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Technology Stocks : Cymer (CYMI)
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To: Bill Harmond who wrote (2093)9/16/1997 11:00:00 PM
From: Exciton   of 25960
 
To all: A few comments of note from the tape of Akins' remarks at the Informed Investors Forum last week. I have been following this thread fairly closely, and although some remarks from the forum have been posted, I think the following have not yet been mentioned here.

1. Akins noted that the stepper manufacturers were strongly influenced by the semiconductor firms to adopt Cymer's lasers for their deep UV systems.

2. Akins stated that the deep UV procurement cycle will probably last longer than some anticipate. When the company initially began development of the current lasers, the assumption was that they could be tweeked to pattern .20 micron designs--probably using phase shift masks--but no further. He now believes they can go down to 0.15 microns. (It sounded like he was referring to the current laser which of course would mean that the next generation laser--which they are also vigorously developing--will also go further into the deep UV than originally anticipated.)

3. The transition to 300 mm wafers is also a very important trend for Cymer. Even if many initial 300mm fabs start out with .35 micron design rules to avoid having to go through two process transitions simultaneously, they will use deep UV lasers anyway--not i-line mercury. The reason for this is that the power density advantage of the excimer laser requires less dwell time, and therefore throughput is higher.

4. Cymer expects all new photolithography systems purchased after 1999 to be step and scan systems.

5. On competition. They are fully aware of the competitive threat, but are confident that they have a strong technical lead. Akins stressed that both the design and the manufacturing technology are extremely complex and Cymer is significantly further down the learning curve than either of its competitors. He also indicated that customizing the laser to each of the four customer's requirements was also technically challenging. There are complex hardware and software issues that must be addressed to properly interface the laser to a particular stepper design. Again, Cymer is the only company with this experience.

Akins' tone was confident, but not cocky. He was very professional but at the same time seemed relaxed. He came off as a man dealing from a position of strength, not weakness.
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