Step and scan tools used in Korea, and details of the $40 million SVGL order............................
Any comments on the last paragraph?............
techweb.cmp.com
A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc.
Story posted at noon EST/9 a.m. PST, 11/13/97
Korea's Dongbu to use SVG litho tools
SEOUL -- The Dongbu Group, the latest South Korean chaebol planning to
build a new DRAM fab, has placed a multiple order for Micrascan-III
step-and-scan production tools from SVG Lithography of Wilton, Conn.,
according to industry sources.
Dongbu is the chip maker that SVGL declined to identify in its Oct. 30
announcement of a $40 million order from a Korean chip manufacturer, the
sources said. SVGL officials in the United States declined to comment on
the report.
The SVGL Micrascan-III system is a natural choice for Dongbu, which
reportedly is paying IBM Corp. up to $250 million for technology and
assistance in helping the chaebol enter the 64- and 256-Mbit DRAM
market. As part of the agreement, Dongbu will sell all of its DRAM output to
IBM during the first year of production, which is expected to being in 1999
(see Nov. 6 story).
IBM Microelectronics uses SVGL lithography tools to make critical layers
for its own DRAM production. A Micrascan system was also used to
develop the 256-Mbit DRAM in the alliance of IBM, Toshiba Corp. and
Siemens AG.
SVGL said the three other Korean chip makers -- Samsung, Hyundai and
LG Semicon -- have installed its Micrascan systems in their development
fabs. So far the three firms haven't followed up with any production orders.
Samsung split its lithography order between Nikon Corp. and ASM
Lithography for its latest fab in Austin, Tex.
Samsung has also put $10 million up-front payment in the special project at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop a 193-nanometer excimer
laser deep UV tool using the SVGL step-and-scan platform, as previously
reported by Semiconductor Business News. Three other U.S. chip makers
and a second unidentified Korean firm also partners in the 193-nm project.
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