Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 330 The Best Boss in the World
Gulf Technology, although the company has been established for many years, it has not been well-known in its early years. Even until now, the company is not well-known in the outside world.

Only people in the semiconductor industry are familiar with it, while outsiders, even many technology enthusiasts, are not very familiar with this company.

Unlike a certain lithography machine manufacturer in the original time and space, many technology enthusiasts know its name... Because the lithography machine was stuck, a bunch of people began to look for domestic replacements, and finally found this company.

At present, China's semiconductor manufacturing industry, with Zhiyun Microelectronics as its core, has not been hit by a too strict blockade of lithography machines. All types of DUV immersion lithography machines can be purchased. The only EUV lithography machine is not available, not only to Zhiyun Microelectronics, but also to TSMC, Intel, and Star Semiconductor.

The general perception of EUV lithography machines is that it is a very advanced thing, but it is not yet mature, and ASML is temporarily unable to provide a mass-produced version.

The current mainstream is still the DUV immersion lithography machine, which Gulf Technology has itself and is not blocked from the outside...so not many ordinary people will pay attention to the lithography machine industry.

Since ordinary people and even technology enthusiasts don't pay much attention to it, Gulf Technology is naturally not very famous.

But...just because ordinary people don’t know or understand it doesn’t mean that this company is not important!
As a semiconductor equipment manufacturer that was included in the Entity Sanctions List several years ago, its importance and strength have been certified by the US consortium.

If Zhiyun Group is the locomotive of the electronics industry and the semiconductor industry, then Gulf Technology is the key enterprise that manufactures the locomotive engine.

Its importance cannot be overstated.

Such an important enterprise is naturally large in scale, with R&D personnel spread across many major cities across the country and a total number of employees exceeding 10,000. Its main business is a series of key semiconductor equipment such as front-end lithography machines, back-end lithography machines, etching machines, and ion implantation machines.

With Gulf Technology as the core, more than 200 companies under the Fairy Mountain Holding system, together with many domestic manufacturers, can provide a full set of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and consumables.

At the current 65-nanometer process node, the domestic production rate of equipment has reached %, and the domestic production rate of consumables has also reached %.

For the 28-45nm DUV immersion lithography machine, which uses a single-exposure process, the domestic production rate of the equipment has reached %, and the main core equipment can be independently controlled, with only a small number of non-critical equipment needing to be imported.

In terms of consumables, the domestic production rate has reached 85%, and core consumables such as photoresist can be independently produced...

The 22-10 nanometer process node, which is the double exposure process stage of the DUV immersion lithography machine, is more difficult, so the domestic production rate is relatively low.

At present, the domestic production rate of equipment has reached about 30-45%, and that of consumables is about 60%.

At the same time, the Fairy Mountain Holding System is continuously promoting localization, either through its own companies or in conjunction with other domestic companies.

Comprehensive domestic independence is progressing steadily.

Of course, this takes time and it is impossible to achieve localization of everything overnight.

At the same time, even many domestically produced equipment and consumables are actually only barely good enough to be barely usable, but not very suitable for commercial competition.

Then... there are also extremely serious patent issues. Whether it is a photolithography machine or any other etching machine equipment, or consumables such as photoresist, there is basically a situation of infringing on the patents of similar foreign manufacturers!
This also leads to the fact that many semiconductor equipment and consumables under the Fairy Mountain Holdings system can be successfully patented and used commercially in China, but cannot be patented abroad and cannot be exported for commercial use.

There is no way. The current core purpose of the Fairy Mountain Holding System is to achieve independent control of the semiconductor industry. Naturally, they will copy if they can, and if they cannot copy, they will use various means such as commercial espionage to force copying.

We can't just ignore the existing path and open up a completely new, unknown technical route.

This is not a regular commercial product.

As for patents, they are the most important national equipment. Who would play with you about patents?

In order to obtain these advanced technical data, Galaxy Security has to lose many people every year, and also has patents...

There are no patents, but there are quite a few rocket launchers.

In the field of semiconductor manufacturing, Xu Shenxue's strategy has always been very clear: first solve the problem of whether there is one or not, and other issues such as patents, whether it is easy to use, and whether it can be commercialized are put in the back.

Get the stuff out there first, then think about other things.

