Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 1051 God said, Let there be light (Part , Part )

"…I firmly believe that the invention of the transistor is another major leap forward in the field of science and technology following the steam technology revolution and the electric technology revolution in the history of human civilization. There is no doubt that this also marks the beginning of the third industrial revolution for mankind…"

Although Li Yian's acceptance speech in Stockholm caused an extremely strong response in the scientific community, with some agreeing and some opposing, supporters accounted for the majority in Nanyang.

In fact, everyone who knows Nanyang knows that Nanyang is a country without historical burdens, and this burden also includes academic burdens. Because there is no academic authority, everyone can develop their own views and conduct various research without considering the existence of academic authority or even academic cliques.

Even though there are many Nobel Prize winners in Nanyang, they are generally very humble. After all, when they first came to Nanyang, it was the only country that could accept them. After all, in Germany they were mostly "Nazis" and at worst "Nazi collaborators."

In short, the academic atmosphere in Nanyang has always been extremely relaxed. Of course, there is also official support for scientific research. According to official statistics, in 5, Nanyang's official investment in research and development was 15 million South Korean dollars. At that time, the US federal research and development funds were 56 billion US dollars. Nanyang's investment was equivalent to one-third of that of the United States. In , it increased to billion South Korean dollars, still maintaining one-third of the US investment scale. Considering the difference in size between the two, one can imagine how large Nanyang's investment in scientific research is.

Thanks to the relaxed academic atmosphere and sufficient research funding, the Nanyang scientific community has achieved major breakthroughs in various fields over the past decade.

Of course, what is more important is talent. From the introduction of German scholars at the beginning to the unremitting efforts to cultivate talents, although it takes ten years to grow a tree and a hundred years to cultivate a person, although only ten years have passed, in the past ten years, Nanyang has still cultivated hundreds of thousands of talents.

However, Zhang Jingye, who graduated from Ohira University, never considered himself a talent. Although he had obtained a master's degree two years ago, it did not mean that he would consider himself a talent, at least to a certain extent. After all, he did not conduct further research in physics.

As usual, on the way to the company by subway, Zhang Jingye was flipping through the December issue of "Physics" magazine, which is Nanyang's top physics journal. With the development of Nanyang's academic influence, "Physics" magazine has now become one of the world's authoritative academic journals in physics.

Suddenly an article caught Zhang Jingye's attention and he was surprised.

"Hey, the 'Law of Parity Non-Conservation' proposed by Chen Ning Yang and Tsung Dao Lee was confirmed so quickly!"

Looking at the paper in the journal, Zhang Jingye's expression was slightly shocked - Wu Jianxiong proved that symmetry is not conserved in weak interactions, verifying the "law of parity non-conservation" proposed by Yang Zhenning and Li Zhendao last year.

After carefully flipping through the paper written in English for a long time, Zhang Jingye spoke.

"If nothing unexpected happens, they will definitely win the Nobel Prize!"

Although he didn't know much about Yang Zhenning and Li Zhendao, as a master of physics, although he was not outstanding, he was still able to discern the value of the "law of parity non-conservation".

Just like that, he was reading the "Physics" magazine with great interest. Soon the subway arrived at the station. Zhang Jingye quickly put the magazine into his bag, got out of the subway in a hurry and rushed to the company. The GAD company where he worked was an emerging enterprise engaged in integrated circuit research.

In Nanyang, there are many start-up companies like this, most of which are founded by young people themselves. They develop their businesses through their own investments and by attracting external venture capital. Although few of these companies have achieved any success, who knows what the future holds?

As the founder of the company, Zhang Jingye was full of confidence in his company. In June 1955, he had just obtained a master's degree and obtained angel round investment with a unique idea.

Angel round investment is a common name in the Southeast Asian venture capital industry. It is equivalent to charity and friendship. The investment may not have much return. It refers to the initial financing of a startup project, that is, the start-up capital of the project.

To put it simply, a person has an idea for a good project, and has found a few friends to work on it, but they all find that they have no money. At this time, he can take his project description to seek venture capital, and investors will invest tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan to start the project.

In Nanyang, many start-ups have received investments from several investment companies to varying degrees, and GAD is no exception.

However, after a year and a half, the 100,000 yuan investment provided by the Success Fund was almost spent. If they wanted to continue the research, they would need another round of investment, and this would require using physical objects to convince the other party.

Ten minutes later, Zhang Jingye arrived at the company and plunged into his research again.

"To increase the density of integrated circuits, the key is to reduce their size..."

Staring at the integrated circuit diagram on the drawing board, Zhang Jingye frowned.

