Technology: breaking the hegemony that monopolizes the world

As the only manufacturer in the Western world that can produce the most advanced EUV lithography machines, AS-ML has already mastered the core lithography machines for extremely advanced semiconductor processes of 5nm or even 3nm. But in the process of its development, it was not all smooth sailing.

According to history, it is somewhat magical that before 1006, the world's semiconductor overlord was still a company called Nikon.

Neon’s Nikon company launched the lithography machine NSR-1010G and the commercial stepper lithography machine Stepper in the 1980s, becoming the leader in the semiconductor lithography machine industry in the 1980s. Fan of the stars of tomorrow.

It is a "coincidence" that in the same year, Philips of the Netherlands and a Dutch chip equipment agent jointly established AS-ML.

At the beginning of its establishment, AS-ML only had dozens of employees on the books, and its office location was also a legendary simple factory building.

Then this unpopular company was able to miraculously develop the first-generation step-and-scan lithography machine PAS2000 in the first year of its establishment, and successfully won market orders with it.

In the 1990s, AS-ML was directly listed on Nasdaq in North America and the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in the Netherlands, and it was successful.

And after the successful listing, AS-ML not only made a lot of money, but also repurchased all the shares from Philips very decisively, realizing complete independence in the true sense.

Then in 1004, AS-ML developed the first immersion lithography machine prototype, and successfully won orders from international mainstream customers such as IBM and TSMC.

After becoming the world's top lithography machine giant, AS-ML was once again "very lucky" to receive the EUV legacy.

This matter also started when Intel and the US Department of Energy led the establishment of the EUV LLC alliance in 1997.

At that time, EUV technology developed slowly and required too many resources. Therefore, in the "fair and open" competition, the United States finally chose AS-ML, which had a weak technical reserve at that time, to join the EUV alliance.

As a result, ASML has obtained the qualification for the priority use of the United States and even the world's leading semiconductor technology, materials science, optics and precision manufacturing and other related technologies. The authority of the government was handed over to the government of Uncle Sam.

Over the past few years, the researchers of the EUV LLC Alliance have published hundreds of papers, greatly advancing the research progress of EUV technology and proving the feasibility of EUV lithography technology.

But just when the fruit was about to ripen, the EUV LLC alliance was magically disbanded.

The results of the alliance were divided between Intel and AS-ML. From the beginning of the century when the alliance was disbanded, to 1010, AS-ML absorbed the legacy of the alliance, and with the great help of American capital and the government, successfully Produced the first EUV lithography machine - NXE3100 EUV lithography machine, and delivered it to TSMC for chip foundry production.

So far, the global silicon-based semiconductors have been led by AS-ML, and the lithography machines it produces every year are the treasures sought after by major semiconductor companies.

The United States has also successfully achieved its goal of controlling the semiconductor field.

The obedient and caring AS-ML on the left hand can easily contain any semiconductor chip foundry in the world. On the right hand is capital-led Intel, which controls the core cpu of every computer.

Even if there is a newcomer AMD in the future, the technology mastered by AMD is also the fruit of the United States, so it is also a family.

Even in order to cut off the development path of latecomers, AS-ML proposed a "Customer Joint Investment Plan" in 1012, referred to as CCIP.

To put it simply, it is to accept the customer's capital injection, and the customer has the priority to order while becoming a shareholder.

This not only enables AS-ML to have a large amount of funds for research and development, but also guarantees customers the priority to use advanced lithography technology.

The three leaders in the semiconductor industry at that time: Intel, TSMC, and Hanxing naturally responded one after another and dared not refuse.

Intel spent US$4.1 billion to acquire a 15% stake in ASML, a Dutch chip equipment manufacturer, and invested another US$1 billion to support ASML to accelerate the development of costly chip manufacturing technology. TSMC invested 838 million euros to acquire about 5% of the shares of ASML. Hanxing spent 503 million euros to purchase a 3% stake, and injected an additional 275 million euros to cooperate in the research and development of new technologies.