Gulf Technology is the product of this strategy, and so far, this strategy can be said to be quite successful.

Relying on uncompromising means and with the assistance of the scientific research system, as well as decades of industrial foundation accumulation in the country and the cooperation of numerous research institutes, enterprises and universities.

Then there was the tens of billions of dollars of investment that Xu Shenxue made.

In the end, what appeared before Xu Shenxue were these lithography machines and several other core equipment.

At this time, Wang Daolin was introducing their lithography products to Xu Shenxue: "Mr. Xu, our company's front-end lithography products currently cover four major types: i-line lithography, KRF lithography, DUV dry lithography, and DUV immersion lithography. The process can cover 10 nanometers to 500 nanometers."

"Among them, our i-line lithography machine has been advanced to the second generation, which has greatly improved production capacity and efficiency compared to the first generation, and reduced chip manufacturing costs. This lithography machine is used for mature 350-500 nanometer chip production, and has the characteristics of low cost and high efficiency. It is currently widely supplied to domestic manufacturers and some overseas manufacturers. This lithography machine and our KRF lithography machine currently have no patent barriers, so they are also supplied to foreign customers. We have also gained a certain overseas market by taking advantage of our low-cost advantage, but the overall technology is still behind that of foreign products, so sales are average."

"The KRF lithography machine has also been improved and upgraded models have been launched to improve efficiency. This lithography machine is used for mature 130-250 nanometer processes. This lithography machine is widely used by our Zhiyun Microelectronics and other domestic manufacturers. The feedback from users is very good. It is the one with the best customer feedback among our many lithography machine products. It has low cost, easy maintenance and good production efficiency. Therefore, our shipment volume of this lithography machine is still relatively large, with more than units shipped each year!"

"Our first generation of DUV dry lithography machines is the HDUV-100. We subsequently launched improved models HDUV-200 and 300. The latest model, the HDUV-300, has just been put into mass production and delivered this year, further improving the overlay accuracy and providing customers with better 65 process node production. The overall efficiency is also further improved, reducing chip production costs."

"This series of lithography machines has a relatively large shipment volume. We expect to ship more than 55 units this year, mainly for Zhiyun Microelectronics, SMIC and other domestic manufacturers, mainly for 90- nanometer process nodes."

"DUV immersion lithography machines are our core products at present. They are technologically advanced and relatively expensive. This series of lithography machines is also the main source of revenue for our company!"

Although there is still a market for previous generations of lithography machines, these old lithography machines can no longer be sold at much price... After all, backward chips cannot be sold at much price, and the backward lithography machines that produce these backward chips cannot be sold at much price either.

Of course, although the price is lower, there is still a market, and the market is not small.

Because it is a mature lithography machine, in addition to being able to directly produce chips with mature processes, it can also be used as an auxiliary equipment for advanced process chips.

A little knowledge: the chip production process often requires many times of exposure by a lithography machine, and most of the exposure processes do not require too high a lithography machine, so they can be operated by mature and backward lithography machines to save manufacturing costs.

The most advanced HDUV-500 or similar ASMLDUV immersion lithography machine is only used in the core exposure process.

If EUV lithography machines are used in the future, a similar situation will occur. Most exposure processes that do not require high precision are actually performed by DUV lithography machines, and only the most core processes will be completed by EUV lithography machines.

This is also why advanced factories need advanced top-level lithography machines while also purchasing a large number of mature lithography machines... because these are used together.

If all exposure processes are completed by top-level lithography machines, it will be a huge waste and costs will skyrocket.

This is a cost control issue in the chip production process!

In short, whenever possible, wafer fabs will try their best to use less mature lithography machines to carry out most of the processes in order to save costs.

This is also the reason why seemingly backward lithography machines still have a large market.

However, although the market still exists, the price is not high.

The really expensive ones are the DUV immersion lithography machines!

Gulf Technology is no exception. The most expensive products are the HDUV-400/500 lithography machines.

In particular, the latter can perform double exposure and the overlay accuracy reaches 3.5 nanometers. Its price is very expensive. If various supporting services and subsequent technical support costs are added, the cost of one set is almost 40 million US dollars.

