Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 127 Leipzig Trade Fair
Lin Ran is eager to promote maritime shipping standards, and he prioritizes the Asia-Pacific region so highly because the Baiyue region is about to launch a full-scale war.

Later generations will see that the information will tell you it started in 61.

In fact, America herself didn't get involved until 1964, when she landed in Da Nang and led a large group of men to fight.

From Korea to Baiyue, Japan acted as a supplier, providing only materials and not troops, thus reaping the benefits of two waves of war.

Japan profited immensely from America's base and industrial orders in the shipbuilding, automobile, and electronics sectors, making it the biggest winner during the Baiyue Wars.

Meanwhile, Goryeo sent troops to participate in the war and undertook military engineering projects, and its export volume increased several times in the 1960s.

Besides Japan and Korea, the third beneficiary is Hong Kong.

As a nearby free port, Hong Kong became a popular destination for America's logistical support and vacations.

Some of America's military procurement orders went to Hong Kong's manufacturing sector, mainly textiles, clothing, and electronics.

Statistical data shows that throughout the 60s, Hong Kong's exports of Americana accounted for more than 40% of its total exports, up from about 20%, which was almost entirely due to the Vietnam War.

Completing the construction of the only internationally standardized seaport in the entire Asia-Pacific region ahead of schedule will help Hong Kong attract more orders from America during the Vietnam War.

Besides the transformation of the seaport, the relationship between Lin Ran and McNamara is equally important.

Eat more in Hong Kong, eat less in Japan.

In other words, the Japanese were unaware that the Vietnam War was about to escalate significantly, and that the Americans were about to intervene directly in Da Nang.

If Japan knew that, as a post-war economy that had benefited from the war, it would probably spend money to quickly renovate ports like Yokohama, Tokyo, and Osaka.

"Put one generation into production, and conduct preliminary research on another."

These words are posted in the semiconductor research group's factory.

These are the standards they set.

"Of course, Si Jiu, I know very well that the material of the Raspberry Pi is definitely not germanium transistors. It may be silicon transistors developed by Texas Instruments in the 50s."

It could also be some other material that we don't know about.

"Silicon transistors are also more suitable in terms of physical properties," Xie Xide said.

As solid-state physicists in Group 2 of Area 51, Xie Xide and Huang Kun were primarily responsible for providing theoretical guidance.

With the computing power provided by the Raspberry Pi, they are theoretically in a prime position.

It achieved a result where one plus one is greater than two.

At that time, not only could China only manufacture germanium transistors, but even Russia could only manufacture germanium transistors.

Or, to put it another way, at this point in time, global semiconductor technology is still dominated by germanium transistors, and silicon transistors are almost exclusively commercially mass-produced by Texas Instruments.

At that time, whether it was Sony's TR-63 transistor radio, the Soviet-made Spidola radio, or America's own Regency TR-1, they all used germanium transistors without exception.

Wu Xijiu wanted to skip germanium transistors and go directly to silicon transistors.

Huang Kun interrupted, saying, "Xi Jiu, silicon transistors are the next generation of materials we need to develop."

Optimizing past processes is now more realistic than developing silicon transistors.

Professor Xie and I are theoretically calculating the parameters for zone melting, which will allow us to directly refine high-purity germanium crystals and prepare for subsequent silicon purification.

Xie Xide added: "Professor Wang found the zone melting method proposed by William Pufan in the Journal of Metals."

We extracted the distribution coefficient and diffusion model from his original paper and studied them in conjunction with the physical properties of germanium, such as its melting point and thermal conductivity.

His theoretical curve has now been reproduced, proving that this theory is applicable to the processes we will optimize in the future.

Including the optimal number of purification cycles, with the help of colleagues in the mathematics group to build a convolution parameter model, it was determined that the number of purification cycles required to minimize the impurity concentration was between 3 and 5.

Led by Xie Xide and Huang Kun, and with the cooperation of colleagues from the Institute of Mathematics and the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who were assigned to work here, they established a mathematical model by starting with the distribution coefficient, diffusion kinetics, and thermodynamics.

