Editor's Page

Euronotes

My recent trip to Europe sandwiched Semicon's swan song in Geneva between visits to facilities in eastern Germany and the Netherlands. Francis Bacon once said that "travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience." As someone at the beginning of middle age, I see benefits of both sorts. Here then are some fragments of conversation and observation from my travels.

GERMANY—What I saw of the former East Germany buzzes with infrastructure and public works construction and renovation. Change is coming fast and furious. The Siemens fab in Dresden occupies land used for military purposes for most of this century. Less than 10 years ago, before 16- and 64-Mb chips were manufactured there, Soviet T-54 and T-62 tanks rumbled across the landscape. Look for my Facility Report on the Siemens Microelectronics Center in an upcoming issue.

The old Carl Zeiss Works were peppered throughout Jena's central city area during preunification days. Now the Zeiss offspring have moved to new industrial parks on the outskirts of town. During my visit to Jenoptik Infab there, company president and CEO Rudolf Simon commented that fabs are perceived as clean factories yet they are really chemical plants. Simon talked about how Jenoptik and parent company Meissner+Wurst are working to maintain the industry's clean image — and to drive better economic models — by seriously addressing power consumption and other environmental issues as part of their factory integration approach.

SWITZERLAND—"We leave Geneva with some sadness.... We will miss this city and the wonderful people we've met here," said Stan Myers, SEMI's president, at the Semicon Europa press conference. But fond memories aside, SEMI and its member companies won't miss the Palexpo's low attendance figures or question the absence of an industry heavyweight as Applied Materials rejoins the show when it moves to Munich's new Trade Fair Center next year.

Quotable quote from the Semicon show floor: "When it comes to Asia, bet now on Taiwan, later on China, and forget about the rest." — Heinz Kundert, president of BPS (formerly Balzers Process Systems). Most painful story heard on the show floor: A German company's parts-cleaning tool fell off a truck in Houston on its way to be evaluated at I300I in Austin. Of course, that's better than some companies, whose 300-mm programs have yet to get on the truck.

THE NETHERLANDS—"Our customers don't talk about 0.25 µm any more... they want 0.18, and talk about 0.15, 0.13. That's happened in the last year and a half." So said Bert Koek, ASM Lithography product manager for step-and-scan tools and tour guide during my visit to the company's headquarters in Veldhoven, outside Eindhoven in the southern part of the country. He thinks photomasks are the bottleneck, though. "We need 0.15, 0.13-µm masks now (for equipment testing) with appropriate (20-nm) critical dimension control, but they're not available yet."

Manufacturing observations: Steely Dan, ZZ Top, and other classic rock and pop music blasting on the stereo where reticle stages, wafer stages, illumination units, and the like are being assembled may be one reason why ASML keeps its tight 12- to 15-week cycle times. Other, more obvious reasons include the lithography player's common platform approach and extensive network of qualified submodule, module, and component suppliers. A final ASML factoid: when sending its large systems via air freight, the company must limit the shipment to one specially crated tool per 747.

Tom Cheyney
Editor

tom.cheyney@cancom.com

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