Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 1760 The Biggest Golden Finger (Second Update, Please Subscribe)
Every era has its own industrial characteristics.

Integrated circuit manufacturers of this era often integrate R&D and manufacturing. Every company entering this industry needs to build its own production plant, the only difference is the size.

Fortunately, the current projection lithography machines are not as expensive as they were in later generations, and the startups that received investment can afford them. Therefore, they all adopt the traditional industrial production model, that is, they do everything from design to manufacturing and testing by themselves.

"The current integrated circuit design industry is an asset-heavy industry, which is undoubtedly not conducive to the development of the industry. After all, not every company can build its own manufacturing plant, and not every enterprise has the corresponding manufacturing technology..."

Almost subconsciously, when mentioning these, Li Yian thought of "foundry" and thought of another world-famous company, TSMC.

TSMC is the world's largest and most advanced integrated circuit foundry. It has never designed chips itself, but has relied on doing foundry work for various companies to develop into the world's most technologically advanced chip manufacturer and the industry leader.

“So we need to build a foundry.”

"Foundry?"

Zhao Peiqi was stunned at first. He was not unfamiliar with OEM factories. In SEA, many companies did not have their own factories. They relied on OEM from overseas factories, and those companies were often limited to clothing, toys, shoes and hats and other businesses.

No one has done this on integrated circuits yet.

"Yes, it is OEM,"

Li Yian then explained:

“Although chips are good things, the construction and debugging of chip factories require huge amounts of money and a long time. Although the traditional industrial production model can be used from beginning to end, each link actually consumes a lot of resources, which will inevitably lead to waste of resources.

By the time the project is completed, I’m afraid it’s too late to make any use of it. For investors, it’s like looking at the meat in the bowl but not being able to eat it. That’s really frustrating.”

Listening to your explanation, although Zhao Peiqi understood the truth, he still pointed out the shortcomings of your suggestion:

"Sir, although the foundry model has been around for a long time, no one has done foundry work for integrated circuits. The reason why no one has set foot in this industry is that it involves the commercial secrets of some R&D companies. If the foundry leaks the secrets, it will definitely deal a heavy blow to the R&D companies.

In addition, whether the foundry itself will copy other companies' integrated circuits during the foundry process is an unavoidable problem."

Almost subconsciously, Zhao Peiqi thought of keeping it confidential. After all, integrated circuits... are not difficult to copy.

"There are no problems with these. The basic principles of the factory can be determined from the beginning: if it does nothing else, it will only be an OEM - it will never compete with its own customers. And it will never disclose the business secrets of its customers. This is its business model and the foundation of its survival."

Recalling TSMC’s success and its business model, Li Yian continued:

"With this company, we can announce to the semiconductor industry: Choose it, the cost will be reduced by half, the quality will be twice as good, they don't need to build a factory, just send me the design and I will build it for you!"

When he proposed this idea, Li Yian thought for a moment and then said:

"Of course, when this company was first established, its technology was definitely not as good as other large companies, but every company has its own expertise. I believe that its future development prospects are still very promising..."

After thinking for a while, Li Yian said:

"This enterprise can be invested by the National Pension Fund. As for technology, it can seek cooperation with companies such as International Electronics. Although they are competitors, they are now shifting from integrated circuit production to CPU production, so they can still fully cooperate with each other."

CPU!

Six years ago, Intel introduced the world's first CPU. Although that processor was a 4-bit CPU containing 2300 transistors, it was epoch-making, marking the first critical step for computer processors to move from the mainframe era to the miniaturization era.

It also marks that mankind is entering a new era.

Li Yian believes that the next ten years will be a magical era, and the totem of science and technology will gradually change from roaring giant machines to tiny semiconductors.

With the booming development of various consumer electronic products including electronic computers, the focus of the entire semiconductor industry has gradually shifted to the manufacturing of processor chips.

Establishing a company like TSMC can not only fundamentally solve the production problems of start-ups, help them grow bigger and stronger, and thus promote the development of the entire industry.
With this foundry, start-ups can focus on research without dispersing their limited funds and energy.

At the same time, foundry companies can also devote all their energy to improving manufacturing technology, just like TSMC in another world. Whenever people choose that Moore's Law is dead, the breakthroughs he has made in manufacturing technology will continue Moore's Law.

The cooperation between them will inevitably bring about earth-shaking changes in the chip industry and provide a boost for the rapid development of this industry.

To a certain extent, the rapid development of fields such as chips and artificial intelligence in another world after entering the 21st century is directly related to this. After all, before TSMC, the chip industry was not only an intelligent innovation industry, but also an asset-intensive industry - because it required self-built chip production lines.

Therefore, the research and production of chips became the patent of large enterprises.

Due to this restriction, countless brilliant ideas were strangled. It was only after TSMC that those chip research fields became purely smart innovation industries. As for the production of heavy assets, they were all outsourced to TSMC.

This led to the later contracting of NVIDIA and a series of other chip companies.

From the perspective of technological development, foundry companies like TSMC are simply the "golden finger" in the chip industry. It is this golden finger that has lit up the dawn of fields such as artificial intelligence.

Therefore, this “golden finger” is not a golden finger at all, it is clearly a rocket booster for the integrated circuit industry!
From another perspective, this OEM company will surely ride on this wave, grow and develop with the vigorous development of electronic products, and bring in huge profits.

These profits belong to all citizens of SEA. All citizens can benefit from the development of the electronics industry.

