Maybe there is some info leaking out of Semicon Europe, which is taking place this week.
news.semiconductoronline.com
<<Highlights of the technical program include:
The Second Annual SEMI Productivity
Forum-Taking the topic, "What Drives
Companies to Performance Excellence," this
forum included presentations from
SGS-Thomson, on downtime reduction;
from Siemens, on measures of overall fab
productivity; and from Intel, on productivity
management at Intel Ireland.
Future Trends in Microlithography-Both
wafer lithography and mask fabrication face
major challenges with the impending
transition to post-optical exposure methods.
Presentations from ASML, on production
lithography; Photronics, on mask making;
and Leica, on mask metrology, highlighted
these issues. A presentation from Germany's
Fraunhofer Institute looked at the
increasingly stringent requirements faced by
package lithography.
The Success of the European
Semiconductor Equipment Assessment
Initiative (SEA)-The initiative, supported by
the European Commission's Esprit program,
aims to bridge the gap between research and
manufacturing through assessment and
demonstration projects. Recent success
stories include a multi-die approach to mixed
function testing, in-line verification of
multilayer structures with spectroscopic
ellipsometry, and low damage implanted
resist stripping.
Meanwhile, lots of things were happening out on
the show floor as well:
ASM Lithography featured the company's
new i-line step-and-scan system, and
announced a new Special Applications
division. >>
Also, ASML targets "special applications" such as drive head manufacturing and micromachining.......
news.semiconductoronline.com
<<Worldwide, 80 percent of
stepper sales go to mainstream IC
fabrication-design rules of 0.45 micron and smaller.
That leaves another 20 percent still unaccounted
for, though. These non-mainstream markets include
IC applications above 0.45 micron, thin film and
magneto-resistive heads for disk drives,
micromachining, and non-silicon substrates like
GaAs.
Tuesday at Semicon Europa, ASM Lithography
(Veldhoven, The Netherlands) announced the
formation of a new business division, ASML
Special Applications, to pursue these market
opportunities. >> |
