1991 Starting from the core

Half an hour later, Zheng Zhenchuan appeared in Su Yuanshan's office.

Ten years have passed and Zheng Zhenchuan has reached the age of "retirement", but in the engineering profession, as long as he does not suffer from Alzheimer's disease, there is really no such thing as retirement.

Of course, Zheng Zhenchuan cannot be suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Instead, he is full of energy. Although his eyes have become smaller due to presbyopia, they reveal his shrewdness at first glance.

…

"There are currently six players in the lithography machine market. Nikon, Canon, us, ASML, SVGL, and GCA. Nikon has the largest market share, almost 30%. Canon is almost the same as us this year, with over 20%, and ASML is about the same. , a little less. In the end, the total of SVGL and GCA is estimated to be about 5%, which is the kind of survival that is probably about this ratio - other players have basically disappeared after the new millennium."

"And the latter has begun to transform. For example, SVGL has developed into catadioptric beam splitters, tracks, mask protective films, and reflector systems. More importantly, it has joined the EUV Alliance of the United States."

Su Yuanshan nodded slowly.

SVGL - Silicon Valley Group Lithography Systems, Silicon Valley Lithography Group. In the 1980s, it was the first to launch a stepper scanning lithography machine, which made it very popular. However, it also set a tone for the lighthouse lithography machine industry and even the entire semiconductor industry. Alarm bells have been raised - Nikon and Canon, relying on their strong industrial chain systems and the rise of a group of semiconductor companies such as NEC and Toshiba, almost destroyed the roots of American semiconductors.

In order to save the semiconductor and even the technology industry in the United States, the antitrust department, which did not even recognize its relatives, was directly suppressed by the then boss Reagan, saying that it could no longer build IBM, otherwise it would be gone - the birth of Silicon Valley, HP, Dell , Intel, Microsoft and a series of other companies' birth and technological take-off are directly related to the antitrust lawsuits against AT\u0026T and IBM.

Of course, this is also the reason why the economic thinking of the judicial branch has shifted from the structuralism of the Harvard School to the efficiencyism of the Chicago School. (This is a very interesting excavation point. The strength of antitrust gave birth to Silicon Valley, and the decline of antitrust protected Silicon Valley and made Internet giants... And the old and American antitrust really disowns each other - because from the perspective of economic and enterprise development itself Generally speaking, monopoly will hinder the rise of small businesses and thus lose their ability to innovate. I will not go into details here.)

Although Ni Guo was forced to hold his head and the semiconductor treaty was signed, Silicon Valley breathed a sigh of relief and a new overlord like Intel was born, but what was lost could never be recovered.

For example, the photolithography machine market.

"Uncle Zheng, what do you mean, by acquiring SVGL, you will enter EUVLLC?"

"Yes." Zheng Zhenchuan nodded. In front of Su Yuanshan, he made no secret of his thoughts: "It's not that I don't have confidence in EUV-AU..."

Su Yuanshan looked at him with a smile.

Zheng Zhenchuan blushed: "Well, the confidence is not as high as EUVLLC."

"Well, actually me too." Su Yuanshan said calmly: "It must be denied, not to mention that the EUV Alliance has been in existence for almost five years and is five years ahead. In terms of strength, we cannot compare with them - it is not us who develop EUV The sole purpose of establishing the EUV Asia Alliance is basically our attempt at the future industrial chain structure."

"But we do have potential rivals." Seeing that Su Yuanshan agreed with him, Zheng Zhenchuan felt a little better and said with a smile: "ASML has been supported by semiconductor companies in lighthouse countries, and I heard that they have invited Intel to take shares. "

"Um……"

Su Yuanshan nodded slowly.

Having said this, he completely understood Zheng Zhenchuan's thoughts and his mood calmed down.

But here comes the problem.

--Why? Why did a joke-like “takeover offer” get a response.

"Uncle Zheng, when did you and SVGL start communicating?"

"Ten days ago, the person in charge of SVGL came to the provincial capital to attend our press conference. He mentioned it jokingly at the time - you know, the 193nm immersion lithography machine was basically the latest technology before the birth of the EVU lithography machine. Cutting-edge equipment. Because the 157nm F2 laser cannot penetrate water, immersion lithography technology cannot be used."

