my return 2002

Chapter 355 Two Technical Routes

On the second day after Zhulong Chip was confirmed to settle in Hefei, Liang Mengsong also sent good news.

In fact, during this period of time, Shen Lang and Hu Weiwu were still a little apprehensive. After all, it was only a verbal agreement with Liang Mengsong. The month has arrived, but Liang Mengsong has not come back.

It turned out that during this period of time, Liang Mengsong was in Taiwan Province, in addition to doing work for his family to return to the mainland to settle down, he also got together with some former colleagues. It turned out that due to the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis, TSMC’s orders fell sharply, resulting in serious losses , Like many companies, TSMC has also begun large-scale layoffs in order to survive.

There are many excellent engineers among them, so Liang Mengsong began to contact these people, hoping to bring them to the mainland. After all, there is a shortage of experienced talents like this in the mainland. They were brought back from the provinces and the United States, and later gradually cultivated a group of local talents.

For this, Shen Lang was naturally very appreciative, and promised that as long as they were willing to come, they would be paid 150% of their previous salary, and the various benefits would not be worse than they were in Taiwan Province before.

Under Liang Mengsong's go-between, more than 200 engineers who left TSMC were brought in at one time, making the Zhulong chip, which has not even been built on the site of the factory, extremely abundant in manpower.

Naturally, this matter did not escape Zhang Zhongmou's eyes and ears, but at this time Zhang Zhongmou was cleaning up the mess of TSMC. He had been in a semi-retired state before, and had to return to the leadership position to stabilize the morale of the army.

And a group of executives were fired. After all, the riots caused by layoffs have seriously affected TSMC's internal unity, and someone must come out to take the blame.

However, in order to avoid being too high-profile and irritating the sensitive Zhang Zhongmou, Liang Mengsong still let these engineers who left TSMC return to the mainland in batches.

On April 4, April Fool's Day, Shen Lang held a warm welcome ceremony at the Shanghai Airport to welcome Liang Mengsong and more than 1 engineers. Hefei TV Station also specially filmed the film crew to follow up and shoot.

"Director Liang, welcome home." Shen Lang gave Liang Mengsong a hug.

After discussion, Shen Lang agreed with Hu Weiwu and Zhang Rujin. Liang Mengsong was the chief engineer of Zhulong Chip, and had an overview of all the affairs of the chip factory. Chairman, Hu Weiwu did not hold a position in Zhulong Chip because he had to devote all his energy to the chip design process.

Liang Mengsong was also filled with emotion: "Yeah, I'm finally home."

The location of the factory in Hefei has just been decided, and even the design plan has not yet been finalized, so Shen Lang first arranged Liang Mengsong and the others in a newly built apartment building near the Inspur Industrial Park, in order to provide them with a good environment, Shen Lang directly covered the top ten floors as a whole.

The engineers brought by Liang Mengsong were also satisfied with the environment of the apartment building. In fact, the development of Taiwan Province has lagged behind the mainland in recent years, especially in infrastructure construction. What they have seen and heard along the way has also made them dismiss the mainland. With a backward impression, I am full of expectations for the future chip factory.

After arranging the daily life of the engineers, Shen Lang arranged Liang Mengsong's family in a villa near the Bund.

"Director Liang, this is the temporary residence I prepared for you. After the chip factory in Hefei is completed in the future, I will help you arrange to bring your family there." Shen Lang took Liang Mengsong for a walk.

Liang Mengsong was very moved: "It cost Mr. Shen a lot."

"Chief Liang is able to bring his family back from a long distance to settle down. This is nothing."

After exchanging pleasantries, Liang Mengsong said solemnly: "Mr. Shen, the chip factory has not yet been built, and we have no use for it for the time being. We can't be idle during this period, or people will lose their hearts after a long time."

Shen Lang has also been in management for many years, so he naturally understands the truth. These engineers who came back from Taiwan suddenly came to a brand new environment, and their psychology is relatively sensitive. When you are young, if you do nothing for a long time, it is inevitable that something will happen.

"Well, Mr. Liang, you are right, but what can we ask them to do now?"

