THC, thanks for your report. Two quick comments:
1) While I understand the importance of CYMER participation in Semicon, I don't think that their booth had to be large. After all,
they don't sell their lasers directly to end users, and all stepper companies know their products well.
I was wondering though what kind of laser were they and their competitors showing - 248nm or 193nm?
2) Nikon saleseman told you: "Cymer ... does not have the resources to offer good service to all companies. Some little companies in Taiwan feel neglected by Cymer, and are starting to ask for Komatsu."
It is quite possible that CYMER is currently overextended trying to service multiple pilot installations. They as much as said so in the last 10Q, but they'd also said that they are establishing CYMER service centers in Taiwan and Korea. Besides, potential market is large enough to accomodate both CYMER and its competitors (especially if they are reduced to servicing smaller comapanies).
A more worrisome interpretation would be that Nikon (largest CYMER's customer) is having problems with proving in pilot steppers and uses CYMER lasers as an excuse. I doubt that customers would be particular about the laser supplier if Nikon's pilot steppers worked well (especially when an alternative to CYMER laser is a relatively untested Komatsu product). A suggestion that changing the laser supplier would help is more likely to come from the stepper manufacturer looking for an excuse than from a customer.
Hopefully, Nikon's problems are temporary - they'd announced plans to sell 200 latest model DUV steppers next year.
On a positive side, suggestion that Nikon is already shipping equipment that includes 248nm lasers to small companies (and by inference to large companies) should mitigate worries about the on-hand inventory of CYMER lasers at Nikon and other stepper manufacturers.
Regards,
Y. |
