Rebirth 99 to become a car giant.

Chapter 625: Showdown, I just want to develop high-end chips

Cao Yang is definitely not the only person in China who is interested in developing its own chip industry.

In the past, even if Chinese companies developed relevant equipment, no one would consider using it.

In this case, except for a few scientific research institutions, most companies have no way to generate electricity for love.

Therefore, under a vicious cycle, the gap between domestic chip production equipment and international advanced equipment manufacturers will become wider and wider.

When this gap grows to a certain extent, no one can see the hope of catching up, let alone surpassing it.

Many people may just give up.

Since the establishment of Nanshan Semiconductor, this situation has been very different.

Almost all domestic scientific research institutions and companies engaged in chip equipment research have received contact from Nanshan Semiconductor or Nanshan Equipment, hoping that everyone can work together to develop related equipment.

And as long as the equipment is developed, the relevant factories of Nanshan Semiconductor will consider purchasing and using it.

And it is not the kind of purchase that blindly lowers the price, but pricing based on your cost price and reasonable profit.

It's the same piece of equipment. Even if the final price according to this logic is higher than that of international manufacturers, as long as the performance is decent, Nanshan Semiconductor is willing to pay.

In this case, it will definitely be a very big stimulus for domestic semiconductor production equipment manufacturers.

In Nanshan Semiconductor's factory, the localization rate of equipment can continue to increase, which is closely related to this background.

As the two chip equipment manufacturers second only to Nanshan Equipment, Modu Microelectronics and Zhongwei Semiconductor have benefited greatly from it in the past year.

"Mr. Cao, the prototype of our packaging and testing lithography machine has been produced. According to preliminary comparison, the performance will not be worse than ASML's."

"As long as it goes through certain tests, it can be mass-produced immediately, which can fully meet the needs of factory construction starting next year."

He Guangming came over in person today to report to Cao Yang on the results of Modu Microelectronics.

Nanshan Semiconductor is building a new factory again. This news is no longer a secret among major equipment manufacturers.

He Guangming naturally hopes that Nanshan Semiconductor's new factory can purchase equipment from Modu Microelectronics, which is of extraordinary significance to their development.

In particular, the front-end lithography machine business has lost to Nanshan Equipment, and Modu Microelectronics has basically given up on this part of the market.

Of course, if Nanshan Equipment looks down on some particularly low-end front-end lithography machines, and there is demand in the market, Modu Microelectronics can continue to make them.

For example, the chips used in some children's toys require very low photolithography machine technology.

These technologies can naturally be satisfied domestically.

Leaving it to Modu Microelectronics can be regarded as accumulating a certain amount of experience.

You never know when someone will bring you an unexpected surprise.

"As long as there is no problem with the performance, Nanshan Semiconductor can purchase 10 units at a time, and then continue to add more based on the factory layout."

Although the technical content of packaging and testing lithography machines is not as high as that of front-end lithography machines, it is also indispensable in the chip processing process.

After the establishment of the Chip Equipment Alliance, this part of the business was assigned to Modu Microelectronics.

As the "alliance leader", Cao Yang naturally wanted to give Modu Microelectronics some sweetness.

Of course, Cao Yang also knows that the localization of chip equipment cannot rely solely on Nanshan Semiconductor. For other manufacturers to have the motivation to continue to delve into this market, they must be able to make money.

Otherwise it will definitely not be sustainable.

"There is absolutely no problem with the performance, and everyone in our company is working hard to ensure this project."

"In addition to developing the current model of lithography machine, we have also begun to develop a sealing and testing lithography machine with better performance based on ASML, so that the next time Nanshan Semiconductor builds a factory, it can use more advanced equipment. .”

He Guangming was in a very good mood.

Cao Yang agreed to purchase the equipment from Modu Microelectronics without any hesitation. This is definitely good news.

Of course, for Cao Yang, he would agree so easily because he already knew the relevant situation beforehand.

Otherwise, I definitely wouldn’t be able to do such a slap on the head.

"Is the etching machine from China Micro Semiconductor about to achieve a technological breakthrough?"

Although He Guangming is not the person in charge of China Micro Semiconductor, Modu Microelectronics has strategically invested in China Micro Semiconductor in the past six months. He Guangming is relatively clear about some of the things in it.

So Cao Yang asked him directly.

"Mr. Yin has been squatting in the factory with the R&D staff during this period, and everyone is constantly debugging the etching machine together."