As for the many small and medium-sized wafer fabs that are expecting that the lithography machines will become very cheap after being localized and can be purchased for a few thousand dollars, they should forget about dreaming... Top-level industrial products such as HDUV-500 have extremely high technical content, are extremely difficult to process, and have difficulty in system integration.

Forty million dollars per set, that's already very cheap.

If it is ASML next door, the same level of lithography machine will cost more than 50 million US dollars per set.

The reason why Gulf Technology's lithography machines are cheaper is not because they have become more conscientious after being localized.

It is purely because our own lithography machines are somewhat inferior and their production efficiency is not as good as the ASML lithography machines next door. Therefore, in order to dispel customers' concerns, we control their chip manufacturing costs within a controllable range.

Gulf Technology has offered some discounts on the sales price of lithography machines and subsequent maintenance costs, so that after the wafer factory makes comprehensive calculations, the cost of using Gulf Technology's lithography machines will not be higher.

It even has some small advantages, of course, these advantages are not obvious.

Gulf Technology's lithography machines are intended to be commercialized and sold, so the price cannot be too expensive.

However, Gulf Technology's production and manufacturing costs, as well as R&D costs, are also very high, so it needs to maintain relatively high selling prices to maintain revenue and profits.

A set of HDUV-500 lithography machines worth million US dollars has begun to be shipped in small batches in the second half of the year to Zhiyun Microelectronics.

Then add the HDUV-400 lithography machine which is also not cheap.

These two types of DUV immersion lithography machines have brought considerable revenue to Gulf Technology.

The expensive equipment includes not only the front-end lithography machines, but also the back-end lithography machines, etching machines and many other core equipment. Among these semiconductor equipment, no matter which one, they are all expensive equipment costing millions or even tens of millions of dollars per set.

And the more advanced the process node, the more expensive it is, and the price difference can be double or even several times.

A considerable portion of the high investment cost of a wafer fab is used to purchase these extremely expensive and super-sophisticated equipment.

Fairy Mountain Holdings will also provide semiconductor equipment packaging services to wafer fabs in need. That is, we will provide you with all the key equipment needed for an entire wafer fab. This includes not only more than ten core equipment from Gulf Technology, but also supporting equipment from other manufacturers under the Fairy Mountain Holdings system and some domestic manufacturers.

They will all be listed and even matched for you.

Customers only need to provide a professional factory and a check, and Xiannvshan Holdings can directly bring a complete set of equipment over, help you install and debug, and also provide on-site technical support services.

But this kind of packaging service is also very expensive. Even if it is a mature technology, it still costs hundreds of millions of dollars.

If it is advanced technology, it will be even more expensive, basically more than several billion dollars!
The main reason is that the equipment is too expensive, but the service fee is not much!

However, large wafer fabs with advanced technology do not need this kind of packaging service. They will directly match the various equipment needed for the production line, and then purchase, match and debug them by themselves.

Factory No. 26 of the Shanghai Semiconductor Base, invested and built by Zhiyun Microelectronics, focuses on the 10-22 process nodes. It is a capacity expansion plan of Zhiyun Microelectronics aimed at the broad market and huge demand for the future 14nm process nodes.

The plant is expected to use the HDUV-500 lithography machine as its core equipment, focusing on the double exposure process, and can produce 10-22 nanometer chips.

A large number of the factory's key equipment is supplied by the companies under Fairy Mountain Holdings, and the overall purchase price reached US$2.5 billion, which is quite exaggerated.

This is only part of the equipment. There are still many equipment that Fairy Mountain Holdings cannot provide and need to be imported from other domestic or overseas manufacturers. This part will probably cost about US$1 billion.

The total equipment investment will require approximately US$3.5 billion, accounting for 75% of the total wafer factory investment, and the total wafer factory investment will require approximately US$5 billion.

This price is based on the full use of domestic equipment. At the same time, the factory land cost is very low, the factory building cost is also adopted by domestic construction companies, and the factory building materials are also made of domestic materials as much as possible to reduce costs.

If most of the equipment is still imported as before, considering the recent equipment price increases, inflation and other factors, the investment cost of this factory will have to increase by at least another billion US dollars.

The investment in wafer fabs is getting more and more expensive these days... because the cost of cash equipment is getting more and more expensive. For example, the demand for advanced lithography machines is small and the output is low, which means that the R&D cost is difficult to spread, and the manufacturing cost is also difficult to reduce through output... In the end, the premium is even higher than that of military products such as fighter jets.

