Recent Insider Transactions • Jul 02
President recently sold €49m worth of stock On the 30th of June, Gary Dickerson sold around 78k shares on-market at roughly €621 per share. This transaction amounted to 6.0% of their direct individual holding at the time of the trade. This was the largest sale by an insider in the last 3 months. Gary has been a net seller over the last 12 months, reducing personal holdings by €91m. Duyuru • Jun 26
Applied Materials, Inc. Introduces New Chipmaking Systems for 3D Architectures in AI Chips Applied Materials, Inc. introduced a suite of new chipmaking systems for building the advanced 3D chip architectures that power next-generation AI. A new epitaxy system optimized for DRAM fabs adds a critical logic-class step—boosting memory speed and efficiency while maximizing output within tight fab footprint and supply constraints. New CMP and deposition systems target the most critical advanced packaging steps, delivering higher-yield chip stacking for HBM and logic. New eBeam systems bring wafer-fab-grade metrology and defect review to advanced packaging, optimized to handle the unique challenges these packages present. Epitaxy has been used for years in leading-edge logic, where precision growth of a crystalline material in the transistor channel has boosted performance well beyond what geometric scaling alone can deliver. Those same techniques are now becoming critical in DRAM peripheral transistors. Applied pioneered silicon germanium epitaxy in transistor channels more than a decade ago with its Centura Prime Epi system. Applied is now introducing an enhanced Centura Prime Epi system that selectively grows doped silicon germanium and silicon phosphorous in source/drain regions, combining advanced strain engineering with precise doping control. The result is higher drive current and transistor efficiency, enabling faster, more power-efficient DRAM operation—essential for the bandwidth demands of HBM and next-generation DDR. The new system also features a 20% smaller footprint, enabling higher tool density and faster capacity scaling in DRAM fabs. In recent years, advanced packaging has become as strategically important to the computing industry as on-chip transistor scaling. Modern AI server chips pack trillions of transistors by integrating multiple dies into a single package. HBM is a leading example of this approach, stacking DRAM chips on top of one another and connecting them with through-silicon vias (TSVs). Applied is the leader in process equipment for advanced packaging, including systems covering the majority of materials engineering steps required to create the TSVs, copper pillars and microbumps that connect stacked dies. Applied is introducing three new systems targeting the most critical advanced packaging process steps. Leveraging Applied’s leadership position in chemical mechanical planarization (CMP), the Opta Quad platform is engineered specifically for advanced packaging, where thicker films, longer polish times and tighter tolerances raise the risk of non-uniformity and yield loss. Opta Quad continuously monitors wafer conditions during polish and dynamically adjusts in real time, improving within-wafer uniformity and total thickness variation control. This is particularly critical for hybrid bonding—an emerging 3D stacking technology in which copper wiring and surrounding dielectrics from two chips are fused together in a single step, requiring near-perfect surface planarity for high-yield results. Nokota VMax 2 is an electrochemical deposition (ECD) system engineered for high-precision copper plating across a broad range of applications for next-generation packaging, from TSV fill for 3D stacking to fine-pitch interconnects such as microbump formation. Nokota VMax 2 introduces Adaptive Pattern Tuning (APT), which dynamically shapes the electric field to correct for layout-driven variation and improve plating uniformity across the wafer. Producer Avila 2 is a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system that improves the mechanical stability of ultra-thin DRAM dies by depositing stress-balanced dielectric films around TSVs, enabling reliable stacking of 12, 16, and future high-layer-count HBM designs. In addition to HBM, the system supports a range of advanced memory and logic integration schemes. Advanced packaging fabs are encountering defect and metrology challenges once exclusively found in wafer fabs. Feature dimensions have shrunk below the resolution limit of optical inspection tools, and particles that were tolerable with larger bumps now impact yield. A single defect can require scrapping an entire HBM stack, elevating process control to a strategic priority. Applied is extending its eBeam leadership with two new systems specifically designed for advanced packaging—both engineered to handle a wide range of substrate geometries and materials. The latest in Applied’s VeritySEM portfolio for critical dimension (CD) metrology, VeritySEM 7AP enables precise measurement of features on thick, heterogeneous, and highly warped substrates common in HBM and chiplet architectures. VeritySEM AP systems automatically reconfigure to support a range of sizes and materials, while delivering sub-10nm sensitivity—orders of magnitude better than optical tools. SEMVision is the industry’s leading eBeam defect analysis platform. SEMVision G7AP extends Applied’s leadership into advanced packaging, enabling high-resolution defect review and automated classification across silicon, organic, and glass substrates. The system can accelerate yield learning by helping customers quickly distinguish critical defects from nuisance signals. SEMVision G7AP is already in production at memory and logic manufacturers supporting high-volume advanced packaging. A media kit with additional information on the new systems is available. Recent Insider Transactions • Jun 24