Since Li Yian proposed to build a circuit board that can contain all circuit elements, and based on this, proposed the concept of integrated circuit or microchip. Nanyang research institutions have made a series of breakthroughs in this regard, from TCL engineers discovering that all components of integrated circuits can be made of semiconductor materials to making the first prototype of integrated circuits, which consists of several circuit elements on a silicon wafer. The new device measures 1.6×11.1 mm - smaller than a postage stamp!

Since then, integrated circuits have been further developed in Nanyang and used in Nanyang's electronic products.

At the end of last year, Zhang Jingye proposed an innovative idea: in the manufacture of integrated circuits, the optical-chemical reaction principle and chemical and physical etching methods can be used to transfer circuit patterns to the surface of a single crystal or a dielectric layer to form a process technology that produces effective graphic windows or functional patterns.

With the help of company engineers, Zhang Jingye studied a silicon dioxide diffusion technology and PN junction isolation technology, and creatively made fine aluminum film connections on the oxide film, integrating components and wires into one.

After staring at the circuit diagram for a while, Zhang Jingye left the office and entered the drafting room, where a female employee was leaning over the table, using a fine blade to carve out the connections between transistors and circuits on the photomask master, bit by bit, with her bare hands.

Below the photomask master there is an integrated circuit layout drawn with colored pencils. The female employee is engraving the plate by hand, relying on the backlight on the engraving table, while Zhang Jingye is carefully checking the engraved circuits on the side.

After about half an hour, seeing beads of sweat on the female employee's forehead, Zhang Jingye said:
"Yujie, why don't you take a rest first."

Zhu Yujie shook her head and smiled.

"No, it's just the last bit. It won't be too late to rest after the carving is done."

After saying this, she looked up at her boss and emphasized.

"If I remember correctly, our money is almost gone. We have to build it as soon as possible to get into the next round of investment."

It was said to be the last point, but by the time the last piece of the pattern was engraved, it was almost noon, but they did not stop. Instead, they used a special camera to shrink the master pattern by 50-100 times to obtain a photomask for photolithography.

On that day, the world's first photolithography integrated circuit was manufactured, and this original photolithography machine that matched the manual photomask was a contact photolithography machine.

The time finally stopped at this day, December 10, 1956. Nanyang GAD, which had only four employees including the boss, manufactured the first contact lithography machine. As the name suggests, the contact lithography machine is to simply and crudely cover the photomask on the silicon wafer, so that the photomask is in direct contact with the photoresist layer, and then illuminate it for direct exposure. Its principle is similar to that of a camera, and even the structure of the lithography machine is not as complicated as that of a camera.

Although it was a primitive and simple lithography machine, it opened a new era.

……

"Through aluminum film wiring, components and wires can be integrated into one. This planar manufacturing process can not only greatly reduce the cost of integrated circuits, but also enable large-scale industrial production..."

In an investment company, Zhang Jingye shows investors the company's invention, an integrated circuit the size of a thumb.

"There are a total of 175 transistors on this integrated circuit board. It can be called the smallest integrated circuit in the world. Moreover, I believe that in the next step, we can even make an integrated circuit as small as a match head but with hundreds of transistors integrated!"

After Zhang Jingye demonstrated the company's invention, the investors immediately became interested. Since the invention of the integrated circuit, companies in Nanyang have been studying its uses. If the demand and output of integrated circuits are too small, then the company will not be able to make a profit, just like when the transistor was first invented, only 10% of transistor manufacturers in the United States could make a profit from transistor production.

Nanyang's enterprises have made profits by continuously expanding the uses of transistors. In the past few years, with the development of Nanyang's electronics industry, the market demand for transistors and integrated circuits has greatly increased.

But the turning point came from the military industry. Two huge military engineering projects, the "Kuafu Project" and the "Peace Guardian Missile Development Project", greatly promoted the development of integrated circuits. The military was very supportive of the development of integrated circuits, and they needed the device to be used in the small computer on the "Peace Guardian Missile". Looking at this gadget with hundreds of transistors in their hands, investors including Xiang Yunfei were stunned. They naturally knew the value of this integrated circuit - it was hundreds of transistors.

They may not have studied physics or electronics, but as investors, they are familiar with transistors.

“It’s about the size of a few transistors.”

After being amazed, Xiang Yunfei asked directly.

"So what is its success rate? I mean the production yield rate."

As a potential investor, Xiang Yunfei is more concerned about its commercial application, and the yield rate is related to its production cost.

Faced with the investor's questions, Zhang Jingye did not hide anything and answered directly.

"Currently, the failure rate and cost of this lithography method are very high. This is because the colloid itself and the dust particles attached to it not only affect the lithography effect, but also pollute and damage the photomask. Moreover, the damage effect will accumulate with the number of lithography times, which not only reduces the yield of each lithography, but also reduces its success rate by only 10%..."

