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Technology Stocks : ASML Holding NV -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (1088)	2/22/2006 6:59:35 AM
From: niek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 43266

EUV is here, says ASML exec Dylan McGrath EE Times (02/21/2006 6:31 PM EST) SAN JOSE, Calif. — Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is alive, according to Hans Meiling, ASML's product development manager for EUV systems, who said his company printed sub-40-nanometer resist images using its EUV alpha demo tool Tuesday (Feb. 21). Delivering a paper at the SPIE Microlithography Conference here Tuesday, Meiling reported progress on a host of EUV issues, including the availability of EUV photomasks, operating wafer and reticle stages in a vacuum environment and in-situ EUV system cleaning. Both Meiling and Takaharu Miura from rival lithography supplier Nikon Corp. talked about EUV being ready for production at the 32-nm node Tuesday, one day after an Intel Corp. executive, citing a lack of EUV tools and materials, said that the world's largest chip maker would push out EUV and extend 193-nm immersion lithography to the 32-nm node. Meiling said ASML has taken delivery of seven EUV photomasks, with 13 more on the way. Photomask blanks, he said, meet the requirements for flatness at the 32-nm node. ASML has also demonstrated successful handling of pellicle-less EUV masks with zero added defects, he said. ASML and partner Philips continue to make progress on an EUV light source employing tin as the target material, Meiling said. The companies are currently building three commercial EUV sources and has several laboratory sources in development, Meiling said. The key issues plaguing this development have been the effectiveness of a debris mitigation system and the robustness of in-situ cleaning process, he said. Using a technology known as in-situ collector cleaning, the companies have demonstrated the effectiveness at preventing tin contamination of the source and also of removing tin from the source, he said. The incorporation of two separate moving stages — one for the wafer and one for the reticle — is considered one of the more daunting challenges facing EUV. Meiling said Tuesday that ASML has demonstrated the influences of moving stages on tool's vacuum level is negligible, and that wafer stage and reticle stage performance in the vacuum has exceeded 32-nm requirements. Meiling said that, as of January, ASML's alpha EUV demonstration tool has been ready for setup and qualification. The company is planning to ship demo tools to Albany NanoTech, a university-based R&D center, and European research consortium IMEC during the first half of this year, Meiling said.

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (1088)	3/7/2006 9:26:11 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 43266

ASML, aiming at 70% litho share, mulls buys Peter Clarke EE Times (03/07/2006 7:48 AM EST) LONDON — Dutch lithography equipment maker ASML Holding NV, while aiming at 70 percent market share in its core business, “needs to develop outside lithography” and is considering several acquisition opportunities according to a Dow Jones Newswires report, which cited CEO Eric Meurice as its source. The acquisition targets could have annual sales of as much as 500 million euros (about $600 million) the report said and quoted Meurice saying, “We're looking at some business plans now.” The report said that ASML (Veldhoven, The Netherlands) has about 1 billion euros (about $1.2 billion) in cash ready to fund one or more acquisitions. During the recession in semiconductor equipment purchasing that followed the bursting of the dot-com bubble, ASML disposed of a major business unit to focus on lithography. While ASML remains a world-leader for that type of equipment analysts have questioned the sector’s growth prospects. The disposal was under the previous ASML CEO, Doug Dunn, who retired and was replaced by Meurice in October 2004. Meurice said he wants ASML to achieve a 70 percent share of the market for lithography equipment by 2010 but added that ASML should get into other equipment sectors to support its lithography aspirations, the report said. By way of an example Meurice said ASML could buy a company making equipment for the packaging of semiconductors, but he declined to identify any possible acquisition targets, the report said. ASML was expected to enter the market for display making equipment in 2005 but called the move off in July 2005, saying it saw better investment opportunities elsewhere. "We will monitor the volume curve [for LCD equipment] and continue to do the basic work in R&D as we have done over last two years or so," Meurice told analysts at the time.