Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 223 Exaggerated Zhiyun

That is Gulf Technology, otherwise, don't expect to accomplish this... Why can Gulf Technology do it? Because each R&D staff of Gulf Technology has a D-level research quota, and any technical backbone at the level of team leader has a C-level research quota. The core of the project basically has a B-level research quota, and several leading technical leaders take turns to use the A-level research quota.

Each of your brains is very useful!

That’s why they were able to create a usable KRF lithography machine out of such a large pile of junk, and now they are launching an attack on the DUV dry lithography machine!
In the field of advanced equipment, due to poor industrial foundation, poor raw materials, poor technology and spare parts, it is ultimately embarrassing to develop advanced equipment.

but! !! !!

It's just such a pile of junk. Looking around the world today, apart from China, there is no other country that can collect all of them at home.

Even the United States can’t do it!
After entering the DUV lithography machine era, the light source and even the entire lithography machine project have actually become an extensive international cooperation project among Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea. No European, American, Japanese or Korean country can complete the production of all parts on its own.

However, China cannot import these key components from abroad, so it can only make do with them!
This is a bit like a space station. No one else will play with China, so we can only play on our own.

So, even though this is a pile of junk, it is also very precious junk, a collection of junk accumulated through the efforts of countless people over the past few decades of China's development.

Other countries want it but haven't yet... For example, Russia, they worked hard for half a century, and in 24 years, under the strong stimulation of war, they barely mastered the 350-nanometer chip production process!
And it took Gulf Technology less than half a year to develop this thing!

Because Gulf Technology is standing on the shoulders of giants, it can accomplish things with just a simple jump.

After entering the field of DUV lithography machines, the technical difficulty has taken a big step forward. It seems to be just one step, but in the actual industrial field it is like a natural chasm, and it is not so easy to cross it.

At this time, Gulf Technology could no longer obtain a large amount of mature and available materials and equipment.

What to do at this time?
What else can I do? I have to pick and choose from a bunch of junk, and then work on developing some materials, some new equipment, and new processes, and then see if I can piece one together.

Such a seemingly scrappy process is difficult to accomplish by Gulf Technology alone, even with the entire Fairy Mountain Holding system.

This is also the reason why Xu Shenxue finally decided to go to Beijing to report on his work when he heard that the DUV dry lithography machine was encountering difficulties and the immersion lithography machine had no clue at all.

He went to ask for help!
In the end, he gave a special report that lasted more than an hour. He also brought a robot dog and a drone, as well as a new AI system developed by the Institute of Intelligence, which was running on a seemingly inconspicuous small host.

A small-scale demonstration of unmanned equipment was conducted.

Finally, he got the support he wanted: a group of research institutes, universities and some related companies will participate in this major project through production-research cooperation, corporate cooperation, etc.: concentrate all efforts on tackling advanced semiconductor processes!
The initial goal is the 65-nanometer process, and then to break through the 45-nanometer process...that is, to achieve the level of DUV immersion lithography machines.

And conduct preliminary research on EUV lithography machines in the areas of preliminary theory, materials, etc.

Zhiyun Microelectronics and Gulf Technology, as the lead companies, will lead the entire project.

----

The development of the semiconductor field is a long process. Although Xu Shenxue has made a lot of efforts and invested huge resources, the results cannot be seen in the short term. If everything goes well, we will have to wait until summer to see the prototype of the first DUV dry lithography machine.

As for this, Xu Shenxue remains expectant and patient.

Anyway, the external environment is still pretty good now. Although there are many problems, they are still not too serious.

Putting aside the impact of the overall environment, Zhiyun Technology itself is also actively dealing with various issues and is willing to spend money on various public relations abroad. Therefore, although there have been some voices calling for sanctions and blockades on Zhiyun Technology, it is still under control at present.

Zhiyun Technology still has some time to adjust and continue to accumulate strength.

This is also the reason why Zhiyun Microelectronics, a subsidiary of Zhiyun Technology, started building five 12-inch wafer fabs at the beginning of the year and placed a large number of orders for various chip production lines!

It takes time to build a wafer fab, and it also takes time for the equipment to arrive...and Xu Shenxue thinks that there is not much time left for Zhiyun Technology!

