Although the JV approach caught me a bit offguard, the public announcement that Applied was jumping into the track-tool market confirmed information I had received since late 2005. A former FSI track tool manager told me at Semicon West that many of his old team had been hired by Applied. A metrology company executive told me he had been working with the equipment giant on its track project and even gave it a name--Paris. My not-so-subtle questions posed to various Applied folks went largely unanswered in early spring, but they neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the project. As one AMATer told me, "don't hold your breath!"

But my suspicions resurfaced a few weeks ago when I found a listing on Applied's own Website job board for a "process MTS senior engineer" for its "PARIS product." The want ad further stated that the company was "looking for a lithography process engineer to join their technology development team" with 10 years of lithography and photoresist track experience," among other items. The plot thickened.

Now it's official---there's a new force to be reckoned with in the photo-track equipment market, which Dataquest says should reach nearly $2 billion by 2008. Many chipmakers will be pleased to see market dominator TEL get some real competition, even if it also means Applied has its hands in yet another chip-tool market segment.

Please feel free to comment on the news of the Applied-Screen resist track JV and its implications for the semiconductor manufacturing universe.