President recently sold €42m worth of stock On the 16th of June, Gary Dickerson sold around 83k shares on-market at roughly €511 per share. This transaction amounted to 6.0% of their direct individual holding at the time of the trade. This was the largest sale by an insider in the last 3 months. This was Gary's only on-market trade for the last 12 months. Duyuru • Jun 18
Applied Materials Unveils Senz, A Fully Integrated Visual System for Next-Gen Smart Glasses Applied Materials, Inc. unveiled SENZ, an integrated ambient visual platform that combines waveguide optics, light engine, sensing, vision correction and electronic dimming technology in a single system designed for AI-powered next-generation display smart glasses. SENZ will provide customers and partners with a co-optimized solution to bring high-performance augmented reality displays to market faster. SENZ will reduce time-to-market and manufacturing complexity while enabling more flexible product designs and premium user experiences. SENZ will address this by delivering all core visual components as a single cohesive system, eliminating traditional engineering tradeoffs between performance and form factor. Brand partners can now create bespoke products using the SENZ system solutions and reference designs. Key partnerships supporting the SENZ launch include a strategic collaboration with GlobalFoundries that allows Applied to produce its waveguides at scale, leveraging GF’s high-volume fabrication facility in Singapore; a collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies as part of Snapdragon START, bringing engineering excellence in design and manufacturing to support AI-powered, next-generation smart glasses; a joint development program with EssilorLuxottica to accelerate the commercialization of next-generation intelligent optical systems for augmented reality and AI-powered smart eyewear. Duyuru • Jun 16
Applied Materials Unveils Deposition and Selective Etch Systems to Advance 3D Chip Scaling Applied Materials, Inc. introduced two new chipmaking systems designed to solve an emerging challenge in leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing: achieving precision processing in increasingly deep and narrow 3D structures. The new deposition and etch systems help chipmakers extend scaling in logic and memory to deliver higher performance, improved energy efficiency, and better manufacturing yield for next-generation AI chips. Applied is introducing Centris Spectral SiN ALD and Producer Selectra Mo Etch. Together, they provide chipmakers with precise control over both dielectric film deposition and metal removal in high-aspect-ratio structures. Centris Spectral SiN ALD leverages innovative microwave plasma technology to deliver uniform silicon nitride deposition in challenging 3D structures. The system enables dense, uniform SiN deposition at low temperatures, even in challenging 3D structures. The system has multiple applications that enable continued scaling in both DRAM and logic devices. Centris Spectral SiN ALD is the latest system based on Applied’s new Spectral ALD platform, a series of ALD tools that feature quad reactor design with precision chemical delivery, a variety of plasma and thermal processing capabilities, and specialized hardware for both temporal and spatial ALD operation. The Spectral SiN ALD system is being adopted by chipmakers. Producer Selectra Mo Etch selectively removes molybdenum for wordline separation to enable 3D NAND scaling. Producer Selectra Mo Etch introduces a new capability for highly selective metal removal, enabling precise, uniform wordline separation across the full stack. Using engineered process control and advanced gas delivery, the system overcomes wet etch limitations to deliver superior top-to-bottom uniformity and tight profile precision in deep features. By reducing cell-to-cell variability in the 3D NAND stack, the system helps lower leakage and improve data retention. Selectra Mo Etch sets a new benchmark for selective metal etch and enables the transition away from legacy wet processes for continued scaling of next-generation 3D NAND. The new system expands the Selectra portfolio beyond dielectric and silicon applications into advanced metal integration, with new opportunities across NAND, DRAM and foundry-logic. The new systems are being used by logic and memory chipmakers for advanced node manufacturing. Applied is highlighting these innovations in conjunction with the 2026 IEEE Symposium on VLSI Technology & Circuits, where the industry is gathering to discuss advances shaping the future of AI-driven semiconductor innovation. 
