Rebirth 98, the rise started from ripping off Microsoft

Chapter 681 Lithography Machine

Island country.

Edo.

The island country does not have a clear concept of a capital. It belongs to where the political power flows, and that is the political center.

At this moment, several high-level executives of Connie Corporation gathered in the meeting room, one of them frowned, and their faces were very ugly.

After a while, Hiroko Toyama, the chairman sitting at the top, asked, "Is there any result from the laboratory?"

His eyes were gloomy, and Takada Gowa, the technical director, was in a cold sweat. He said tremblingly: "The experimental results have come out. The good news is that the mechanical exfoliation method has low production efficiency and cannot be mass-produced industrially. Only micron-sized graphene can be produced. , which is not enough to shake the position of silicon-based chips in the semiconductor industry."

Obviously, this set of rhetoric did not satisfy Hiroko Toyama. He frowned and asked, "What about the bad news?"

Takada Wuhe sighed, and said: "The performance of a chip made of a graphene wafer is at least ten times that of a silicon-based chip, and the power consumption is lower. Machine requirements are not very high."

Hiroko Toyama leaned back, leaned back on the chair, closed his eyes and said, "So, once graphene is mass-produced, it means that silicon wafers can only withdraw from the stage of history?"

The performance gap of ten times and the lower energy consumption mean that there is an irreversible technological gap between the two materials.

For Connie, it can be said that it will kill the old man.

After all, the half of the island country in the semiconductor industry is in the hands of Connie at this time, because at this time Connie is the absolute overlord of the lithography machine industry.

As for the current ASML company, it is still a bad brother in the lithography machine industry, insignificant.

It is also because of this that the big thunder of graphene has now fallen on Connie, causing Connie's market value to plummet, and the entire semiconductor industry is even more turbulent.

As those with vested interests, what they are most afraid of is "innovation" or even "revolution".

Although the advancement of technology is inevitable for the development of civilization, a speck of dust from history falling on one's body is as heavy as Mount Tai!

Now, the mountain is on Hiroko Toyama.

In Zhonghai in April, it was rainy, just like Li Yiwen's mood at the moment.

"I heard from your father-in-law that you plan to fuck Connie?"

"No."

"Aren't you going to build a lithography machine?"

"There is such a thing, but my opponent is not Connie, it's just bad luck, blocking my way."

"..."

Lu Yiming's answer left Li Yiwen speechless.

In his opinion, these words were simply crazy.

However, to Lu Yiming, this was telling the truth.

ASML, which will become famous in the future, is only a small joint venture company under Philips.

The entire company, including the boss, has 31 employees, who can only work in a temporary board room next to the Philips headquarters.

As soon as you go out, you can see a huge trash can next to the prefabricated house.Going out to sell can only be done in the name of the parent company, and against the backdrop of the opponent, it looks weak, pitiful, and helpless.

In the era when the chip manufacturing process was still in the micron range, there were at least dozens of companies that could manufacture lithography machines, but only Connie, relying on the accumulation of the camera era, became the leader in the era when the semiconductor industry in the island country was fully rising. A well-deserved giant.

In just four years, at that time, Connie had overthrown the former lithography machine powerhouse, Meiguo, on an equal footing with the old king GCA, and won [-]% of the market share.Several major customers in his hands, Intel, IBM, AMD, and Texas Instruments, line up at the door of Connie every day to wait for the enthusiasm of the latest products to roll off the assembly line, which is no different from Xia Guo’s eagerness to wait for ASML to deliver the EUV lithography machine. Sincerely.

Time flies, the years are like a shuttle.

The former new king has become the current old king. At this critical point in the alternation of the old and the new, whoever can rise on the bones of the old king will be able to occupy the throne and become the new overlord.