Build a factory?Impossible, the basic construction has not been completed yet, should a group of engineers who make chips carry cement and sandbags?
Liang Mengsong said: "Now we are full of TSMC's technology, but we are completely blind to the mainland's chip manufacturing technology, especially the technical characteristics and production of high-end machines such as lithography machines and etching machines. The patterns are ignorant."

"So, I want to take advantage of this time to conduct a technical survey of the entire mainland chip manufacturing industry to see which technologies we need to master again."

In fact, Liang Mengsong said this very implicitly. The real situation is that Liang Mengsong wants to know how far the chip manufacturing industry in the mainland has developed, and what level of equipment can be used by Zhulong chips in the future.

Shen Lang looked at Hu Weiwu and Zhang Rujin, Zhang Rujin nodded: "I think Chief Engineer Liang's idea is very good, this is an opportunity to promote mutual understanding."

Since SMIC has been using foreign technology over the years, Zhang Rujin himself has not had much contact with the upstream industry chain of domestic chip manufacturing, and he does not know much about the overall industry status.

Hu Weiwu frowned slightly: "I'm afraid I have to ask my superiors for instructions."

After all, Liang Mengsong has just returned to China, and it is hard to say whether the engineers he brought back are reliable. The evidence provided by TSMC in the lawsuit against SMIC was passed back by undercover agents sent by TSMC.

For example, domestic lithography machine manufacturers, Modu Microelectronics, and etching machine manufacturer Zhongwei Semiconductor have more or less the shadow of state-owned assets, and their technical parameters are also kept secret.

"Boss Hu, this job still depends on you. We are so far behind now, and there is no secret in the technical route, so there is no need to hide it anymore." Shen Lang said.

Hu Weiwu nodded: "Well, I will try my best to coordinate."

Liang Mengsong solemnly raised another question: "In the future, how should the technical route of Zhulong chip be taken? Should it hit the manufacturing process at all costs, or advance steadily and gradually while ensuring the yield rate of the manufacturing process."

For the chip manufacturing industry, the technical route is definitely not a trivial matter, on the contrary it is a major event that can determine the survival of a company.

Don't underestimate the difference. Chip manufacturing is an extremely complicated process that requires thousands of processes. There are too many details that can be studied carefully. The reason why chips are difficult to break through in the manufacturing process is not that they cannot be manufactured. , but because there is no way to manufacture them while ensuring the existing yield rate, one batch will be compensated for one batch.

To give a very simple example, assume that the yield rate of each process in chip manufacturing is 90%, but after thousands of processes, the yield rate becomes a negative number. Of course, this calculation is definitely not appropriate. Many comparisons The yield rate of a simple process can reach 100%, but the problem is that in a modern industrial system where a yield rate of a few ten thousandths will cause a lot of cost waste, such a yield rate cannot form a cost advantage at all.

The reason why Intel has squeezed toothpaste for more than ten years and killed the 14NM process. When TSMC has already started to develop 5NM and 3NM, Intel's chips have only reached the 10NM process. Is it because Intel does not have the technical strength to engage in 5NM and 3NM?Not really.

The main reason is that Intel's 14NM process is quite mature, and even the 14NM process can reach the same level as TSMC's 5NM.

On a more advanced process technology such as 5NM, Intel has no way to guarantee the yield rate. If the yield rate cannot be guaranteed, it means that the profit cannot be guaranteed. Intel is a commercial company. You can make profits by squeezing toothpaste and constantly launching new products.

The power of TSMC is that it can not only break through the technological level of the manufacturing process, but also raise the yield rate to a very high level shortly after breaking through the new manufacturing process. This is also the main reason why TSMC can counterattack all the way.

Shen Lang is very clear that with the existing resources of Zhulong chips, he is not qualified to take the TSMC route for the time being, so he can only take one of the technical routes.

Just when Shen Lang fell into deep thought, Zhang Rujin sighed slowly and said.

"Chief engineer Liang is right. Zhulong's technical route must be determined first. Although SMIC has made rapid progress in the chip manufacturing process in recent years, in fact, its yield control has been far inferior to TSMC. The reason why the No. 3 was out of stock at one time is that I still have many technical problems in the 45NM process, which is a pity.”

