Chapter 438 Which lithography machine is better? The anxious TSMC
Zhang Shaohua moved quickly. He personally took several engineers familiar with lithography machines and went on a business trip in the United States, Europe and Japan for half a month, and brought several solutions to Jiang Hui.
"Mr. Jiang, from the current situation, the four lithography machines of GCA in the United States, Asmay in Europe, Nikon and Canon in Japan are the most advanced."
"Among them, GCA in the United States, built the first contact lithography machine in the 1960s and became the mainstream product at that time."
"At that time, with the increasing application scope of semiconductors, the market demand for lithography machines continued to rise, and Nikon and Canon, as GCA suppliers, also started the research and development of lithography machines."
"Now Nikon and Canon are already in a situation where they are latecomers, while American GCA is in poor management and began to lay off employees significantly last year."
"So I think the lithography machine of American GCA may only be a competitive backup option and cannot be purchased in the end."
Zhang Shaohua went on a business trip, and the things he reported when he came back were naturally meaningful.
Lithography machine is the most critical equipment in chip production and processing, and it is also the focus of Zhang Shaohua's overseas inspection this time.
Only by first determining the procurement direction of the lithography machine, other supporting equipment will be easier to determine.
Otherwise, if the equipment that is not so important is decided, and the procurement of key equipment is affected due to matching problems, it will be more than worth the cost.
"In the 1960s, Natlab, a small company under Philips, also realized the opportunity and quickly launched the lithography machine manufacturing plan, which was the predecessor of Asmay, the rising star in the lithography machine industry today."
"In 1967, Natlab developed a lithography machine prototype."
"However, due to its advantages in precision technology and equipment, Natlab's lithography machine performed better than its peers in terms of accuracy, achieving an accuracy of 10 cm of position movement and a displacement deviation of only 0.1 micron."
"But this technology did not receive widespread attention at the time. Instead, other endless technical problems made large-scale production of lithography machines difficult."
"So until seven or eight years ago, America still maintained its advantages in the field of lithography machine production."
"According to the information we learned in this survey, in 1981, the sales of lithography machines of GCA in the United States reached US$110 million, which increased by nearly 10 times in three years."
"And the efforts of the Japanese people were also effective. Nikon launched the first stepper lithography machine in 1980."
"This high-performance lithography machine has been better in stability and automation, and has quickly occupied the market."
"At the same time, European lithography machine companies have achieved integration. Based on Natlab, Asmay, founded by the first CEO, took office, solved the problem of large-scale lithography machine production by strictly controlling workflows and opening up the supply chain. "
"At the same time, ASMA promotes the new generation of lithography machines to improve the accuracy requirements for detailed positioning through industrial upgrading, so that their technological advantages finally begin to emerge."
"After this, relying on continuous investment in R&D funds to continue to solve supply chain problems and open up the market, ASMA's lithography machine sales gradually improved."
"Last year, ASMA benefited from the cooperation with TSMC. So far, its global market share has reached about 15%. "I think the lithography machines of Lingnan Semiconductor can also consider ASMA."
Zhang Shaohua quickly gave his own opinions based on what he learned.
Obviously, through comparison, he found that Asmay's technical direction is more advanced. If Lingnan Semiconductor wants to cooperate with Nanshan Equipment to develop its own lithography machines and other equipment in the future, it will definitely be better to develop based on a relatively advanced technical route. "I can understand that I give up the American GCA, after all, this is a company that is on a downward strait." "But Nikon and Canon in Japan should be in a state of great success now." "If we purchase equipment from them, will it be cheaper?" "No matter which lithography machine manufacturer, Jiang Hui will definitely not like it.
But there is no better choice at this stage, so you can only buy from them.
Although later generations Asmay was the well-deserved king in the field of lithography machines, that was later generations, not now.
In the second half of the 1980s, Nikon and Canon in Japan were the kings in this field. "Manager, we have indeed considered Nikon's lithography machines, Japan's NEC and Hitachi Semiconductor's lithography machines are produced by Nikon." "But Nikon's lithography machines are more optimized on the previous technical route, lacking innovation capabilities, and relatively conservative work."
"I think it's okay to use Nikon to suppress Asmai and fight for a better price for us."
"Purchasing Nikon's lithography machine to use by yourself can also meet the requirements."
"But it is probably more difficult to develop more advanced products based on Nikon's lithography machine."
