Rebirth 99 to become a car giant.

Chapter 629 The father of copycat machines is about to be replaced!

Something happened to Nanshan Semiconductor, but the sales of its chips in Huaqiangbei did not decline at all.

Although Nanshan Semiconductor is not responsible for it in name, many people in Huaqiangbei know that Yingang Trading's chips and motherboards come from Nanshan Semiconductor or related companies.

Originally, the sales of chips sold by Yingang Trading were very good, and many copycat phone manufacturers were very interested in this turnkey solution based on smartphones.

Sales of new products are also very good.

Since the Nanshan Semiconductor incident, Nanshan Semiconductor's domestic popularity has risen several levels.

Even ordinary people know this name.

As an industry insider, there are naturally not many people in the Huaqiangbei copycat manufacturer who don’t know about Nanshan Semiconductor.

Some copycat manufacturers that were originally considering using MediaTek's turnkey solution felt that they had to stand up and support Nanshan Semiconductor at the critical moment, so they began to try to produce copycat phones based on Nanshan Semiconductor's turnkey solution.

Originally, for some people, this attempt was just a kind of emotional support.

But soon, everyone discovered that smartphones using Nanshan Semiconductor’s solution had better performance than MediaTek’s.

The key is that the price will not be more expensive.

In this way, the solution that was originally only used by some manufacturers was quickly promoted to almost the entire Huaqiangbei.

Yingang Trading's chip shipments soared from 200 million pieces per month to 400 million pieces per month.

Nanshan Semiconductor’s products are actually sold out!

"Mr. Hu, we will put a batch of factories into operation next month, and by then the production capacity will be greatly relieved."

"You have a good communication with your customers and say that the delivery cycle of chips is three months. Anyone who needs related products should place an order with your company three months in advance."

The practice in the chip industry inherently requires a relatively long ordering cycle.

Three months is actually quite fast.

Many people take half a year, or even seven or eight months.

Hu Yingang, who is familiar with the market, naturally has no problem with this.

"Minister Zeng, in addition to chips, cameras produced by Nanshan Auto Parts are also very popular in Huaqiangbei."

"Whether it is 300 million and 500 million pixel rear cameras, or 30 and 50 pixel front cameras, sales are very good."

“I think we can also focus on promoting this aspect of business during this period.”

"The core components of these cameras are similar. What Nanshan Auto Parts needs to do is to produce the required appearance according to the needs of customers."

Hu Yingang naturally hopes to expand his business.

Smartphones all need cameras, and cameras are becoming more and more important.

A cheap digital camera costs more than 1,000 yuan, but a smartphone with more than 1,000 pieces can simultaneously realize the camera function.

One can imagine how important the camera function is for mobile phones.

"This is a good proposal. We previously focused on chips and motherboards, but there are still many other businesses we can do."

"Mr. Hu, from now on I will arrange for someone to contact you specifically. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to put them forward."

"The more we face the current situation, the more innovation we need."

Zeng Tingting was also under a lot of pressure during this period.

In the future, if Nanshan Equipment and Nanshan Semiconductor want to expand their business overseas, the difficulty will rise by unknown levels.

However, MediaTek is also troubled.

Originally, they thought they had found a flaw in Nanshan Semiconductor. After reporting it to relevant companies in the United States and even providing some evidence, Nanshan Semiconductor was definitely going to be in bad luck.

Judging from the results, Nanshan Semiconductor is indeed in bad luck. .

But MediaTek couldn't laugh.

"Luo Li, why did chip shipments drop so fast in the past week?"

"It stands to reason that now should be considered the peak season for mobile phone sales. The demand for mobile phone chips from customers should be relatively strong, right?"

Cai Mingjie looked at the information on the computer screen and felt very bad.

MediaTek's mobile phone chip shipments have declined for eight consecutive weeks.

The decline has accelerated in the past two weeks.

This situation is definitely not what Cai Mingjie wants to see, and it is even beyond his imagination.

"The main reason is that Huaqiangbei's shipments are declining a bit fast. Our chips need to be upgraded before we can hope to save the situation."

Luo Li pays attention to changes in the company's chip shipments every day.

So naturally it is clear what Cai Mingjie is worried about and where the problem lies.

"Are Nanshan Semiconductor's chips currently used by many manufacturers in Huaqiangbei?"

Although the reputation of Huaqiangbei's copycat phone manufacturers is not very good, it does not affect MediaTek's reputation.

