Tech Hardware Supply Chain - Gazhoo

Bhavin Shah
(852) 2800-8538
bhavin.a.shah@jpmorgan.com
Asia Pacific Equity Research
20 April 2009
Technology transitions in front-end manufacturing:
Challenge and opportunity for capital equipment vendors
Wafer manufacturing has been witnessing technological changes over years. The
semiconductor manufacturing process transition from 90nm to 45nm is facing many
challenges and creating opportunities for capital equipment vendors. 300mm now has
65% penetration and companies are looking for the transition to 450mm.
45nm process technology roadmap
In 2H07, Intel became the first logic chipmaker to enter volume production using the
45nm (nanometer) process technology. As logic device makers initiate 45nm volume
production, increasing device complexity will continue to present new challenges
and drive major changes in semiconductor manufacturing. These include the
introduction of new materials as well as evolving device architectures and
manufacturing techniques, which create the need for a more complex set of capital
equipment. Major manufacturing changes occurring in advanced logic devices and
the effects on the capital equipment industry will be:
• The number of wafer passes for an advanced logic device will increase by
approximately 35%, to 547 wafer passes from 404, at the 45nm technology
node versus 90nm. This directly results in the need to purchase a larger capital
equipment tool set to produce the same number of devices at 45nm versus 90nm.
• For the first time since the start of the semiconductor industry, radical new
materials will be incorporated into the transistor in the form of metal gates
and “high k” dielectrics (insulators). Additionally, the widespread use of
“strained silicon” technology adds incremental layers and complexity to the
overall transistor design.
• Immersion lithography will be adopted into mainstream production. This
new technology, which is “wet” 193nm ArF, coupled with the continued overall
mix shift towards more advanced “dry” 248nm KrF and 193nm ArF (i.e., DUV)
tools, will result in an estimated 50% increase in blended ASPs for a suite of
photolithography systems for 45nm chip production versus 90nm, in our view.
Three core areas of technology change at 45nm
In the move to the 45nm technology node, we have classified important technology
changes into the following three broad categories:
• Patterning: The creation of device features versus lithography which is the
exposure of an image that is part of the patterning process after deposition and
before etch.
• Transistor engineering: Front-end of line (FEOL) device processing (essentially
on/off switches).
• Interconnect formation: Back-end of line (BEOL) interconnect formation (like
wires connecting light switches together).
Table 168 summarizes the most important changes for logic chips within these areas.
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