It's a pity that he can only be forced to leave SMIC in exchange for a spark retained by SMIC. As the founder of SMIC, Zhang Rujin can be said to have put all his love on it.

Shen Lang pondered for a long time, and said: "I think it's better for us not to be too ambitious. It's better to understand the basics first, and then break through the manufacturing process. Moreover, the upstream industry chain of domestic lithography machines and etching machines also needs time to do so. Technological breakthrough."

The technology of lithography machines can be said to be the most cutting-edge technology in the world, not one of them. Even the world's number one lithography machine manufacturer, Asmer, cannot independently produce lithography machines.

A lithography machine requires as many as [-] parts. Among them, the bearings are designed and manufactured in Sweden, the lens is produced by Zeiss in Germany, and the laser equipment is designed and provided by Japan. It can be said that a lithography machine The machine is assembled from the most cutting-edge products of all the most cutting-edge companies in the world.

The domestic lithography machines can only rely on themselves, because these cutting-edge technologies are prohibited from being provided to mainland companies, even if they want to do reverse research and development, they can't do it, they can only explore a little bit.

And there is another point that is very important, that is, the production link of the lithography machine. You must know that the lithography machine is assembled with parts provided by many companies. It is actually difficult for Asmer to grasp some of the technical parameters. .

Therefore, Asmer has always maintained a very close relationship with its customers. During production, chip manufacturers will feed back some problems they encounter to Asmer, and Asmer will combine its own technical reserves to carry out Analysis, where exactly is the problem.

If the precision of the lens is not enough, Asmer will urge the German Zeiss company to provide a lens with higher precision. If the light source of the laser equipment is unstable, Asmer will urge the Japanese company to improve the light source equipment.

This is a virtuous circle. The reason why the entire chip industry has been able to advance by leaps and bounds after 2000 lies in the close connection between the upstream and downstream of this industry. The reason why the progress of domestic lithography machines is far behind is that we are really behind a lot. , takes time to catch up.

On the one hand, the domestic lithography machine does not have a good downstream industry chain to support it to find some technical problems.

And once Shen Lang's Candle Dragon chip embarks on a steady and steady technical route, it will inevitably conduct in-depth scrutiny on various details, thereby helping the upstream industry of the entire chip factory to improve its technical level.

Of course, the price of doing this is the backwardness of the chip manufacturing process. Now the lithography machine of Modu Microelectronics can only support the 130NM process at the highest, and Asmer can already produce the 32NM lithography machine.

In this way, Candle Dragon Chip cannot quickly close the process gap with mainstream chip manufacturers.

This is like a poor student who is about to face the college entrance examination. Now Shen Lang has two choices. One is to start from the beginning to lay the foundation, so that there is a high possibility of failing in the college entrance examination, and the other is to do nothing about the skills and focus on the questions. , I bet that I will overwhelm the question types I have done during the college entrance examination.

Seeing that Shen Lang chose the latter, Liang Mengsong secretly breathed a sigh of relief. In fact, what he was most afraid of was that Shen Lang would be so rejoicing that he would hit the high-end manufacturing process regardless. Not enough to burn.

In Liang Mengsong's view, the most important thing in making chips is to ensure the yield rate of the process. Only in this way can we get more orders and gain more technology accumulation. Pulse, as long as the internal strength is strong enough, one day it can break through.

But if you blindly pursue refinement without a solid foundation, you may become obsessed.

After confirming the technical route, Zhang Rujin then introduced the locations of several chip factories he liked. Shen Lang and the others didn't leave the room for a whole day, and it was Liang Mengsong's wife who brought the food so that they would not be hungry.

A few days later, several people began to prepare according to the division of labor they had negotiated. Liang Mengsong also went to the engineer's apartment to chat with them, and at the same time told them the results of yesterday's discussion.

After the engineers learned of the situation, they also settled down to prepare for the investigation of the upstream industry of the chip factory.

　Friends, I checked a lot of information in this chapter, so I came late, it’s not a pigeon, it’s not a pigeon, it’s not a pigeon, I have to say three important things.

　　Although there is only one update now, Yadan will not be perfunctory, and will write it down carefully. Friends, don’t worry, and thank you for your continued support.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)