Rebirth 1984: Starting with the development of Hanka

"Well, not bad, everyone is very brave. However, EUV extreme ultraviolet lithography machines are not so easy to develop. You can take your time." Zhao Ye said with a smile.

In the past life, only the Dutch ASML company in the world could manufacture EUV extreme ultraviolet lithography machines. It is a lithography technology that uses extreme ultraviolet light with a wavelength of 10-14 nanometers as a light source. It has a very high technical content and can be called the top product of mankind. , is also a historical turning point in the development of global photolithography machines, and is known as the "Flower of Modern Optical Industry Manufacturing". On the market, the value of an EUV extreme ultraviolet lithography machine even exceeds 27 billion yuan!

With the technical strength of Sugon Lithography Machine Company and China, it may not be possible to build it within ten years.

Of course, everyone present knows the difficulty of manufacturing EUV extreme ultraviolet lithography machines. This solution was discussed in internal seminars and is extremely difficult. Wujiang Light Source Company has not been able to produce a stable deep ultraviolet light source so far.

Therefore, the next best thing is to take the lead in developing an immersion lithography machine.

Zhao Ye celebrated with everyone for a while, clapped his hands, focused everyone's attention on himself, and then told everyone: "Everyone, please be quiet, I want to announce something!!!"

"Please note that everyone present is prohibited from disclosing our successful development of an immersion lithography machine to anyone outside! Everyone must strictly keep the secret!"

In fact, all researchers have signed a confidentiality agreement before. Zhao Ye is just restating it here to prevent some people from getting carried away and accidentally telling the story about the successful development of the immersion lithography machine.

Zhao Ye said: "Right now, companies in Europe, America, Japan and South Korea are all placing their hopes on developing dry lithography machines, but we know that it is extremely difficult for dry lithography machines to make further breakthroughs. So, then Let them continue to go further and further down the wrong path, spending a lot of time, manpower and material resources, only to finally realize that everything they do will be in vain!!!"

"In this way, we will have enough time to widen the gap with them technically."

After hearing this, everyone couldn't help but nod their heads, understanding Zhao Ye's intentions very well.

When they think that European, American, Japanese and Korean companies have been going astray, they feel secretly happy and gloat over their misfortunes.

"Director Zhao, don't worry, we will definitely keep it secret and let those idiot companies in Europe, America, Japan and South Korea go all the way! Maybe when we develop the EUV extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, they will still be working hard. Lithography machine!" an employee shouted.

"Hahahaha... Yes, maybe they will continue to develop dry lithography machines. After all, they have invested so much money, they can't give up halfway, haha..."

Everyone laughed.

When Zhao Ye saw this, he smiled slightly and thought, this is not a big deal, the other party should stop the loss in time.

……

After a while, Zhao Ye, Zhang Rujing, Lin Benjian, Ni Guangnan and other senior executives came to the office.

After everyone sat down, Zhao Ye was the first to speak: "The immersion lithography machine has been successfully developed. It must be applied to the factory's chip production as soon as possible to improve the chip manufacturing process."

"Yes!" Lin Benjian, Zhang Rujing and others nodded in response.

"Then, spend money to build more 8-inch wafer fabs!" Zhao Ye analyzed, "With the emergence of immersion lithography machines, Loongson Design Company can design and develop more advanced chips, and Wujiang Microelectronics Company can also manufacture them. Produce advanced chips that are far superior to other companies. As a result, not only Loongson Design Company's chips will be sold well and sweep the world, but Wujiang Microelectronics' chip foundry business will also surge. At present, Wujiang Microelectronics has The number and production capacity of wafer fabs must be seriously insufficient!"

Zhang Rujing nodded and said: "What Director Zhao said is true. I already have a fab expansion plan! According to our company's market research analysis, we plan to invest in five large-scale fabs, with an investment of no less than 50 billion for each fab." US dollars! We need help from our parent company Wujiang Group in this regard!”

Zhao Ye was slightly surprised when he heard this.

It seemed that Zhang Rujing had already prepared, but her ambition was quite ambitious.

Five large-scale wafer fabs will be expanded at once, with a total investment of no less than 5 billion US dollars, which is equivalent to about 250 billion yuan in current RMB.

However, Zhao Ye thought for a while and agreed to Zhang Rujing's plan.

Wujiang Microelectronics has an immersion lithography machine, which has great advantages. In addition, Loongson Design Company itself is also very powerful, and it is fully capable of consuming Wujiang Microelectronics' production capacity.

Moreover, with the development of the global economy, the demand for chips is increasing day by day.

If the cost advantage of Wujiang Microelectronics is taken into account, then Canon, Nikon, Intel, TSMC, ASML and other companies can almost only survive.

"Okay, I agree with your plan!!! In addition, Wujiang Microelectronics Company is also preparing to develop a 12-inch wafer fab!" Zhao Ye nodded.

In the past, 6-inch and 8-inch wafer fabs were relatively backward.

When the 12-inch fabs came out, a lot of the 6-inch and 8-inch fabs were shut down.

As we all know, the larger the wafer, the more chips can be manufactured on a single wafer. Compared with the 12-inch wafer, the area of ​​the 8-inch wafer has increased by 2.23 times. The 8-inch wafer can manufacture 88 chips, and A 12-inch wafer can produce 232 chips, but the gap is still huge.

In the past life, 8-inch wafers were mainly used in industrial, automotive, mobile phone and other industries, including power devices, power management chips, MEMS, display driver chips, fingerprint recognition chips, etc. Chips with advanced process technology are mainly 12 inches, such as high-end logic chips such as CPUs, GPUs, and memory chips, as well as FPGA chips, WiFi Bluetooth chips, sound processing chips, etc. It can be seen that 12-inch wafers are the future development trend.

Zhang Rujing said in a deep voice: "Okay, Director Zhao, I will organize a technical team to study 12-inch wafers!"

At present, 8-inch wafers have become the mainstream, but the development of 12-inch wafer fabs is still far away.

The main reason is that there has been no breakthrough in the technology of dry lithography machines and it is difficult to improve the chip manufacturing process.

But Wujiang Microelectronics is different. It can master the immersion lithography machine immediately, so it is qualified to develop a 12-inch wafer fab.

Five or six years later, while other chip manufacturing companies are still complacent about having 8-inch wafer fabs, Wujiang Microelectronics' 12-inch wafer fab has already been put into production.

In today's global semiconductor field, Wujiang Microelectronics will lead the trend of the times and develop cutting-edge semiconductor technology!

……

The Dutch ASML company suddenly launched an IPO, which caused a stir in the semiconductor industry.

Japanese Canon and Nikon feel a little uneasy.

ASML's lithography machines are not much weaker than the products of the two companies. If ASML's IPO and financing are successful, ASML will have the funds to increase the research and development of a new generation of lithography machines.

ASML has a complicated background. Among its shareholders is Philips, and one of TSMC's shareholders is also Philips. This has led to the fact that TSMC, the world's second largest chip foundry, has always been a major customer of ASML.

If Canon and Nikon's lithography machines want to expand their market share, they must rely on technology that is ahead of other lithography machine brands.