Michael, the "Equities" meeting is a small informal gathering of mostly analysts, newsletter writers etc.and some shareholders in a hotel suite. There the CEO gives a presentaion several times a day, and then there is informal 'mixing' and lunch where one can talk directly to Dr. Martinez. He has always been very approachable and eager and happy to answer questions at length. I have met him in the past. It was my understanding that during this informal talking (not a public announcement) that he made his feelings known that the industry does not believe the Lucent product to be viable. They make alot of noise about it, but in his opinion, only the current optical systems and X-Ray lithography will be used in the near future. He commented that Cymer was having some 'difficulty' (no specifics) and that IBM was going forward with a new fab in NY state that will be ready in 1999.....it will be using X-ray Lithography with synchotron technology. ( Please understand that this info is being passed on to me by someone in attendance and that I did not get it firsthand)
In Dr. Martinez' opinion this will lend tremendous credibility to the future of X-ray lithograhy. Since a synchotron costs upwards of 25 million, there will be many companies who cannot afford this system, but will perhaps choose the Jmar point source system at considerable savings. Note that pointsource does not have the throughput of a synchotron, but it will be substantially cheaper, and allow smaller companies to produce chips of the same or better quality.
I also forgat to mention, for those who dont know, that it is widely known among the JMAR followers and was mentioned at the meeting that JMAR will be receiving 10 million dollars in DARPA funding for 1998, and the only reason we dont see a press release is because the paperwork has yet to be put through (red tape bureaucratic nonsense). The money has already been approved by the Clinton administration and JMAR will have plenty of cash for 1998. This was mentioned at the meeting.
I highly reccomend attendance of this meeting , next time it is given, because you can have direct access to Dr. Martinez, and there are many questions he can answer on a one on one basis that he is prevented from commenting on publically............;^) |
