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Technology Stocks : Cymer (CYMI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Volsi Mimir who wrote (15314)	3/2/1998 7:10:00 PM
From: D. K. G.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25960

Nice article eddy, but check out these two contrasting comments: one from the article, the other from Akins during the Q4 C.C. Both Are regarding the power output of the ArF laser. Article: <<< Optics are the principal difficulty for 193 nm exposure tools. The ArF laser has inherently broadband emission, and relatively low power (10 -12 watts), Thompson said.>>> Confrence Call (Akins): I didn't mention, in any specific way, what we are doing on the competitive front with the 5010 and the Orion model that we will be introducing over the course of the year. I'll keep my remarks here principally to the Orion, but the Orion is a 2 kilohertz 20 watt average-power machine, with substantial improvements in pulse-to-pulse stability, bandwidth, and other areas. To put that in context, over Cymer's history, we have gone from the late 80's, where we had early 4000 models operating in about the 500 pulse per second range, putting out something like 4 or 5 watts, up to a kilohertz, which we introduced at the end of 95 early 96. So it took the company about 7 or 8 years to double its pulse repetition rate. Pulse repetition rate is so critical of course, not just for throughput but for dosage control, especially with the new generation of scanners about ready to hit the market. And basically, increasing the pulse repetition rate becomes exponentially more difficult in technology development. So with the Orion, just basically 2 years after the 5000 series introduction, we'll be introducing a model which has another full factor of 2, which is 3 or 4 times faster than we've been able to make progress in the past. And again, with the exponentially difficult technology development for pushing up rates to the multi-kilohertz area. So this is, we feel, significantly raising the bar from a performance standpoint that hits all the critical stepper and chipmaker critical performance areas, controlling throughput, smoothness of dosage control, accuracy of dosage control - especially in the scanner mode, of course enhancing resolution as the bandwidths go down for the high numerical aperture lenses which are critical for the success of all the future steppers and scanners. And the higher pulse repetition rate and average power, which allows you to expose the wafers faster and process more wafers per hour. Thanks again to Scott McI for this incredible reference, very edifying wouldn't you say ? <g>