Duker, thread, SJ Mercury News article on 300 mm, Intel, my post to Intel thread:
To: Process Boy (83184 )
From: Tony Viola
Thursday, Jun 10 1999 10:24AM ET
Reply # of 83201
PB, here's the San Jose Mercury News (won't call them the Murky
News this time) article on 300 mm. There is one statement in it that
sounds a little off, but, then again, I know enough about IC fab,
processing to be dangerous. Does this understate the complexity of
300 mm, i.e., that it is "far less challenging"? I guess tell it to the
semiconductor equip. guys, huh?
Although using larger wafers is far less challenging
than other advances that the semiconductor industry
is currently wrestling with, it's still a difficult
process to implement.
mercurycenter.com
Posted at 9:11 p.m. PDT Wednesday, June 9, 1999
Intel commits to new
wafer process
BY TOM QUINLAN
Mercury News Staff Writer
Next time Andy Grove says it looks like rain, don't
waste time getting your rain coat -- buy stock in an
umbrella company. When Intel Corp. on Wednesday
formally announced its widely known timetable to
begin making chips from larger silicon wafers, stock
in equipment manufacturers skyrocketed.
Intel had said numerous times in the past that it
expected to move by 2002 to the new 300-millimeter
wafers, whose size helps cut the cost of chip
production. Still, its announcement was taken as the
first solid commitment to the new technology by a
major semiconductor company. As a result, Applied
Material Inc.'s stock went up $3 a share.
KLA-Tencor Corp. went up by $5.25. Novellus
Systems Inc. got a $4 per share bump. Shares of Intel
rose $1.44 to close at $53.13.
The core of Intel's announcement was that it would
outfit a state-of-the art manufacturing plant in its
Hillsboro, Ore., campus with 300 mm wafer
technology. The upgrade will also include two other
technological innovations: equipment to manufacture
chips with more efficient copper wiring, rather than
the standard aluminum, and equipment to etch
smaller chips, using a 0.13 micron process.
Intel will start buying, installing and testing the
300 mm technology within the next few months, said
Mike Splinter, vice president and general manager of
Intel's technology and manufacturing group.
''In the past, there have been concerns about whether
the equipment and tools would be production-worthy
by (2002),'' Splinter said. ''With this announcement
we are saying that we're confident 300 mm will be
ready by then.''
This vote of confidence has been a long time coming.
Equipment manufacturers and Sematech -- the chip
industry consortium created to foster new
manufacturing technologies -- have been touting
300 mm technology since 1997.
Compared with the current standard 200 mm wafers,
manufacturers could make almost 2 1/2 times as
many chips on a single wafer using the larger size.
That alone would be enough to cut the cost of chip
manufacturing by as much as 30 percent, proponents
said.
But 1997 was the start of a vicious three-year
downturn in the high-tech industry that slowed
demand for semiconductors even as capacity was
growing. That made it a poor time to be introducing
an expensive technology with the primary benefit of
increasing a company's ability to make chips.
Although using larger wafers is far less challenging
than other advances that the semiconductor industry
is currently wrestling with, it's still a difficult
process to implement.
As recently as April, Intel was downplaying the
benefits of using the larger wafers in its facilities,
preferring instead to concentrate on technologies that
let Intel not only produce less expensive processors,
but chips that were faster and more powerful at the
same time.
It was the bang-for-the-buck theory.
But that attitude, prevalent throughout the industry,
left chip companies and the equipment manufacturers
in a bind. While everyone agreed the move to
300 mm was worthwhile, nobody wanted to be first
-- because the pioneering company would have to
pay to perfect a process that wouldn't give it a
competitive edge.
By mid-1998, equipment manufacturers had spent an
estimated $4 billion in developing 300 mm
technology, and their customers still had not
committed to buying it.
More recently, some companies have made tentative
efforts to adopt the technology -- most notably a pilot
program by Motorola and Siemans in Dresden,
Germany. But Intel's endorsement is being hailed as
the gesture needed to get 300 mm back on the fast
track again.
''This is a very welcome announcement by Intel,''
said Dan Maydan, president of Applied Materials.
''Intel wants other companies to join them in this
effort, and their announcement will ensure that other
companies have to start seriously evaluating this
technology.''
To meet Intel's time line, equipment manufacturers
will have to be ready to ship their products within
the next 12 to 18 months, Maydan added. ''This
ensures that the year 2000 will be the year of 300
millimeter.''
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