1995 Ad

Electronic News, Oct 23, 1995 by Jeffrey Berger

Austin, Texas--Focusing on the latest offerings in semiconductor manufacturing equipment, materials and services--with a cow-chip-throwing contest added for regional flavor--the SEMICON/Southwest 95 trade show this week at the Austin Convention Center could not arrive at a better time--when every week brings news of one or more industry players either breaking new ground for facilities or expanding existing fabs. Can this growth continue and be sustained?

In an interview with Electronic News, analyst Dan Hutcheson of San Jose, Calif.-based VLSI Research Inc. was asked about the forecast for 1996 in capital equipment and materials. "Overall, it will be a good year. I have said before that if we can make it through the 1995 year, then 1996 will be a good year. So far, 1995 has turned out to be a very good year."

"This was," continued Mr. Hutcheson, "a year where we knew that Windows 95 was shipping late and that the Fed was trying to slow down the econom.y. However, while Windows 95 did ship late, seven million copies have been sold to date and that was more than any analyst expected. Further, Intel is going gangbusters with a new wave that is being driven by Pentium-based machines with 16 megs and Windows 95 software."

"Many are now afraid that 1996 and 1997 may turn up bad, but the fact that 1995 was so outstanding is showing that the industry is in a new paradigm," said Mr. Hutcheson, adding "although there are some negative issues such as the slowing of the economy in the second quarter, and other worries which may be based on the fact that within the last two 'booming' years, the industry has been out of character from how it has been in the previous 30 years."

"That is one of the key things. We now have 20 years of data where only the last two years are relevant to making decisions, and my greatest fear," admits Mr. Hutcheson, "is my waking up in the middle of next year to find that the last two years were a dream!" These years of data and a future forecast of worldwide semiconductor equipment sales and semiconductor sales from VLSI Research is posted with this story..

Mr. Hutcheson, summing 1995 up, said, "Well. I can't see any significant reason as to why we shouldn't have a great year in 1996 for the semiconductor industry. Some people are concerned over the soft book-to-bill ratio in the past few years, but I think we are seeing a shift from an industry-driven market to a consumer-driven market--because so many people are buying PCs for the home. So, as a result, for the past two years, we have seen uncharacteristically strong summers and weak falls. This is because the consumer market's integrated circuits have to be made in the summer to be part of the holiday market's products."

Hosted by Mountain View, Calif.-based Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI), the show and its myriad of meetings, seminars, and events, will take up space at the convention center, the Four Seasons Hotel and the Austin Marriott at the Capitol. SEMI will sponsor 17 technical, educational, and special programs, focusing on emerging trends in semiconductor production methodology.

For example, the SEMI Technical Education Program (STEP), Standards for the 300mm Era, to be held Oct. 24 at the Four Season Hotel, will examine how industry standardization can reduce the financial impact of converting the production of semiconductors from 200mm diameter wafers to 300mm wafers. Program topics include: timing and economics for implementing 300mm technology; specifications for developmental, test, prime, reclaim, and premium 300mm silicon wafers; factory design and integration issues; specifications for 300mm wafer carriers; and interface standards for 300mm process and metrology equipment.

SEMI will also sponsor more than 50 international standards meetings, dedicated to decreasing manufacturing costs, increasing reliability and productivity, and accessing global markets.

Other venues of interest are: a Micromachining & Microfabrication Symposium (Oct. 23-24 at the Marriott); an SPIE Microelectronics Manufacturing Symposium (Oct. 25-27 at the Marriott); a National Implant Users Meeting (Oct. 26 at the Four Seasons Hotel); a CE Marking Interest Group Meeting (Oct. 23 at the Four Seasons Hotel); and an Equipment and Materials Market Briefing (Oct. 24 at the Austin Convention Center).

The exhibit floor at Semicon/Southwest '95 will offer demonstrations of newly available or prototypical products. A random sampling follows:

San Jose, Calif.-based Ultratech Stepper, Inc., a supplier of photolithography systems used to manufacture semiconductors and thin film heads for disk drives, is unveiling Atlas Stepper Management, a new Microsoft Windows-based software program that is designed to help chipmakers optimize stepper performance on the production floor.

Leveraging improved programming functions and a new graphical user interface (GUI), Atlas is positioned for customizing reticle configurations and wafer layouts based on user-defined parameters such as throughput requirements, die size, and stepper field size. This function is performed off-line, thus helping to ensure that the stepper operation is not disrupted while parameters are being developed for new processes and chip designs. All documentation for Atlas is available on-line, and can be utilized via a context-sensitive, on-line help function. It is compatible with 16-and 32-bit Windows operating systems as well as other networks, allowing operation and data access to be handled from any networked systems. Production versions of Atlas will be available by the end of 2Q96.