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Technology Stocks : Etec Systems moving up -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (1181)	3/26/1999 7:19:00 PM
From: Clarksterh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1279

Article on mask costs: eetimes.com Excerpt: Another contributor is simply the large number of masks needed to produce a sophisticated four-metal or five-metal wafer, compared with requirements in the halcyon days of two-metal layers and simple interconnect technology. At least 15 masks are needed for a given stepper, and a single mask for a critical layer at 0.18 micron can cost $25,000 to $50,000, said a spokesman for DuPont Photomasks (Round Rock, Texas). That adds up: The photomasks' cost as a percentage of an IC average selling price has nearly doubled in recent years to 2 percent. Clark