Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 518: The -nanometer production capacity dilemma
As we entered June, the weather gradually became hotter. It was still around eight or nine in the morning, and the sun was not too high, but I could already feel the surging heat brought by the sun in the sky.

At the Zhiyun Microelectronics Shenzhen Base, Xu Shenxue led a group of people on an inspection on foot. Xu Shenxue himself had nothing to do, but many of the staff around him had sweat on their foreheads.

Especially the few female colleagues who followed me, they were sweating profusely.

Assistant Xi Wanqing in the chairman's office of Liuhe Investment was also sweating, but since Chairman Xu and a group of senior managers in the group were walking in front of her, she had to follow!

Especially since she was wearing seven-centimeter high-heeled sandals, which was a relatively tight professional outfit in summer. It was quite uncomfortable for her to engage in outdoor activities in such hot weather.

But she hadn't expected before she came to work that she would be notified to go on an inspection with President Xu as soon as she arrived at the office!

She usually stays in the office when she goes to work. The air conditioning in the office is sufficient and the temperature is maintained at a relatively low level even in the hot summer. She usually either wears something a little thicker or simply puts on a thin coat in the office.

And I don’t know what Mr. Xu and his team were thinking. They didn’t go directly to the new factory building of Zhiyun Microelectronics Shenzhen Base. Instead, they wanted to wander around outside... What’s so interesting about looking at a construction factory building outside?
It would have been fine if they were just wandering around outside, but a group of people refused to take the electric shuttle bus for commuting within the base and insisted on walking inside!

This made her a little overwhelmed!
My God, the area of ​​Zhiyun Microelectronics Shenzhen Base is so huge... It contains more than a dozen factories of different sizes, and each factory is quite large. Add to that the supporting employee accommodation areas, activity areas, shopping malls and other places, and this place is almost the same as a small city.

And these group executives actually said they wanted to take a walk and have a look... What the hell was there to see in the middle of summer!
As she walked behind, Xi Wanqing was speechless.

She naturally didn't know that most of the group executives in front of her were also not feeling well, but the big boss Xu Shenxue said that he had eaten too much for breakfast, and wanted to take a walk to digest the food, and take a quick look at the situation of the base. What could they do? They naturally said yes with a smile on their faces, and then accompanied them all the way.

Is it possible to say no?

They originally thought that Xu Shenxue would just walk for a few minutes and then get on the electric shuttle bus, but they did not expect Xu Shenxue's physique to be so strong that he walked for so long. He said he wanted to walk all the way to the 28th Factory... That's a long way, and it would take at least half an hour to walk.

Zhiyun Microelectronics Shenzhen Base, as the second largest production base of Zhiyun Microelectronics, covers a very large area.

That is to say, when the site was selected, the subsequent construction was taken into consideration and a relatively remote place in Shenzhen was specially chosen. Otherwise, Shenzhen would have vacated such a large area for Zhiyun Microelectronics to build a production base.

It would be fine if he just walked, but Xu Shenxue walked even faster. He was talking to others while looking at the surroundings and walking very fast!

Xu Shenxue's physical fitness has reached the superhuman level, so walking this distance is nothing, not even enough to be considered an activity.

But as the walk went on, some group executives who didn't get much exercise on weekdays began to feel overwhelmed. But there was nothing they could do. They couldn't say a word and could only force themselves to follow along. While walking, they had to pay close attention to what Xu Shenxue saw and said, and respond in a timely manner when necessary.

Xu Shenxue, who was in front, didn't think too much about it. Just as he said, he ate a little too much for breakfast, so he thought of taking a few steps to digest the food and take a slow walk to see the situation of Zhiyun Microelectronics Shenzhen Base.

After all, I used to travel on the roads within the base by car, and I had a cursory understanding of the surrounding situation. I had a general understanding but had never taken a close look. Today is a good opportunity to take a closer look.

After walking for a while, Xu Shenxue saw the supermarket area in front. He looked back at everyone and saw that many people were sweating and their steps were unsteady. Ding Chengjun beside him was no exception!
He immediately said to Ding Chengjun beside him: "Old Ding, you still need to exercise your body. You are too weak. You have only walked such a short distance!"

Ding Chengjun immediately showed a wry smile: "Boss Xu, I don't have time to work out!"

Xu Shenxue thought about it and realized that it was true...

As the CEO of Zhiyun Microelectronics, Ding Chengjun has a lot of things to do and is very busy on weekdays.