Facing Kang Ni who was about to go downhill, as a reborn, how could Lu Yiming not have the ambition to step on him a few times?
Although he didn't understand lithography machines, Li Yiwen knew that Kang Ni was engaged in optics.He said worriedly: "Our country has basically made no achievements in the field of optics, right? You must know that the optics major of European and American powers basically began to develop with astronomy in the seventeenth century. In comparison, we are far behind. What about hundreds of years of homework, how easy is it to catch up?"

What Li Yiwen said was the truth.

Lipsein of the Netherlands invented the first telescope in 1608.

Kepler published his book "Refractive Optics" in 1611, proposed the law of illumination, and designed several new types of telescopes.

In the second half of the seventeenth century, Newton and Huygens pushed geometric optics into the era of wave optics.

In 1672, Newton completed the famous prism dispersion experiment, and then published "Optics" in 1704 AD, and proposed the theory that light is a flow of particles.

Many well-known optical companies have a long history. For example, the world-renowned German Zeiss Group was established in 1846. When the First World War broke out in 1914, as a German optical giant, it was also the world’s largest optical equipment giant. Zeiss has almost monopolized the global market.

Even Shimuni, a latecomer in the field of optics, established Shimuni Optical Industry Co., Ltd. in 1917, which was the predecessor of Konny.

In contrast, Xia Guo is far from being able to compete with these traditional powerhouses in the optical field in terms of knowledge accumulation, industry foundation, or talent base.

The problems and difficulties are basically on the surface. If you want to surpass the first-mover advantage of your opponent for hundreds of years, it means that you must at least pay an equal price and cost, so that it is possible to bridge the huge gap between them. This is not something that can be achieved by patting the forehead and shouting a few slogans.

However, Lu Yiming had already thought of these problems.After all, if this matter is so easy to do, it will not be impossible to do it decades later with the advantages of the entire industry chain.

Compared with the difficulties and dangers of later generations, now is an excellent opportunity to catch up and even overtake on a curve.

"Because it's difficult, I have to chase after it. If I don't chase now, I won't have a chance to chase after it even if I want to."

How difficult is it for Xia Guo's semiconductor companies to buy an ASML lithography machine?

It's not even a matter of spending more money, but the other party doesn't sell it to you at all. Even if they sell it, they sell you products that are several generations behind at a very high price, and they also delay delivery.

You pay the full price, and you may not be able to get the goods after two or three years, so don't beep, otherwise it won't be sold to you.

Lu Yiming didn't think he was a good-tempered person, and he couldn't stand being bullied like this no matter what.

So instead of begging for help in a low voice at that time, it is better to spend more money now to nip the trouble in the bud. Anyway, isn't the money spent for it?
Li Yiwen doesn't understand lithography machines, but he feels that this kind of thing that is only in the hands of developed countries must be top-level high-tech, so Lu Yiming's actions are extremely crazy to him.

He said in a joking tone: "There are fewer countries in the world with lithography machines than countries with rockets, right? Why don't we build a rocket for fun? Anyway, it costs money. I can hear it."

Lu Yiming smiled and said: "Actually, the threshold for lithography machines in the tens of nanometer era is not high. You see, ASML with only 31 people can easily enter this industry, and even Intel, which designs chips, can make a few of them to try." If you try it early, you will know that the difficulty is not too high, and the left and right are just pieced together with the expensive parts bought back, and piled up a device that is a little more difficult than a camera."

"As the 'crown jewel' of the semiconductor industry, the essence of a lithography machine is similar to that of a projector plus a camera. It uses light as a knife to project a designed circuit diagram onto a silicon wafer. Look, isn't it very simple? "

After Li Yiwen heard this, his frowning eyebrows relaxed a little, but he was still worried: "Even so, the professional barrier is not so easy to break through, right?"

Needless to say, Li Yiwen is not a reborn person, nor is he a business elite cultivated in a favorable environment, so the situation is naturally not that big.And all he has now is just Lu Yiming leading him to run, and he is standing at a height that does not belong to him.Therefore, when he made his own decisions, he always picked and searched, and he was not arrogant at all.

The current lithography machine market is basically island countries against Europe and the United States.

