Semicon/Japan mood?

02/01/1997

Semicon/Japan mood optimistic but subdued

SEMICON/Japan `96, held in December at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture outside Tokyo, posted a record of 120,590 attendees. Booths were sold out, with 1326 exhibitors on site, an increase of 16 percent over last year. Show floor

traffic projected a mood that was somewhat subdued, given the general consensus that 1997 will see equipment sales drop from 1996 levels. Most vendors remained optimistic, however, with the perception that 0.25-micron production buys will have to begin late in the new year or early in 1998.

Developments in 300-mm wafers were one of the hottest topics at the show; a novel display in the main show corridor featured booths for the major developmental agencies along with wafers from seven suppliers. Shin-Etsu Handotai attracted attention with its booth display of a 300-mm boule.

Another underlying theme was cost-cutting, with many exhibitors touting throughput improvements, lower contamination, and process simplification. Device makers are shrinking their products more aggressively to get the most out of their leading-edge capacity, and lowering process cost is seen as a way to spur interest when major fab construction is waning.

Major product rollouts were relatively scarce; perhaps the biggest was Canon`s unveiling of its deep UV step-and-scan lithography tool, the FPA-4000 ES1. Featuring a 25 ? 33-mm field and resolution of 0.25-micron or better with 70-nm overlay, production-ready versions of the machine are expected to ship in 2Q97. Throughput is an impressive 80, 200-mm wafers/hour, numerical aperture is 0.63, and 6-in. 4:1 reduction reticles are used. A chemical filter is built into the environmental chamber to provide a better atmosphere for sensitive resists. - P.N.D.