Richard..Great post, and I have to concur with your assessment. Surely widespread use of .08 micron is somewhere out around 2008 -- or so...which is about what has been predicted. The UT team rep from DPMI which supplied the masks also said that they did not anticipate any practical use of the results for commercial production for at least the next five years.
The need for the smaller features, and increased complexity, would be coming from the System-on-a-Chip companies, eg: LSI Logic, which cannot get seriously complex designs onto a single chip today. I notice that DPMI has an operation going in at LSI new Gresham (OR) plant..and they are installing equipment capable of going to "at least" .13 micron, in advance. They will be providing both LSI and INTC photomasks from that location, but I don't have further details.
The transition to increased complexity, as fast as it can come, HAS to be great for CYMI, doesn't it? TSO |
