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To: Ian@SI who wrote (1314)	11/14/1997 1:58:00 PM
From: David Aegis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2946

Thread, I am not aware of an IBM-Toshiba-Siemens JV, but SVGL did get shut out of the Dominion, VA fab that is an IBM-Toshiba JV. The full story follows. Also, regarding Samsung, Papken stated in a Feb. 17, 1997, article in EBN that Samsung was first in line for delivery of a Micrascan IV as part of the $90 million R&D co-sponsorship program. Papken said, "You know customers are serious if they put up $15 million each up front to assure themselves of getting one of the first deliveries of the next generation machine." The Micrascan IV is targeted for .18 and .13 micron line widths. And now, the story on SVGL getting shut out by Toshiba: Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc. August 1997 Step-and-scan lithography race heating up By Jack Robertson MANASSAS, Va.-- Nikon Corp. and SVG Lithography are now in a high-stakes shoot-out to grab an early lead in the emerging market for step-and-scan lithography tools. The fight is going on at memory fabs operated by IBM Corp.'s Microelectronics Division and Toshiba Corp. The lithography vendors are battling to grab a flock of orders from other DRAM producers that are now starting to gear up for the next generation 256-Mbit chip. Step-and-scan will become the lithography tool of choice for 256-Mbit DRAMs because of its larger field size, said Jack Kelly, vice president of IBM Microelectronics. That will allow fabs to pattern each of the larger 256-Mbit dice in one exposure, increasing throughput and lowering cost. Such step-and-scan tools will be mandatory, he said, when the industry moves to l-Gbit DRAMs. The early skirmish between the two lithography tool builders is going on at IBM and Toshiba fabs because the two companies are putting the step-and-scan units to work earlier than most DRAM producers. They are using step-and-scan for initial production of 64-Mbit DRAMs, where the tool's larger field size isn't a critical requirement. The two chip makers want to gain experience with step-and-scan, Kelly said, since the same or similar lithography systems will be used to turn out the 256-Mbit and l-Gbit generations. Nikon tools were used because the Virginia fab is a duplicate of Toshiba's 64-Mbit plant at Yokkaichi, Japan, which uses only the Nikon tools. Initial 64-Mbit production will start in the U.S. plant in November using a 0.35-micron process on Nikon I-line step-and-repeat tools. But IBM has already installed a "large number" of SVGL Microscan step-and-scan systems in its own fabs at East Fishkill, N.Y., and Burlington, Vt., Kelly said. Although the SVGL tools initially were used to make logic and microprocessor devices, IBM is also using the step-and-scan systems to produce 64-Mbit DRAMs, he added. And the 256-Mbit DRAM prototype developed jointly by IBM, Toshiba, and Siemens was also done using an SVGL Micrascan tool. At the same time, IBM is evaluating a Nikon step-and-scan system at its research center in East Fishkill, N.Y. The other major lithography vendors -- Canon and ASM Lithography -- are rushing to market step-and-scan systems to tap the spiraling demand for the next generation tool. Shipments of ASML's step-and-scan system have already started, said Evert Polak, director of marketing. And at Canon, step-and-scan deliveries "will start imminently," declared Phil Ware, director of technical marketing for Canon's Semiconductor Equipment Division. They'd better hurry. David Huchital, president of Nikon Precision, the U.S. subsidiary of the Japanese tool maker, predicted that 40% of the 200 deep-UV tools Nikon will ship this year will be step-and-scan systems. That ratio will increase to 60% of an estimated 350 deep-UV systems that Nikon expects to sell in 1998. Dominion Semiconductor will shortly get delivery of its first deep UV step-and-scan tool from Nikon with an air-bearing stage, said Alex Graham, president of the joint venture. Half of his 600,OOO-sq.-f% fab has now been equipped to run at a rate of up to 1,000 wafer starts a day. The two partners have not yet decided on how they will expand into the other half of the big fab. Graham expected that by the time they do, it will include 256-Mbit DRAM production capability. The joint venture has space for a second complete fab and it would be a candidate for 300-mm wafer lines, Graham said. Neither IBM nor Toshiba have as yet announced any 300-mm fabs. Return to features from this issue Return to features from the current month Return to SBN Main http:~techweb.cmp. com/sbn/pub/0 897/litho.htm/ 8/13/97