Black technology starts from the steel suit

Chapter 184 Chapter 184 The Dilemma of Semiconductors
"Professor Wang, you have given me a big problem!" Tang Guoliang, the boss of SMIC, looked at the young face in the video and said helplessly.

"Is there still a difficulty in not being able to buy a photolithography machine? I have such a small request, can't you think of a way?" Wang Feng frowned and said: "It is said to be technical cooperation, but in fact the most critical thing is It still depends on who relies more on whom, and even if we cooperate in developing Anton3, do we have to use someone else’s chip in the end, or where will it be produced?”

Wang Feng still didn't say a word: I wasted so much effort to help you get the euv lithography machine back, is it just to let you tell me which foundry is easy to use when you need to use it?

"Don't be anxious. Look at you young people, you just don't have much patience. I just said that we still have some difficulties in the use of EUV. In fact, the main reason is that the yield rate is relatively low due to immature technology, but it is definitely possible. Use it." As a businessman, and with the giant SMIC in his hands, Lao Tang has been accustomed to retreating in order to advance, raising prices on the ground, and he has not changed this time.

However, he also knows who is the big boss and who they rely on to get the latest three EUVs, so he immediately remedies: "And you have just finalized the cooperation plan, and it will take a long time Only then can IC design be done well, here I promise you: when you need tape-out, I will help you free up a production line first, and never lose the chain!"

"Then I'll leave it to you, but I hope you can understand that the Beijing Lithium Battery Research Institute has developed to this point, and must have its own dedicated supercomputer, otherwise it would be too difficult to go further."

"It's understandable. After all, the advancement of science and technology still depends on scientists like you. We have little talent and knowledge, so we really can't help you with your setup. But if we want to help you with logistics, we can still do it."

Lao Tang has had a much better time this time. Not only did he import three EUVs at a high price, but he also imported more than ten DUVs as the main equipment. There is no need to do anything in the near future. You just need to slowly digest this result, and then wait for the order to be received.

No, the order is coming!

"Professor Wang, don't worry, even if other orders are put aside first, and even if you have to pay a liquidated damages, I will find a way to make people familiar with the three EUVs first, isn't it just money... I have already spent so much There are too many, and I don’t care about poaching more team members!” Tang Guoliang has already made up his mind to poach a group of colleagues, let alone double the salary, he can pay three times the salary!

After hanging up the phone, Tang Guoliang first called the headhunting company, went to the person in charge there, and placed a large order: for senior engineers, no matter the price, no matter the cost, recruit people.

Immediately afterwards, he contacted Huawei's boss again: "Sorry, your order may be delayed."

"Did Professor Wang from the Beijing Lithium Battery Research Institute contact you?"

"Yeah, no...their ICs are going to be designed by you?" Tang Guoliang thought quickly: Isn't that right, these are the strongest IC design teams in China.

"It's more than that, Professor Wang lent me all of my HiSilicon semiconductors!" Mr. Ren over there said helplessly, but he was not dissatisfied. After all, everyone is like this. If you help me once, I will help you. You once.

But what he is worried about is: after your supercomputer is built, will you still need human operation and daily maintenance... As a representative of the current younger generation of scholars, it is too easy for the other party to attract a group of high-level talents to stay .

Not to mention that they are treated better than them, even if they don't pay, there are still a lot of high-level talents who want to enter the Beijing Lithium Battery Research Institute!

What he was afraid of was not being poached by the wall, but by the wall with his legs!

It has to be said that after Wang Feng's Huaneng Battery made great efforts in the field of new energy, the other party relaxed its sanctions against a large number of companies including SMIC, or reached a certain exchange of interests, making Huawei's latest chip It is possible to find a foundry to produce, but just in case, it is also very important to cultivate local suppliers.

As part of the technology exchange, the latest EUV ordered by SMIC from ASML has finally arrived, and there are three of them at once; the order price of this big guy exceeds 1.2 million US dollars, and it is still the unit price of 18 years; chasing orders The price is close to 2 million US dollars, which is really a huge profit among huge profits!
But even so, they are not willing to sell it to you. According to the Geneva Agreement, this kind of high-precision equipment is not allowed to be exported to China. Although they guaranteed that this item was not on the embargoed catalog when ordering it in 18. , but the old American just looked back and added it conveniently... There's nothing you can do about it.