When Xiang Yunfei heard that the yield rate was only 10%, he raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything. He just looked at the integrated circuit in his hand that integrated nearly 200 transistors.

After thinking for a while, he picked up a pen and wrote a note, then handed it to the assistant beside him. The assistant took the note and saw what was written on it.

"Go out and ask, how many transistors were used in the first electronic computer in Nanyang?"

After taking the note, the assistant walked out of the meeting room. A moment later, he came back and handed Xiang Yunfei a note.

After taking the note and looking at it, a few simple numbers came into Xiang Yun's sight.

"Z5 computer, 800 transistors, 300 watts of power, 108000 calculations per second, 0.485 cubic meters in size."

800!
If it is replaced with this integrated circuit, it will be 4 and a half!

In just a moment, Xiang Yunfei made up his mind. At this time, Zhang Jingye's introduction came to an end.

"At the same time, it also seriously reduces the life of the photomask, resulting in a photomask that can only be used a dozen times at most. So for now, its production cost is still very high. But..."

Pointing at the integrated circuit in Xiang Yunfei's hand, Zhang Jingye emphasized.

"But in many key areas, such as the military, they still have a great demand for such micro-integrated circuits, and it is well known that they care more about performance than price."

This is indeed a well-known fact. In fact, during the Cold War, the US chip industry developed by relying on military orders. Although the military shouted "too expensive", it could not refuse to improve the performance of its weapons. The high price also gave related companies opportunities to join in. In the fierce competition, they continuously improved technology and increased the yield rate of integrated circuits to reduce prices. Finally, when its price was reduced to a range acceptable to the market, personal computers appeared.

"I am confident that by upgrading technology, we can double the number of transistors that can be accommodated in integrated circuits by the end of next year. I also believe that with the in-depth study of photolithography technology, we can even accommodate thousands or even tens of thousands of transistors on integrated circuits of the same size in the future. At the same time, its cost will be greatly reduced!"

When Zhang Jingye finished speaking, he looked at the investor with expectation. He came to the company this time to win the A round of investment, and this investment will directly affect the life and death of the company! With investment, he can continue his research.

Facing the expectant gaze, Xiang Yunfei asked without hesitation.

"So, how much money do you need now?"

Many times, things are so simple. As an investor, Xiang Yunfei only needs to provide investment to people with potential and ideas. Of course, there are risks involved, but venture capital always involves risks.

“50 yuan, isn’t that too much of a risk?”

More than half an hour later, in the manager's office, Cheng Liyun looked at the project in front of him, then looked at Xiang Yunfei and said.

"This investment is almost the same as Wang Laboratories' investment. Photolithography integrated circuits... is it necessary to bear such a big risk?"

Facing the manager's inquiry, Xiang Yunfei took out the integrated circuit and said:

"Manager, look, you see, you only need four of these integrated circuits to make a Z5, which is a Z5 electronic computer. Just imagine, a pen holder this big..."

Holding the one on the manager's desk, Xiang Yunfei gestured:

"There are 1, 2, 3... 15 pens installed here. One pen is equivalent to 3 integrated circuits. A space this big can hold 5 to integrated circuits, thousands or even tens of thousands of transistors. Its computing performance is equivalent to that of more than a dozen Z computers. Manager, do you think it has investment potential?"

Looking at the pen holder in Xiang Yunfei's hand and then at the integrated circuit, although he didn't know much about electronic technology, it was really amazing to think that such a large computer could be shrunk into such a tiny pen holder!
After thinking for a while, Cheng Liyun said.

"I seem to understand why Madam asked us to focus on projects related to integrated circuits and electronic computers. It seems that they do have great development potential."

The manager's answer made Xiang Yunfei smile.

"Madam is a scientist herself. She must have her own ideas about the direction of technological development. Moreover, you have to know that behind Madam is His Excellency. Not only did His Excellency win the Nobel Prize, but he also invented the integrated circuit!"

The lady they were talking about was none other than Hedy Lamarr. Over the past decade, the frequency hopping technology she invented had been used in the military. Although the Hedy Laboratory she ran did not have many amazing inventions, her Success Fund had invested in many companies over the past few years, and most of those companies were start-ups.

The Success Fund is just an investment fund created by Li Yian. The general direction of investment for many funds, including the Success Fund, was set by Li Yian himself. They just follow the general direction set by you and make investments.

"Your Mightiness……"

Putting down the integrated circuit, Cheng Liyun nodded and said.

"Perhaps, Your Excellency has already seen this day!"

Looking at the thumb-sized chip on the table, Cheng Liyun fell into deep thought. He didn't know what it meant, but he vaguely felt that this thing might be very important. Why was it important?

He couldn't tell clearly.

After all, this thing doesn't seem to have anything to do with ordinary people.

(End of this chapter)