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For Fanlin, the biggest advantage of acquiring gca is that it can finally start cooperation with Dongfang Semiconductor. The technical level of the lithography machine directly determines the process level of the entire fab.

But the role of the lithography machine is not infinite. For example, even if the deep sea microelectronics company has the opportunity to import a most advanced lithography machine, it may not be able to achieve a 1-micron process. In addition to the supporting upgrade of other equipment in the fab, this also requires the continuous exploration and improvement of the production process of the semiconductor company itself.

In the previous life, the reason why Intel was able to always overwhelm TSMC, Samsung and other competitors in the manufacturing process was not only because it was willing to spend money to update equipment, but also because of its own strong technical background.

Of course, for Fanlin, the annexation of gca is a big step forward, greatly increasing its voice in the global semiconductor equipment field. In fact, the biggest obstacle to the acquisition of GCA by Fanlin was not from GCA itself, but from the sematech industry alliance.

This is a technology strategic alliance established last year by the U.S. government in order to encourage the research and development of semiconductor manufacturing technology in its own country.

When the sematech alliance was established, the two companies, Dongfang Semiconductor and Fairchild Semiconductor, which are owned by the Oriental Group, have caused huge controversy. According to the articles of association of the alliance, subsidiaries of foreign companies in the United States are not entitled to join the alliance. Therefore, after applying for Hitachi's American branch, it was rejected immediately.

However, these two companies under the Oriental Group are very special. Oriental Semiconductor has jumped to the largest semiconductor company in the United States. Its monopoly position in the field of general-purpose microprocessors is still unshakable. Although Fairchild Semiconductor is currently a little weaker in overall scale, it is the totem of the US semiconductor industry.

Without Fairchild, there would be no global semiconductor industry. Without Dongfang Semiconductor, the entire North American semiconductor industry would have lost half of it. But both companies are wholly-owned subsidiaries of foreign companies, which is a headache for the executives of the sematech alliance.

After repeated discussions, the sematech alliance finally decided to make a special case for the two companies Dongfang Semiconductor and Fairchild Semiconductor, allowing them to become the core members of the alliance.

As the most important lithography machine manufacturer in the United States, gca is naturally a core member of the sematech alliance. But it was annexed by Pan-Lin. It means that Fanlin can inherit the status of hca company and become the third company under the Oriental Group to join the industry alliance.

You must know that the sematech alliance has only 14 core members in total, and the Oriental Group has three votes. Although the sematech alliance was established for the purpose of technology sharing. Voting rights don't have much practical significance. However, it is an undeniable fact that the voice of the Oriental Group in the sematech alliance is increasing.

Therefore, there is a kind of mediocre voice starting to worry that the sematech alliance will eventually become the US government's money to help the Oriental Group to develop technology. However, no matter how much some people advocate the "Eastern Group Threat Theory", it will not help, because the US semiconductor industry has gradually begun to be inseparable from the Oriental Group's settings. Therefore, Fanlin company finally succeeded in replacing gca company. Become a core member of the sematech alliance.

According to the original historical trajectory, the ematech alliance has contributed an indelible and important role to the subsequent development of the US semiconductor equipment manufacturing industry. Li Xuan remembers that in another time and space, three of the top five semiconductor equipment suppliers in the world are from the United States, namely Applied Materials, Fanlin, and Kelei.

None of these three companies produce the most critical semiconductor equipment lithography machines. After entering the 21st century, the two major lithography machine manufacturers in the United States, gca company and svgl company, have disappeared. The latter was acquired by asml company.

U.S. semiconductor equipment manufacturers have completely failed in the field of lithography machines. Naturally, there are deep-seated internal reasons for the lack of specialized optical manufacturers in the United States. The optical technology is precisely the most critical part of the lithography machine. Nikon and Canon were originally one of the world's leading optical manufacturers, and asml used optical components provided by German Carl Zeiss.

Almost all of the world's well-known optical manufacturers are concentrated in Japan and Germany. The former includes Zeiss, Leica, and Schneider, while the latter includes Nikon, Canon, and Olympus. Compared with Japan's developed semiconductor industry, Germany is more famous for its machinery manufacturing industry, and its voice in the global semiconductor industry is not high.

"As the semiconductor manufacturing process continues to shrink, the optical performance requirements of the lithography machine are getting higher and higher! Therefore, if Fanlin wants to maintain a long-term competitiveness in the lithography machine, the best way is to obtain a German optical company. support.