Therefore, we must act quickly and stockpile a large number of advanced DUV immersion lithography machines and a series of other semiconductor equipment in advance.

In this way, if unilateral sanctions really come in a few years, we don’t have to worry too much, we can solve the chip problem through some means.

The above are equipment. Xu Shenxue also pays great attention to many consumables fields.

Semiconductor production lines are not just about equipment. In fact, various consumables, such as photoresist and special gases, are also very important, and the localization of these aspects is infinitely close to zero.

Many subsidiaries of Xiannvshan Holdings are engaged in research in the field of semiconductor consumables...

Huasai Electronics, a subsidiary of the company that is engaged in the research and development of photoresists, has made good progress in the field of photoresists. There are basically no problems with negative photoresists, and high-resolution g-line and i-line photoresists have also been solved one after another.

The photoresist with higher resolution used for deep ultraviolet lithography at a wavelength of 248 nanometers, which is used on the KRF lithography machine, has been tested on a small scale. Zhiyun Microelectronics is using it while testing, but there are many problems. It is still under improvement and has not been used directly on a large scale.

It can be said that Huasai Electronics has solved the technical problems of lithography machines for the 130-nanometer process node in chip production. As long as there is demand, it can supply Zhiyun Microelectronics or other domestic chip manufacturers at a high cost.

At the same time, the photoresists used in more advanced 193-nanometer light source wavelength lithography machines, that is, DUV dry lithography machines and even the most advanced DUV immersion lithography machines, face greater problems.

Xu Shenxue has read some reports forwarded by Xiannvshan Holdings, which said that the existing photoresist materials contain benzene ring structures, which causes the absorption of 193-nanometer wavelength light sources to be too high and cannot be used!
This means that a new photoresist material needs to be developed. As for when it can be developed, such materials science issues are all metaphysical, and Huasai Electronics cannot give an accurate timetable!
What they can do is to carry out more research and development as much as possible, and try more different material combinations at the same time, and then they can come up with it. The situation of various special gases is similar to that of photoresist. The special gases in low-process technology can basically be solved by themselves, but those used in higher-process technology are somewhat lacking.

At present, the semiconductor equipment and raw material companies under Xiannvshan Holdings have no problem building up the basic industrial chains of the 130-nanometer node based on the original domestic basic industries. Equipment represented by photolithography machines and products represented by photoresists have begun to be commercialized one after another. The few that cannot be commercialized also have the ability to mass-produce and apply them, but there are more problems.

This is also the reason why Zhiyun Microelectronics can say that it has full self-production capabilities above the 130-nanometer process node, because everything from equipment to consumables no longer needs to be imported, as they can all be provided by domestic supply chain companies.

However, when it comes to the 65-nanometer process node, there is still a lot to be desired. The only one that is doing relatively well is the back-end lithography machine with relatively low technical content. The others are basically in a half-baked state.

As for nodes below 65 nanometers, that is, the most advanced chip production lines represented by DUV immersion lithography machines, only the back-end lithography machines can be produced domestically, and everything else, from equipment to consumables, must be imported.

For such a chip production line, even though Zhiyun Microelectronics has already made a breakthrough in the 45-nanometer process, the 32-nanometer process has also made a huge breakthrough under the leadership of Liang Song and Wu Deyi. Various tests have been started and are expected to be completed in March.

However, it still could not bring the slightest sense of security to Xu Shenxue... There are so many equipment and consumables in the entire chip production line. If the Americans blindly block any equipment, Zhiyun Microelectronics will be unable to continue to build new wafer factories.

If any consumables are stuck, the 45-nanometer process and below production lines of the 12-inch wafer factory that Zhiyun Microelectronics has invested more than 10 billion US dollars to build and is currently building will become a pile of scrap metal.

Without photoresist, how can you produce chips?

The most disgusting thing is that the shelf life of photoresist is very short. The shelf life of advanced photoresist is basically only about half a year, which means that Zhiyun Microelectronics cannot stock up in large quantities!
This is not about being strangled by the neck, but the whole person is placed on the chopping board of the Americans, and they can cut him however they want.

In this situation, how could Xu Shenxue feel safe?
impossible!

Therefore, no matter whether it is equipment or consumables, Xu Shenxue will support research and development as much as possible. He even pays more attention to consumables than equipment!

