It's all here - no it's not only plating; it's the dielectric too and there are applications emerging but some analysts have hard time to figure it out ... just look at AHM (ashable hard mask)
Not sure how much VLSI survey counts but Varian was #1 followed by NVLS ; NVLS was #1 in Cost of Ownership and that what NVLS is going after...
From: etchmeister 8/8/2007 11:57:42 AM
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Platform advancement in high gear: Q&A with Novellus dielectric group senior director product manager Julian Hsieh
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Claire Sung, Taipei; Esther Lam, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 8 August 2007]
During Novellus Systems' recent investor conference, the leading plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system supplier suggested that the global semiconductor industry is set to see 2.8 million 12-inch wafer starts per month in 2008, representing a 30% on-year growth.
With almost 80% of its equipment bookings being for 12-inch wafer fabrication tools, Novellus' drive for platform advancement is being described as being in "high gear", as evidenced in its PECVD platform leapfrogging from Vector Express to Extreme within a short period of time. Digitimes recently had the opportunity to talk with company dielectric group senior director manager Julian Hsieh to share his thoughts about the company's recent product additions and how they address needs within the industry.
Q: Since March 2007, Novellus has introduced three brand new PECVD systems, what strategy is driving this series of launches in such a short period of time?
A: We introduced these systems by studying the three major trends in the semiconductor industry. First, there is Moore's Law. As this law continues to progress, the growing number of requirements have prompted industry players to address issues of thinner films and even layer surfaces. In order to meet this demand, we introduced Vector Express in March 2007.
Constrained by the barriers to increase the 193nm immersion tool lens' numerical aperture (NA) value, AHM was a necessary addition to replace conventional photo-resist materials, in order to deliver a clearer etching pattern. We anticipate strong growth for AHM-technology systems in the future.
As we are seeing memory makers having high volume of memory output, we also introduced Vector Extreme to meet the demands of "mega fabs", which are fabs that have more than 100,000 wafer starts per month. Vector Extreme has a throughput improvement of approximately 40% compared to our previous generation systems (up to 250 wafers per hour).
Q: As the PECVD equipment market is already a mature market, how does Novellus deliver enhanced value to customers?
A: Novellus believes that the PECVD market is going to achieve a higher growth rate than that seen by the overall semiconductor industry over the next five years. In 2007, the PECVD market is expected to have a market size equivalent to US$1.3 billion, and the value should grow to US$1.7-1.8 billion by 2011.
Take 60nm-made memory for example, although the number of thin film layers (~20) is much less than that of logic IC fabrication, memory makers are aggressively expanding their capacity and building "mega fabs" that may handle 100,000 wafer starts. This is a cost-intensive investment, and the amount of equipment required is related to concerns for timely production and cost.
Such a memory fab, with 100,000 wafer starts manufactured at 60nm, may require a total of 50 sets of PECVD equipment from our competitor. However, thanks to the triple throughput that Vector Extreme delivers over Express, the number of PECVD applications that would need to be installed can be reduced by 40% by choosing Vector Extreme over comparable solutions from our competitor. This shorter production cycle, of course, also helps our customers bid for more orders.
Q: So, what is the role for Vector Express and Extreme?
A: Extreme and Express use the same process module hardware to achieve process transparency and film quality. We believe Express and Extreme will co-exist in the market based on the various requirements of different fabs. Customer feedback on Vector Express is good and we have received orders for 50 sets of Express since the introduction in March.
We strive to dedicate more efforts on development in the future as evidenced by the recent launch of Vector Extreme. Those customers that are adopting Vector Express can upgrade their systems to Extreme. And the latest system is specialized to meet the needs of those customers that have extremely strict production efficiency requirements and huge output targets.
Q: What is your expectation about AHM-based Vector Extreme in terms of its sales contribution?
A: With more chipmakers adopting 193nm deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography tools, we expect growing demand for our AHM, as present photo resist materials can no longer meet etching requirements. Also, as the complexity of DRAM creeps into the system, demand for AHM should see a gradual pick-up when design geometries edges down from 80nm. Demand should also stem from NAND flash.
Novellus anticipates that the AHM-based Vector platform should drive the dielectric division to have sales surpassing US$400 million in 2011, and we are now also applying for patents for the AHM platform.
Novellus
Julian Hsieh, senior director product manager at dielectric business group.
Photo: Company, August 2007 |