Schneider has always lived in the shadow of Carl Zeiss and Leica, so it can be ruled out first. For the remaining two companies, Zeiss has already cooperated with the asml company in the Netherlands, so our best choice is to cooperate with Leica!

Due to the impact of digital cameras, Leica's life has become difficult in recent years! If it can barely compete with Japanese companies in optical lenses, then in the field of digital technology, it is not known to be thrown out by Japanese counterparts!

And our Oriental Group can complement Carlisle in the digital field, so if we can acquire this German company, it will not only make up for our shortcomings in the field of lithography machines, but also take advantage of the opportunity to enter the field of digital cameras! "Li Xuan put forward his own suggestions for the next development of Fanlin Company.

The only impression of Leica cameras on Li Xuan is that they are expensive. In his opinion. Those who choose to buy a Leica camera, are nothing more than two situations. The perpetrator is either a rich man with a lot of money, or suffers from a serious "literary disease".

Lin Jieping nodded: "Cameras have become a kind of fast-moving consumer goods, the most important thing is to carry out mass production to reduce costs! And this method is obviously not suitable for Leica cameras, every Leica camera is like a delicate Crafts, more suitable for collection!

Leica's philosophy of striving for perfection is not suitable for the development of large-scale industries, but it can bring sufficient quality assurance for lithography machines! It's just that Leica, as one of the main suppliers of optical instruments in Germany, is not easy to acquire! "

Li Xuan laughed: "I'm only responsible for providing ideas, how to do it is your own business!"

"Li Shengsheng moved his mouth, let's break our legs!" Another person on the plane also laughed.

The distance from Dallas to Austin is 300 kilometers, and it takes more than 3 hours by car. But the aviation industry in the United States is very developed, and airports are blooming everywhere. So Li Xuan simply rented an eight-seat small luxury business jet, which only took half an hour to take off and land.

In addition to Li Xuan and Lin Jieping, there was also Zhang Zhongmou, chairman of Oriental Semiconductor, who had just returned from Taiwan.

"The acquisition of Leica can be discussed in the long run. For us, Fanlin, the top priority now is to start a comprehensive cooperation with Dongfang Semiconductor as soon as possible, and strive to conquer the 0.8 micron process as soon as possible!

As far as I know, Nikon's next-generation lithography machine is likely to come out before the end of next year, and Lam is half a step behind! "Lin Jieping shook his head lightly, and then said sincerely to Zhang Zhongmou.

"Dongfang Semiconductor will fully support Fanlin's technology research and development. In fact, we can use the power of the sematech alliance to strive for more alliances to join the research and development process!

Dezhou is the hometown of Deyi. When I communicated with Mr. Jongins before, he was very interested in cooperative research and development. And Texas Instruments is actively making strategic adjustments, as far as I know they intend to divest their photomask business! "Zhang Zhongmou replied immediately.

In his mouth, Jongins was originally the president and CEO of Texas Instruments. He replaced Mr. Sheppard, who had just retired, half a month ago as the new chairman of Texas Instruments.

The photomask is one of the most critical connection processes in the front-end wafer preparation process. Photomask manufacturing is not only the most expensive part of the entire wafer production process, but also one of the bottlenecks limiting the minimum line width. If the photomask department of Texas Instruments can be acquired, it will definitely be a useful and important addition to the technical accumulation of Pan-Lin.

Next, Lin Jieping and Zhang Zhongmou began to discuss some matters concerning the cooperation between Fanlin Company and Dongfang Semiconductor Company. Li Xuan, who was sitting on the side, listened quietly and did not intend to interrupt.

The most important reason why Fanlin chose the new factory and R&D center in Austin is that the new factory of Dongfang Semiconductor is located here. In the next period of time, Eastern Semiconductor's capacity expansion in the United States will all be located in the Austin area. Since Fanlin intends to strengthen cooperation with Dongfang Semiconductor, it naturally needs to take the initiative to rely on it.

With the continuous shrinking of the semiconductor process, the research and development investment of semiconductor equipment including lithography machines is also increasing. It would be a better thing for Lin Jieping and Zhang Zhongmou if they could bring in the Texas Instruments company to share the risks.

Of course, there must be a prerequisite for this kind of cooperation, that is, there was no fierce competition between Dongfang Group and Deyi Company before. Dongfang Group mainly focuses on microprocessors in the semiconductor field, and will also include dsp (digital signal processor) acquired from Texas Instruments in the future. Although Texas Instruments also has microprocessor products, it is not without fierce competition between the two series of processors of erm and mips under the Oriental Group. (To be continued.)

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