Leveraging the Raspberry Pi's powerful computing capabilities, they successfully derived the optimal process parameters for germanium crystal purification through numerical simulation and optimization algorithms, including a melting zone speed of 1-2 mm/min and 3-5 purification cycles.

The existence of Raspberry Pi greatly reduced their trial-and-error costs.

In addition, this is not only about studying the purification of germanium crystals, but also about preparing for the subsequent manufacturing of silicon crystals.

Wu Xijiu, however, felt that they could skip germanium transistors and go directly to the research on silicon transistors.

Wu Xijiu didn't place much importance on the transistor radio project. He felt that even if it was manufactured in two months, it would be difficult to sell given China's current situation of being at odds with both sides.

Instead, we should focus our efforts on reproducing the Raspberry Pi.

This idea is similar to America's desire to skip the earlier goals of the space race, such as satellites and manned spaceflight, and go straight to the moon landing.

It may seem like they've set a lofty goal, but in reality, it's an attempt to escape short-term competition.

Since Lin Ran joined NASA, America has never mentioned that whoever wins the moon landing first wins the space race, or that any wins in between don't count.

Huang Kun inspected the prototype: "The leakage current of the transistor has dropped to 5 microamps, which is a significant improvement over before. The equipment almost couldn't withstand the zone melting purification process three times."

Wang Shouwu was in charge of adjusting the circuit: "The push-pull amplifier used two transistors, and I wound the transformer myself with a turns ratio of 5:1. I stayed up all night yesterday to solder it."

Wang Shoujue connected the 9V battery: "The antenna is set up. The signal is coming from the Central Radio Station. Let's listen to the effect."

After the power was turned on, a slight hissing sound came from the speaker, followed by the announcement from the Central People's Broadcasting Station: "This is the Central People's Broadcasting Station. Today is February 15, 1962..."

Wang Shouwu frowned: "The noise is still a bit loud, it might be because the impedance of the input stage is not properly adjusted."

Wang Shoujue quickly picked up the instrument to measure the bias voltage: "0.3V, the temperature compensation is working, it's more stable than yesterday."

They then switched to a music program.

Wang Shoujue exclaimed in delight, "The bass is much stronger than the old-fashioned vacuum tubes! You can hear 50 Hz, and the speakers are so loud they make the table shake."

Huang Kun was clearly not very happy. They weren't comparing themselves to the old tube radios; they had to create a world-class product.

Wu Suo nodded: "The frequency response reaches 8 kHz, and the high frequencies are clear. It's at least as good as the Russian Spidola."

The Russians want to turn their lives around in the electronics industry with Spidola? Don't even think about it!

They compared it to the Russian Spidola and found that their prototype not only had a louder volume but also much better detail.

During the subsequent process of inputting different frequency signals into a signal generator and recording the output waveforms, an engineer surnamed Li was calculating the signal-to-noise ratio.

"It's about 38 decibels, and it doesn't drift much even when the temperature rises to 40 degrees."

Wang Shoujue was in charge of testing the power: "1.5 watts, a little higher than planned, but the battery can handle it."

To simulate a more realistic environment, Huang Kun took the prototype outdoors, and the signal remained clear: "For Europeans who do foreign trade and like to be outdoors, the effect will not be bad either."

However, it's not entirely without problems.

During testing, it was found that the sound quality dropped slightly at high temperatures. Huang Kun analyzed, "Germanium transistors are still temperature sensitive, so the heat sink needs to be thickened. I suggest reducing the feedback capacitor to 10 picofarads; that should reduce the noise a bit more."

After two hours of adjustments, the noise was reduced and the sound quality became purer.

In their view, the final result was much better than the Sony TR-182 that the Chinese had brought them from Hong Kong, not to mention the Russians' Spidola.

"Just one last step." Wu Xijiu carefully assembled the welded badge casing.

Led by Huang Kun, the Semiconductor Group II started from the most basic germanium crystal process and delivered the results to Dean Qian before the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade departed on March 1.

Dean Qian took the slightly heavy transistor radio from Huang Kun, stroked the panda design on it, and subconsciously asked, "Panda brand?"

Huang Kun nodded: "That's right, our most famous overseas attraction is the panda."