Zheng Zhenchuan looked heroic: "And now that we have immersive technology and talents, they can either start the demonstration from scratch and then start working for three to five years, or they can kidnap Lao Lin Lao Zheng and hundreds of their people collectively. …”

Seeing Zheng Zhenchuan full of confidence, Su Yuanshan was filled with emotion.

Although the lithography machine can catch up due to the "cheating" of the remote core, it is Zheng Zhenchuan who actually does the specific implementation work.

"Although my tone was joking at the time, in fact, I was still looking forward to a response." Zheng Zhenchuan picked up the teacup and took a sip and said with a smile: "You know, the wavelength of the EUV light source is too short, so there is no way to use a lens system, so we have to Use a reflector system. And SVGL has the technical strength in the reflector optical path system."

"Yeah." Su Yuanshan nodded again, and then asked curiously: "Isn't it good at this in China?"

He has naturally seen EUV before. A total of more than a dozen reflectors form an extremely complex optical path system. Those who have not studied mechanics and optics will get dizzy just by looking at it.

"If you say it's not working at all, that would be too arbitrary... But you also know that we started working on the lens optical path, and after the establishment of Macrocore, almost all the domestic talents in this field were captured... We are now working on , which is equivalent to starting from scratch.”

Su Yuanshan hummed, then continued to ask after pondering for a few seconds.

"Then what are the conditions offered by the other party? Is it possible to share all EUV technology, or is it?"

Su Yuanshan stared at Zheng Zhenchuan and asked cautiously.

"In general, it's similar to ASML." Zheng Zhenchuan also answered cautiously.

Su Yuanshan raised his eyebrows: "You mean, you are allowed to join EUVLLC?"

"The attitude was very ambiguous and no clear answer was given."

Su Yuanshan frowned instantly.

Even if time travels...

Su Yuanshan thinks that the Americans nowadays still want to have a face. Su Yuan also admitted that the widespread "crotch pulling" in other fields in the country and the various "imminent bankruptcy" remarks of the "collapse party" who are scurrying outside, coupled with the overall strategy of keeping a low profile and biding their time, have indeed caused problems for the senior management on the opposite side. to mislead and interfere. This makes it difficult to see clearly the fact that domestic semiconductor technology has gradually risen except for relevant practitioners in the semiconductor industry itself.

...One thing is certain and has not changed.

——It is impossible to let the mainland's science and technology field, especially the increasingly important semiconductor industry, which is known as the foundation of the future technology industry, truly rise.

Not to mention, I was ready to cut it off last year!

But with the several press conferences held by Yuexin this year, the establishment of EUV Asia Alliance, and the birth of immersion lithography machines...

Even if you don't have a sense of technology, you can still smell the mainland's fierceness in the fields of semiconductors and consumer electronics.

So……

Why?

After a long silence, Su Yuanshan said slowly: "Uncle Zheng, my vigilance about curbing our technological development over there has never changed, and it remains the same today."

"Um."

"Then it doesn't make sense for you to become the only lithography machine giant in the world."

Zheng Zhenchuan opened his mouth, and his previous excitement was instantly shattered, and he was a little embarrassed: "Indeed, it doesn't make sense - but apart from not having a decent EUV lithography machine, we have actually become the world's top master of lithography. It’s a machine technology company.”

"Then let's enjoy your current technology with restraint first, and then..." Su Yuanshan frowned deeply and asked: "How long can the EUV alliance last?"

"Huh? I don't know..."

"It shouldn't last long." Su Yuanshan recalled the history and said softly: "The feasibility study has been completed, and the technical solutions have almost been given. Uncle Zheng, let me remind you that the EUV Alliance does not build EUV light sources, but builds EUV light sources. EUV lithography machine. ASML is the only member of the alliance that enters as a lithography machine manufacturer. Who do you think the alliance’s technical direction and key research topics are guided by?”

"ASML." Su Yuanshan nodded firmly: "It serves ASML. Even if you join the EUV Alliance, even if the alliance is established, even if the technical resources of the entire alliance serve you again... then in the EUV field, you are still lagging behind ASML. of."

"The most important thing is that you can't take two paths at the same time. Without you, the EUV Asian League will be like a virtual reality and even become a joke."

Su Yuanshan looked at Zheng Zhenchuan, who took a long breath.

"Is this a divorce plan?"

"I don't know." Su Yuanshan shook his head: "I have never seen this kind of operation from the other side before."

——He has indeed never seen the moment when domestic lithography machines took off. He has only seen the workshop catch fire for no reason, which then affected EUV orders for two or three years.

