UTEK steppers typically have twice the throughput at close to half the cost of the high end 5X "critical" steppers. The typical IC manufacturing process has 50% critcal layers and 50% non critical layers. UTEK is not competing agressively in the less than 0.65u critical feature size business. Therefore, they are cutting themselves off from 50% of the masking layers in the IC stepper market. This last statement pertains to advanced technology in lithography TODAY. However, in the remaining 50% of the masking levels, they are the most cost effective solution (and lowest cost solution) available in the marketplace. They are promting the mix-and-match strategy with the critical steppers and offer a 1X stepper that can be integrated with any of the steppers commercially available today.
UTEK can afford to do this because they almost control the entire TFH(Thin Film Head) market for disk drive manufacturing, are the system of choice for older fab retrofits where scanners are being replaced, and will more than likely be a dominate player in the micromachining industry. UTEK will also be the dominant player in the polyimide back end process of IC manufacturing with the most cost effective solution (both in wafer cost, cycle time, equipment cost, and material costs). UTEK may also factor into the Bump process for the package industry. All in all, UTEK has given up the costly programs required for "bleeding edge" technology to become a more diverse force in the cost effective manufacturing arena. I beleive it was a good trade off.
Finally, to address "advanced technology", let's reserved judgement until we see the impact of the P-GILD and Ultrabeam programs.
Andrew Vance |