The annual production of Gulf Technology's DUV immersion lithography machine is expected to be only about 60 units...which is lower than the production of fighter jets!

With such a small output, it can't be cheap.

Most other core equipment also have similar situations, with low production, unable to spread out costs, and extremely expensive selling prices.

In Factory No. 26 of the Shanghai base, there are a lot of other equipments that are expected to be used, in addition to the photolithography machines, worth tens of millions of dollars.

The cost of lithography machines only accounts for about 25% of the cost of a wafer fab, and the remaining 50% is made up of other equipment.

As for non-equipment costs, that is, the total cost of factory buildings and other miscellaneous costs, it is only 25%... This 25% ratio is relatively low. For TSMC to build a wafer factory of the same level, non-equipment costs will account for about 30%.

Of course, the most expensive item in a wafer fab is the photolithography machine, which accounts for 25% of the cost of building the fab.

Wang Daolin is also very proud of his company's DUV immersion lithography machine: "Our DUV immersion lithography machine has been supplied to six domestic customers. Zhiyun Microelectronics has received 30 such lithography machines and successfully applied them to the production line."

"Our HDUV-500 lithography machine has an overlay accuracy of 10 nanometers, which already meets the double exposure process requirements of the 22- nanometer node. At the same time, our duplex stage technology has also made great progress, further improving production efficiency!"

"Our HDUV-600 lithography machine has also completed prototype manufacturing. We are currently conducting various tests in the later stages. The mass-produced model is expected to be shipped in the fourth quarter of next year for use by Zhiyun Microelectronics."

"This HDUV-600 lithography machine has an overlay accuracy of nanometers, which can be used for quadruple exposure to meet the production requirements of the equivalent -nanometer process proposed by Zhiyun Microelectronics!"

"At present, our technology research and development in the field of DUV lithography machines is mainly focused on this lithography machine!"

"In addition to these lithography machines in front of us, next to them are our etching machines, ion implantation machines and other core equipment. They are also the results of our R&D personnel and many domestic manufacturers and research institutes. Each piece of equipment is a perfect embodiment of the country's top industrial technology!"

To be honest, Xu Shenxue had no idea how these devices perfectly reflected the country's top industrial technology...

Xu Shenxue actually didn't know much about industrial basic technologies. He was a liberal arts graduate in his two previous lives. Although he was engaged in the high-tech industry in this life, he was exposed to some high-tech things on a daily basis. At the same time, he also gave himself an A-level scientific research quota to think about it. When he had time and need, he would also learn some technical information.

But this understanding and learning is still extremely limited.

The main reason is that the things from Gulf Technology are too advanced and involve all aspects of the field. To be honest, Xu Shenxue finds it a bit difficult to figure these things out.

But Xu Shenxue doesn't need to understand the detailed technical principles. He just needs to know that these devices can be used to produce advanced chips.

As for which technologies are important and need special attention, Wang Daolin will also explain them to him in detail!
During this tour, I saw at least more than ten types of equipment, all of which were core equipment in the semiconductor manufacturing industry.

Many of these technologies are already very good. For example, the back-end lithography technology is very good and even a bit ahead of its time... Wang Daolin said that their HS350 back-end lithography machine can even be used to meet the production needs of an equivalent seven-nanometer process, and has even reached the international leading level, surpassing its competitors.

Not only do they use it themselves, they also provide it to a large number of foreign customers. Four Star has even purchased it...and this kind of advanced back-end lithography machine is sold very expensively by Gulf Technology, the price is higher than similar foreign competing products.

Then the etching machines are also made quite well and can basically meet the requirements of 10-22 nanometer processes. The advanced models can already meet the 10 process, which is considered to be ahead of the times. They are also supplied to domestic and foreign customers.

Various other core devices can basically meet the requirements of 14-nanometer or 28-nanometer processes.

"Our goal is to strive to improve the technical indicators of more than ten core devices to the level of meeting the equivalent of 10-nanometer process by the year after next."

"Then on this basis, we will continue to advance towards the technical indicators required for the 7-nanometer process and even the future 5-nanometer process!"

“We are still very confident about this!”

