Benzinga | Mar 16, 2021 12:00PM EDT

Applied Materials' New Technology Incorporates AI For Faster, Economical Chip Testing: Reuters

A new semiconductor manufacturing technology from Applied Materials Inc (NASDAQ: AMAT) used artificial intelligence (AI) for more efficient detection of chip mistakes, Reuters reports.

* The new Applied tools were aimed to scrutinize those chips at various times during the manufacturing process, saving companies from the botheration of costly modern chip manufacturing factories.

* AMAT's new optical scanner, mainly an extremely advanced camera known as Enlight, scanned a silicon wafer for problem areas over 15 minutes, followed by a closer look from an electron microscope.

* The new AI technology called ExtractAI only needed to check about 1,000 of those possible trouble spots with the electron microscope to predict the biggest problem location.

* The AI-powered check only took about an hour compared to multiple days required by the electron microscope to inspect each of the numerous problems detected by the initial optical scan.

* Applied Materials considers it to be an economical solution for the consumers. Since last year, the company had been testing the system with customers, leading to over $400 million in revenue to date.

* Price action: AMAT shares were trading higher by 5.24% at $120.905 on the last check Tuesday.