After years of declining sales, the very segment that got the semiconductor industry rolling is finally starting to wake up from demand hibernation. Personal computer (PC) sales used to drive not only chip sales, but also innovation. All through the 1990s the need for increased memory and speed kept the chip companies spitting out new models of the top chips almost yearly. Now after years of slow sales, and a recession that took demand to zero, businesses everywhere are updating employees workstations, and the need for memory and processing power has never been greater.

A new report from UBS focuses on increased memory needs and the upswing in PC demand, and it features three top chip equipment stocks to buy. While acknowledging the competition is brutal, three world-class firms make the list of stocks to buy for growth in the fourth quarter and into 2015.

KLA-Tencor Corp. (NASDAQ: KLAC) is one of the three top chip equipment stocks to buy at UBS. The company is engaged in the design, manufacture and marketing of process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related nano-electronics industries. With a portfolio of industry standard products and a team of world-class engineers and scientists, the company has created superior solutions for its customers for more than 35 years. The company reported solid quarterly numbers and guidance was also very positive.

KLA-Tencor investors are paid a 2.6% dividend. The Merrill Lynch price target for the stock is $84, and the Thomson/First Call consensus target is $76.17. Shares closed trading on Thursday at $76.36 a share.

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Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX) designs, manufactures, markets, refurbishes and services semiconductor processing equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits. The company offers plasma etch products that remove materials from the wafer to create the features and patterns of a device. The UBS analysts have highlighted the company and its peers as having a significant equipment opportunity from the NAND and DRAM evolution.

Lam Research investors are paid a 1% dividend. The UBS price target is $77, and the consensus target is slightly higher at $78.80. The stock closed Thursday at $76.05.

Teradyne Inc. (NYSE: TER) is another top stock to buy at UBS. The company is a leading supplier of automatic test equipment used to test semiconductors, wireless products, data storage and complex electronic systems, which serve consumer, communications, industrial and government customers. Teradyne reported third-quarter 2014 earnings that comfortably beat the consensus estimate. Poor guidance knocked the stock down, though, giving investors a better entry point.

Teradyne investors receive a 1.3% dividend. The UBS price objective is $22.50, and the consensus target is $22.04. Teradyne closed Thursday at $17.79.

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With corporate capital expenditure budgets needing to be spent in the next two months, and demand increasing, there is a good chance that the fourth quarter is very solid for these top stocks to buy. Investors with aggressive growth portfolios may want to watch for pullbacks in these companies to scale in some capital.

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