450mm manufacturing will not be introduced until 2018 “or thereabouts”, said Rob Hartmann of the world’s No.1 lithography equipment manufacturer, ASML, which will come as a disappointment to TSMC which says it will have a 450mm pilot line in 2013-14 and a volume production fab running 450mm wafers in 2015-16.
Hartmann made his statement in a panel session today at Semicon Europa. The TSMC statement was made last week at IEF2011 in Seville.
Asked by Electronics Weekly how he felt about not having a tool ready to meet the TSMC timeline, Hartmann replied: “Ask TSMC if they are prepared to fund the development of the tool,” adding: “I really wonder if they'll meet that timeline.”
Asked if the $4.4bn investment in 450mm at the College of Nanotechnology at Albany by the State of New York, Samsung, TSMC, Intel, IBM and Globalfoundries meant that Europe is too late to engage in a 450mm project, Hartmann replied: “That depends on European technology.”
Hartmann added that he thought the EU would act if it was becoming clear that Europe was becoming uncompetitive.
Jean-Marc Chery, executive vp at ST, thought that it was more important to decide on whether to go down the finfet route or a device based on fully depleted SOI, before a decision on 450mm needed to be taken.
David Manners, Dresden