1991 Starting from the core

Generally speaking, it is a technical task to use the tone of rhetorical questions well in a speech. Especially when facing an audience of equal status, you must pay more attention to avoid giving people the illusion of being "taught" as much as possible.

But Su Yuanshan obviously didn't pay attention to this, or in other words, he deliberately didn't care about his tone.

After all, the development concept he is going to put forward today is very avant-garde - in a sense, he is going to draw a path for the development of the semiconductor industry today - although in recent years, the academic community has actually had some ideas about the next generation of semiconductors. discussions, but as far as the industry is concerned, there is no consensus.

"Obviously, that's not possible."

After all, this was not a big class, so Su Yuanshan didn't leave much time for "thinking". Instead, he immediately gave the answer himself after emphasizing.

Su Yuanshan pursed his lips and smiled slightly: "Last month, I participated in an academic exchange in the field of international condensed matter physics. One of the main contents discussed at this meeting was the application of graphene in future scientific research and semiconductor fields. "

"At the meeting, I admitted that graphene is an excellent semiconductor material and has a very bright future, but it will take time to use it on a large scale. At that time, many scientists criticized my statement, and several professors said I'm not honest..."

Su Yuanshan shrugged as he said, "Friends who are familiar with me know that I always tell the truth."

There was a burst of knowing laughter from the audience.

"Let me guess, there should be friends waiting for me to predict how long it will take for graphene to be put into practical use under the current technical conditions and scientific research progress - I'm sorry, I really can't give a time, I can only say, at least, at least Within ten years, graphene’s application scenarios will still be in the field of scientific research.”

"So, for the time being, graphene will not threaten the status of silicon - but what really threatens its status is the second generation of semiconductor materials."

Su Yuanshan flipped the PPT, and a bunch of compound nouns appeared on the screen.

For example, gallium arsenide, indium antimonide, aluminum gallium arsenide, gallium phosphorus arsenide, and a series of glass semiconductors, organic semiconductors, etc.

"You may have noticed that these materials are mainly used in high-speed, high-frequency, high-power and light-emitting electronic devices."

After turning the page again, a simple analysis of various materials was displayed.

Su Yuanshan also briefly introduced the components and application scenarios corresponding to these semiconductor materials.

"Here are several statistics on the market changes, technologies and patents of microwave devices, power devices, LED devices, etc. in the past eight years, as well as the disclosed capital investment by relevant companies."

Su Yuanshan flipped through the PPT again and looked back.

——The histogram is very obvious, especially for LCD panels. Since three years ago, LCD panels have entered a period of explosive growth, and the last two are so high that they break through the sky.

At this time, someone in the audience suddenly raised their hands.

Will anyone actually interact?

Su Yuanshan was slightly startled. This was something he didn't expect, but he quickly smiled and stretched out his hand in a gesture of invitation.

Because the summit had ample time, and there was enough time for free communication in the afternoon, there was no microphone for the audience to ask questions. So the organizer immediately trotted over with the microphone and handed it to him. While running, he patted the sound test and made a popping sound.

"Hello Mr. Su, I am Hiroaki Akano, the person in charge of Panasonic Semiconductor in China."

Su Yuanshan smiled and nodded: "Hello, Mr. Akano."

"I would like to ask, if you admire the LCD panel so much, have you ignored the advantages and technology of plasma technology? Or do you think the winner is now decided? Thank you." Akano Hiroaki's Chinese is quite standard. It seems that he is staying in China. It's quite a long time.

Akano Hiroaki handed the microphone back and sat down again in the sight of everyone.

His expression was calm and indifferent - but everyone could see that he was very unconvinced.

Plasma TVs are now in an advantageous position compared to LCD TVs in terms of market and technology - or in terms of performance - at the very least, there is no weak side.

Panasonic is the leader in promoting plasma TVs.

And Su Yuanshan directly said that the LCD panel will be a second-generation semiconductor... It even sounded like a pronouncement.

This cannot be tolerated under any circumstances.

On the podium, Su Yuanshan blinked slightly, with a smile on his face.

"I'll answer your first question first. I didn't ignore it. Then I'll answer the second question and there's no winner."

"But in five years at most, or even less than five years...LCD TVs will be on the rise, and then plasma TVs will be on the decline."

"Why?"

Although there was no microphone, Hiroaki Akano's voice reached Su Yuanshan's ears.

"Because LCD can cover all fields - if you admit that the digital age, pioneered by handheld mobile devices, has arrived, then you must admit that LCD panels are the only optimal solution at present."

Su Yuanshan paused, no longer paying attention to the Panasonic person in charge, but turned to look at the screen.

