UTEK Ultratech, Inc.

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ultratech, Inc. (Nasdaq: UTEK), a leading supplier of lithography, laser­ processing and inspection systems used to manufacture semiconductor devices and high-brightness LEDs (HBLEDs), as well as atomic layer deposition (ALD) systems, today announced that it has received a multiple system follow-on order for its LSA101 dual-beam laser spike anneal (LSA) systems. Ultratech's millisecond anneal systems will be used by its customer for expansion of 10-nm FinFET production. The key differentiators over competing tools and the basis for choosing Ultratech's LSA101 dual-beam systems are due to its annealing capability with a low overall thermal budget and the flexibility and extendability for use with existing and future nodes. Ultratech plans to ship the first LSA101 system in 2Q17 and the second system in 3Q17 to the customer's facility in Asia.

As the industry scales to smaller dimensions, millisecond anneal technology has continued to enable critical applications around transistor fabrication for multiple annealing steps for the front-end-of-line (FEOL) as well as those in middle-of-line (MOL). Ultratech's global customers have benefitted from the extendability of the LSA systems across multiple production nodes including both planar and FinFET technologies. This existing customer selected Ultratech's LSA101 dual-beam system for this expansion because of its low thermal budget capability, which is a key differentiator from other millisecond anneal tools and is an enabler for advanced processing steps beyond the FEOL.

"This follow-on order for second-generation FinFET production reinforces Ultratech's strong market position with the LSA101 dual-beam system which is targeted to enable new millisecond anneal steps for advanced FinFETs," said Scott Zafiropoulo, General Manager, Laser Products and Senior Vice President, Marketing at Ultratech. "The LSA101 system provides our customers with a millisecond anneal tool that is extendable across multiple technology nodes and we anticipate continued use of the LSA101 platform for 7-nm and beyond. Ultratech looks forward to providing extendable, advanced technology solutions that enable this important customer, as well as all of our global customers to achieve competitive advantages to meet today's and tomorrow's product roadmaps."

Ultratech LSA 101 Dual-Beam Laser Spike Anneal System
LSA101 with the dual-beam option expands the process space by adding a second low-power laser beam that adds process flexibility and enables millisecond annealing with a low thermal budget process and is built on the customizable Unity Platform™. Inserting a millisecond anneal step post-junction formation, such as gate stack formation, silicide or post-silicide anneal, has been shown to improve leakage and device reliability, while reducing contact resistance and improving both performance and yield. Compared to compet­ing millisecond annealing technologies, LSA with dual-beam offers the lowest thermal budget millisecond anneal process along with superior within-die uniformity for different layouts. The LSA101 delivers high flexibility and extendability for advanced annealing applications and is currently in high-volume production for planar and FinFET logic devices.

Safe Harbor
This release includes forward ­looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward­ looking statements can generally be identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "remains," "thinks," "intends," "believes," "estimates," and similar expressions and include management's current expectation of its longer term prospects for success. These forward ­looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates, assumptions and projections about our business and industry, and the markets and customers we serve, and they are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause these forward ­looking statements to be inaccurate. Such risks and uncertainties include the timing and possible delays, deferrals and cancellations of orders by customers; quarterly revenue fluctuations; industry and sector cyclicality, instability and unpredictability; market demand for consumer devices utilizing semiconductors produced by our clients; our ability to manage costs; new product introductions, market acceptance of new products and enhanced versions of our existing products; reliability and technical acceptance of our products; our lengthy sales cycles, and the timing of system installations and acceptances; lengthy and costly development cycles for laser­ processing and lithography technologies and applications; competition and consolidation in the markets we serve; improvements, including in cost and technical features, of competitors' products; rapid technological change; pricing pressures and product discounts; our ability to collect receivables; customer and product concentration and lack of product revenue diversification; inventory obsolescence; general economic, financial market and political conditions and other factors outside of our control;  domestic and international tax policies; cybersecurity threats in the United States and globally that could impact our industry, customers, and technologies; and other factors described in our SEC reports including our Annual Report on Form 10­K filed for the year ended December 31, 2016. Due to these and other factors, the statements, historical results and percentage relationships set forth herein are not necessarily indicative of the results of operations for any future period. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward looking statements to reflect any event or circumstance that may arise after the date of this release.

About Ultratech: Ultratech, Inc. (Nasdaq: UTEK) designs, builds and markets manufacturing systems for the global technology industry. Founded in 1979, Ultratech serves three core markets: front­end semiconductor, back­end semiconductor, and nanotechnology. The company is the leading supplier of lithography products for bump packaging of integrated circuits and high­ brightness LEDs. Ultratech is also the market leader and pioneer of laser spike anneal technology for the production of advanced semiconductor devices. In addition, the company offers solutions leveraging its proprietary coherent gradient sensing (CGS) technology to the semiconductor wafer inspection market and provides atomic layer deposition (ALD) tools to leading research organizations, including academic and industrial institutions. Visit Ultratech online at: www.ultratech.com.

(UTEKG)

Unity Platform is a trademark of Ultratech, Inc.

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SOURCE Ultratech, Inc.