Countercurrent 1982

Chapter 1154 Lithography Machine

Duan Yun came to Japan this time, although all the accommodation and meals were received by the Japanese side, but Duan Yun exchanged 30 US dollars in advance for emergencies.

That night, Duan Yun kept thinking until very late before falling asleep, feeling a little restless and anxious in his heart.

And Li Yun in the other room also fell asleep very late. After she separated from Duan Yun, she has been sitting on the sofa by the window in the room, watching the dazzling Tokyo night view outside the window, and her heart is Full of excitement and excitement...

……

In the early morning of the second day, Toshiba sent a car to take Duan Yun to the chip factory in the suburbs of Tokyo. This time, it was Shinichi Tanaka who visited China last time to receive them.

After seeing Duan Yun, Tanaka also showed great enthusiasm and led him to visit Toshiba's chip factory.

For a long time, Japan's chip industry has been controlled by six giant electronics companies, including: NEC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Toshiba, Mitsubishi Electric, and OKI Electric. They receive funding directly from the government to improve Japan's high-tech industry. Technology.

These companies not only produce chips but also produce electronic equipment. However, in the 80s, only 7% of the annual turnover of these companies came from the sales of chips. Among these companies, Toshiba accounted for a slightly higher proportion. It can reach about 13%.

Under the leadership of Shinichi Tanaka, after Duan Yun and Li Yun entered the production workshop, they were immediately arranged by the staff to put on dustproof clothing.

Duan Yun’s Tianyin Electronics Factory also has a dust-free workshop, but compared with Toshiba’s dust-free workshop, it is more than one level behind. This workshop is very sealed. Clothes, but also cleaning and disinfection of the whole body.

After entering the production workshop, Duan Yun and Li Yun were also shocked by the situation inside.

All the workers are working in an orderly manner. The machines inside look very advanced and sophisticated. There are only more than 100 workers in the huge workshop, but according to Shinichi Tanaka, the annual output of chips in this workshop can reach an astonishing 500 million pieces .

Chip production is a very sophisticated and complicated process. Each piece of equipment in the workshop costs millions, or even tens of millions of dollars, and the investment is quite huge.

In addition, the machines for producing chips mainly include lithography machines, plasma etching machines, ion implanters, single crystal furnaces, wafer dicing machines, wafer thinning machines, oxidation furnaces, low-pressure chemical vapor deposition deposition systems, and magnetron sputtering tables , chemical mechanical grinding machine, wire bonding machine, and probe test bench and so on.

These devices are the most advanced devices in the current international chip industry, and the most well-known chip production equipment is the lithography machine.

A lithography machine, also called a laser engraving machine, is a device specially used to manufacture tiny electronic components. As for how small is this "tiny"?Take the most popular chip technology in the world today, the 7nm process requires about one-ten-thousandth of a human hair. You can imagine how difficult the technology is.

Our country has actually carried out research and development of lithography machines, and this incident dates back to the 60s half a century ago.At that time, experts in our country had already developed the 65-type contact lithography machine, and it took five years for the Dutch ASML company to be established. It is also ironic. Although my country was five years ahead of the Dutch ASML, it plummeted later. , far behind the world level.

It turned out that in the 80s, there was a "Waterloo" in my country's lithography machine technology. I don't know whether it was insufficient scientific research funds or "floating". Chinese researchers even gave up the research on lithography machines for a while, and advocated importing from abroad.Maybe people at that time failed to consider the disadvantages of importing, so the self-developed lithography machine has been put on hold, and even the research results of the previous 20 years have been wasted.

Maybe it is the downturn in China's semiconductor industry. Even Wuhan No. 193 Factory, which last stuck to the lithography machine industry, finally chose to change careers and sold snacks. Later, until Taiwan TSMC developed a [-]nm lithography machine, Chinese talents I finally realized that until today, my country's lithography machines still rely on imports.

According to Tanaka Shinichi's inquiry, Toshiba Electronics Factory can already produce 4~5 inch wafers and 0.9 micron level chips.

Hearing Tanaka's introduction, Duan Yun was secretly surprised.

In fact, long before coming to Japan, Duan Yun already had a relatively comprehensive understanding of the current technical situation of the chip industry in China.

In 1986, the Ministry of Electronics Industry held a seminar on integrated circuit development strategy in Xiamen, and proposed the "1986" development strategy of my country's integrated circuit technology during the "Seventh Five-Year Plan" (1990-531), that is, to popularize and promote the 742 micron technology based on the 5 factory. technology, while developing 3-micron technology and tackling 1-micron technology.

But in fact, it was not until 1993 that the 5-inch, 15-micron technology was developed in China, which is more than [-] years behind Japan.

