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To: semiconeng who wrote (73769)	3/6/2002 6:50:36 PM
From: Petz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

So in order to keep the line moving at the same relative speed, you need to buy additional tools... Of course you may not have room for the additional tools, so your 5000 WPW fab might get transformed into a 4500 WPW fab or less. And you have to hire more people to run the additional tools, and... Petz

To: semiconeng who wrote (73769)	3/6/2002 7:03:48 PM
From: Bill Jackson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

Semi, With feature shrink do they make more images on the same sized mask set so it takes the same number of exposure for each step? or does the mask also get smaller so there are more step and repeat ops to fill up a wafer with images? Bill

To: semiconeng who wrote (73769)	3/7/2002 7:51:36 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

I know they are two different issues but I'm thinking about the overall effects. If the extra layers means you produce less wafers (because there isn't enough clean room space to increase the amount of tools working in the fab) but the smaller die size (then what the chips would have been with a lower number of metal layers) means more chips per wafer, which effect is stronger on the overall number of good dies produced. I understand that more layers might also slightly reduce the yield per wafer directly, but indirectly increase it by keeping the die smaller. I think in this case both of these factors might be minor. Tim