Firm Raises Lithography Tool Unit Forecast
Barclays Capital has increased its lithography forecast amid growing demand — and shortages — in this fab tool sector.
The investment banking firm is raising its forecast for total lithography units to 251 from 234 and sees potential for as high as 260 in 2012. It sees no change to i-line, of which it has an estimate of 66 units this year.
Barclays sees one fewer 193nm dry tool than previous forecast. But 248nm tools are expected to hit 90 units in 2012, compared to 75 in the previous forecast. And 193nm immersion shipments are expected to hit 85 units this year, compared to 82 in the previous estimate, according to the firm.
“Immersion tool supply is becoming increasingly tight, led by foundry demand. We understand ASML is trying to accommodate the pull-in of three immersion tools to GlobalFoundries’ Dresden fab into the June quarter, but that current demand from Samsung and TSMC is making this difficult,” said C.J. Muse, an analyst with Barclays.
“Samsung’s conversion of an Austin line from NAND to System LSI is requiring a handful of incremental immersion tools, adding to our forecast,” he said. Samsung is converting 10,000 wafers for 28nm devices based on a polysilicon gate stack for Qualcomm and others, he said.
Tags: ASML, GlobalFoundries, Nikon, Samsung, TSMC