Zhang Shaohua said while observing Jiang Hui's reaction.
In the procurement field, you still insist on finding one in comparison with multiple companies, which makes people wonder if there is a story behind it.
To be honest, Zhang Shaohua is really worried that Jiang Hui will doubt him, which is too unfair. "Overseas enterprises are indeed more conservative, and they pay more attention to excellence and have shortcomings in innovation." Jiang Hui listened carefully to Zhang Shaohua's report and expressed his high recognition.
How can he not know the future development direction of lithography machines?
Nikon and Canon are at their peak now, but after entering the 1990s, they stubbornly implemented their past technical routes and were unwilling to change them, and were eventually counterattacked by Asmay.
By later generations, in the field of high-end lithography machines, there is basically no position in Nikon and Canon. "Yes, on the other hand, Asmay's lithography machine has a relatively advanced technical route. As long as it is constantly improving, it can eventually achieve another improvement in processing accuracy."
"This is very meaningful to us."
Zhang Shaohua breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Jiang Hui's words.
It seems that Jiang Hui really told him what he said, and he completely trusts himself to manage Lingnan Semiconductor.
"Then you can make quotations with several lithography machine manufacturers as soon as possible, make full use of the information differences, and determine our orders." "At the appropriate time, it is acceptable to make some concessions to speed up the delivery time of our equipment." Jiang Hui was afraid that the night would be long and the dream would be too long, so he paid the deposit at that time, but he had never been able to receive the equipment for various reasons, which would be a pity.
It has been 1988 now, and this risk is definitely very great.
"Manager, there is another thing we may need to pay attention to."
Chen Qingxiang interjected the mouth, "The main customer of Asmay's lithography machine is TSMC."
"And our Lingnan Semiconductor's business development direction is that chip foundry and its own design and production will be carried out simultaneously."
"The chip foundry business is competitive with TSMC."
"I wonder if this will bring certain risks to our lithography machine procurement with Asmay."
Anything can happen in the mall.
Chen Qingxiang, a technical man, has now begun to force himself to have a certain business thinking.
Today I tried to tell the situation I observed.
"If we have been purchasing lithography machines from Asmay, this risk really exists."
"But considering that Nanshan Equipment and Lingnan Semiconductor will jointly develop their own lithography machines in the future."
"Then the risks brought by TSMC and Asmay are completely controllable."
"Asmay is still a weak person in the global lithography machine industry after all, and urgently needs more orders to prove his strength and enhance his influence."
Jiang Hui thought for a moment and gave his own judgment.
TSMC is just starting out, and Asmay is not a giant in lithography machines.
Chen Qingxiang's worries won't happen so quickly.
…
"President, I got a news from Nikon that China's Lingnan Semiconductor is asking them to negotiate the procurement of the latest lithography machine."
"According to the feedback from Nikon, China is planning to invest in the construction of a 1.8-micron chip factory this time."
"This is already the most mainstream production process in the world, and it is even further than the process of the chip factory invested by TSMC and Samsung last year."
Sano Miki, as the head of the sales department of the Hitachi Semiconductor Division, is naturally very concerned about the dynamics in the industry.
In recent years, it is not necessary to mention the old rival of America, which has the biggest move. Sano Miki has arranged people to keep an eye on Texas Instruments, Intel and other companies.
And the situation in Asia has also begun to change.
Gory's Samsung Electronics is desperately leveraging its investment in the semiconductor industry, and has the idea of surpassing Japanese companies.
The emergence of TSMC has brought a new way of playing to the chip industry.
These have attracted the high attention of Sano Miki.
Originally, Lingnan Semiconductor, a Chinese semiconductor company, didn't know that Hitachi Semiconductor was vigilant.
After all, there is still a big gap between China's semiconductor technology level and the world's advanced level.
But since last year, Lingnan Semiconductor was born, and the new equipment introduced has improved China's semiconductor production process level by a huge margin.
However, compared with Japan, the gap is still very big.
So Sano Miki just kept paying attention and was not particularly nervous.
Now less than a year later, Lingnan Semiconductor has begun to consider introducing chip equipment with a 1.8 micron process, and the situation is completely different.
Although many manufacturers have mastered this kind of advanced international mainstream technology at this stage, those manufacturers are international mainstream semiconductor giants.
"Lingnan Semiconductor is so powerful?"
"They were only established last year?"
