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Technology Stocks : Dupont Photomasks (DPMI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jeffbas who wrote (424)	3/21/1998 3:40:00 PM
From: Katherine Derbyshire	Respond to of 955

>>Would you please take a look at DPMI 1/26 announcement on DUV. My understanding is that DPMI has proprietary pellicles for use here using DuPont Teflon-based patented coatings. Wouldn't this give them (a) a lock or close to it on the high end, with that filtering down to everything else as you noted, or (b) if the pellicle is something they market, maybe not a lock on the high end but a lock on a very valuable razor blade type business?<< While certainly it's better to sell pellicles than not, I think it would be overstating the case to say this gives them a lock on the high end business. First, I believe pellicles are a consumable item, meaning that even the super duper Teflon ones don't last as long as the mask, and therefore they are mostly purchased by chipmakers. DPMI is not going to refuse to sell pellicles to customers of other mask shops. Second, I doubt that Teflon pellicles are the only, or even necessarily the best, solution to the DUV degradation problem. Third, the mask is much more critical to wafer quality than the pellicle. If chipmakers don't like a mask shop's masks, Craftsman(tm) pellicles that are guaranteed forever won't help. If the masks are good, but the pellicles are lame, chipmakers will work around the problem. So yes, having pellicles is a good thing, but I don't think it's the Major Competitive Advantage trumpeted in the press release. Katherine