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Technology Stocks : Lucent Technologies (LU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (1187)	12/31/1997 11:26:00 PM
From: Tulvio Durand	Respond to of 21876

Comments on the LU Scalpel article: The goal is to deliver a working Scalpel system by 2003 for high-throughput 0.13-micron lithography on 300-mm wafers, capable of at least 50 wafers per hour. (1) If LU et al succeed in meeting the goal of 50 wafers/hr, this throughput would be less than 2/3 of Cymer-DUV's 80 wafers/hr. (2) If a working system Scalpel system can be delivered by 2003, it would be used by chip makers as a feasibility model in mix-and-match (with DUV) prototype IC making -- a process that could take several years to get beyond the learning curve. It is the same stage as DUV was at two-to-three years ago. Volume shipment of production steppers using Scalpel would not take place until 2005 at the earliest. (3) Cymer plans to ship production ArF lasers capable of 0.1-to-0.13 um and with a thoughput of 80/wafers/hr well before year 2003. Moreover, as the litho process remains basically the same as with DUV there is little or no learning curve associated with ArF. (4) Most experts would agree (I believe) that if optical litho can do the job, whether it be 0.25 um or 0.20 um or 0.13 um or 0.1 um or 0.07 um, no other technology (be it XRL, E-beam, or other) will ever challenge it because of superior throughput and corresponding lower cost per IC achievable with optical litho. So the real question is why bother with Scalpel, XRL and what have you? I view these reserch efforts as insurance just in case DUV fails to deliver at 0.13 um and smaller dimmensions. Mind you I'm no expert in this field. But this is what I learned from reading informed sources posted on this SI thread and elsewhere. Tulvio (