GLOUCESTER, MA -- (Marketwire) -- 08/19/09 -- Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ: VSEA) today announced successful multiple installations of PTC II, its latest product upgrade supporting the development and implementation of advanced damage engineering capability. PTC II (Process Temperature Control) is a patent pending combination of proprietary hardware, software and process integration expertise.

In development for several years, PTC II enables chip makers to accurately and quickly control wafer temperature during the ion implant process. This results in novel crystal damage engineering capability that is essential to achieving device targets at advanced technology nodes.

The positive impact of implant temperature tuning to crystal damage formation has long been demonstrated in R&D labs. Varian is the first company to successfully bring a robust production-ready solution to the market. At sub 45nm logic and memory nodes, device characteristics can degrade significantly when using traditional approaches for device tuning. PTC II provides Varian customers with enabling capability that allows them to meet their line-width shrink goals with improved device performance.

Tony Renau, Chief Technology Officer at Varian, said, "Varian continues to invest heavily in R&D to enable unique solutions for customer problems. We've developed a proprietary cryogenic system to control process temperature without affecting the integrity of the high vacuum environment of the beamline or the particle performance of the VIISta platform. The PTC II design is based on Varian's common platform philosophy setting the stage for extendability across the implant application space."

"PTC II process control hardware advantage provides our applications group with the ability to help our customers design and develop new processes that provide extendable transistor performance," said Bob Perlmutter, Executive Vice President, Implant Business Units. "By year-end, we will have installed PTC II systems worldwide at logic, foundry and memory fabs. The launching of PTC II into the marketplace is another example of how Varian is driving growth with a continued emphasis on enabling solutions for device performance and yield."

Varian's production-ready PTC II solution is field upgradeable.

About Varian Semiconductor

Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates is the leading supplier of ion implant equipment to semiconductor manufacturers, enabling them to pack more, higher performing transistors into computer chips that are revolutionizing the electronics industry. Varian Semiconductor's products are used by chip manufacturers worldwide to produce high-performance semiconductor devices.