Affordability Concerns in Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing: The Nature of Industrial Linkage

摘要

What can we make of this? First of all, whatever concerns some might have about the profitability consequences of Intel' s struggle to provide technological leadership in its industry, it is difficult to cast equipment manufacturers in the role of the culprit. If anything, the results of the Applied Materials case study hint that these same pressures can afflict equipment suppliers even more severely. From the perspective of semiconductor manufacturers, the issue might seem to be one of equipment affordability, to be sure. When viewed from further back along the technology foodchain, however, we discover that equipment suppliers may be struggling every bit as valiantly to stay ahead of their customers.