Xu Shenxue said: "You guys take a rest here, then call the shuttle bus over, we'll take the bus over later!"

Xu Shenxue didn't pay much attention to it before, but now that he noticed that the people around him had sweat on their foreheads, he naturally stopped taking everyone for a 'walk'.

During the break, Xu Shenxue took some people into the supermarket area to take a look.

This huge semiconductor production base is like a small city, with complete supporting facilities. There is a large commercial area near the employee accommodation area, which has a supermarket and shops providing various life services.

However, although the building belongs to Zhiyun Microelectronics, the businesses inside are not self-operated, but are businesses that were invited to bid externally.

In the early years, there was an extremely large Zhiyun Property within the Zhiyun Group, which had a lot of messy industries inside, including printing factories, paper mills, land transportation logistics companies, and even kindergartens, schools, clinics, supermarkets, convenience stores and other service industries... and also a lot of illegal and criminal acts of corruption and abuse of power for personal gain by corporate management.

These messy businesses have led to rising supply chain costs for Zhiyun Group and rising corporate operating costs. Even employees have suffered from the high prices of various goods and services in the company's internal supermarkets, which has led to huge complaints!
Finally, Xu Shenxue simply cut off almost all of the messy additional businesses in Zhiyun Group with a machete. As a result, the huge Zhiyun Property disappeared, leaving only basic property management intelligence.

Many tertiary industries were completely eliminated, and at the same time, third-party suppliers were introduced through bidding to provide some products, and third-party merchants were introduced to provide various services to employees.

During this process, Xu Shenxue also successively took down a senior vice president of the group, two vice presidents of the group, more than a dozen executive presidents of the group, and sent dozens of people who were seriously corrupt to prison!
This was the big purge that caused a lot of controversy within Zhiyun Group a few years ago!
During this purge, Xu Shenxue also recruited a large number of top judicial elites from relevant judicial institutions to build the most professional, largest and even most technologically advanced internal anti-corruption department in the country.

They have even begun to use artificial intelligence technology within the group to monitor the management and key technical personnel within the company. Once there is an abnormality in the financial situation, consumption level, or behavior trajectory of a certain management, it will trigger an automatic warning from big data, and then trigger a manual investigation by the company's internal anti-corruption department.

The great purge that year was unknown to the outside world, but it did have a great impact on the middle and senior management within Zhiyun Group.

Then everyone knew that Xu Shenxue was generous in giving money, but he was also ruthless in dealing with traitors and corrupt people within the company.

From then on, Zhiyun Group and even other companies under Xu Shenxue's name basically stopped engaging in messy businesses and instead focused on their own series of high-tech businesses.

When Xu Shenxue and a few other people were wandering around in the supermarket and most people were taking a break, Xi Wanqing took the opportunity to sit down and take a break, enjoy some air conditioning, and have an ice cream to relax.

After a brief rest of more than ten minutes, Xu Shenxue and his group came out of the supermarket. This time, they did not continue walking, but took a group of people on the electric shuttle bus.

This made Xi Wanqing very happy, as she finally didn't have to keep walking.

Xi Wanqing felt much better when she got on the electric shuttle bus developed by Hailan Automobile, which is only supplied internally to sister companies and not sold externally.

Even the warm breeze blowing on my face feels refreshing...

After reaching the 28th Factory, everyone got off the bus.

The purpose of Xu Shenxue's inspection this time was actually very simple, which was to see the mass production situation of the 28th Factory.

The 300th Factory is Zhiyun Microelectronics, a second-generation seven-nanometer process factory built for the first time using the domestically produced Gulf Technology HEUV-B lithography machine. It has advanced technology and huge production capacity, and is also responsible for the production of a series of advanced chips designed and developed by Zhiyun Semiconductor.

Including the crucial Zhiyun S19 series high-end version mobile phone uses the S1003B chip.

"At present, our 1003th plant has started full-scale mass production, and the main production capacity in the early stage will be used entirely for SB chips!"

"The current S1003B chip has entered full-scale mass production mode. This month's production capacity has reached million pieces. We are still continuing to improve the process and increase production efficiency. It is expected that the production capacity will be increased by about pieces next month. However, this is already the limit. After all, this will be affected by equipment maintenance and other situations, which will cause production capacity fluctuations. We can't always maintain the maximum production capacity!"

Xu Shenxue said: "A monthly production of 10 million chips is enough to supply high-end models!"

