Mask projections

SOURCE: SEMICO RESEARCH

A recent market report says that the photomask market could reach nearly $5 billion by 2007. Semico Research's "Mask Making: Rising Costs, Changing Business Models, New Technologies" reviews the effect of the subwavelength era on mask prices. The study also focuses on three key areas of discussion in the mask community: the dramatic increase in resolution and mask complexity demands and how these will drive mask-set prices; how mask costs will affect the fabrication of chip prototypes, ASICs, and other low-volume devices; and the possibility of the "design for manufacture" business model being achieved. The report also looks at the mask usage landscape, user and vendor perspectives on the mask-making business, and promising new technologies such as immersion and EUV lithography. At the recent BACUS Photomask symposium, International Sematech senior fellow Walter Trybula presented the consortium's model for projecting 65-nm technology mask costs, noting that the price tag for a leading-edge mask set could rise to $3 million at that node. He also noted that mask yields will be a growing concern in future cost-of-ownership calculations.