sorry to interrupt the socratic discourse. here's some fab news:
A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc.
Story posted at 7:30 a.m. EDT/4:30 a.m. PDT, 6/17/98
Can a "bridge" generation of tools save 300-mm?
By J. Robert Lineback
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- With the 300-mm wafer movement stalling, a leading semiconductor equipment analyst is calling on the industry to build a "bridge" generation of new fab tools that can handle either 200-mm or 300-mm wafers. The recommendation was made at the close of this week's Third Annual 300-mm Symposium here, and it triggered a debate among equipment vendors, process experts and Sematech managers.
"The reason why 300-mm is failing is that [the industry] is trying to coordinate a full generation of equipment and CD [critical dimension] changeover," warned analyst Dan Hutcheson, president of VLSI Research Inc. of San Jose. Consequently, Hutcheson said, the fab equipment suppliers are now having to develop two separate platforms in parallel--one for future 300-mm orders and the other to fill current demand of 200-mm systems.
Hutcheson noted that 300-mm prototype systems continue to lag 200-mm tools in leading-edge processing capability because the platforms are on separate development tracks. Many of the initial alpha and beta prototype systems for 300-mm wafers were targeted at 0.25-micron feature sizes, but now chip makers have pushed back their plans to use the larger wafer diameter until the 0.15- or 0.13-micron process generations. As a result, Hutcheson said, many 300-mm tools must be written off by capital equipment suppliers, which have pumped millions of dollars into their development programs without seeing any sales.
"This is the first new generation without a 'bridge' generation," Hutcheson told the meeting, which was sponsored by the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) trade group. In previous transitions--such as the movement from 150- to 200-mm gear--new fab tools were capable of handling larger wafer diameters with an upgrade in the field, he noted. While many chip makers were initially unhappy with the results of the upgrades, they were benefited by having these "bridge" systems in fabs when semiconductor demand took off in 1994, according to Hutcheson.
Chip makers were able to double their capacity with 10% investments using the bridge generation between 150- and 200-mm, the analyst contended.
"By changing the economies, we have stalled 300-mm," Hutcheson declared. "I know in four or five years there will be shortages [of wafer-processing capacity] but I don't think 300-mm will be there unless we develop a bridge generation."
Hutcheson's suggestion immediately drew a response from other speakers at the symposium, who argued that semiconductor manufacturers would not be willing to spend 30% more on a "bridge" tool to process 8-inch wafers. "You simply could not make money," said Frank Robertson, director of Sematech's International 300-mm initiative (I300I).
Other speakers at the meeting also argued that most equipment makers were not willing to start up another platform development project in light of the losses being incurred in both 200- and 300-mm systems.
Currently, some 300-mm tool sets are being offered with 200-mm options. In photolithography, for example, most stepper makers are basing their next-generation systems on platforms that can handle either 200- or 300-mm wafers. The cost of the staging systems is relatively minor compared to other aspects of deep-submicron exposure tools. Metrology is another area where upgrade strategies are being pursued, but in other tools, the "bridge generation" makes less sense, partly because of the increase in equipment footprint, said Robertson.
Nevertheless, analyst Hutcheson disagreed and continued to call on the industry to change its strategy by building bridges between the 200- and 300-mm generations.
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