But it doesn’t work without this thing, because it is the main force for the production of chips below 10nm. Without this kind of thing, the yield rate of chips with a process below 10nm can be reduced to an outrageous level!

Of course, this is not to say that DUV can’t be done, but you need to have enough technology accumulation and employee accumulation like Four Star and Taipower. At present, SMIC has only achieved 14nm. In terms of more advanced technology, Technical research is still underway.

Therefore, if they want to produce ASICs that meet Wang Feng's requirements, their existing talent and technology reserves are not enough, and they must recruit talents to solve this problem.And it's not poaching people in the mainland, but poaching people in other places or even abroad!

Although domestic Shanghai Microelectronics (SMEE) already has a 90nm lithography machine, and it is rumored that a 28nm lithography machine will be launched soon.However, there is still a huge gap between it and ASML's EUV lithography machine.

This gap is not only in equipment and technology generation gap, but also in talent and technical reserves. Simply put, even if you ship the equipment back, it is not easy to get it to work.

Prior to this, there have been rumors in the industry that Huawei is developing a more advanced EUV lithography machine, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences has already established relevant layouts in the key technology and device fields of lithography machines. This... can be dug!

In another one, such as the lens and exposure system required by the lithography machine of Changchun Optical Machinery of Chinese Academy of Sciences, breakthroughs have already been made, and the latest news also shows that a set of EUV light source equipment has been built in the laboratory of Changchun Optical Machinery.

Well, yes, you can dig this too!
Anyway, it is unrealistic to break through the manufacture of EUV lithography machines now. Even if Warwick joins hands with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, can it achieve breakthroughs in EUV lithography machines?
The answer is "difficult" and "very difficult". Let's put it this way, let's not talk about building an (EUV) lithography machine. Even making good use of an (EUV) lithography machine is an extremely complicated matter.

Thinking of this, Tang Guoliang felt that it would not be a bad thing to poach people to do something more practical.

As mentioned earlier, Fourstar and Taipower can use DUV to produce 10nm or even 7nm chips, but their SMIC can only do 14nm. Of course, this is not to demean themselves.

In fact, being able to tie to this level in such a short period of time shows that they have made great efforts, but in many cases, hard work alone cannot bridge the gap.

Just like he could get tens of millions to start a business at the beginning of the century, but now most people can't earn 1000 million by their own efforts!
Another analogy may not be appropriate.If Four Star and Taipower are nuclear-powered aircraft carrier battle groups, then National Chip is just a few small sampans. The gap cannot be measured in a few streets. It has to be compared with the mountainous areas that have not yet been lifted out of poverty and the bustling capital.

Will China build a [-]-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carrier one day?Of course there will be this, and it must be there, but it's really hard to say when it will be built.

These conditions include but are not limited to:

The country must make up its mind and be prepared to lose money for more than ten or even 20 years, and still lose a lot of money. It will make great efforts to support related industries, train technical talents, and spend huge sums of money to introduce Chinese technical directors from European and American countries (European and American) There are many Chinese technical supervisors in the semiconductor industry, but due to the lack of corresponding positions and matching benefits in China, the brain drain in the semiconductor industry is extremely serious);
In addition, the external technical blockade should be loosened (including various optical devices, photolithography machines, photoresists, etc....), more than 6000% of ASML's more than 90 high-precision parts and components rely on its suppliers, and these things rely on their suppliers. It is absolutely unrealistic to rely on self-production;

A large number of engineers are needed to make the transition; Four Star, Intel, and a certain company in Taipower will have a big problem, go bankrupt or go bankrupt, which will allow market share and give SMIC development opportunities; new technologies are just at a time when the country is investing heavily Rise (realize corner overtaking);
To be honest, if you have the money to re-establish a company like Taipower in China, it is better to use the money to buy a ready-made one.

Therefore, it is really not so easy for the giant companies driven by the rise of this industry to fall down. Even with the power of the whole country, it is difficult. This is simply going against the entire market. Even big countries dare not gamble lightly.

要知道老美当年可是集合了整个北约国家超过40万科学家，在1961年到1972年投入了超过500亿美金，那可是半个世纪前的500亿美金啊！

And then there was the 4000 billion U.S. dollars of the Information Highway Project...the amount is so big that I can't even imagine it!