"I want this set of equipment." Duan Yun walked to a lithography machine and said to Shinichi Tanaka.

"Mr. Duan Yun..." Tanaka was stunned for a moment when he heard the words, and then smiled and said to Duan Yun: "This is the most advanced lithography machine in our company, and there are only 6 in Japan. It is impossible to sell this to you …In addition, the flash memory chips you produce don’t need such a high-precision lithography machine.”

"Then which lithography machine does your company plan to sell us?" Duan Yun asked.

In fact, Duan Yun already knew that Toshiba could not sell the most advanced things to him, and even if he did, the Japanese government would not agree.

The Japanese government has always been very supportive of the chip industry. Not only are there tax incentives, the tax rate of Toshiba’s chip industry is only 20%, which is far lower than the 45%~50% tax rate of American companies. In addition, the Japanese government has always encouraged domestic College students from top universities are engaged in research on chip industry technology, and have set up high scholarships for related majors. It is precisely because of the above-mentioned measures that Japan's chip industry has overwhelmed the United States and become the world's number one.

It is absolutely impossible to sell top-notch lithography machines to China. In addition to the strict supervision of the Japanese government, there is also the restriction of the Batumi Agreement. Therefore, from the very beginning, the equipment used by Toshiba to set up factories in China is destined to be not the most advanced.

In fact, lithography machines have always been the bottleneck restricting the development of China's domestic chip industry. In other aspects, such as raw crystal cutting machines and etching machines, there is a gap between domestic technology and international technology, but this gap is not large. In terms of technical difficulty , much simpler than a lithography machine.

It is precisely because of this that Duan Yun focused on the introduction of lithography machines from the very beginning.

"Please follow me." Hearing this, Tanaka took Duan Yun to another clean room.

Compared with the workshop just now, there are fewer operators in the clean room here, only five or sixty people, and the machines are somewhat different from the first clean room.

"According to the previous design plan of Mr. Fujio, this lithography machine fully meets the production requirements..." Tanaka pointed to a lithography machine in the corner and said to Duan Yun.

"How many micron chips can this lithography machine produce?" Duan Yun asked directly.

"This kind of equipment can produce 5-inch 3-micron chips, which belong to the previous generation of Toshiba Group's production equipment..." Tanaka replied to Duan Yun.

In fact, the most advanced chip production line that China can buy from foreign countries at a high price can only produce 5-micron chips. If it were not for the joint venture factory and the design of Fujio Masuoka flash memory chips based on the [-]-micron chip production technology, then Toshiba It is impossible for the group to sell lithography machines capable of producing [-]-micron chips to China. After all, it is a joint venture. It is impossible to provide the best equipment, but it is absolutely impossible to provide the worst equipment.

Even the three-micron chip technology was not developed in mainland China until 1993, and it was only developed. It will be a few years before mass production is truly realized.

So if Duan Yun gets this machine, it will be 10 years ahead of the domestic chip technology, and only about 5 years behind the most advanced one-micron technology in the world!

If Duan Yun can seize this opportunity, relying on his knowledge of microelectronics technology in his previous life, he is very likely to complete the cornering overtaking. At that time, Duan Yun will have the strength to compete with the top international chip companies.

"En." Duan Yun nodded, although he was a little excited inside, but on the surface he seemed a little indifferent.

Later, under the leadership of Tanaka, Duan Yun and his party visited other equipment in the workshop.

"Mr. Tanaka, is there any good sushi restaurant here in Tokyo? I would like to treat you to a drink at noon..." After leaving the workshop, Duan Yun said to Tanaka.

Generally speaking, domestic business is discussed at the wine table. Sometimes business that cannot be negotiated on a formal occasion, once at the wine table, after a few glasses of wine, even difficult business can be settled, so Duan Yun also I want to invite Tanaka to have a drink together, because the two of them had had a drink together when they were in China before, so this is not an abrupt invitation.

"This..." Tian Zhong suddenly became distressed when he heard this.

It turned out that what was different from Tanaka's visit to China at that time was that things were different this time, because after visiting the factory and equipment, there was still a later negotiation.

The Japanese are very strict and serious about their work, and they are very disciplined, especially the employees of large companies. If Tanaka's banquet is known to the company's top management, he may be questioned for accepting bribes to sell the company's interests. Once the board of directors files a no-confidence case against him, then he, the head of the electronics department, will not be able to continue as the head of the electronics department.

So before the official negotiation is over, Tanaka must keep a distance from Duan Yun. Duan Yun's way of negotiating business in China is obviously not easy to do in Japan...

(End of this chapter)