Even Cai Mingjie has the title of "Father of Counterfeit Phones", but he doesn't think there is anything wrong with it.

Of course, now his position as the "father of copycat phones" is a bit shaky.

By then Zhang Jing will become the new father of copycat phones.

"There are indeed quite a few. Their shipments this month are estimated to have reached 400 million pieces."

Luo Li gave the answer with a bitter look on her face.

In just a few months, Nanshan Semiconductor's sales in Huaqiangbei have reached 400 million units.

If this rhythm is allowed to develop, MediaTek will really be unable to survive in Huaqiangbei.

Cai Mingjie gritted his teeth reluctantly.

This situation is a little different from what he thought.

Obviously something has happened to Nanshan Semiconductor, but why do you feel that their business is getting better and better?

MediaTek is fine, but its business has declined.

Just thinking about it makes me feel uncomfortable.

"The impact is definitely there, but it's not necessarily an immediate impact."

"There is definitely no hope for Nanshan Semiconductor's business to enter the United States."

"There are probably some obstacles for products equipped with Nanshan Semiconductor's chips to enter the U.S. market."

"But these will not affect the entry of Nanshan Semiconductor's chips into those copycat manufacturers in Huaqiangbei."

"Nanshan Semiconductor's popularity in China has risen sharply, and many companies are willing to take the initiative to discuss cooperation with Nanshan Semiconductor."

When Luo Li said this, Cai Mingjie's mood became even worse.

After struggling with my feelings for a long time, I finally gave Nanshan Semiconductor free publicity?

In the Chinese market, there is no positive effect at all?

If this continues, how will MediaTek survive in the Chinese market?

"We cannot let this situation develop, otherwise we will lose the Huaqiangbei market in the future, which is a market with more than 1 million mobile phones a year."

When Cai Mingjie said this, Luo Li felt pressure.

Of course she knew she couldn't let the situation develop.

But she didn't have a good idea what to do.

The same thing happened to Nanshan equipment.

"Mr. Cao, this is because we have a lot more foreign customers coming to us for consultation on purchasing five-axis CNC machine tools and other products."

"Especially from the polar bear side, we've already received several orders."

"Persia also placed additional orders for hundreds of various machine tools at once."

Pan Jinxing's originally anxious mood has gradually improved recently.

Nanshan Equipment was not particularly affected by the accident.

The North American market has never been the main market for Nanshan equipment. Now there is no way to enter directly without much loss.

On the contrary, because of this incident, some countries and companies that had not paid attention to Nanshan's equipment began to study it with a magnifying glass.

This research is remarkable.

It turns out that Nanshan Equipment can produce so many types of machine tools and equipment.

Many products that are not available in the international market, or require a high price, can actually be purchased at Nanshan Equipment with the same level or even better performance.

Why don't you place an order quickly?

That's why Pan Jinxing found that he had more orders waiting for delivery than before.

And this trend has become more obvious.

"Although markets such as Polar Bear, Persia, and North Korea cannot compare with the American and European markets, as long as they are thoroughly developed, they cannot be underestimated."

"It was difficult for us to win the markets in developed countries. From now on, we will focus on polar bears and other countries, as well as customers in China."

Cao Yang understood this.

Of course, if some companies see profits and want to sell the equipment they purchased from Nanshan Equipment to the United States and other places, that is another topic.

"Yeah, I think so too."

"Especially in countries such as Persia, their industrialization needs are actually quite large, but they cannot afford particularly expensive machine tools."

"Our products have price advantages and technical advantages. There is no reason why we cannot compete with other manufacturers in these markets."

Pan Jinxing is also full of confidence now.

What happened this time was a choice that was made for them invisibly. The direction of future market expansion has basically been clarified.

This situation has made some people who pay attention to Nanshan Equipment breathe a sigh of relief.

"Mr. Cao, it is estimated that it will be difficult for our etching machine to be exported in a short period of time."

"But I thought of a way to break out."

Yin Zhiqiang is the kind of technical madman who becomes more motivated the stronger his opponent is.

The enemies currently faced by the Chip Equipment Alliance are obviously extremely powerful.

"what idea?"

Cao Yang really wanted to know what good suggestions Yin Zhiqiang, a technical expert, could give.

"As long as we make the etching machine technology the most advanced in the world and keep the cost the lowest in the industry, other chip manufacturers will passively come to us to buy products."