The semiconductor alliance headed by the United States relies on the joint efforts of the industrial chain, and the integration of materials and components from various countries to produce the strongest products.

The technology route of the island country is Connie's development model. All the parts and technologies are all done by ourselves, just like Apple, which takes care of chips and operating systems, and takes out a few lenses at will, although it may not be able to hang. Zeiss, the German optical giant, was more than sufficient to cope with the chip manufacturing process at that time.

Now that Lu Yiming wants to develop a lithography machine, it is tantamount to declaring that he wants to punch Europe and the United States, kick island countries, and forcefully gnaw a piece of meat from these old seniors.

But how easy is it to say?

Li Yiwen said: "Okay, then let's take a step back and talk about it. Even if your lithography machine is produced, who can you sell it to? Europe and the United States say it is a free market, but in fact it is free. Their semiconductor industry is basically free. It is impossible to purchase your lithography machine. As for the island countries, they have a serious planned economy, and we will not be able to pass the hurdle of the Federation of Industrial Economics."

Lu Yiming said: "Actually, to be honest, it is because of what you said that I am determined to make our own lithography machine, no matter what price I pay-and the price I pay now, It will be the lowest in the days to come, and the price will become higher and higher in the future, and it may be so great that it is useless to use all the power of the whole country. At that time, we can only surrender."

"As for the question of who to sell to, it is easier to solve. I have invested in so many chip companies and semiconductor companies, and they all use it. And let me tell you, now the market demand is here, and it is not selling at all. It’s a question of who it’s for, as long as it’s built, you don’t have to worry about selling it. What about SMIC, right? I don’t know how many companies are now clamoring for lithography machines.”

Li Yiwen was delighted to see Lu Yiming's words, but felt extremely pained.He really doesn't understand, with Lu Yiming's methods and opportunities, there are so many profitable projects, and it is not impossible to surpass Bill Gates and become the world's richest man in time, why Lu Yiming wastes precious time and opportunities on such a difficult Projects that are high, have an extremely low probability of success, and are so unpopular that even if they succeed, they don’t seem to be able to make much money.

Lu Yiming changed the subject and said to Li Yiwen, "Have you heard of Moore's Law?"

Li Yiwen said bluntly: "No. Brother, I majored in finance, and there is no such thing in finance."

Lu Yiming said: "The so-called Moore's Law is an industry standard proposed by Gordon Moore, one of the founders of Intel - the number of components that can be accommodated on an integrated circuit will double every 18 to 24 months. .And each process advance will also bring a leap in chip performance. This is not only a requirement for chip design, but also a requirement that the lithography machine must be one step ahead of the design process and deliver equipment with corresponding specifications.”

Li Yiwen was puzzled by this: "I understand all this, but what does it have to do with your want to build a lithography machine?"

Lu Yiming said: "Whether it is core-making or lithography machine, the checkpoint level is actually increasing exponentially. In the 90s, the wavelength of the light source of the lithography machine was stuck at 193nm, which became an important issue for the entire industry. a difficulty."

"You know, to carve things, the pattern needs to be fine, and the tip of the knife must be sharp, but how to "grind" the 193nm light wave to a finer point? Now more than half of the semiconductor industry in the world is involved, and two teams are eager to try."

"Semiconductor companies in the island countries such as Coney advocate the use of 157nm F2 lasers on the basis of the previous generation technology, and take a stable path. The nascent EUVLLC alliance is betting on more radical extreme ultraviolet technology, using only ten A few nanometers of extreme ultraviolet light can engrave a chip process of less than ten nanometers."

Speaking of this, Lu Yiming paused for a moment, took a sip of tea, and continued: "But the technology has come to this point, no matter which method is used, it is actually not easy to do. This is a key technological development node, and moreover It is the line battle between the new king and the old king, and it is also our only chance to enter the game."

In the end, Lu Yiming's gaze became firm, and his tone was sonorous: "Once the island country and Europe and the United States decide the outcome, in the next 30 to [-] years, there will be nothing to do with our Xia country."

