Mar 3 2009 12:37PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |
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…The panel discussion, that is. Maybe it’s my warped sense of humor, but when the Tuesday night panel of lithography for 22 nm was canceled, the sign indicating as such struck me as funny. So much of the conversation at SPIE Advanced Lithography last week was focused on how difficult it was going to be to get to the 22 nm node, given that EUV lithography will no longer be the answer many had hoped for. So when I heard that lithography for 22 nm was canceled, I thought, “Well, I guess they just gave up.”

The week seemed to be full...Read More

Feb 23 2009 11:47PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |
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I rushed into the plenaries this morning at 2 minutes to 8, sure that I’d be stuck standing with my notepad until my eyes could adjust and I could squeeze into an open seat. Instead, I found perhaps 40 of the hundreds of chairs occupied, with some others milling about, getting caught up after months of restricted travel. I was able to take my pick of seats and, when I chose a seat on the aisle, I never once had to scoot aside to let somebody else into the row.

I don’t yet know what the attendance figures are for Advanced Lithography this year — those will likely come at the end of the week. But it’s safe to say that this is not a banner attendance year. The typical big names are here — I see plenty stan...Read More

Feb 4 2009 8:27AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |
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I know, I’ve been AWOL from this space for months and months, but here’s a little blip on your radar screen as I come out of the fox hole in preparation for SPIE. Speaking of which, what exactly is that Advanced Lithography exhibit going to look like this year?

I had heard some time ago that ASML had pulled out of the exhibit, leaving just a banner in its wake. And now I hear that Cymer has decided to pull out as well. Could there be two companies more deeply rooted in lithography? If these two have decided not to exhibit at the biggest lithography show of the year, what are the others pondering about their exhibition investments?

Or maybe the...Read More

Aug 31 2008 5:39PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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I’m on a train from Madrid to Valencia, Spain, where I will attend the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition this week. As I look out over the rolling hills, I’m reminded of another solar event on the beautiful land surrounding San Francisco. As a pleasant final cap to a grueling SEMICON West/Intersolar North America week in mid-July, I joined Advanced Energy (Fort Collins, Colo.) for a tour of Cline Cellars, a winery in Sonoma, Calif.

We got the standard Cline Cellars tour, complete with the history of what was once a mission site, as well as fascinating tidbits about how wine is made. But our tour stopped perhaps longer than most do when they reach the site of th...Read More

Aug 13 2008 1:14PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (4) |
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For the SEMICON West Daily News, I reported on the Tuesday afternoon Device Scaling TechXPOT, which featured presentations and panel discussion on lithography options at 22 nm. Although I wanted to include comments from moderator Lars Liebmann, I had to cut back to make the story fit on one page (all the news that fits, right?). Granted, lithographers and their suppliers have a mighty difficult task ahead of them, but Liebmann had a particular knack for making each technology candidate look bad — and for upsetting several participants and attendees along the way.

This TechXPOT session offered up six speakers to present on six potential lithography routes: immersi...Read More