Global competition has reached this point. It is no longer a matter of a few companies or a few industries. This is a major event involving all aspects of a country. The manpower and material resources that need to be mobilized will never be less than the previous major events. In case of gambling, If you lose...the consequences will be disastrous.

Lao Mei has a strong foundation and can afford to lose, but can they afford to lose?the answer is negative!

Moreover, Europe and the United States will not just watch you achieve technological breakthroughs. They will also concentrate their efforts on launching a massive scientific research competition in the field of semiconductors... They will definitely not let you achieve transcendence in this field.

As we all know, attacking is much more difficult than defending, and it also consumes more manpower and material resources. So are they really ready to fight a long-lasting battle in this technological field?The answer is no, at least with his status, he has not received any news.

In addition, they have more talents, better talents, and more abundant scientific research funds...so the difficulty is very high.Moreover, many technologies are not available for you to use after you have achieved breakthroughs, and they also involve patent issues.

As for ASML's current technology, even if China builds exactly the same thing, there will still be patent troubles. It is almost impossible to circumvent this pile of patents and commercialize it. The market value of the entire semiconductor alliance is tens of thousands. Billion dollars, the patent moat they form is almost at the level of the Amazon River.

Therefore, from a general perspective, it is still possible for Huaguo to surpass Four Star and Taipower with new chip manufacturing technology, but the road is extremely tortuous.

You may not know much about the so-called chip manufacturing.Let's put it this way, if Europe evaporates overnight, it will take at least five years for Laomei to recreate a lithography machine with similar performance!
That is to say, there will be no lithography machines and high-performance chips available in the world within five years!
Therefore, if China wants to build a new EUV lithography machine, it is not that China is challenging the United States, but that China is challenging foreign countries, all developed countries!Not to mention other things, high-performance filters, coatings with high reflectivity for extreme ultraviolet rays, durable commercial lasers... none of them can be made by China itself!

To be more precise, it's not that Huaguo can't make it, but that there are many old Americans who can't make it!

Coatings, optical filters, semi-reflective and semi-projective mirrors... These technologies are nothing but low-performance. High-performance products are tested year after year. Europe started early, and the most tested is the world's strongest!
China started late and could not build anything in a short period of time.Because, without these basic components, it would be impossible to build an EUV lithography machine!
Therefore, building a lithography machine is different from building an aircraft carrier. The aircraft carrier is not in the global industrial chain.The lithography machine is a product of the integration of the global industrial chain.If the technological blockade against Hua Guo is not loosened, there will be too many things that need to be repeated. It is definitely not possible for Hua Guo to fight alone in ten or twenty years.

And after more than ten or twenty years, the products you have conquered are outdated, and others have better products, and you are still lagging behind...

This is probably the Matthew effect, the strong will always be strong!
Of course, as a new generation of technology, EUV can realize 7nm and 5nm lithography. Although it is more advanced, if Taipower is really forced to not provide OEM for Huaguo, we can still use older technology.The use of older technology is also sufficient to ensure normal domestic needs.This is also one reason why the state does not have as much drive and determination in this area.

As for commercial chips such as mobile phones and computers, since making them yourself is much more expensive than buying them, and the performance is not as good as others, then you can only use them for military and scientific research first... This is what you need to bear in order to connect with the world One of the prices.

In short, EUV lithography machines can be regarded as derivatives of US dollar hegemony.As long as the hegemony of the US dollar continues, China will not be able to make major breakthroughs in this field.If and only if the basic accessories required for EUV lithography machines can be freely imported into China, it will be possible for China to make a breakthrough in this field.

Finally, another concept is emphasized!There is a huge gap between the products that can be commercialized and what can be realized in the laboratory!The realization in the laboratory means that regardless of cost or stability, it can be done once or twice.

The concept of commercial products is: stable, efficient, controllable, and profitable (focus)!
As far as EUV lithography machines are concerned, the Changchun Institute of Optics and Mechanics that Huaguo has done best is probably a set of laboratory EUV light source equipment, and from the perspective of technical realization, they chose another technical route , the controllability of EUV output is bound to be insufficient, and commercialization still has a huge bottleneck.

Is it usable?Can!Do you want to make money? If you can’t make money, you will even lose money!
(End of this chapter)