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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials

AMAT 235.24

+4.5%

Nov 19 3:59 PM EST

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To: davesd who wrote (23842)	9/5/1998 8:30:00 PM
From: Big Bucks	Read Replies (1) of 70976

Dave, New technologies are just emerging and leading state-of-the-art is pushing 0.18uM device structures with 0.13 - 0.15uM devices on the horizon in 2 years. CMP (Chemical Mechanical Planarization) (precision film grinding) is hot as is copper deposition to replace aluminum for leading edge devices which will support clock speeds over 1Ghz and 1.8v operating voltages. EUV and DUV (extreme and deep UV) lithography as well as Xray lithography and high density inductive ot transformer coupled plasma etching is hot and gaining momentum for sub 0.25uM features. Lots of new and innovative technologies at the leading edge. Foundries and Fabs are doing device shrinks on 200mm wafers and will continue to do so thru the 0.18uM device levels. Looks like fabs will selectively buy new technologies and replace older "outdated" equipment to push their 200mm fab investments beyond 2000. Chip manufacturers are conserving available monetary resources and producing in high quantity to help "weather" the downturn which is suppressing prices and profitability. Excess capacity exists in nearly every commodity chip sector and "System on a chip" designs are becoming more functional and cheaper relative to discreet chipsets. Pricing pressure on all chip fronts as competition is heating up to gain market share at the expense of the competitors. As fabs close down there is more "used" equipment available at cheap prices relative to new equipment. Asia is extremely bearish and those economies are reeling from currency devaluations and deflation and lack of $$$ borrowing due to many companies being deep in financial trouble/debt. US companies are starting to feel depressed earnings growth in response to currency devaluations overseas as US products are now more expensive and capital is not available for fab expansion at this time. BB

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