>>>RE:Assuming Japanese firms are waiting for a Japanese DUV.(source)
They aren't. They won't put their businesses in jeopardy just to give Komatsu a little business.<<<
> I agree, some think they will perfer a Japanese source but it doesn't make sense. As long as Cymer maintains a competitive advantage.<
I'm not saying they will, and I'm not saying they won't, but they might and from a Japanese perspective it both makes sense and can be done.
You need to remember the late 80's when Japan held the U.S. PC fabs hostage to memory chips. The U.S. had no mem chip capability and no appropriate fab equipment maker. Japan cornered the market in memory chips, and it wasn't just that they raised the prices or made the U.S. pay more -- they wouldn't sell to U.S. companies at all. The PC fabs were throttled because of the limited supply. This is one of the reasons for Sematech, and the reason the U.S. govt gave all that nice technology to Cymer, Bell Labs (and thus SVGL), and so on.
I guarantee the Japanese remember this, and realize that we would be happy to do it to them. I als guarantee that they WANT, at a national level, a vertically-integrated in-country capability of making excimer lasers and all parts needed for chip manufacturer. And the close ties between government and industry, and between industries, means that it could be done politically, even if it meant the govt. had to pay Nikon and Canon for the losses they sustained from using less productive steppers. They'd hide it somehow.
This is a national defense issue for them. Remember, the Japanese keep some of the most valuable commercial/residential land in the world under rice cultivation just to lower their dependence on foreign food imports.
So it is conceivable that Canon and Nikon might be forced to buy a certain number of Komatsu lasers for use in Japanese chip fabs, even at a fairly high cost. I'm not saying it will happen, but it is certainly a reasonable possibility. |
