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 : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ibexx who wrote (62362)	8/12/1998 2:31:00 AM
From: Paul Engel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Ibexx - Re: "Isn't the NIC market COMS's bread and butter? " Yes - I guess for the "High End", that business may be "toast", as Intel "eats their lunch". Paul

To: Ibexx who wrote (62362)	8/12/1998 2:36:00 AM
From: Paul Engel	Respond to of 186894

Ibexx and Intel Investors - Intel gets EXCLUSIVE SVGL Wafer Stepper/Scanner for their "next generation" Photolithography - 0.15 micron feature size. This could have major implications for Intel's technology lead and advantage over its competitors (AMD comes to mind). The article "implies" that perhaps Merced will be built on a 0.15 micron process, and not the soon-to-be introduced 0.18 micron process. Maybe Merced's death has been prematurely announced and greatly exaggerated I would also guess that Intel's competitors will be whining to the Federal Government about this. Lordy, the AMD thread will be-a-buzzin' 'bout this. Paul {===================================} pubs.cmpnet.com Semiconductor Business News, c 1998, CMP Media Inc. August, 1998 SVGL's latest scanner to be sold only to Intel By Jack Robertson SAN JOSE -- SVG Lithography is developing an advanced step-and-scan lithography system that will be sold exclusively to Intel Corp. The new Micrascan-IIIx could give Intel a major boost into next-generation chips with 0.15-micron feature sizes. Intel has become an industry leader in sub-quarter-micron chip processing, thanks to the powerful help of lithography tools from SVGL. Early next year, the microprocessor vendor is expected to become one of the first chip manufacturers to achieve large-scale production at 0.18-micron geometries. The 0.15-micron tool will be the one that Intel likely will use to produce critical layers for its next-generation 64-bit Merced microprocessor, said Papken der Torossian, chairman of SVGL's parent, Silicon Valley Group Inc. in San Jose. Intel has said that Merced will arrive in 2000, but hasn't disclosed what lithography system it will use to build it. Throughout the 1990s, SVGL has been Intel's preferred lithography vendor for such jobs as processing critical layers on wafers. Initially the vendor shipped the chip maker its Micrascan-II mercury-lamp step-and-scan systems, then later it was the deep-UV Micrascan-III. The neat thing about the new Micrascan-IIIx is that it will extend SVGL's deep-UV capabilities to the next-stage 0.15-micron line geometries with the same 248-nm wavelength excimer laser system that's being used today. The industry originally had expected that it would have to make a major shift to the 193-nm wavelength argon fluoride lasers in order to move to 0.15-micron feature size. Indeed, Intel, IBM, Motorola, and Samsung all got together and invested $10 million each in an SVGL project to develop the Micrascan-IV using a 193-nm laser. The new Micrascan-IIIx should enable Intel to continue its current market strategy. The chip maker's rapid shift to 0.18-micron feature-size chips is part of a two-pronged strategy that is constantly pushing for smaller line geometries in order to raise the performance of high-end Pentium microprocessors. Smaller feature sizes also enable it to keep shrinking its MPUs to get far more die from a single wafer. This greatly lowers the cost of making the chip and allows Intel to meet the competition in the more mature, low-end MPUs and still make a good profit. This shrink strategy also lets Intel keep its "copy exact" fab production plan, where all of its plants essentially use the same tools and processes. Another advantage of the new Micrascan-IIIx, as well as with the current Micrascan-III-plus tools, der Torossian pointed out, was that very fine line geometries could be done through SVGL's own optics and without the need for extra phase shift masks. This will allow chip makers to move more quickly to smaller feature sizes without the extra cost and extended effort of advanced masks, he noted. SVGL's catadioptic lenses and its reflective optics can pattern the very small feature sizes without the need for photomasks, he said. Signing Intel to buy the new system will make up for the chip maker's stretchout of a large quantity of tools it had ordered from SVGL earlier this year, der Torossian said. SVGL was one of many tool makers that were hurt when Intel revised downward its 1998 capital-spending plans and delayed new fabs in Israel and Fort Worth, Tex. But the order delay did have a silver lining, the SVG chairman noted. It gave SVGL a chance to court new customers. A few sales have been made to South Korean development fabs. In the past year, the lithography system vendor's output was almost completely taken up by major customers such as Intel, IBM Microelectronics, and Motorola. SVGL now has talks underway to sell its litho systems to Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp., der Torossian said. "We now have the ability to ship tools on a timely basis to meet their requirements," he pointed out. If SVGL is able to sign up UMC, it would be cracking the Taiwanese market for the first time -- a market that's long been dominated by rival ASM Lithography of The Netherlands. New customers for its fab tools would also help SVGL to fill up its huge new plant capacity. It is just now completing a massive plant expansion. This year the Wilton, Conn., lithography system maker will have the capacity to build up to 200 machines annually -- four times the number of systems it turned out in 1997. But the 50 machines that SVGL built last year was still enough to exceed the 30 step-and-scan tools produced by all its global competitors, said John Shamaly, vice president of marketing for the parent SVG. That growing capacity, however, could come in handy in a year or two when demand jumps significantly as chip makers shift rapidly to next-generation scanners. The one fly in the ointment, as far as der Torossian is concerned, is the falling value of the yen. He feared that his Japanese rivals may have an unfair pricing advantage. "They are offering extremely low prices now, partly because of the yen advantage," he noted. "If we match their prices, we can't get [enough of] a return on the very large investment we have made to stay at the leading edge of lithography technology."