"Otherwise, they won't be able to use the most advanced etching machines, let alone enjoy lower costs."

Yin Zhiqiang's statement stunned Cao Yang.

Can we still break the situation like this?

But it doesn’t sound unreasonable at all.

If you don’t buy my equipment, it doesn’t matter. Just buy it from Nanshan Semiconductor.

Then I took this opportunity to improve the technical level of my equipment to the best in the world.

For example, the current mainstream etching machines only need to be able to complete the 28-nanometer process.

I directly implemented the processing technology of 7 nanometers, even 5 nanometers and 3 nanometers.

Then the cost is only half of that of an etching machine that can process 28 nanometers!

Will you buy it at this time?

Not buying?

Then maybe others will overtake you!

purchase?

Then wouldn’t this deadlock be broken naturally?

"Mr. Yin, this direction of yours is completely feasible!"

“The next step for our Nanshan equipment, in addition to advancing the maturity of the 28nm process, is to develop 14nm production process equipment.”

"If the etching machine can be further advanced than 14 nanometers, then it will be considered as initially achieving the goal you mentioned."

In terms of cost, Cao Yang did not say anything.

Because as long as Chinese manufacturers can produce equipment, the cost will definitely be much cheaper than that of international equipment giants.

If it costs 5000 million to buy an etching machine now, then China Micro Semiconductor can definitely get it for 2500 million.

"We have developed a 28-nanometer etching machine now, and it will be ready for mass production within this year at the latest. It will be officially delivered to Nanshan Semiconductor in the first half of next year."

"At the same time, I am planning to skip the 14-nanometer etching machine technology and directly develop a 7-nanometer etching machine."

"Our etching machines will not be obsolete in the next ten years. We will only need to carry out some technology upgrades and cost reduction activities."

Yin Zhiqiang is obviously very confident in the development of etching machines.

"Although the production difficulty of etching machines is not the most difficult among all equipment, it is also very technical. Would it be too challenging to skip 14 nanometers directly?"

Although Cao Yang hoped that Yin Zhiqiang could easily complete the plan he said.

But I couldn't help but care a little more.

"Mr. Cao, to understand the possibility of this solution, we need to understand the working principle of etching technology."

"Let me chat with you for a while first."

Yin Zhiqiang was obviously ready to show off his professionalism and convince Cao Yang that China Micro Semiconductor could handle a more advanced etching machine.

"Etching technology can be divided into two categories. One is wet etching that uses liquid chemicals to allow the silicon wafer to lose weight quantitatively in a bath and shower with strong acids and alkalis."

“The second is to use gas plasma dry etching to locally slim down the silicon wafer under the ion bombardment of chemical gases.”

"The skill of wet etching has long been illuminated by humans. For example, Europeans in the Middle Ages would use acidic solutions to etch and carve patterns on metal armor."

“It is also recorded in the Ming Dynasty’s "Gegu Yaolun": All swords and swords are polished and polished, and then alumized with gold wire, and their patterns can be seen."

"The alum that people in the Ming Dynasty talked about was a kind of sulfate. Therefore, when history entered the era of integrated circuits, engineers first thought of using the corrosive properties of various acids and alkalis to engrave chips on a large scale. In the manufacturing process This is how the name of etching came about."

"There are three key indicators in etching: etching rate, selectivity and directionality."

"The etching rate refers to the speed at which the material is dissolved, usually measured by the number of microns of thickness lost per minute."

“In the chip manufacturing process, the etching depth of a part is usually controlled by the etching time, so it is very important to ensure a precise and constant etching rate, which is important for the purity, ratio, and concentration of the etching solution. The demand for change is high.”

"Wet etching based on chemical reactions can only minimize lateral etching, but it cannot achieve complete anisotropy."

"In the early stages of the chip manufacturing process, the device structure is relatively rough, the line width and spacing are large enough, and the etching directionality is a little worse, so the problem is not big."

“But as the process enters the sub-micron level, wet etching cannot keep up with the precision requirements of the chip. Needless to say, logic circuits, key layers require nanometer-level precision etching, even for relatively rough memory chips such as DRAM. , to carve out the narrow and deep capacitor trenches inside, you also need an engraving method with a strong sense of direction, which is dry etching.”

"Wet methods use liquids, while dry methods use gases. Chip factories consume a lot of special gases every day, and a large part of them are used for etching."

