Ian - Feel free to take another shot at asking... ;-)
The reason that the move to 300mm is so great for, say, etch, is twofold: First, it indicates that there are a lot of new, higher productivity, fabs being built. (i.e. it's not the move to 300mm per se that is important, just the large need for new capacity). The second is that much of the change will be just that, a change-over, (A shutting down of a 200mm fab and replacing it with a 300mm fab - either in the same building, or in a neighboring facility.) but one in which little of the hardware can be carried over. Most 200mm equipment just will not work in a 300mm facility. This means that a lot of perfectly good state-of-the-art equipment will be thrown away.
The problem is that the lasers only partake of item 1. This is an important item, but would probably be just as good if they just built twice as many 200mm facilities.
Clark |
