Maxwell, I do not usually venture into the technical aspects of this company, since there I'm in WAY over my head, but I do have a question, the answer to which may well impact the ultimate financials of the company. I would also appreciate any input from the other technical experts on the thread, specifically Mr. Bagwell, Mr. Lamar, Mr. DeSousa and TheSpecialist (and any others I might have inadvertantly left out.) You may have answered this question in the past, and if so, please forgive me and briefly summarize the previous response. Specifically,
A friend and I were talking about Cymer, and he expressed that he was concerned that the company's profits were directly tied to the ability of the stepper-scanner companies (the big 4) to get NEW steppers out the door, and he was greatly concerned about their ability to do so.
Therein lies the question. Is Cymer's profitability so tied? That is, does the ramp-up to .25 micron and under wafers rely on all new stepper-scanners? Is it a straightforward and uncomplicated process to change the light source of EXISTING in-production steppers from their existing light source (say UV I-Line) to DUV eximer lasers? Do the new-generation chips have other features about them (size and layer dimensions, etc.) that require an all new stepper, or can economical modifications be made to exisiting production lines that will allow a quick transition to .25 microns via a DUV process? It seems that if the latter, and conditional on the stepper manufacturers ability to conduct the retooling (I assume that all of Cymer's sales would still be made through the stepper manufacturers, since logically they would be the ones to retool the steppers if that were feasible) then Cymer's potential sales of lasers could be much larger than the sales of new steppers. Is this a possibility? It seems either way that the stepper manufacturers are the bottleneck to the ramp up, not Cymer.
I'm sure my post has errors that betray my technical ignorance. It seems however that this is an issue of fundamental importance to the success of the firm. If you reply, please remember to keep it simple. Thanks in advance.
jess. |
