Someinteresting though general bites of information came out of ASML’squarterly conference call today that noted the adoption cycle by thevarious chip manufacturers for immersion lithography.
ASML’s head honcho Eric Meurice noted that the initial wave of volumeproduction orders for immersion tools was coming from the NAND flashmanufacturers as they are pushing the technology nodes harder thananyone else in an effort to remain cost competitive in this rapidlygrowing market. They are also helped by the fact that NAND technologyis much simpler to scale than anything else!
Thesecond wave, which has only just started, comes from the moreaggressive DRAM manufacturers pushing 50x nm migration, which is abouta year behind that of NAND on a mass-market ramp basis. This willkick-in in 2008, we are told.
The most interesting aspect notedby Meurice was that logic manufacturers would be 12 to 18 months behindDRAM, putting the mass ramp at 45nm somewhere in 2009!
Consideringthat Intel is using dry double patterning 193nm ArF for its 45nm rampnow underway, immersion volume production ramp for the major foundriesand the likes of AMD could well be a 2009 affair!
