ISI would also bring some track equipment over with it thay may or may not be synergistic. It would depend on how they viewed the resists, coat dispense, exposure, and develop relative to the process. Considering the cchemicals, environment, and controls required top delineate real small features, I would say that an entire process module approach would be beneficial as the test bed. However, UTEK does like to afford maximum flexibility for its stepper products. Even though they have a strong tie towards Shipley, they work very closely with all customers thereby working with all resist supplier required by these customers.
Admittedly I am going back to the drawing board on the ISI stepper, based on some very strong comments made on the General Litho thread. I am broadening my focus to more more industry contacts to validate or re-enlighten the author and his comments.
If there are no technical issues large enough to cause a huge cash drain from UTEK's reserves, this could be the way UTEK finally gets noticed in the industry.
A comment was made about ISI lenses provided by Tropel in the aforementioned post. However, I also thought (from talking to the company months ago) that they had another lens supplier, the same one used by SVGI on the Micrascans. The name is on the tip of my tongue but won't slip off. It is the same company that used to be affiliated with Perkin Elmer and had a hand in the optics for the Hubble telescope. These new lenses are actually supposed to be a beneficial by-product of some of the most expensive and technically superior lens research and manufacturing for NASA.
A foray into the high end stepper market is not what I would want to see UTEK to attempt since UTEK has some really neat markets where it can particpate very profitably along with new technologies that will carry them forward (MEMS, Verdant, Ultrabeam). However, I do understand the rumored move if UTEK feels the market pressure demands they particpate in the high end arena immediately.
Remember, I still think that UTEK will modify the Ultrabeam as a direct write wafer system down the road, thereby replacing the need for masks and reticles along with some steppers. We got a hint of this in the quarterly conference call when a comment was made that one of their systems was either close to or was outperforming some of the laser systems on the market. Do not discount the probability that the Ultrabeam could give birth to a generation of high throughput, low cost direct write wafer systems.
Andrew |