Xu Shenxue thought to himself, "Twenty S-level research quotas and more than a hundred A-level research quotas have all been invested in the Fairy Mountain Holding System. If you still don't have confidence, I will doubt whether you have the real talent."

The enterprises under the Fairy Mountain Holding System have always been major investors in Xu Shenxue's scientific research quotas. The S-level and A-level scientific research quotas purchased with the newly added achievement points every month are basically used by the Fairy Mountain Holding System.

Except for Zhiyun Microelectronics, other project teams and subsidiaries of Zhiyun Group have not received any new scientific research quotas above A-level for a long time. They are all using some of the original scientific research quotas. However, there are also many high-level scientific research quotas allocated originally, so they are enough.

After looking at many of these ready-made core equipment, Xu Shenxue learned about the research and development progress of EUV lithography machines.

Wang Daolin introduced: "We are currently working with major subsystem supply chain companies to focus on tackling a variety of key EUV technologies!"

“It mainly consists of an EUV light source system, an optical system consisting of high-precision curved off-axis reflectors, and an ultra-high-precision vacuum double worktable.”

"In addition to the technology of the lithography machine itself, we are also cooperating with other sister companies under the Fairy Mountain Holdings system to develop EUV masks, deposition processes, etc."

"As for the EUV lithography machine research and development that we are responsible for leading, the progress of the light source system is relatively fast. We have previously obtained complete technical information on the extreme ultraviolet light source used by EUV, and after several years of repeated attempts and experiments, we have already manufactured an extreme ultraviolet light source!"

"But it's still a long way from being practical. Our laser part doesn't have a big problem, but the frequency of the laser bombarding the tin droplets is still not enough. It can't reach the 50,000 times per second required by the technical data."

"We have taken the lead in tackling this technical problem and have made good progress. Perhaps by the middle of next year we should be able to develop this light source!"

"The other is the reflector of the light source. Due to the special nature of extreme ultraviolet light, many materials cannot reflect this light, but will absorb it. Therefore, we also need a reflector made of a new material to reflect this extreme ultraviolet light!"

"This part of the work is mainly undertaken by the Southern Institute of Optics. As far as I know, they have tried to develop a mirror material with very good results. The current difficulty lies in mirror processing. The mirror accuracy required by EUV lithography machines exceeds that of DUV lithography machines by an order of magnitude. They are cooperating with several domestic research institutes to prepare for this mirror processing."

"For a duplex stage, the difficulty is slightly lower. Our current duplex stage technology is still very good, and it is barely feasible even if it is directly applied. It will just waste the precision brought by the EUV 13.5-nanometer light source."

"We are also developing a duplex stage with higher precision and efficiency to match the EUV lithography machine!"

"Overall, our EUV lithography machine is facing many technical problems. The light source system and duplex system are still good, and we are confident about them. However, the reflector is not so easy to handle."

"After all, according to Southern Optics, the accuracy of the reflector system they developed is almost equivalent to firing a laser from the Earth and accurately hitting a football on the moon. It is quite difficult."

"Because this mirror system is difficult to make, the specific progress of our EUV lithography machine will depend on when this mirror system can be made."

When saying this, Wang Daolin was also quite helpless!
Gulf Technology sounds powerful, as they develop lithography machines... but they are actually just an assembly plant and hardly produce any core components.

The core components of the lithography machines are all supplied by other sister companies under the Xiannvshan Holding system or other domestic manufacturers.

What they are playing is system integration... Of course, this part is also very technically difficult and cannot be done without strong strength.

But the premise of system integration is that the technical performance of spare parts must meet the standards.

If the spare parts are not good, Gulf Technology will be helpless.

Many technical personnel at Gulf Technology once liked to mock themselves as people who worked with junk, using inferior domestic spare parts to assemble fairly good lithography machines or other core equipment.

But... you need some scrap spare parts in the early stages!

If there aren't even any spare parts, what's the point of playing with it!

However, in the field of extreme ultraviolet reflectors, the products are so poor that even the best ones are not available anymore. Therefore, it is difficult for Gulf Technology to make any progress.

After listening to this, Xu Shenxue kept it in mind and decided to transfer a few more S-level and a batch of A-level scientific research positions to Southern Optics to further enhance the technical level of their core R&D personnel.