"After precise proportioning, these gases are introduced into the reaction chamber, and then capacitive or inductive coupling is used to completely or partially ionize the gas to form a plasma or ion beam. After being accelerated by an electric field, it is shot towards the silicon wafer for etching. , which is a carving method that has both physical and chemical properties.”

"In the mainstream chip manufacturing process, more than 90% of chip etching is done by dry method, because it has good directionality, and the gas ratio and radio frequency power supply can also achieve more precise control."

"As for the disadvantages, aside from the complexity of the technology, there are two main ones. One is expensive and the other is slow."

"The price of an imported etching machine is millions of dollars, which is much cheaper than a photolithography machine. However, for etching different media, you need to buy different etching machines."

"And in the process, etching takes much longer than photolithography. After all, they use light to engrave."

"Therefore, one photolithography machine on the production line needs to be equipped with multiple etching machines. Calculated based on the total cost of the equipment, the expenses of the two are about the same."

"Compared with the precise control of light by the photolithography machine, the etching machine requires more precise control of the gas. Although the accuracy requirements of the two are similar, the production difficulty is completely different."

"In the photolithography machine, the processing difficulty of the optical system is very high, especially the lenses inside. It is really difficult to find domestic manufacturers that meet the requirements."

"If you buy from Zeiss, they may not sell you products of the same level as ASML."

"But for etching machines, we don't need such complicated things. As long as the equipment design is sophisticated enough and the processing accuracy of the parts can meet the requirements, we can hope to produce an etching machine that can process 7 nanometers."

Yin Zhiqiang explained a lot, and Cao Yang understood part of it.

But he's not worried!

Without the help of Nanshan Group, China Micro Semiconductor was able to quickly break through various etching machine technologies. In the end, 5-nanometer etching machines were successfully supplied to manufacturers such as TSMC.

Now that Nanshan Group is helping, there is no reason for the progress of research and development to slow down.

In other words, the plan mentioned by Yin Zhiqiang is feasible.

"Mr. Yin, the etching machine part will be completely handed over to AMEC."

"Next year we will only need 28nm etching machines."

"Perhaps the new mass-produced chip factories in the next year will still use the 28-nanometer process."

"But in the future, we will challenge the 14-nanometer process, and then the current etching machine will not be able to meet the requirements."

14nm is a very important indicator for the chip industry.

Many chip companies can quickly keep up with the research and development speed of 28 nanometers, but when they continue to improve, many companies begin to fall behind.

Because when evolving from 28 nanometers to 14 nanometers, basically all production equipment needs to be updated.

And not all consumer electronics products require such advanced chip technology.

In other words, this chip technology is too high-end, and the chip sales will not be very high by then.

The price of high-end chips is high. If the sales volume is not good, the price will be even higher.

At that time, it will directly enter a vicious cycle.

Some manufacturers, even if they still have some strength to challenge, do not dare to take risks easily.

At that time, chip manufacturers will basically be divided into two types. One is manufacturers that have mastered 14 nanometer or higher technology.

One is a manufacturer that can only master 28 nanometer and below technologies.

Ninety percent of China's chip needs can definitely be met with 28-nanometer technology.

But if you don’t have 14 nanometer or more advanced chip technology, the purchase price of the 1% of chips that cannot be produced may be as high as the other % of the chips.

Those chip giants can be so dark!

Therefore, Nanshan Semiconductor will definitely challenge more advanced chip technology.

This is the situation even now. After Cao Yang prepares to develop the 14nm process, he will directly launch a satellite for everyone and build the world's first 7nm process chip factory.

The situation will probably be very interesting when the time comes.

If the blockade fails, what plan will the United States take?

Without spending hundreds of billions of dollars every year to import chips, could China's economy show a completely different development speed?

"Mr. Cao, don't worry!"

"Our etching machines from Zhongwei Semiconductor will definitely not slow down the development speed of Nanshan Semiconductor."

"By then, our chip equipment alliance will surely become the most technologically advanced consortium of equipment manufacturers in the world."

When making equipment, the biggest fear is lack of sales.

No one can sustain this situation of resting on one's laurels every day.

Nanshan Semiconductor will now purchase AMEC Semiconductor products in large quantities. Yin Zhiqiang has no worries and can devote himself to equipment research and development.

That efficiency is absolutely incomparable.

Soon, AMEC will become the domestic chip equipment giant second only to Nanshan Equipment!

(End of this chapter)