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To: niek who wrote (1377)	4/5/2007 2:45:14 PM
From: niek	Respond to of 43592

April 5, 2007, 9:45 am Semis: Merrill Turns Bullish On Asian Chip Stocks, Upgrades Foundries Eric Savitz, Barron's Online blog Daniel Heyler, Hong Kong-based chip analyst for Merrill Lynch, this morning shifted his rating on the Asian chip sector to Overweight from Market Weight, and upgraded his stance on a a number of foundries. He shifted to Buy ratings from Neutral on Taiwan Semicondcutor (TSM), Chartered Semiconductor (CHRT), Siliconware (SPIL) and Hong Kong-listed ASM Pacific; he moves to Neutral from Sell on Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMI) and a pair of Taiwan-listed companies, Via and SiS. Heyler offers five reasons for his more bullish stance. * Inventory digestion should resume in Q2 after two quarter pause. * Capacity growth should slow to 3% in the first half over the second half of 2006. * Wafer shipments should reach 15%-20% sequential growth in Q3, from 4%-7% in Q2. * The stock have 25%-30% upside, he believes. * Estimates a bit high, but have discounted disappointing Q1 and “muted” Q2. Heyler lists his top foundry picks, in order, as Chartered, TSMC and UMC (UMC). This morning: * Taiwan Semi is up 12 cents at $10.90. * Chartered Semi is up 28 cents at $9.66. * Siliconware is up 3 cents at $10.49. * UMC is up 5 cents at $3.30. * Semi Manufacturing International, also called SMIC, is up 6 cents at $6.96.

To: niek who wrote (1377)	4/6/2007 3:03:34 AM
From: etchmeister	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 43592

What happened to Mirascan? TSMC likely to choose e-beam for next generation lithography tools Printer friendly Related stories Comments Email to a friend Latest news Claire Sung, Taipei; Esther Lam, DigiTimes.com [Wednesday 4 April 2007] In terms of overall cost structure and performance benefits, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will likely adopt electron-beam (e-beam) direct write as its prominent next-generation lithography tools, according to Burn Lin, senior director of the company's Micropatterning Division. Some industry players plan to offer extreme ultraviolet (EUV) systems, costing as much as 40-50 million euros for 22nm IC production whereas one e-beam tool is priced at about half that, at around 20 million euros only, Lin noted. Although EUV tools could theoretically process a hundred wafers per hour, related issues concerning power source and photo resist may eventually result in the processing of one single wafer, according to Burn. Not only is the optical lens system of EUV tools complex in nature, the performance of the power source and photo resist still lag the ideal-performance benchmarks by 20x and 3-5x, respectively, he added. Even if EUV tools overcame the mentioned issues and produced about ten wafers per hour, e-beam technology would still prove more competitive, Lin said. Using multiple beams, overall performance can be enhanced to process 15 wafers per hour, stated Lin, adding that costs from photomasking will be saved considerably. Concerning other alternatives, Lin commented that based on the industry's current geometry migration, there is insufficient time for alternative solutions to be developed for 22nm design by 2010.