In an article by David Lammers from Semiconductor International, David reports on comments from new SEMATECH CEO Dan Armbrust made at the SEMATECH Surface Preparation and Cleaning Conference in Austin this week:
“To be able to do 450 mm equipment development, it will require very significant contributions from those companies that want it…” The R&D costs of 450 mm equipment development are so large that “these are bet-your-company propositions for the equipment vendors. Before you bet your company, you want to feel confident” that the semiconductor industry is ready to buy 450 mm equipment in volumes.