Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Ultratech Stepper -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kirk © who wrote (2395)	4/27/1998 1:25:00 PM
From: Andrew Vance	Respond to of 3696

Oh Yeah and a double Oh Yeah. I like to look down the road and I also like to be a slight dreamer. Direct write systems are extremely slow for wafer production. Considering they are writing directly from the "electronic database" and not stepping or scanning a reticle, they are inherently slower than the direct systems used to generate reticles. Reticle production is a very low throughput process relative to the IC wafer stepping process even though there are multiple exposures to a wafer. Throughput has been in the single digits per hour range for as long as I can remember. Laser tools are being used today in the low teens per hours to quick turn prototypes or gate arrays. I remember when steppers were doing 20 WPH on 4" diameter wafers. Now we are seeing throughput apporaching 100 WPH on 8" wafers. So you never know. With the costs of reticles escalating and the number of reticles needed per devices also increasing, the overall tooling costs to manufacture new devices is becoming significant, especially in the ASIC arena. When cycle time and prototype debug times need to be reduced, you begin to see the great attractive for direct write wafer systems. Funny thing is that I believe a low cost higher throughput Ultrabeam for direct writing wafers is coming down the turnpike from UTEK. Even if it is just a prototype device production machine to allow the degging of designs prior to full production implementation, there would still be a great market for this system. Reason: Very cost effective way of manufacturing low volume ASICs or low volume parts of any type of IC. BTW-When Art was the CEO of Drytek may many moons and eons ago, he had a "crackpot" that one day, there would be a chamber that would do some "grey cloud" processing that would make some selective depositions of films and impurities. Well, I think this "crackpot idea" is what we presently see in the cluster tools by some major suppliers AND it is very close, if not exactly, to what he accomplished with the Verdant P-GILD system. Long term vision on his part realized. With that said, high throughput direct wrtie wafer systems will also become a reality. Andrew