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

To: SemiBull who wrote (1478)	5/20/1998 2:16:00 PM
From: Rob-Chemist	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3813

Lam's system consists of 2 polishing stations, 1 buff and 1 clean station, thus it is integrated similarly to the SFAM system. Lam claims it has a "small footprint", but I do not know how it compares to SFAM. Likewise, they do not state the throughput. This last parameter, however, will likely depend on the test substrate used. They have not publicly announced any sales, although they did develop their CMP in conjunction with several semi manufacturers. The board of directors issue is rather interesting, ala Lam, Ontrak and IPEC. Up until about a week before Lam and Ontrak merged, I believe the CEO of Lam sat on the board of IPEC. Since no suits have been announced, there was apparently not a problem in this case. Thus, I am not sure how conflict of interest issues would play out with regards to SFAM and Novellus. It should be noted, however, that even after Lam and Ontrak merged, Ontrak maintained close ties with IPEC. Presently, Lam and IPEC have a cooperative agreement to develop a version of IPECs CMP that has an integrated Ontrak cleaner.