In the end, with 23% of the useless equity, ASML not only obtained 5.3 billion euros of funds, but also directly tied the world's top three semiconductor leaders tightly.

This is the prosperity history of AS-ML’s semiconductor empire. Judging from various reports, it is full of magic and inspiration. The founders of American Capital and the Netherlands are so righteous in promoting technological development, even “without asking for anything in return.”

And semiconductor manufacturers such as Intel, TSMC, and Hanxing, in order to enable their equipment suppliers to have better development, have "shake hands and make peace" and give them money and resources.

It's just that this story wrapped in beautiful narrative vocabulary has the hegemonic behavior of the United States at its core.

Companies such as Intel, TSMC, and Hansung, even if there is commercial competition, even if the three parties want the other to go bankrupt and die quickly, but under the pressure of hegemony, they have to "donate generously", almost like paying tribute to AS- ML makes money.

October 23rd, early morning.

On the outskirts of Eindhoven, the fifth largest city in the Netherlands, is the headquarters of AS-ML, the world's largest semiconductor equipment manufacturer.

In a huge factory building tightly protected by security and the army, countless employees in dust-free overalls are working in the workshop.

Even if it is 3:30 in the morning, it is not the working time that the "humanitarian West" should have.

The EUV light energy used by the EUV lithography machine is extremely destructive, and the strict lithography machine naturally needs to be extremely sensitive when controlling this light. Sophisticated material equipment.

Even because various molecules in the air can interfere with EUV light, many workshops in this huge factory are in a vacuum environment.

Peter Win, CEO of AS-ML, was not lying on the bed at this time either.

He frowned, looking at the employees and machines outside the workshop with a gloomy expression.

He walked back and forth with his hands behind his back.

"Sir, please don't walk around outside the workshop, you should know that quiet is required in the factory."

Coulson, an engineer in charge of a certain AS-ML lithography machine project, interrupted Wen Peter's actions.

In the face of these top engineers, AS-ML CEO Wen Peter will naturally not sing any anti-tune, thinking that the other party is offending his authority.

On the contrary, his attitude changed into humility in an instant, and he said apologetically, "Please forgive me for being irritable. It is really because our competitors have given us too many unexpected 'surprises'."

As an engineer who can be responsible for specific projects in AS-ML, Coulson is naturally not a dead man.

He pointed to a workshop not far away and said: "One of the most critical parts of the EUV lithography machine, the reflector produced by German Zeiss needs to be flawless to the extreme, and the size of the flaw can only be calculated in picometers.

CEO, you should know that a nanometer is one millionth of a centimeter, and a picometer is one thousandth of a nanometer.

What is this concept?

If the mirror area is the size of the entire German territory, then the highest protrusion of the mirror cannot be higher than one centimeter. "

Having said this, the engineer sighed.

He turned his head, looked at the east, and said with emotion: "In the distant Great Xia, they have only entered the precision industry for a long time, and now they have produced a lithography machine that is not inferior to ours.

Xiaoguang Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Kyushu Technology, has manufactured the SS1MB light source developed from steady-state micro-beaming. So where did Pudong Microelectronics get such a flat reflector?

And how to adjust the photoresist production process and etching process used by Kyushu Semiconductor, and the engineering equipment in each link?

This is a really puzzling mystery. "

At this moment, Coulson is no longer as energetic as when he was leading the project.

When he was feeling emotional, besides the young Da Xia, there was another figure that frequently appeared in his mind.

The general facial features of Asians are yellow and thin. Although they are reserved and professional at work, they are so dull, which makes people wonder whether this person's academic qualifications are fake.

"Dr. Coulson, you are right. It's just that we haven't been able to achieve results in a short period of time in terms of legal affairs. The legal department of Kyushu Technology is obstructing us almost everywhere.

Moreover, the SS1MB light source lithography machine produced by Pudong Microelectronics currently only has one factory in Korea Hanxing. We cannot persuade Korea Hanxing to hand over this lithography machine to us for disassembly and research.

