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 : General Lithography -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Investor2 who wrote (998)	5/26/1998 11:59:00 AM
From: Artslaw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1305

This "ball" technology is not a 'contender' for anything beyond 8-bit microcontrollers (at best). There is probably money to be made in that area, but not much. . . For anything sophisticated, alignment would be a nightmare, not to mention depth of focus control. On top of that, you would rather not have you active surface contacted during the fabrication process, so I wonder how they intend to use the entire surface area while simultaneously not handling their "balls" {a strictly prohibited cleanroom procedure :)}. Perhaps they can cool magnetically levitate them. . . There won't be any Pentiums on balls. Even if they made the balls large enough to provide the surface area required for a 'real' microprocessor (in which case, I might add, there would be MORE silicon used than a standard wafer), the heat dissipation problem would ruin them (if the temperature gets too high, you run into soft balls). I'm sorry Kilby had to try to say nice things, or maybe the article left out some less choice comments. Steve P.S. 999

To: Investor2 who wrote (998)	5/28/1998 1:08:00 PM
From: Andrew Vance	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1305

A very interesting article that I have printed and filed away for future reference. While this technology bears watching, it is still a far fetched idea and years away from major implementation, IMO. The main points I would touch on is the 3-D litho equipment with all its inherrent mirror and lens issues that will arise as geometries shrink, will be very difficult. The technology is being started up in the 3-5 micron range and if it is anything like standard IC technologies of the past, you are looking at more than 10 years before it will be viable under 0.75 micron. With that said and with the majority of devices beginning manufactured today under 0.75u, you see limited application for this type of technology. Speed is usually obtained with smaller feature sizes and while the industry is continually trying to speed things up, I think we are looking at a niche market at best. I think that 5-10 years down the road is way too far down the road to affect present day strategies within this industry. Even if this were a momumental breakthrough, you still have at least 3-5 years for mental acceptance by the industry. As I said, I have made a copy of the article and have filed it for future reference since it is worthy of tracking as time marches on. I am grateful you pointed out this article since it was interesting and somewhat exciting. However, it will not impact my market startegy over the course of the next few years. Thanks again. Andrew