Katherine,
I suspect, in part, it's a matter of (over)capacity by feature size of the required masks.
i.e. - there's lots of capacity at 0.25µ and above, but not much below those feature sizes.
Demand for masks below 0.25µ is also rather sparse. That will not remain the case forever.
Existing maskmaking capacity won't handle most of the masks requiring 0.18µ features, or smaller. Orders for that equipment have slowed, or stopped, at this time.
That is, IMO, a temporary pause. ...until the R&D / pilot line work is about to make it to the fab floor. Once that milestone is reached, I would expect the mask making capacity requirements to rebound.
It was my hope that Art Z and company have a sufficient handle on their remaining V2000 problems, that UTEK would make good use of the pause, and that they will have a high quality, production ready tool ready to deliver to the market at that time.
It is only a hope. ... and one for the future. V2000 sales this, or next quarter, are unlikely.
Ian. |