Of course, this also means...TSMC will disappear from this world.

But what does this have to do with me!
Taking the path of others and leaving them with nowhere to go, this is the development direction of SEA! How can we let others take such a good path?
In another world, even the United States is jealous of TSMC and brought it to the United States. Would it be unfair if you don’t set up such a company yourself?

However, Morris Chang is a business genius and it is worth considering, but it is just a thought. After all, it is not clear where he is now.

Afterwards, Li Yian talked with Zhao Peiqi about some matters regarding the development plan of the integrated circuit industry. He was full of confidence in the development of integrated circuits because SEA's leadership was all-round, from design to production, and then to production equipment, that is, lithography machines. Thanks to Zeiss brought from Germany that year, SEA has advanced optical technology. Relying on the leading optical technology and through industrial cooperation, SEA's lithography machines have achieved rapid development.

A few years ago, the invention of projection lithography machines allowed lithography patterns to reach ideal resolution. Its birth increased the yield rate of chip production from 10% to 7% overnight, by seven times. This leap in lithography technology led to a sharp drop in chip prices, which was also the premise for the full popularization of chips.

Now, Zeiss and related companies are working together to research lens-based stepper lithography machines, which can manufacture chips with smaller processes.

Li Yian has always been very concerned about the research on lithography machines.

In fact, SEAs rapid progress in the field of integrated circuits in recent years is directly related to the breakthroughs in lithography technology.

Four years ago, Yongning Zeiss launched the epoch-making stepper lithography machine DSW4800. This lithography machine uses the g-line with a wavelength of 436 nanometers as the exposure light source. The lens is Yongning Zeiss's S-Planar 10/0.28.

The resolution of DSW can reach 1 micron, and the circuit can be engraved into an area of ​​100 mm square, which is an unprecedented breakthrough.

The price of this lithography machine was 130 million yuan at the time, which is not an exaggeration to say that it was a sky-high price, but the higher yield, more advanced process, and higher chip quality not only made SEAs its corporate users, but also attracted Siemens, IBM, and National Semiconductor to become Yongning Zeiss's customers.

Although the United States also has similar lithography machines, SEAs' high-performance lithography machines are more stable and automated, so Yongning Zeiss occupies more than 70% of the global market.

It is this epoch-making lithography machine that has truly opened the door to the electronic age.

"The most important thing is the lithography machine."

Li Yian said to himself.

Precisely because of the experience of being stuck in another world, Li Yian has always been very attentive in researching lithography machines.

Although he is a layman in this field, relying on the skills given by the system, he has indeed provided great guidance in the research of lithography machines.

Walking to the table, Li Yian opened the report again, turned to the content about the lithography machine, and looked at the development plan for the lithography machine.

Li Yian said to himself.

"This type of stepper has the potential for further research..."

It's not just potential. In fact, until the 90s, all chips were produced by this timeless lithography machine.
But in the end, he was eliminated because of Moore's Law. As chip manufacturing processes continue to shrink, transistor density doubles every 18 months according to Moore's Law. This means that better lithography machines are needed.

For 20 years, the lens-based stepper lithography machine has been able to meet this need. Through continuous improvements in light sources and production processes, it can even produce chips of a few microns.

It was not until the beginning of the 21st century that EUV lithography machines using extreme ultraviolet light sources came out, completely revolutionizing all instruments.

The invention of the EUV lithography machine was probably the highest peak reached in the field of human science and technology at that time. It was the crystallization of wisdom that was created by mankind breaking through difficult scientific and technological problems and spending huge amounts of research and development funds.

His invention can be said to be a collection of the most advanced technologies in this field in the entire Western world.

"Can SEA develop this kind of lithography machine on its own?"

When asking this question, Li Yian was full of expectations, but also a little anxious. Although stepper lithography machines can meet the needs of chip manufacturing in the next 20 years,
However, after human technological civilization has evolved from roaring giant machines to tiny semiconductors, the existence of Moore's Law has been like a spell, driving the development of technological civilization at an unprecedented speed.

If we slack off a bit or slow down a step or two, we will most likely fall behind completely.

Therefore, it is urgent to develop extreme ultraviolet light sources and EUV lithography machines.

Unfortunately, many technologies are not yet mature, especially photoresists that can be used with extreme ultraviolet light do not yet exist.

"Now is the era of competition, there is no room for slacking off even a little bit."

As he said this, Li Yian looked at the report in front of him, his eyes becoming more serious.

"Let's do some basic research first."

And this is exactly the purpose of Li Yian's existence, which is to provide certain guidance in the direction.

Of course, we should not be too ambitious. After all, technological development needs to be based on the current forward-looking research, which is indispensable. At the same time, we also need to dig deeper into existing technologies.

And every progress and every breakthrough made in this deep digging process will lay a solid foundation for the development of new EUV lithography machines in the future.

However, before that, we can first study the ultraviolet light source. This is where Li Yian's value lies. He can give guidance in the general direction and even provide some help on technical details. Although this kind of help is just simple theoretical help from a later perspective, it saves a lot of time and money. After all, that simple theory often takes a lot of time and money to research.

Therefore, proper guidance is still very necessary.

"Let's take it step by step..."

Closing the report on the table, Li Yian let out a long sigh, then chuckled and said:
"Don't be so impatient. We have only just seen the dawn of a new era. The totem of technology is still craftsmanship and machinery. This is still the age of machinery. If you take big steps, you will easily go astray. Let's take it step by step..."

(End of this chapter)