"Although there are still some problems that need to be continuously improved, all problems will definitely be solved within the first half of next year, allowing our domestic etching machines to enter mass production."

The popularity of etching machines is far less than that of photolithography machines.

However, there are hundreds of etching steps in the entire manufacturing process of semiconductor devices, and it is one of the most commonly used processes in semiconductor manufacturing.

With the upgrade of chip technology, the usage of etching machines will continue to rise.

"I am still very confident in Mr. Yin's technology. If AMEC's ​​etching machines can catch up with the equipment introduction pace of Nanshan Semiconductor's new factory, then we will also purchase domestic etching machines directly from them."

Historically, without the help of Nanshan Semiconductor, China Microelectronics has become the largest etching machine in China and even the world.

Their products can not only produce 14-nanometer chips, but can even process chips with 7-nanometer and 5-nanometer processes.

It can be said that the technological evolution speed of etching machines has exceeded that of photolithography machines.

This is definitely a hard-won achievement for China's chip production equipment industry.

And all of this has a very close relationship with Yin Zhiqiang.

Now that China Micro Semiconductor is also a member of the chip industry alliance, Cao Yang naturally wants to fully support their development.

In the future, Nanshan Semiconductor will rely on them to produce etching machines.

"China Microelectronics' etching machines are developed directly against the most advanced levels in the world, so some problems were encountered during the research process."

“But I believe that Mr. Yin can find solutions to these problems.

"Mr. Cao, you can rest assured that AMEC will never delay the construction of Nanshan Semiconductor's new factory."

At this time, He Guangming boldly issued a military order.

Of course, this was only based on his understanding of Yin Zhiqiang that he dared to say such words.

If someone without confidence says something like this, they are bragging.

When a confident person says something like this, that is confidence.

Obviously, He Guangming is confident now!

Nanshan Equipment has already mastered the photolithography machine technology. Modu Microelectronics and Zhongwei Semiconductor can also handle the photolithography machine and etching machine at the packaging and testing end. Other core chip production equipment such as ion implanters, thin film deposition, and rapid heat treatment are also in Nanshan. The equipment is being developed in an orderly manner at its own factory or with the cooperative equipment manufacturers.

Nanshan Semiconductor’s new factory can finally roll up its sleeves and go to work!

Soon, Nanshan Semiconductor teamed up with the Shanghai Municipal Government to officially announce that it would build a large-scale wafer factory with a monthly production capacity of 20 12-inch wafers, and at the same time build related chip production, packaging and testing factories.

The total investment is up to 200 billion yuan.

The most important thing is that Nanshan Semiconductor announced to the outside world that it will produce 28nm chips!

Although TSMC has mass-produced 28-nanometer chips at the beginning of this year, Samsung, IBM, Intel and other companies have also mastered this technology.

But for Chinese companies, 28 nanometers is definitely a relatively distant technology.

At least that's how it seems to outsiders.

After all, SMIC, China's number one chip company, doesn't even have a grasp of 45nm technology.

Now Nanshan Semiconductor suddenly announced that it will produce 28-nanometer chips, and the response is definitely huge.

Even this news is very shocking to many people and unexpected.

"Mr. Cao, has Nanshan Semiconductor really mastered 28-nanometer chip technology?"

Xu Jun from Warwick couldn't help but call Cao Yang first.

As an old man in the chip industry, he knows the significance of 28-nanometer technology very well.

To put it bluntly, although Nanshan Semiconductor's new factory will not be officially mass-produced until the end of next year, or even the beginning of the next year, by that time manufacturers such as TSMC may have mastered 22nm or even more advanced chip production technology.

But this gap is already very small, so small that it is not even a generation gap.

Relying on this technology alone, Nanshan Semiconductor can say that it is already a leading domestic and world-class chip company.

"According to our current layout, we can produce 28-nanometer chips after the new factory is built."

"Of course, there is definitely a gap between ideals and reality, and failure to meet requirements such as yield rate is also a problem."

"But the 28-nanometer technology has already achieved a breakthrough for us. There is no doubt about this."

Originally, Cao Yang had not thought about making a high-profile official announcement that he had mastered 28 nanometer technology.

But it seems that some people want to deal with you, and it has nothing to do with whether you are high-profile or not.

Now Nanshan Semiconductor has begun to threaten the interests of international chip giants.

Qualcomm, TSMC and other manufacturers have begun to think of ways to deal with Nanshan Semiconductor.

At this time, it’s better to show off my cards directly and tell everyone that my technical level is the same as yours.

