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

To: FJB who wrote (1103)	11/21/1998 3:58:00 PM
From: Ian@SI	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1305

Bob, Given that the statement was made by Carl Johnson who is from Texas, it's reasonable to assume that leading contenders for his reference to "one large manufacturer" would be one of MOT, TXN or INTC. I'd vote for INTC: They don't want to build greenfield 200mm; They're definitely into leading edge feature sizes; They have the money to do it; They've already announced plans for smaller than .18micron feature sizes. If that's the case, then it's likely that they'd contract the work to SVGI who supplied them with their Micrascans. To do otherwise would probably void any service contracts, warrantees or whatever. In any case, one of the Lithography vendors is likely to get a sizeable piece of business as well as CYMI selling several of their most advanced lasers. Just my WAG, Ian

To: FJB who wrote (1103)	11/21/1998 6:04:00 PM
From: Katherine Derbyshire	Respond to of 1305

Retrofitting with a 193nm laser would essentially require replacement of the lens. Not only would you need different materials, you would need different optical prescriptions. (There's a different word for it , I think, but I forget what it is.) You might also need to change the length of the optical path, which would mean raising or lowering the stage and/or lens. Once you do all that, plus replace the laser, plus deal with the degraded performance from using a non-optimized system, plus deal with reliability problems from things like resist outgassing, I'm not sure you wouldn't be better off just replacing the stepper. Katherine