The cigarettes sold by Shenhai Cigarette Factory are also the Panda brand. I heard from colleagues at the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade that Panda cigarettes are quite popular in Leipzig.

Since there's an existing brand already established, let's not overthink it and just use Panda.

Dean Qian asked, "Are you confident?"

Huang Kun was filled with lofty ambitions at this moment, even though he could not personally fly to the Leipzig Trade Fair to see what the participants looked like.

But he was absolutely confident that this transistor radio would be a huge hit in Leipzig: "Very confident. Old Qian, you'll see when you hear it."

Huang Kun, one of the few top theoretical physicists in China today, has put his knowledge to good use during this period, showcasing all his past experience on this small radio.

Dean Qian placed the radio on the table and said, "Come on, tell me what you did."

Huang Kun said, "The first step is to purify pure germanium single crystals."

Previously, we could only achieve an accuracy of one part per million; now we can achieve one part per billion.

It went directly from the ppm level to the ppb level.

Reducing impurities can reduce carrier scattering and leakage current. With reduced leakage current, noise is reduced, and the clarity of the audio signal is improved.

We have always known that there is a zone melting method to purify germanium single crystals, but we have no way of obtaining the specific parameters.

We have limited resources and can't keep trying to get that process parameter right.

But with Raspberry Pi, things are different. We can first derive a more accurate impurity concentration distribution curve and a process parameter chart, and then gradually approach that limit.

This directly eliminates the need for extensive experiments and numerous simplified models.

Without a Raspberry Pi, in addition to a lot of experimentation, you would have to simplify your model into a one-dimensional approximation problem and calculate a rough result by hand.

"In terms of the purity of pure germanium single crystals alone, it should be consistent with the most advanced level in the West."

This is because our crystal pulling and smelting equipment are outdated Soviet/Russian products. If we could obtain America's latest manufacturing equipment, the purity could be improved several levels further.

Huang Kun clearly looked down on Soviet-style equipment, but there was nothing he could do; the outdated American equipment was no longer available for purchase.

"In addition to the improved purity of the process and the improvement of the transistors themselves, the Raspberry Pi has given us a lot of inspiration in the design of audio circuits."

We added a parallel diode to the audio amplification stage of the superheterodyne circuit in the base bias circuit to reduce noise and distortion caused by high temperature.

Additionally, I designed a simple push-pull circuit using a pair of PNP and NPN germanium transistors to improve bass performance.

Huang Kun and his team have a dozen or so points for innovation.

Some of the technologies used in the Soviet Union, such as push-pull circuits, were very common in Soviet Spidola radios.

However, unlike the push-pull circuits of the Soviet Union, China, thanks to its high-precision transistors, was able to design push-pull circuits with better performance and advanced transformers.

At the time, only America's high-end portable radio, the Zenith Royal 1000, could use this type of circuit.

Dean Qian turned on the radio to listen to the few broadcasts available at the time; compared to them, he had listened to far more radios.

Judging from the volume and sound quality, at least he could tell that this device was in no way inferior to any radio he had ever used before.

"Professor Huang, you also need to conduct thorough testing on its stability."

I believe it will be well received in Leipzig.

As one of the few products that can rival Western electronic products, sales are definitely not a concern.

"After large-scale deliveries follow, stability must be ensured, and quality control will naturally be the responsibility of the factory," Dean Qian instructed.

Huang Kun nodded: "That's natural."

This Panda 1 is just the beginning. A true breakthrough will only be possible once silicon transistor technology advances and transistor miniaturization becomes more advanced.

March 1, Yanjing, on the eve of departure.

The delegation to the Leipzig Trade Fair was led by Li Mingde, Deputy Secretary-General of the Trade Promotion Committee.

Zhang Zhigang is a veteran of the Trade Promotion Committee, having started traveling to East Germany to participate in trade fairs five years ago.

But never before had he looked forward to it more than this time.

In the past, China could only showcase agricultural products and textiles; this was the first time they had brought their industrial products to the exhibition.

"How many Panda brand radios do you think we can sell?" Zhang Zhigang asked.