As for equipment, it can be sold now, and Zhiyun Microelectronics is purchasing and stockpiling goods on a large scale while the external environment has been good in recent years.

Even if they are blocked in the future and these devices cannot be maintained, Fairy Stone Holdings is not just putting them aside for show. After a few years of research, it should not be a problem to barely maintain them.

Consumables are even more troublesome. Their shelf life is too short to stockpile. Once Zhiyun Microelectronics is blocked and unable to purchase consumables such as photoresist, it would be a small matter for one or two billion US dollars to be wasted. The big problem would be the inability to produce and use the self-developed chips of the entire Zhiyun and Wecoo Electronics... This means a complete collapse of the business chain of Zhiyun and Wecoo.

That is a huge loss of hundreds of billions of US dollars...enough for many medium-sized countries to start a war.

The same is enough to make Zhiyun Technology do a lot of crazy things in order to avoid this huge crisis.

Of course, we can't keep fighting and killing each other, as that would be disharmonious. It should only be used in special circumstances.

In most cases, Zhiyun Technology is still very honest in spending money, since it is not short of money anyway.

On a certain day in January, more than a dozen core R&D personnel from a leading Japanese photoresist company resigned collectively, saying they wanted to start their own business.
This is relatively normal. What is abnormal is that not long after that, more than a dozen core R&D personnel went to China to investigate the market.

And I also planned to travel along the way, so I even brought my family along!

Then they never came back. After they arrived in China, they registered and established a new company in China on the same day.

Within a few days, the new company reached a strategic investment agreement with Huasai Electronics. Huasai Electronics invested heavily to obtain controlling rights and thus became a subsidiary of Huasai Electronics.

This subsidiary produces deep ultraviolet photoresist, and it is a photoresist used for 193 nanometer wavelength, which is one of the current mainstream top photoresists.

As for why the Japanese people resigned and came to China to start a business...otherwise, Huasai Electronics offered them a lot of money!
As long as they resigned from their jobs and came to China to start a company, they would be given a large sum of cash. As long as they subsequently assisted Huasai Electronics in developing photoresist, they did not even need to circumvent patents. They only needed to copy the original company's photoresist exactly, and they would be allowed to withdraw their shares and leave with the money.

And this amount of money is enough to make them instantly rich!
This is much better than being a small corporate researcher in the original company!

If you are more ambitious, you can continue to work and engage in photoresist research and development... After all, you used to work for others, but now you are a shareholder and work for yourself, which is completely different.

By the way, the income of many researchers in Japanese companies is actually just that. Even if you work hard and lead your team to achieve great results, the company will believe that this is the credit of the platform, and you, a R&D personnel, are just an insignificant small screw on this huge platform.

It would be great if you could be given a project bonus of several thousand or tens of thousands of dollars...but this is for the project leader, not the lab workhorse!
As for the laboratory cattle and horses, there are also thousands or tens of thousands, but the currency unit is Japanese yen... Just give you a meal, don't expect too much.

Zhiyun pays high salaries to its R&D personnel and even provides dividends to projects, which is actually considered an outlier by most traditional technology companies.

In this situation, when an opportunity to get rich quickly was presented to these Japanese company employees, most of them couldn't resist!
Yes, that's right. Zhiyun Technology used to poach people crazily in China, but after being summoned for talks and being generally complained and accused by the industry, it has now started to poach people abroad.

And it's not just about poaching Chinese and Chinese Americans. Now, poaching is no longer based on nationality or race. As long as you have enough value, Zhiyun's human resources department will label you and then try to approach you to poach you.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t come to China. We at Zhiyun have enough R&D centers around the world, from North America to Europe, from Japan to South Korea, from Singapore to India. You can work wherever you want.

If you have special hobbies, you can arrange to go to places like South America and Africa. Zhiyun Technology has branches in these places, and some places also have small-scale laboratories, R&D centers, etc.

You have to believe in Zhiyun's strength!
Because this is a multinational giant company with business all over the world and a market value of hundreds of billions of US dollars!
And it is a traditional manufacturing enterprise!

For a traditional manufacturing company with a market value of hundreds of billions of US dollars, this is exaggerated!
That’s it for now for the 8,000 words.

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(End of this chapter)