Jay, different parts of the system have different "expected life". The structure and drive and few other parts are not replaced, but optics, chambers and other elements are. The new technology may imply less replacement parts, but on the other hand, I am presuming that these will come as part of a "lifetime warranty" system for which the user would pay yearly fees. In that case, the lower the replacement frequency, the lower is the cost to Cymer to service these warranties.
Finally, Robert is absolutely right, the longer life does not increase the throughput through a given scanner or stepper, thus the number of units required in the field will not be affected by these better benchmarks, only the bar to competitive entry are being raised.
Zeev |
