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Technology Stocks : Semi-Equips - Buy when BLOOD is running in the streets! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LemurHouse who wrote (7091)	10/7/1998 3:57:00 PM
From: Katherine Derbyshire	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10921

Photomask companies are actually doing pretty well now, relatively speaking. They'll also benefit from added utilization. DUV laser companies are tied to stepper purchases, so they won't pick up until exposure tools do. Switching from i-line to DUV is pretty complicated, requiring all kinds of new gas lines, resist processing systems, and environmental controls. You'll see some upgrades, but the big DUV boom won't happen until new construction picks up. Lead time for exposure tools is pretty long, though, so orders might pick up before other process tools do. As a paper at the BACUS photomask symposium explained it, people who can't afford to buy steppers spend lots of money on masks in order to shrink with existing equipment. People who can afford steppers upgrade the exposure tool, simplifying the mask. (Besides being cheaper, a simpler mask has a shorter lead time.) That makes high end masks, especially phase shift, somewhat counter-cyclical. More details at news.semiconductoronline.com Katherine