"The first production line is probably not yet mass-produced, so I can't wait to introduce a new process?"
Taro Koike was stunned for a moment, and quickly recalled the information related to Lingnan Semiconductor in his mind.
Sano Miki had reported to him about the situation of this factory before, and he had some impression of it.
After all, it is the most advanced factory in China's technology, so it is worth paying attention to.
But he didn't expect to hear the information from Lingnan Semiconductor so soon.
"Yes, the equipment of their first factory should still be under installation and there is no formal mass production."
"With the technical level of China, it will take at least one year to completely achieve this factory's original craftsmanship and yield rate."
"That is, within this year, Lingnan Semiconductor is not enough to form a process technology for 3 micron processes." "Now we will start to negotiate the procurement of 1.8 micron process equipment directly. I think this radical approach is worthy of vigilance."
Sano Miki saw some shadows of Goryeo Samsung Electronics from Lingnan Semiconductor.
This kind of company that does not match the mainstream development rhythm of the market is often a variable in the industry.
For Hitachi Semiconductor, it is obvious that they don’t want to see so many variables appear.
"According to your opinion, even if they successfully purchased 1.8 micron process chip equipment this year, they did not enter mass production."
"Even if it is more radical, it will take around 1990 to mass production. If it is not smooth, it is possible to even go to 1991 or 1992, right?"
Taro Koike quickly gave a judgment based on his own experience. "Yes, I think so too."
The leader's judgment was naturally fine, and Sano Miki became a vocal worm directly.
"If this is the case, after a few years, the chip manufacturing process in the industry will definitely be more advanced, such as 1 micron, or even 0.8 micron, and it even begins to enter the nano era."
"Lingnan Semiconductor's new production line has lagged behind the industry since its production starts, and the threat to us should be very limited, right?"
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"Now they are rushing to invest such a large amount of money to purchase new equipment, which will definitely delay other developments."
"I think we can just look at this matter, and we don't need to say hello to Nikon, let them do anything special."
Koike Taro knew the purpose of Sano Miki coming to report this matter to him today.
Before the other party expressed his thoughts, he gave his opinions.
Sano Miki naturally has nothing particularly easy to say about this.
But not every semiconductor company has the same view as Hitachi Semiconductor.
For example, TSMC has a very strong sense of crisis at this time.
…
"Mr. Zhang, Lingnan Semiconductor suddenly had a radical contact with various equipment manufacturers and wanted to directly introduce the current mainstream wafer and chip processing equipment."
"I feel that the other party is coming for us this time."
Zeng Fanchen has attached great importance to this semiconductor company in the mainland since he learned that Lingnan Semiconductor also wants to engage in chip foundry business.
Although he had a lot of doubts in his heart, he felt that Lingnan Semiconductor should not be able to create its own semiconductor factory so quickly.
However, considering the brilliant performance of Lingnan Semiconductor parent company BMW Technology in recent years, he is still worried.
"If I remember correctly, Lingnan Semiconductor is now building a factory that is introducing second-hand 4-inch wafer equipment and 3-micron process chip processing equipment in the United States, right?"
"The factories are not put into production now, and I can't wait to introduce more advanced technology. This gameplay is really confusing."
"But at the normal pace of development, even if they purchase these advanced equipment, they cannot produce the products so quickly, right?"
Zhang Zhong's view is somewhat similar to that of Hitachi Semiconductor.
After all, the development of all things is a certain rule for fishermen. As long as you make judgments according to this rule, there will basically be no major mistakes.
"Yes, from 4-inch wafers to 5-inch wafers, from 3-micron process to 18-micron process, this is definitely not a simple digital change."
"The technical efforts required behind it are very huge."
"I don't think this approach from Lingnan Semiconductor will succeed."
"But such an approach will disrupt the rhythm of the chip foundry market."
"At that time, our customers may make some unreasonable requests to us when they see some information about Lingnan Semiconductor." "This is equivalent to increasing the difficulty of our work out of thin air." Zeng Fanchen's statement is obviously quite reasonable.
No matter which customer it is, if you see that one of your two suppliers has more advanced equipment, you will definitely ask the other one to introduce it.
Otherwise, I wouldn't give priority to working with you.
However, for TSMC, the first step of investment has not been recovered so quickly, and the technology has not been digested.
It is very difficult to directly start the second step of investment now.
