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Technology Stocks : Cymer (CYMI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Volsi Mimir who wrote (21313)	3/15/1999 4:00:00 PM
From: Zeev Hed	Respond to of 25960

crow, I concur with Robert that CYMI is a good buy here if you plan to hold it for two years. If you do not have the stomach to be in an issue through a wrenching decline, my tea leaves say that between here and the end of June you might have an opportunity to get it at better prices (right now I see some 16-17 in the next two three months), of course, if you wait, you may risk it roaring ahead and taking out $30 (VBG). Seriously, if you consider this as long term core holding, I would lay some chips down between 20 and 22, and some more if it breaks to the high teens. Just my 2 cents, of course. Zeev

To: Volsi Mimir who wrote (21313)	3/15/1999 4:01:00 PM
From: ScotMcI	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25960

FWIW, some ArFl-related comments made during various conference calls: Q4, 1998. Akins is responding to a question regarding lens materials: Akins: For 193nm, there's been lots of discussion recently about calcium fluoride and the use of calcium fluoride at least in a limited way initially in the projection tools for that particular wavelength. That continues to be a issue which is being worked by everyone in the industry. Tremendous progress is being made. I think it's seen as a very significant factor, but perhaps not the most fundamental factor limiting the ramp up rate for ArFl systems. And remember that ArFl is not expected ramp up for some time, so there's considerable time for the industry to address that. I will also bring up the fact that photoresist at 193nm is another issue that doesn't receive too much attention. It's different than 248nm. There's a significant amount of development that has to go on before we have a production-worthy ArFl resist, and so that's one to be watched as well over the next 2 years or so. Q4, 1998: Deahna: Ok. Bob, question for you. Last question. There's a new story out today quoting some folks from Motorola talking about extending the use of their installed base of their lithography tools with aggressive phase-shift masks. Are we still looking at a scenario where as you move from generation to generation, for example .18 you take the scanners and you go to the INA (?) scanners below that, with increasingly sophisticated lasers at each generation to do critical layer lithography, do you see that trend continuing, or do you see people stretching their steppers and scanners for multiple generations at the leading edge layers? Akins: I think we're going to see both, Jay. I don't see that there is room for either one of those technologies to slow down. So we'll see a maximum push on lithography tool technology, the laser technology, and the mask all simultaneous to one another. Interestingly, and as has been discussed more and more in the industry, the role of the pure capability of the lithography tool and the mask is one that is going to be a very interesting dynamic to watch over the next few years. This Motorola press release makes one pause, in that by putting aggressive development behind not just the masks but also the tools and the lasers, Motorola is saying they can squeeze, I say the gate performance down to 0.10 micron with KrFl tools. These are obviously extremely high numerical aperture tools, requiring a lot more performance from the laser and very aggressive phase-shift mask technology. At the same time, you have another genre of chipmakers, especially microprocessor manufacturers, who have less confidence, if you will, in KrFl being pushed to that limit. And therefore are desiring to accelerate ArFl and use a much simpler mask technology with those systems. In either case, you'll see all aspects of that technology being pushed to the maximum. Deahna: So the markets are segmenting? Akins: That's right. And an interesting byproduct of this is as you're probably aware the potential overlap of two generations of different but still full-production lithography tools. Where KrFl and ArFl tools will coexist, each being pushed to very high levels of performance for a substantial number of years. Which of course is different that the G- to I-line conversion, or the I-line to DUV conversion. So that'll be an interesting dynamic to watch. Q4, 1998: Wolf: Second question. Nikon has announced they're shipping 10 ArFl steppers this quarter. I think ASM is trying to catch up with them. Can you give us an idea of who's supplying those ArFl systems to them? Akins: We're questioning right now if we agree with your thesis about the 10 … Wolf: They say they have 10 in inventory. They're going to ship them in the 1st quarter. Akins: Ok. That may be the case, I'm not going to comment on that particular thesis. It may be the case. It's difficult for me to make comments about, again, what market share we're going to have going forward. I can tell you that our ArFl products are qualified at Nikon. And I think I just can't say a whole lot more than that as far as what we anticipate their decisions will be. Q3, 1998. In Akins' opening remarks: Since our last talk, there has been an ArFl international conference held in Austria, focusing on ArFl and its development for product production in the years to come. We attended that conference, presented a few papers. We're talking about ArFl levels of performance in power and pulse repetition rate, which are aggressive. We have one-kilohertz ArFl technology today that we ship. We are working on two-kilohertz and three-kilohertz as we announced in that conference. I think that our competition is still working to achieve adequate one-kilohertz performance there, so we certainly are extending our R&D lead in that new technology area going forward. Also for completeness, I should point out that at the conference Ushio also announced that they were developing an ArFl excimer laser. Ushio of course being a Japanese company that has been supplying (sounds like 'murky balls') to the lithography industry. They decided to enter this marketplace as well. Information there is very preliminary. They have some laser specifications to announce. Obviously they have a lot of work to do to get to the point where they would be at the same point of development of either a Komatsu or a Lambda Physic. Q1, 1998: Jones: Have you been qualified with your 193nm laser anyplace? Akins: To begin with, it depends on the word qualification. There is no true definition of qualification for ArFl. It's very much a development tool. We see qualification as a manufacturing/production term. Certainly our lasers … we have been shipping ArFl to our customers for process development and tool development for a number of years now. So, yes, in fact I believe we have a larger installed base of ArFl photolithography than any company