Li Hongbo, a colleague from the radio factory, participated in the entire production of the Panda brand radio in Panzhihua. This time, he also went to Leipzig to be responsible for the debugging and maintenance of the equipment.

Of course, he was unaware of the existence of the Raspberry Pi. From his perspective, it was simply that the solid-state physics experts at the Chinese Academy of Sciences were incredibly talented, able to figure out a process that a radio factory couldn't develop in two years in just two months.

"Five thousand units! At least five thousand units should be no problem, right?" Li Hongbo's estimate was conservative, considering that China had never sold a single unit before.

Zhang Zhigang counted on his fingers: "Five thousand units, at a price of $20, that's $10! This little gadget can generate $10 in foreign exchange at a time? How much rice and silk would that be to sell?"

Li Hongbo said helplessly, "I'm just guessing. And if it's popular, the first time it'll be 5000 units, and the second time it might be 50,000 units, which would be a million US dollars."

"One million!" Zhang Zhigang's voice rose when he heard the number. Since everyone on the private jet was resting, he lowered his voice and asked, "Can we really sell 50,000 units?"
A million dollars would be more than all our trade volume from participating in the Leipzig Trade Fair every year.

“Isn’t this my hope?” Li Hongbo said.

Leipzig, East Germany, welcomed the Leipzig Spring Trade Fair in the chilly spring weather.

This year is quite special compared to previous years, as it is the first spring fair since the Berlin Wall was built. Last year's autumn fair was not so pleasant.

This time will be similar.

West Germany is already urging people not to attend the Leipzig Trade Fair.

After arriving in Leipzig, the Chinese delegation checked into a simple hotel arranged by the East German side.

During dinner, Li Mingyuan encouraged his team: "This exhibition is of great significance. We must let the world see our strength in our transistor radios."

The delegation arrived at the exhibition hall early the next morning and set up a booth in the Eastern European countries' exhibition area.

Although the booth was small, it was arranged in a neat and orderly manner.

The technicians took the Panda brand radio out of the wooden crate and placed it in the glass display case.

The radio prototype has a dark gray plastic casing with a panda pattern printed on it.

The backdrop displays a bilingual (Chinese and German) slogan: "Chinese Industry, Going Global."

Li Hongbo tuned the radio to the frequency of the Central Radio Station, and the announcer's voice came through clearly: "This is the Central People's Broadcasting Station..."

He said with satisfaction, "The signal is very stable, even better than in China. I had heard that East Germany's broadcasting system had strong compatibility, but our radios are performing quite well."

On the opening day of the expo, crowds thronged the area, seemingly unaffected by last year's Berlin crisis, with exhibitors and buyers from various camps gathering together. Although the Chinese booth was inconspicuous, the words "Transistor Radio" still attracted considerable attention.

After all, people subconsciously feel that Chinese products should have a price advantage.

It's like when you attend the Canton Fair and see African manufacturers selling electronic products, you subconsciously think that their prices must be lower, otherwise how can they beat China?

Buyers today share a similar view. If China were to exhibit as a whole, how could it dare to present transistor radios as its flagship product without sufficient confidence?

This is different from what they exhibited at the Leipzig Fair in previous years.

Hermann Schmidt, a local purchasing manager from Leipzig, came to the booth.

He asked in German, "Is this a Chinese product? What kind of transistors does it use?"

Li Mingyuan replied in fluent German: "This is our latest Panda brand radio, which uses domestically produced Germanium transistors. It has stable performance and excellent sound quality."

After listening to the sound, the other party exclaimed in surprise, "The sound quality is great, how much does it cost?"

“Each unit is exported for $20, which is 50% cheaper than the same quality product from Japan,” Li Mingyuan said.

Schmidt nodded and handed over his business card: "We are interested in it. Could you provide the technical information?" Li Mingyuan happily arranged for Li Hongbo to hand over the technical manual.

The delegation was greatly encouraged by the purchase intentions expressed on the first day.

However, they were a bit too optimistic, as buyers kept coming in to inquire about prices.

Clearly, everyone is interested in learning more about the prices of Chinese goods after they learned about them.

(End of this chapter)