Thanks for the link BillyG,
Some weird stuff in that SBN synopsis. For instance,
An even bigger problem is that the Koreans "didn't invest very
aggressively over the past two years in quarter-micron technology," says Dan Hutcheson of VLSI Research. Korea's Big Three IC makers will account for only 7% of global capital equipment investments this year, down from 20% in '95, says VLSI Research. But Taiwan will account for 15% and the U.S. 32%.
Is this 1997(almost 1998), or 1996? What's that guy talking about? According to VLSI(the same firm as quoted above), the Koreans firms ranked 2, 3, and 4 in capital spending in 1996. Akins said that Samsung was the only chip maker using DUV for full-scale production back in September.
SBN also said,
Japan seems to be making surprising progress in advanced lithography. Hitachi says it has tripled the writing speed for a direct-write, electron-beam lithography system for volume 0.18-micron production, Yoshiko Hara and David Lammers report in EE Times
E-beam is not going to be used for 0.18 production. 10 WPH is not even close to production worthy. DUV tools do 50 to 100 WPH.
Bob |
