote the MESC standards once more. "The case for the MESC standards is very compelling," he said. "The MESC standards will not inhibit innovation where it is so badly needed; they will encourage new players - the lifeblood of any growing industry - and they protect confidential information. All of these characteristics naturally lead us in the direction of our goal of enhanced productivity."

Vinod Mahendroo, Applied's managing director of corporate marketing, also sat on the same SEMI forum panel. He said the equipment industry needs to have "no false gods." Instead, "We need to have faith, and we need to have faith in our customers," he asserted.

Equipment standardization can be supplier-or customer-driven, Mr. Mahendroo said. Applied's experience is that customers "don't care if it's MESC (compatible)" equipment they're buying - their primary concerns are reliability, productivity and cost of ownership.

Once the semiconductor industry progresses beyond the 8-inch (200 millimeter) standard wafer size, "Factory automation issues have to be determined," such as lot sizes and architectural standards, Mr. Mahendroo said. Talk of standards such as MESC in the post-200mm era will be "more fruitful" once the next standard size in silicon slices is determined by the semiconductor industry, he added.

Mike Nugent, a software product manager at Lam who serves as co-chair of the SEMI Modular Equipment Subcommittee for Communications, said he perceives a "basic shift" on Applied's part in relation to the MESC standards. "They're starting to read the ballots," he said, and generally being more "amenable to open interfaces."

He added, "To say they're supporting (MESC) is definitely overstating." Still, "there is definitely an opening," the Lam manager said.

Mr. Bagley could not be reached for comment by presstime.