"We still need to hurry up to expand the second phase of production capacity, as many products are now waiting for new capacity!" The first phase of the second-generation 1003-nanometer process of the 1003th Factory has limited production capacity. That little capacity is not enough to produce the SB chip, forcing Zhiyun Semiconductor to divide the S chip into two series, with the same architecture and design, but produced using two processes.

The 1003th plant uses the second-generation -nanometer process to produce the full-performance version of the SB chip.

The first-generation 1003-nanometer process of the 1003th factory is used to produce the SA chip. The S chip was originally designed based on the second-generation -nanometer process. Therefore, when using the first-generation -nanometer process for production, some restrictions had to be made and frequency reduction measures had to be taken.

At the same time, some other core products of Zhiyun Semiconductor cannot be produced using the second-generation seven-nanometer process. For example, the GPU core of AI6000/APO5000 is currently produced using the first-generation seven-nanometer process in the th factory, but the actual output is relatively low.

Because most of the first-generation 1003-nanometer process production capacity in the 903th factory is still used to produce S6000A and the previous generation S5000 chips, the production capacity that can be used for the production of AI/APO GPU cores is limited.

Although the AI6000/APO5000 GPU core can be sold at a higher profit, in fact, Zhiyun Group's advanced technology is prioritized to meet the needs of the S series mobile phone SOC chips, and the GPU core used for artificial intelligence can only be regarded as second priority.

Because there are competitors in the mobile phone SOC field, Zhiyun Group must ensure that it uses the most advanced technology and continues to maintain its technological advantage. Apple's chips use a seven-nanometer process. If Zhiyun does not use the seven-nanometer process, it will be unacceptable and its technological advantage will collapse instantly.

On the contrary, there are no competitors for various GPU cores used in artificial intelligence, so Zhiyun Group can sell products based on old technology with ease.

The GPU cores used in today's most advanced AI6000/APO5000 graphics cards use the first-generation seven-nanometer process, but are still in short supply.

Even the APO4600 graphics card, which uses a -nanometer process, is now in short supply.

All these situations have led to the APO2.5 graphics card, which uses a 4500-nanometer GPU core but uses D packaging technology, still selling well and its shipments continue to increase.

Many companies are unable to purchase APO5000 or APO4600 graphics cards, so they can only use the APO4500 graphics cards which are in stock.

According to external predictions and Zhiyun Group’s internal plans, the APO4500 graphics card will have a long lifespan and will continue to be mass-produced and supplied to the outside world in the next few years!
The reasons are simple, one is that the price is relatively cheap, and the other is that the supply is sufficient!

The APO4500 graphics card uses 2.5D packaging technology, and there are many 2.5D packaging factories in Zhiyun Microelectronics, so the production capacity is relatively sufficient.

The APO4600 and APO5000 graphics cards use 3D packaging technology, but the current 3D packaging factory production capacity is very low, and it will take one or two years to expand production capacity.

The investment required to build a 3D packaging technology factory is huge and the construction period is long, so it cannot be built in a short period of time.

Due to the limited production capacity of 3D packaging, it is expected that by next year, the production capacity of the -nanometer process will gradually increase, which can meet the SOC needs of the S series and W series mobile phones as well as the large-scale production of GPU cores.

All 3D packaging production capacity will be used for the production of AI6000/APO5000 graphics cards...APO4600 graphics cards will be discontinued.

By next summer at the latest, Zhiyun Group will completely stop producing the APO4600 graphics card, but the more backward APO4500 graphics card will continue to be produced and sold.

主要就是APO4600显卡的GPU核心虽然是十二纳米的，但是这显卡用的却是3D封装技术，和AI6000/APO5000显卡共用同一套的3D封装产能。

Next year, when the 3nm process capacity will be relatively sufficient but the 5000D packaging capacity will be limited, it is natural that more money will be made from selling APO graphics cards.

Xu Shenxue looked at the dust-free workshop inside, which was fully automated for chip production, and turned back to Ding Chengjun and said, "We need to pay attention to the production capacity of the 3-nanometer process and the D packaging capacity. We need to strictly follow the expected plan and have an expected result before next summer!"

Ding Chengjun said: "Don't worry, Mr. Xu, the second phase of our 28th Factory has entered the equipment commissioning stage. We will be able to start trial production by October at the latest, and preparations for large-scale mass production will be completed in December!"