Li Yiwen is not a reborn person, so he is "safe when he is a little rich" and seeks stability in everything.But Lu Yiming knows that if he seeks stability now, he will have to kneel down and talk to the big powers in the semiconductor industry in the future.Even if the kneeling posture is not standard enough, you may not even be qualified to speak.

At this moment, the phone on the table rang, and as soon as Lu Yiming answered it, he recognized Li Qiu's voice.

"Mr. Lu, luckily he lived up to his fate and won the lawsuit."

Lu Yiming smiled and said, "Okay, wouldn't it be nice to hit someone in the face in someone else's territory?"

Li Qiu laughed and said, "That would be great. It's a pity that you didn't come. Those old white skins are full of Sima's face, and they want to quibble, saying that regardless of the facts, we sent people there to steal their Europa." technology."

"Okay, okay, it's enough to watch the excitement, where is the person? Did you bring it back?"

What Lu Yiming was talking about was Gu Lizhi.

Originally, he didn't want to care about Gu Lizhi and Lu Yiming. After all, the two had nothing to do with each other, and Gu Lizhi almost ruined the good thing of Moxin Technology.

Moreover, at such an age, he has to bear the consequences of his own choices, all of which are the result of his own fault.

However, Yu Kebao couldn't bear the heart of such a young man from the countryside ruining his life by going astray, so he asked Lu Yiming to bring him back.

In fact, after the lawsuit was over and it was proved that Gu Lizhi was not a thief, the prison released him.

But in Europa, Gu Lizhi definitely has no place to go, no school will accept him, he can only wander.In that kind of unfamiliar place, no one knows when he died.

Li Qiu said: "Bring it back, let him see you when we get off the plane?"

Lu Yiming quickly said: "No, I don't want to see him, you can send him to Zhonghai Jiaotong University, and don't worry about the rest."

China Overseas Jiaotong University also lost its reputation in this matter, and became the object of collective ridicule by the education circle, and was also labeled as a traitor.

Those who understand the ins and outs of the matter will feel extremely embarrassed.Originally, at least half of the credit for the discovery of graphene that shocked the world was attributed to China Haijiao University, but China Haijiao University insisted on licking the ass of foreigners, making a joke of itself.

It is foreseeable that even if Gu Lizhi returns to China Overseas Jiaotong University, China Overseas Jiaotong University will definitely blame him for the first time, and it will not surprise people if the collar is removed.

Lu Yiming didn't care about these things, and taking him back to the country was considered as the best of humanity.

After Li Qiu reported his trip to Europa this time, he was just about to hang up the phone, but Lu Yiming remembered something and said, "By the way, help me bring someone here."

Li Qiu smiled and said, "Mr. Lu, shouldn't you go to a headhunting company for this matter? Why are you looking for me?"

Lu Yiming said: "This matter is very important. If you can win, you can't lose. I don't feel at ease if I leave it to others."

Hearing what Lu Yiming said, Li Qiu's expression became serious immediately, and he said, "Okay, who do you want to poach?"

Lu Yiming said: "The person I want you to dig is Lin Benjian. He is an employee of TSM. No matter what the cost, you bring him back to me."

After a pause, he said again, "It's alive."

The reason why they didn't look for a headhunting company was because they were worried that the people in the headhunting company would leak the news and cause unnecessary trouble, and at the same time they were worried that the headhunting company would mess around for their own benefit.

On the contrary, it was handed over to Li Qiu, and Lu Yiming felt relieved, after all, it was not the first time they had cooperated.

Li Qiu does things legally and doesn't mention it, just two words - reliable!
Seeing that Lu Yiming cared so much about this man named Lin Benjian, Li Qiu didn't dare to neglect him. After all, being able to make the richest man in Asia say "no matter what the cost" is enough to show that this man named Lin Benjian is really amazing.

"Okay, I see."

(End of this chapter)