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Technology Stocks : Micron Only Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Chas who wrote (42049)	1/8/1999 8:12:00 PM
From: PAinvestor	Respond to of 53903

MU reckons it can manufacture chips at 0.15 micron feature size using a 248nm DUV stepper as their illumination source. They are using a phase shift mask called a Levenson shifter, which are much more expensive than weak phase shift masks, to effect the 2-3 shrinks that will take it to 0.15 from where they are currently. Phase shift masks alter the light from the illumination source to increase resolution and allow finer feature sizes to be produced. This is hoped that this will extend the life of their existing KrF steppers so that they do not need to make the transition to ArF (and the added cost) that the rest of the industry will be making. It is an as-yet untried technology is mass-production so no-one know what the yields will end up being. In that sense it is very important for MU, the choice of technology utilized for chip-shrink is critical.