After all, their investments are different from Lingnan Semiconductor, and they cannot be done just by one person. "Do you have any specific ideas for this situation?"
I found the problem to solve it.
Zhang Zhongmou absolutely does not allow anyone to undermine the overall development of TSMC.
They just received an order from Intel and are preparing to start the chip foundry business in a big way, bringing a completely different way of playing to the industry.
If Lingnan Semiconductor had disrupted the rhythm at the beginning, the loss would be huge.
"There are only a few manufacturers in the world that can produce key semiconductor production equipment such as lithography machines and etching machines."
"Can we consider the equipment from the perspective of equipment, so that these equipment manufacturers should not sell such advanced production equipment to Lingnan Semiconductor?"
As a new player in the industry, TSMC has a limited influence on equipment manufacturers.
Unlike giants like Intel, they have great influence to influence some of the decisions of equipment manufacturers.
So Zeng Fanchen could only work hard from other directions.
"You are talking about it more specifically?"
"Without enough pressure and persuasion, those equipment manufacturers will not let the money be unavailable."
Zhang Zhongmou thought of the scene when he went to negotiate business with various equipment manufacturers, and he had a deeper understanding of the ideas of those equipment manufacturers.
It is completely inconsistent with others' interests to expect them to take the initiative to attack Lingnan Semiconductor.
"In the past, various advanced equipment from the West were not allowed to enter the mainland market easily."
"In recent years, the relevant control has gradually relaxed, and it has even basically disappeared."
"I think I can do something from this aspect?"
After Zeng Fanchen said this, Zhang Zhong's eyes lit up.
He has worked in the United States for so many years, so he naturally knows the meaning behind Zeng Fanchen's words.
From the general direction, this is completely possible.
Especially, the current international environment has changed a few years ago.
The United States had been under tremendous pressure from polar bears before, so it started its honeymoon period in all aspects with China.
Although the situation on the polar bears has not been fully circulated, many people know that the life of the polar bears is not that easy.
In this way, the pressure on America will naturally be reduced.
In the beginning, it was to suppress the polar bears, so I pulled China to work hard together.
If you lose the goal of suppression, or the difficulty of suppression has dropped significantly, the meaning of winning over China will gradually disappear.
In this case, there is naturally an article to do.
"You can try it first, but it probably won't work so quickly."
"But even if it doesn't work this time, our work will be meaningful next time."
Anyway, doing this will not have any disadvantages for TSMC, it only has benefits.
In the future, the relevant departments in the United States will even think that TSMC has awakened in advance and is doing a good job.
…
"Smith, do you think we want to intervene in the second phase of the project planned to be introduced by Lingnan Semiconductor?"
As the American ambassador, Woodcock is the most sensitive and clearest about changes in the relationship between the two countries.
As the changes in the world pattern, he already knew that the country was reconsidering some policies to treat China.
Although these policies will not be introduced so soon, as an ambassador, he must do something to prepare for the future. "I think you should wait and see for a while before talking?"
"Lingnan Semiconductor's moves are very loud, but it is hard to say what it will be like in the end."
"The threshold for the semiconductor industry is much higher than they imagined."
"These are not allowed to develop China's semiconductor industry before, but now relying on the strength of Lingnan Semiconductor, it is completely impossible to catch up with the world's advanced level in just a few years."
Smith gave his reply with certainty.
In his opinion, Lingnan Semiconductor is now completely stupid and has a lot of money. He is making random investments, so there is no need to pay attention to it.
"You don't have any reason to say that."
"China has launched a lot of projects before, but it was finally dismissed."
"For example, the lithography machine used for chip processing. China's Fourth Machinery Department and the Academy of Sciences have also established a special project team to develop the world's advanced lithography machine."
"In the end, it took several years to struggle, but only made a prototype of the first generation of lithography machines that were equivalent to our level in the 1960s."
"Not to mention catching up with the world's advanced level, even the second-rate level is far from reaching."
"Not to mention catching up with the world's advanced level, even the second-rate level is far from reaching."
Woodcock and Smith have been partnering with each other for so many years, and they still believe in Smith's professional abilities.
Since Smith, Huaxiatong, thinks that Lingnan Semiconductor can't make any name for itself, then I have a little over-concerned about my concerns.
With this energy, it is better to pay more attention to the ever-increasing connection between China and polar bears.
See if there are any big moves behind it.
Reporting this information to the country may result in more recognition.
(This chapter ends)