Industry Investing More in The Upcoming Transition
Top equipment vendors are stepping up their efforts to develop 450mm equipment, with significant R&D spending starting to occur, said presenters at different SEMICON sessions.
“We can’t ignore 450mm,” said Rick Hill, CEO of Novellus Systems. The R&D engineers at Novellus are dealing with plasma uniformity issues and other core topics, he said, but work is going forward.
“Clearly, there is a communication going on (about 450mm). Our customers know that everyone has got to be able to make a buck,” Hill said.
Mike Splinter, CEO of Applied Materials, said “450mm is at least two nodes away. There is still a lot of work to do.”
A securities analyst asked Splinter how much Applied will spend next year on 450mm equipment development. He was reluctant to put a specific number on Applied’s plans, but said 450mm-related spending is likely to exceed $100 million next year. That comes out of what a spokesman said is roughly a $1 billion-dollar R&D budget.
Randhir Thakur, general manager of Applied’s Silicon Systems Group, said the 450mm related investments by the major customers “are going forward.” Applied has learned to keep in close communication with those customers so it doesn’t get ahead or behind their curve.
At Novellus, Fusen Chen, the executive vice president in charge of semiconductor systems products, said Novellus is not going to be a bottleneck for its customers. None of the technical challenges brought by the larger wafers are unfamiliar to the Novellus R&D staff. During the 300mm wafer transition, customers stopped and started their 300mm transitions three different times. Then, when the 300mm tools started shipping, equipment companies found that customers were paying a small premium for tools that cost much more to build. Material costs were higher for the 300mm equipment, and in some cases one tool would replace several 200mm tools.
“All of the technical issues are within our areas of expertise,” Chen said, adding that the key challenge involves the return on investment.