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To: Drapeau who wrote (531)	3/23/1999 10:12:00 AM
From: vince doran	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42385

What impact might this have on reuse of current generation steppers? Canon Develops Technology to Help Cut Chip Production Costs Tokyo, March 22 (Bloomberg) -- Canon Inc., Japan's largest office equipment maker, said it developed technology to help microchip-makers cut production costs as they cram more information onto chips. The technology, called Innovative Double Exposure Advanced Lithography, involves etching a microchip's circuitry onto silicon wafers by laser through two glass masks rather than one used in most stepper machines, said Canon spokesman Yoshihiro Okamoto. Use of two glass masks narrows the laser beam's wavelengths, allowing chipmakers to produce chips with narrower circuitry features. That means companies could use existing stepper machines to make future generations of microchips and avoid paying as much as 1.2 billion yen ($10.2 million) each for future generations of the stepper machines, which contain the light sources, said Okamoto. ''If it can be done, it's a big deal,'' said Richard Kaye, an analyst at Merrill Lynch Japan Inc. ''It's a long-term one, though, because the E-beam steppers this technology might challenge are only expected to come on line in 2005.'' Tokyo-based Canon's new technology would enable current generations of krypton fluoride excimer stepper machines to etch chip features at line widths of 0.12 microns -- or millionths of a meter -- and argon fluoride steppers at line widths of 0.08 microns. Current generations of stepper machines typically etch circuitry at line widths of 0.25 microns. By comparison, a human hair measures about 300 microns across. Financial savings for chipmakers from incorporating the technology ''would depend on the cost of individual machines, but we're talking several tens of millions of yen a time,'' said Canon's Okamoto. Canon unveiled the technology at a presentation in San Jose, California, on Thursday, Okamoto said. Japan's six largest chipmakers are keen to identify ways to cut costs in the chipmaking process as they try to stem losses cause by oversupply of many kinds of computer chip. The six -- NEC Corp., Toshiba Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Fujitsu Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and Oki Electric Industry Co. -- are slashing their capital spending on their microchip businesses by a combined 44 percent in the year ending this month in a bid to cut costs. Canon shares rose 80 yen to 2,900 on Friday. Vince