Someone next to Akano Hiroaki glanced at him sympathetically - Yuanxin manufactures mobile phones and laptops in the field of consumer electronics. Which of the two can be equipped with plasma panels?

The words "Third Generation Semiconductor Materials" appeared on the screen.

…

Twenty minutes later, Su Yuanshan opened the mineral water and took a sip.

"The direction of materials is essentially the direction of technological development. When we talked about materials before, we actually talked about the future development trend of the semiconductor industry, and even the direction of technological products and technology application based on this. Therefore, there are no No more details.”

"But as far as traditional semiconductors, or the chip field, is concerned, there is still a whip whipping us hard from behind."

The audience laughed.

Su Yuanshan also shook his head and smiled: "Moore's Law is very harmful..."

"We have to admit the fact that in the past ten or twenty years, the biggest contributor to the continuation of Moore's Law is the lithography machine."

"Officially because of the advancement of lithography machines, the process and technology have been improved, and Moore's Law has continued. But we also know that the 193nm curse has been on the core light source system of lithography machines for a long time, and countless companies have We are challenging it. Even in country A, an EUV alliance was formed..."

At this point, Su Yuanshan's lips curled up slightly: "It seems that none of us here are members of the EUV Alliance."

Everyone present began to look at the scene with their eyes and noses, and their noses and hearts - especially the big guys sitting in the first row.

"But I have good news for everyone today." Su Yuanshan looked at everyone, especially the first row: "But not now."

"... When the equipment cannot satisfy our ability to run along Moore's Law, we should find another way. Even if there are no constraints on the equipment, we still need to upgrade the architectural design of the chip."

As he spoke, Su Yuanshan began to turn the pages.

"This is a FinFET structure that has been included in the standard before. Compared with the planar MOSFET structure, it increases the area of ​​the gate around the channel and strengthens the gate's control over the channel, which can effectively alleviate the short channel that occurs in planar devices. effect, greatly improving circuit control and reducing leakage current, and can also greatly shorten the gate length of the transistor. It is precisely because of this characteristic. It does not require a highly doped channel, so it can effectively reduce the impurity ion scattering effect and improve channel carrier migration. Rate……"

"Of course, its implementation requires extremely high process requirements. Even at present, it is necessary only in the process technology within 30nm. But no matter what the structure, as the design of chips becomes more and more The complexity and integration level are getting higher and higher, so in the future process flow, the etching step will become more and more important."

Su Yuanshan looked at the third row.

Yin Zhiyao was sitting in the middle seat, as quiet as a man with nothing to do - China Microelectronics' etching machine had already received an order from Deyuan.

Su Yuanshan turned the page again, revealing the design drawing of Kirin SOC.

... (Fuck, don’t write a report... stop it.)

As Su Yuanshan continued to turn the pages, time slowly passed by, and before he knew it, an hour and a half had passed.

Only then did everyone understand what he meant when he first came on the stage when he said that he was the last one to express his gratitude - the meeting would end after he finished speaking about his feelings.

With another page turn, the epilogue was finally revealed.

Of course, because the speech materials were sent to everyone at the same time, everyone knew that it was time to end.

After all, Su Yuanshan spent an hour and a half, covering almost everything from materials to techniques to applications.

But no one lost patience because of this, and everyone even hoped that he could speak longer and paint a clearer picture of the future of semiconductors.

Many people have already fallen into thinking.

There is no doubt that Su Yuanshan's speech today is the "summary" and "prediction" in which the entire semiconductor industry has the clearest understanding and development of itself so far, and the clearest direction.

In these directions, too many people have noticed the thread in Su Yuanshan's speech.

"Five years ago, Mr. Bill Gates, Mr. Jobs and I were nicknamed 'gods' by some people because of our optimism about the Internet and digital products."

After Su Yuanshan took another sip of water, he looked at the audience with a smile.

"Five years have passed, even though I have experienced the Internet winter and the semiconductor winter, my confidence in the future has not changed. I still believe that in the not-too-distant future - maybe twenty years, maybe ten years, or even five years , we can see that digital products will become popular and the Internet industry will flourish; countless application scenarios we can think of and unexpected will spring up like mushrooms after a rain, completely changing our lives."

"As a practitioner in the semiconductor industry, I feel extremely honored to be able to participate in this great information revolution - because the foundation of everything digital is created by companies like us that are unknown in the eyes of consumers."

"Asia has the largest population in the world, and Asia's semiconductor industry also has the most complete industrial chain."

Su Yuanshan spoke slowly and carefully considered the words for a long time.

"We should have something to pursue."

“So, after facing countless rejections from EUVLLC, we decided to establish the EUV Asia Alliance.”

After a moment of silence, the audience burst into thunderous applause.