"We don't have to wait until summer. By next spring, our 28th plant will have a production capacity of at least 80,000 wafers. Adding the 50,000 wafer capacity of the 25th plant, we will be able to significantly alleviate the problem of 7-nanometer production capacity shortage!"

As the most advanced semiconductor logic chip production capacity at present, the 7-nanometer process, whether it is the second-generation 7-nanometer process using EUV lithography or the first-generation 7-nanometer process using DUV immersion lithography, has very scarce production capacity.

At Zhiyun Microelectronics, the combined production capacity of the two generations of seven-nanometer process has reached 80,000 pieces, but it is still not enough. Even by December, the second-generation seven-nanometer process production capacity of the 28th factory will be increased by another 40,000 pieces, reaching 120,000 pieces, which is still not enough.

The SOC chip used in a Zhiyun mobile phone alone accounts for most of the production capacity.

At the same time, in order to compete with Qualcomm, Zhiyun Semiconductor has also launched the first seven-nanometer process W1106 chip, which is expected to be supplied to the market on a large scale next spring.

Many mobile phone manufacturers that cooperate with W series SOC chips have been waiting for seven-nanometer chips for a long time. They couldn’t use them last year, and they still can’t use them this year. If they still can’t use them next year, they will be forced to adopt Qualcomm’s seven-nanometer chips.

Qualcomm's seven-nanometer chips will also be manufactured by TSMC and shipped on a large scale next year.

Of course, Qualcomm is also having a hard time in the 7-nanometer chip era... Apart from Zhiyun Microelectronics, TSMC is currently the only one that can produce 7-nanometer process chips, and TSMC's 7-nanometer chip production capacity is even lower. All of its production capacity is used to produce Apple's A-series chips.

Last year and this year, Qualcomm was unable to grab TSMC's 7-nanometer process production capacity.

That is to say, starting from the second half of this year, as TSMC's 7-nanometer process capacity increases, it will have the spare capacity to manufacture chips for Qualcomm. It is expected to be officially launched this winter. If nothing unexpected happens, the first batch of mobile phones equipped with Qualcomm's 7-nanometer chips will be launched in the spring of next year, probably in March, the traditional mobile phone release season.

As a core competitor, Zhiyun Semiconductor's W series chips also need to maintain the same speed, so it also needs to carry out small-batch production this winter, provide experimental products to major partner manufacturers, and start large-scale supply in the spring.

Otherwise, the mobile phone manufacturers are preparing to release the new generation of flagship products in March and April, so you have to prepare the chips for them in advance so that the mobile phone manufacturers can carry out research and development, adaptation and production!

In the field of mobile phone SOC, competition is still very fierce.

The pressure of this fierce competition has also been passed on to chip foundry manufacturers such as Zhiyun Microelectronics!
We are urged to expand production capacity every day!

But it is not so easy to expand the production capacity of the 7-nanometer process!

Not only does it cost a huge amount of money, but the most important thing is that it takes time!

Moreover, it is not enough for semiconductor foundries to have money and time. They also have to hope that the production of Gulf Technology's HEUV-300B lithography machine can be increased... Gulf Technology's HEUV-300B lithography machine has a limited production capacity. It is useless for semiconductor foundries to be anxious alone!
As for Gulf Technology, they are also helpless... Every component of the top industrial product like HEUV-300B is the most advanced technology currently available to mankind.

It's also difficult to build.

Especially the core lenses inside, the manufacturing precision of this kind of lenses is extremely exaggerated. The lithography lens manufacturers under Fairy Mountain Holdings have to polish them bit by bit in a top laboratory environment, with the top engineers in the country using the top scientific research equipment in the country.

The production capacity of this top-level optical lens can only be polished so much in a year, there is no point in being anxious!

So in response to Zhiyun Microelectronics’ urging, Gulf Technology said that it had no other choice... How about you go and urge those people who make the lenses?

When the people who make lenses hear this, they just curse... Almost all the top engineers in the lens field who have been trained in the country for decades are here.

Such a group of top lens engineers in the country work overtime every day like ordinary beasts of burden to produce the lenses for your EUV lithography machine. What else do you want?

How about you help me train a group of top engineers in the field of lenses? Not many, just a hundred or eighty will do, and I can double your production capacity!
The semiconductor field is a complex one, and it’s not an easy task!
If you want to increase production capacity, you need to gradually improve the entire industrial chain. It’s useless to be anxious about just one aspect!

Therefore, the production capacity of seven nanometers and five nanometers in the future will continue to be limited!
(End of this chapter)