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Technology Stocks : MEMC INT'L. (WFR -NYSE) The Sleeping Giant? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Carl R. who wrote (3860)	10/1/1998 9:31:00 AM
From: olduvai5	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4697

Doubtful that MOT will stop altogether. There is a need for higher quality Epi wafers for the 256MB DRAM JV with Siemens at White Oak. That's probably the source of the rumor. Very high quality wafers - especially Epi - are required for making high density chips like 256MB DRAM and Pentium / PPC uprocessors. The requirements are much less stringent for logic chips and such. The basic limiting factor is the line width the photolithography is done at. Most chips are made with 0.35u line widths now. The industry is moving toward 0.25 as the standard. Most DRAM and uProc is done at 0.25, some at 0.18. Obviously, to stay in the business, quality must improve continuosly on the input side. WFR has invested a LOT of money on better sawing and polishing equipment to meet this need. I expect that their RIF may cause them some setback in terms of operator skill, but part of the reason for upgrading is to remove operator induced variation by increasing the level of automation. olduvai5