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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Math Junkie who wrote (26237)	11/13/1998 7:34:00 PM
From: Joseph Beltran	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

I spoke to the CFO at BRKS today and he told me that orders AND shipments to south korea were picking up strongly. On the other hand, bookings to Japan were slower but expected them to start picking up soon. Overall I got the distinct impression that he felt that business had turned the corner and sounded very bullish going forward. I realize BRKS is in a different sector than AMAT but it's another piece of the puzzle...PRIA made a strong move yesterday. BTW, BRKS reports on the 19th

To: Math Junkie who wrote (26237)	11/14/1998 8:25:00 AM
From: Duker	Respond to of 70976

*OTKLAC**Neat tool... A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc. Story posted 9:30 a.m. EDT/6:30 a.m. PDT, 11/13/98 KLA-Tencor offers 200/300-mm tool for 0.18-micron process monitoring By J. Robert Lineback SAN JOSE--KLA-Tencor Corp. here has launched a new process tool monitoring system that's designed for 0.18-micron and below fabrication technologies and capable of being upgraded for 300-mm wafer diameters in the field. The AIT II has been fitted with a number of new features to boost throughput while hunting for yield-lowering defects caused by a particular process tool. By focusing on throughput and the ability to detect identified "killer" defects, the new process tool monitoring system can potentially lower wasted production costs and help improve maintenance of wafer fab equipment, said Paul Huffman, marketing director for the AIT product series at KLA-Tencor. "This system has been designed specifically for 0.18-micron and below process generations and we now fully believe it is capable of going do to 0.13 micron," he said. "We are also looking at the possibility of using the system below those minimum process feature sizes." KLA-Tencor is pushing the capability of process tool monitoring systems because it believes next-generation wafer fabs will rely on the ability to quickly detect when results from production equipment are causing microscratches, blemishes and other anomalies that are serious threats to yields. KLA-Tencor also offers process line monitoring systems to help identify those yield-busting defects from so-called nuisance defects, which are becoming more difficult to sort out (see story from Sept. 15 publication of SBN). Those results are passed on to process tool monitoring systems that are focused on specific defects and capable of higher throughputs. The AIT II system can be set to focus its inspection capability on three different spot sizes, allowing operators to adjust the throughput and sensitivity to a particular production tool. It's maximum setting will result in a throughput of 40 wafers per hour (200-mm substrates) and 14 wafers per hour (300-mm). The current AIT process tool monitoring system has a 200-mm wafer throughput of 30 per hour with out the ability to adjust defect spot sizes. "At 40 wafers per hour, this is the highest throughput of any pattern inspection tool today. This rate is for patterned production wafer and not bare wafers," Huffman explained. Production tool monitoring systems are increasingly being challenged by shrinking feature sizes, which mean serious defect sizes are also getting smaller. And for tool monitoring gear, new types of processing systems are creating additional challenges. For example, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is being used in more fabs and the ability to find microscratches from planarization steps is becoming a yield issue. In addition to throughput, the AIT II platform has been designed in a modular fashion so that sections can be replaced when upgrading from 200-mm to 300-mm wafers. This bridging capability is possible without adding any extra cost for chip makers only wanting a 200-mm system, according to Huffman. A base-line AIT II system for 200-mm wafers is priced at $1.7 milliion while 300-mm systems start at $2.1 million. A field upgrade system will also be made available to wafer fabs using the 200-mm AIT II tool. KLA-Tencor has shipped early AIT II systems to Siemens AG's 200-mm wafer fab in Dresden, Germany, which has been testing the tool since July. According to the metrology company, Siemens recently began using the system successfully in its 64-Mbit DRAM volume production line.