Novellus’ Products

Novellus Systems designs, builds, and services manufacturing equipment that is used in the production of semiconductor devices, or chips.  Our chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD), electrochemical deposition (ECD), chemical mechanical planarization (CMP), and surface preparation systems are used worldwide for the volume production of advanced semiconductor devices at the lowest overall cost to our customers.

Semiconductor device manufacturers use some of our CVD systems to deposit thin films of insulating materials, called dielectrics, using either a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD)  process or a high-density plasma chemical vapor deposition process (HDP CVD).  For certain types of dielectric films used in very high performance devices, a post-deposition treatment (UVTP) may also be required.  We also make a CVD system that’s used to deposit conductive tungsten films (W-CVD).  Novellus also offers a physical vapor deposition (PVD) system that’s used to deposit aluminum layers on chips that use this conductive metal, as well as copper barrier/seed layers on chips that use copper wiring.  Our electrochemical deposition (ECD) product is used to build the copper wires on copper chips, and our chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) product is used to polish the surface of the wafer in order to keep it flat.  Finally, our surface preparation products are used to clean the wafer in-between manufacturing process steps, removing residues and contaminants.