"..."

"I really haven't seen it before, but..." Su Yuanshan pondered for a moment and then smiled slightly: "Uncle Zheng, we can talk about it. Anyway, we are talking about business. Let's see how many cards the other party can hand over."

"Um."

*

*

Washington D.C.

"Mr. Marburg, if you paid even a little attention to the news, you wouldn't conclude that we are still on top of the world."

In the coffee shop, Bresman was extremely excited.

As an investment department official of IBM, he had dealt with Yuanxin as early as ten years ago, which left a deep impression on him. During his subsequent tenure as an official at Sematech, he witnessed the birth of Yuexin and even the rise of the entire mainland's semiconductor industry.

If in the past, the increasing revenue of several Silicon Valley giants could be used to whitewash the peace, but with the subversion of the entire industry by the Yuanxin Yidoo mobile phone this year, Acerchip has produced a lithography machine that surpasses 193nm...

If you still want to be an ostrich after this, the city on the mountain will probably be destroyed.

Therefore, he has been contacting this scientific consultant who is said to be working hard to find evidence of weapons of mass destruction for Mr. BOSS after the last Sematech meeting.

Bresman paid no attention to any weapons of destruction. He even thought that there was no need to look for them at all. When the time came, he would just show off a tube of washing powder and be done with it. Who dared to question it?

The most important thing now is that the foundation of the semiconductor industry is almost gone.

"Has China's aircraft carrier launched into the water, or has its fourth-generation aircraft taken to the skies?" Mr. Science Advisor obviously disagreed with Bresman's argument. As a physicist, he never believed that China could challenge the Lighthouse in the field of science and technology.

But having said that, Marburg still took the report from Bresman and put on his reading glasses.

This is a simple report on the future development of the semiconductor and communications industries.

The report pointed out that the market in the field of "next-generation" semiconductor materials has been fully monopolized by East Asia. The same is true for communication products.

In addition, there is the current status of the semiconductor industry chain.

Ten minutes later, the scientific advisor put down the document, crossed his fingers, and frowned.

"Bray, are you saying that we are already completely behind before the future arrives?"

"Yes."

"Then what have you been doing all these years?" the scientific advisor asked back: "According to you, Silicon Valley should have been dilapidated long ago - but I heard that housing prices in Silicon Valley have been rising for five consecutive years. Could it be that Silicon Valley has already Has it become a gathering place for real estate developers?”

"..." Bresman was stunned.

"Don't look at Silicon Valley."

"Then where should I look? To Seattle?"

"Don't look at Seattle, look at the provincial capital, look at HK! Look at the East!" Bresman almost shouted: "Sir, we have lost the most precious crown in the semiconductor field."

"When was it lost?" Marburg asked again.

"...This is not important. What is important is that it is now worn in the East." Bresman breathed out heavily: "Mr. Consultant, this is not allowed."

After hearing Bresman's words, Marburg finally nodded slowly.

After a moment of silence, Marburg said slowly: "I will consider making suggestions to Mr. President."

After a moment, Marburg continued: "Then you don't have any solution? Even technically?"

"Our approach is to bring the top lithography machine manufacturing industry and the top chip foundries back to Silicon Valley and break the industrial chain alliance in Asia."

//Note: For reasons known to everyone, a lot of fictional art processing has been done.

*

*

Time flies and June arrives soon.

The matter between Macron and SVGL was temporarily put aside by Su Yuanshan, because even if Macron could buy SVGL "unconditionally", it would have to wait until it was listed on the Hong Kong stock market before it could get the money - the reason why Macron has never been able to buy SVGL Going public is the moment you wait to reach the top.

In contrast, Su Yuanshan is more concerned about Deyuan's mergers and acquisitions back to Silicon Valley.

According to the current valuation of GlobalFoundries and the valuation of Xinghai's wafer fab department, in order for Deyuan to take the lead, in addition to investing in building production lines, it must also provide a large amount of process technology for valuation.

And just like this, ownership and dominance are still unclear.

Of course, as a "strong" party, Deyuan's bottom line in the merger is that it is inevitable to gain dominance.

After all, in the field of chip foundry, no one is more professional than it.

Perhaps seeing this, when the merger plan was officially submitted, the commercial departments of both parties readily gave the green light, clearing the biggest policy obstacle.

Then all that's left is wrangling and negotiation between the three parties.