Xu Shenxue is unable to provide an S-level scientific research quota for all the core technical personnel of all important projects. Not to mention S-level, even A-level quotas are difficult to obtain.

In fact, the vast majority of scientific researchers obtain the lowest level D-level scientific research quota. This level of scientific research quota only costs ten points and is cheap and sufficient.

Xu Shenxue even had the system distribute them according to the number of people, so that every new technical staff member would receive one.

After all, each person only has a few achievement points.

Unlike the S-level scientific research quota, each one requires 100,000 points. Even though Xu Shenxue has accumulated them for so many years, he only has about thirty points on hand.

As for the higher-level SS-level scientific research quota, it costs one million, which is too expensive. Xu Shenxue really wants it. He wants to see whether this level of scientific research quota can turn a genius scientist into a non-human scientist.

However, Xu Shenxue's achievement points accumulated in a year are only a few hundred thousand, and they have to be allocated to the core projects of a large number of its subsidiaries. Many projects, such as those in the field of semiconductor equipment and consumables, are very urgent and cannot be delayed.

So not much can be saved. According to Xu Shenxue's plan, he will save up 300,000 achievement points this year, and then tighten his belt and diet next year to save up all the achievement points.

Then collect one million achievement points and exchange them for an SS-level scientific research quota.

And the person who uses such a heavyweight scientific research quota naturally cannot be just any ordinary person. It must be a truly top-notch talented scientist. It would be a waste for an ordinary scientist to use it!

Moreover, it is impossible for it to be fixed to a certain person. This top scientific research quota must be used in rotation and used in the technological breakthrough stage of key projects. Only in this way can its greatest value be brought into play.

To this end, Xu Shenxue has begun to let his personnel department conduct various reviews and assessments on many of his top scientists and some mid-level talented scientists with great potential, and then select talented scientists in various fields.

As the rotating carrier of the only SS-level scientific research quota in the future!
This will be done not only for future SS-level scientific research quotas, but even the current S-level scientific research quotas will be rotated according to project needs, and very few people will be able to use an S-level scientific research quota for a long time.

On the contrary, the A-level scientific research quotas are more often used on a fixed basis. As for the B-level quotas, as well as the C and D levels, it is even more so. They are basically used on a fixed basis, and Xu Shenxue is even too lazy to pay attention to them personally.

Instead, the system directly distributes or withdraws them in batches based on the level of the technical personnel of its subsidiaries.

In all companies under Xu Shenxue, technical personnel have a specific technical level. In addition to being one of the bases for salary grading, this level is also the basis for the system to issue scientific research quotas.

The system will automatically issue or recover scientific research quotas based on the technical level of the technicians.

After all, there are hundreds of thousands of technical personnel in various companies under Xu Shenxue. He doesn't have the time and energy to distribute them one by one. He directly entrusts the system to distribute or collect them.

Xu Shenxue personally paid attention to the allocation of S-level and A-level scientific research quotas. This part was smaller, adding up to only more than 400, which was barely enough to manage.

Of these more than 400 high-level positions, except for one A-level position occupied by himself, the other S-level or A-level positions are used for core technical personnel in important projects. They are the core force driving the technological research and development progress of Xu Shenxue's companies.

Outsiders believe that the R&D progress of the companies under Xu Shenxue is so fast because Xu Shenxue has invested enough money, or because companies such as Zhiyun Group have a very good and unique R&D atmosphere, or because of good salary and honor incentives, etc.

However, although the above-mentioned reasons are one of the reasons, the more important one is the existence of the scientific research system.

Especially the high-level scientific research quotas, which have a huge impact on promoting technology.

However, the outside world does not know this, and Xu Shenxue is unlikely to reveal it to the public.

Therefore, the outside world can only believe that the companies under Xu Shenxue have fast R&D because of the high salaries, good working atmosphere, strong sense of honor, Xu Shenxue's strong personal charm, excellent management model, and extremely keen awareness of new technologies, etc.

He is known as the boss of the best technology company in the world: he pays a lot, respects technical personnel, and can lead technical personnel to achieve technological breakthroughs and develop results, and he can also achieve technological improvement himself.

Many technical personnel are happy to work in Xu Shenxue's company and for Xu Shenxue.

(End of this chapter)