It makes no sense for you to impose technical blockades and equipment restrictions on me.

In this way, it may be possible to suppress those opponents and allow everyone to focus on researching more advanced chip technology to avoid being surpassed by Nanshan Semiconductor.

"The yield rate can be slowly improved. The key is that after mastering the 28-nanometer technology, all kinds of mainstream chips can now be produced."

"Mr. Cao, as long as Nanshan Semiconductor can really mass-produce 28-nanometer chips, all of Warwick's chip foundry business will be handed over to you or our joint venture factory for production in the future."

At the critical moment, Xu Jun expressed Warwick's attitude.

According to Huawei's strategic plan, Huawei HiSilicon's main task is chip design, and chip production is left to foundries.

In the past, there were potential risks in supply stability if production was handed over to other foundries.

That's why Xu Jun agreed to jointly build a wafer fab with Nanshan Group after being persuaded.

If everything can be handed over to Nanshan Semiconductor for OEM in the future, the situation will be completely different.

All chip production links are in China, and Huawei no longer needs to worry about the supply of chips. “Thank you, Mr. Xu, for your support. We at Nanshan Semiconductor will not let you down!”

Cao Yang was naturally grateful for Xu Jun's statement.

You know, even if Nanshan Semiconductor really masters 28nm technology, the overall level cannot be immediately higher than that of TSMC and other manufacturers.

Warwick's approach can be regarded as strong support for Nanshan Semiconductor.

However, Warwick is very supportive of Nanshan Semiconductor, but ASML is different.

"Christopher, didn't China's Nanshan Semiconductor come to us to buy a photolithography machine?"

Pete came to President Christopher's office with an anxious face.

In the past two days, he naturally saw the news reported on the BBC that Chinese chip companies have mastered 28-nanometer chip processing technology.

Although many people have expressed doubts about the authenticity of this news, and feel that Nanshan Semiconductor is probably just talking about it. In fact, it is still far away from the real mass production of 28nm technology.

There is no way to truly master this technology even in another two years.

But Pete's focus was different.

According to his understanding, chip processing in the 28nm process must use their most advanced EUV lithography machine, otherwise there will be various problems.

This kind of EUV lithography machine is only mastered by ASML.

Both Samsung and TSMC order from ASML.

But now Nanshan Semiconductor has announced that it has mastered 28-nanometer chip technology and will officially build a factory to produce chips with this technology.

Under normal circumstances, the other party needs to discuss the purchase of a photolithography machine with ASML in advance.

Otherwise, the delivery time of the photolithography machine will never be able to catch up with the factory's production start-up time.

You can't just build the factory and install the other production lines, just waiting for the photolithography machine, right?

No other company is like this.

"I checked with the sales department again this morning, and they haven't contacted us so far."

Christopher's face also looked very ugly.

He naturally understood what Peter meant by asking him that.

He was also worried about the worst-case scenario.

After all, they had carefully studied Cao Yang's previous papers published at Lingnan University of Technology.

And after many verifications, we found that the production of photolithography machines mentioned in this paper is theoretically feasible.

Of course, theory is theory, and there is still a high threshold for production.

Previously, everyone at ASML felt that even if Nanshan Equipment had such a set of theoretical support, it would take at least three to five years to produce products comparable to ASML's lithography machines.

By that time ASML had introduced more advanced equipment.

In the field of lithography machines, as long as you fall behind in one step, you will easily fall behind step by step.

It’s not that easy to catch up.

But now Nanshan Semiconductor is publicizing that it has mastered 28-nanometer chip technology and has not ordered equipment from them, which makes people a little worried.

Has Nanshan Equipment really produced a photolithography machine that can process 28nm process chips?

If this is true, it is shocking news!

"Is it possible that Nanshan Semiconductor orders our lithography machines through other companies to circumvent our restrictions on it?"

Peter was a little unwilling to give up and continued to raise a possibility.

However, this was immediately denied by Christopher.

"I know the delivery status of our lithography machines to customers in the next two years."

"No one is likely to purchase equipment for Nanshan Semiconductor, and even such behavior itself is not recognized by us."

"When the equipment is bought back, if we are not responsible for after-sales service, we will not be able to fully perform to its due level."

When Christopher said this, Peter's brows furrowed even more.

Nanshan Semiconductor's new factory has been officially announced to start construction, but the equipment order has not been mentioned.

This is not a good sign!