And as far as I know, the factories that Kyushu Technology cooperates with Korea Hanxing, as long as they use Kyushu semiconductor production technology, have been controlled by Kyushu Security, and they are violently embezzling the assets of Korea Hanxing.

well……"

In the face of AS-ML CEO Wen Peter's "lament", Coulson did not object.

He also gave advice in a serious manner.

"Sir, in fact, Kyushu Technology Semiconductor can develop so rapidly, partly because they recruit a lot of R\u0026D personnel and engineers from us and our partner companies, such as TSMC and Intel.

Although Kyushu Technology has found some loopholes and recruited some people who have not yet signed a non-competition agreement, it also shows that these people can lobby.

After all, they were able to leave their original company and go to a company that has no semiconductor business at all. The reason must be largely due to money.

As long as we can give them higher salaries and benefits, we can definitely beat Kyushu Technology in terms of human resources.

And as long as these people are recruited back, we can get enough information from them, and even combined with the optical technology of the Hansung factory in Korea, we can decipher the semiconductor technology of Kyushu Technology in reverse. "

After hearing Coulson's suggestion, CEO Wen Peter's eyes lit up for a few seconds, and then dimmed again.

He shook his head and denied: "Since those people entered the Kyushu Science and Technology Park, our company, TSMC, Intel, and even Korea Star, have also lobbied them, and even offered project dividends and company options, but they were all rejected.

Even the Kyushu Science and Technology Legal Department sued us internationally for these actions, saying that we intended to steal company secrets and Daxia Guojia secrets.

Our company's legal department has also been struggling with these cases over the years. And as far as we know, Kyushu Technology has signed a non-competition agreement for almost everyone involved in the project, and has paid out full agreement subsidies on time.

Therefore, even though we had persuaded a few people, but in the end faced with the harsh non-compete agreement and sky-high liquidated damages, even if we expressed our willingness to contribute capital to these people to pay the liquidated damages, still no one dared to take that step. "

"Oh..." Coulson sighed.

Then someone not far away sighed simultaneously.

Then someone else started to sigh too.

A small lounge outside the workshop, triggering a wave of sighs.

On this day, countless people in the AS-ML headquarters factory began to sigh.

No matter whether it is an engineer who is "exquisite in his hands", or an ordinary employee, or the company's top management, as long as they read the news, no one has a good face.

In the midst of sighs and sighs, some Chinese inside AS-+ML also chose to resign.

Although they can't enter enterprises such as Kyushu Technology and Pudong Microelectronics at this time, Xiaxin Technology is throwing olive branches around the world.

After just a few days of fermentation, the stock price of AS-ML fell again and again, and it was impossible to watch at all.

And the instigator of all this, Kyushu Technology, showed its hedgehog side when countless companies and institutions wanted to deal with it.

Huang Chaoren became one of the external spokespersons of Kyushu Science and Technology.

On the stage, facing reporters with different hair colors, he used a lot of Internet terms for the first time in his identity as a senior executive of the world's top technology company.

What "Nima" and "grass holding" came even more casually.

Anyway, the principle is one, to bombard and spew out all the remarks that smear Kyushu Technology.

Whenever he finished his actual information, he would name and criticize media such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

Even "false reporting" and "smearing and slandering", these reporters are somewhat unwilling to stay here.

This is just due to the reliability and timeliness of intelligence sources, they are often criticized in the morning, and after reporting in the afternoon, they continue to be honest and come back to be criticized.

...

The director of the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Xia Ke Academy has a rather feminine name, Wang Fang.

Who would have thought that under this somewhat plain female name, there is a face of a middle-aged Mediterranean man?

The physicist was explaining very patiently in front of a young man: "The construction of a large scientific device is like whoever first has a telescope and a microscope, whoever gets the latest scientific things first, and whoever makes it will go ahead.

The Jiangmen neutrino experiment is a large-scale international cooperation involving 19 countries and regions, which was rare before. In recent years, whether it is the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment, the Jiangmen Neutrino Experiment or the Large Ring Electron-Positron Collider, our Institute of High Energy, Xia Ke Academy is gradually attracting the attention of the world's scientific research to Da Xia. "