EDA in the Cloud – Now More Than Ever

EDA in the Cloud – Now More Than Ever
by Kalar Rajendiran on 07-27-2021 at 10:00 am

Screen Shot 2021 07 14 at 4.32.16 PM

A decade ago, many of us heard commentaries on how entrepreneurs were turned down by venture capitalists for not including a cloud strategy in their business plan, no matter what the core business was. Humorous punchlines such as, “It’s cloudy without any clouds” and “Add some cloud to your strategy and your future will be bright… Read More


ASML- A Semiconductor Market Leader-Strong Demand Across all Products/Markets

ASML- A Semiconductor Market Leader-Strong Demand Across all Products/Markets
by Robert Maire on 07-25-2021 at 6:00 am

asml logo 20120410 1

– Strong demand across logic/memory & leading/trailing edge
– Customers want units fast-no time to test
– The main question is can ASML ramp to meet demand?

Revenue & Earnings low due to systems being rushed to customers
ASML reported Euro 4B in sales and Euro 1B in net income which while within guidance… Read More


Stochastic Origins of EUV Feature Edge Roughness

Stochastic Origins of EUV Feature Edge Roughness
by Fred Chen on 07-11-2021 at 10:00 am

Stochastic Origins of EUV Feature Edge Roughness

Due to the higher energy of EUV (13.3-13.7 nm wavelength) compared to ArF (193 nm wavelength) light, images produced by EUV are more susceptible to photon shot noise.

Figure 1. (Left) 40 nm dense (half-pitch) line image projected onto wafer at 35 mJ/cm2; (Right) 20 nm dense (half-pitch) line image projected onto wafer at 70 mJ/cm2.Read More


Contrast Reduction vs. Photon Noise in EUV Lithography

Contrast Reduction vs. Photon Noise in EUV Lithography
by Fred Chen on 05-30-2021 at 6:00 am

Contrast Reduction vs. Photon Noise in EUV Lithography

The stochastic behavior of images formed in EUV lithography has already been highlighted by a number of authors [1-3]. How serious it appears depends on the pixel size with which the photons are bunched. Generally, though, for features of around 20 nm or less, even 1 nm can have at least a +/- 15% gradient across it, which is still a

Read More

KLAC- Great QTR & Guide- Foundry/logic focus driver- Confirms $75B capex in 2021

KLAC- Great QTR & Guide- Foundry/logic focus driver- Confirms $75B capex in 2021
by Robert Maire on 05-02-2021 at 10:00 am

KLAC Foundry Logic

– KLA put up an excellent quarter and Guide
– Rising above the increasing tide of orders
– Confirms $75B capex in 2021 with upside
– Foundry & Logic continue to be the sweet spot for KLA

Business is very very good and getting better

-Revenues came in at $1.8B with EPS of $3.85, all above the range
-Guidance… Read More


Lam Research performing like a Lion – Chip equip on steroids

Lam Research performing like a Lion – Chip equip on steroids
by Robert Maire on 04-29-2021 at 10:00 am

NASDAQ LRCX LAM

– Business is about as good as it gets- $75B WFE in 2021?
– China remains strong at 32% despite SMIC lack of license
– NAND remains 48% of revs versus 31% foundry
– DRAM steady @ 14% – Service was record $1.3B

Strong results in a strong market

Lam reported revenues of $3.85B and EPS of $7.49 for the March… Read More


ASML early signs of an order Tsunami – Managing the ramp

ASML early signs of an order Tsunami – Managing the ramp
by Robert Maire on 04-27-2021 at 10:00 am

ASML Stock Price 2021

Taiwan and Korea represented 43% and 44% respectively with China at 15% and Japan and the US in the far distance.

ASML a tidal wave of orders

On the call management talked about logic potentially being up 30% in 2021 and memory being up potentially 50%. While we thing foundry/logic will clearly be on fir we think memory will lag a bit.… Read More


SPIE 2021 – Applied Materials – DRAM Scaling

SPIE 2021 – Applied Materials – DRAM Scaling
by Scotten Jones on 04-08-2021 at 10:00 am

Slide1

At the SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference in February 2021, Regina Freed of Applied Materials gave a paper: “Module-Level Material Engineering for Continued DRAM Scaling”. Applied Materials provided me with the presentation and was kind enough to set up an interview for me with Regina Freed.

I also spoke to Regina Freed last… Read More


Intel’s IDM 2.0

Intel’s IDM 2.0
by Scotten Jones on 03-24-2021 at 4:00 am

Slide1 1

In January I presented at the ISS conference a comparison of Intel’s, Samsung’s and TSMC’s leading edge offerings. You can read a write-up of my presentation here.

With the problems going on at Intel, that article generated a lot of interest in the investment community, and I have been holding a lot of calls with analysts who are trying… Read More


SPIE 2021 – ASML DUV and EUV Updates

SPIE 2021 – ASML DUV and EUV Updates
by Scotten Jones on 03-17-2021 at 10:00 am

SPIE DUV 2021 ASML NXT4 DryWet Presentation final noWPD2 Page 42

At the SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference held in February, ASML presented the latest information on their Deep Ultraviolet (DUV) and Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) exposure systems. I recently got to interview Mike Lercel of ASML to discuss the presentations.

DUV

Despite all the attention EUV is getting, most layers are still… Read More