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but said: "Christopher, I think it is necessary to convene a temporary board of directors to discuss with each director how to deal with this situation."

"Allowing Nanshan Semiconductor to develop like this will definitely destroy the international semiconductor equipment supply chain. By then, the market in China will probably have nothing to do with us."

Peter basically came up with this idea together with Christopher.

At the critical moment, you will definitely have to find a solution to the big bosses behind the scenes.

After all, if Nanshan Semiconductor rises, it will definitely not be a good thing for manufacturers such as Samsung and TSMC.

Even this is a devastating blow.

"Mr. Park, you are most familiar with the situation in China."

"What do you think of Nanshan Semiconductor's official announcement?"

At the headquarters of Samsung China in the imperial capital, Li Zairong, the vice president of Samsung Electronics, flew over in person to confirm the affairs of Nanshan Semiconductor's 28-nanometer chip factory.

At the end of this year, Li Zairong will take over as the president of Samsung Electronics. At this critical moment, China's semiconductor companies have made major technological breakthroughs. This is definitely a very big thing for Samsung.

Otherwise, Li Zairong would not have been able to fly over in person to understand the situation.

"President, so far this news is only information released by Nanshan Semiconductor itself. There is no information to prove that they have truly mastered 28nm chip technology."

"We have also investigated with ASML and other important equipment manufacturers, and they have not received relevant contact from Nanshan Semiconductor."

"So whether this matter is true or not, I think it needs to be confirmed again."

"China's real estate market is very hot this year, and many companies can't help but start to enter the real estate market."

“Some companies have even acquired large amounts of land from local areas in the name of investment.”

"Whether Nanshan Semiconductor will be like this requires further confirmation."

"But I think even if they are really building 28-nanometer chip technology, it will not be possible to achieve large-scale mass production in the next three years."

"Even if it is mass-produced, the cost will be much higher than ours, because there will definitely be problems with the yield rate."

Park Geun-hee's answer made Li Zairong feel a little relieved.

This situation is not particularly bad.

It is relatively close to his own understanding.

How could a Chinese company suddenly make such great progress in technology?

Without even mastering the 40nm technology, we jumped directly to 28nm.

This does not conform to scientific logic.

If it is just a publicity stunt and the actual production is 45 nanometer or 40 nanometer, then the possibility is higher.

At that time, it will take several years of transformation and hard work to finally produce 28 nanometers.

But by that time, Samsung’s 14nm chips should have been mass-produced, right?

"Dad talked to me some time ago and believed that Nanshan Group will be our main opponent in China and even the world."

"Our mobile phone business will form very direct competition with their Honor mobile phones."

"Our semiconductor business will also have direct competition with Nanshan Semiconductor."

"Even our business in some equipment and other fields is in competition with Nanshan Group."

"Whether Samsung Electronics can become bigger and stronger in China will have a direct relationship with Nanshan Group."

"You must find a way to figure out their situation, so as not to be caught off guard!"

Li Zairong didn't want to encounter the biggest crisis just after taking office.

Once Nanshan Semiconductor really masters 28nm technology, the impact behind it will be huge.

With the Chinese people's way of doing things, they will definitely launch a lot of 28nm projects by then, which will directly make other semiconductor manufacturers uncomfortable.

This is a scene Li Zairong doesn't want to see at all.

"We are already making efforts in this area. There are also some engineers in Nanshan Semiconductor who are willing to provide us with some information."

"However, the research on equipment is mainly within Nanshan Equipment, and we have relatively few information channels there."

"And there are many departments in Nanshan Equipment and there are many research teams."

"If they hadn't officially announced some information to the outside world, it would be a bit difficult for people outside the project to find out."

When Park Genxi said this, Li Zairong became a little worried again.

Nanshan Equipment is a very mysterious manufacturer.

Li Zairong had heard of its name in Korea.

This time, if Nanshan Semiconductor's new factory production equipment is really taken care of by Nanshan Equipment, the impact will be greater than if Nanshan Semiconductor mastered the 28nm chip technology.

That means the overall rise of China's semiconductor industry.

Not only will Samsung be in a dangerous situation in the future, but other chip companies will also have a difficult time.

"Nanshan Semiconductor's idea to develop high-end chips is very clear. Regardless of whether they have the technology in this area, we need to pay full attention to it."

"How to deal with this situation, I will discuss it with my father after I go back."

When it comes to such a major matter, Li Zairong has no way to make a decision directly.

Samsung is still in the hands of his father.

(End of this chapter)