Rebirth began in 2004

In the previous life, Shencheng Microelectronics was always stuck at 90 nanometers in the field of front-end lithography machines. It took a long time to achieve mass production of lithography machines.

Now, in 2013, Shencheng Microelectronics has reached the mass production of 65-nanometer front-end lithography machines.

It's not easy.

In order to achieve mass production of 65nm front-end lithography machines, to a certain extent, the most advanced manufacturing companies in China have been mobilized to work together.

There are many technologies that China did not master at all in the past.

It means investing a lot of money and starting from scratch.

It cannot be said that we should start from scratch, because in China, no matter what the international technology is, if you search carefully in China, you will find that there is similar research.

It's just that because they didn't pay attention to it before, this kind of researchers are also people who don't pay attention to it.

It's difficult to get some funds or anything.

In other words, this is called follow-up research.

If we find that this technology is important, we will invest a lot of money and manpower in it.

Shencheng Microelectronics cannot buy parts for photolithography machines from abroad, so it invests its own funds in research and development.

Work together with other researchers, or set up your own R&D project team.

"Dr. Wei, this lithography machine is waiting for you to name it!"

"Call it sw65, it's simple and easy to remember."

Don't make the product model so complicated, you won't even know what it is.

Anyway, the various product models are completely incomprehensible to outsiders unless they specialize in this area.

For example, the rice cookers we usually use, there are many types of rice cookers under the same brand.

The model number is divided internally, which is a combination of more than a dozen letters and numbers.

Outsiders definitely can't understand it.

In fact, this coding can be understood at once once you understand the rules of writing.

It's the same as our ID number.

Provinces, cities, counties, and industries all correspond to different numbers.

After continuous improvement of sw65, the yield rate has now reached over 90%.

Basically it meets the needs of commercial production.

At this time, Chen Wei was full of sighs. There was definitely no way to earn back the research and development costs by selling this thing.

In other words, Shencheng Microelectronics cannot make any money just relying on sw65.

After all, sw65 has to focus on economy, and it is impossible to set the price too high.

If the price is set too high, companies will not buy sw65 at all. Now Shencheng Microelectronics' strategy is very simple, to engage in a price war.

sw65 is the cheapest 65nm front-end lithography machine in the world. Compared with the pricing of mainstream international manufacturers, it is one-third lower.

It’s so low!

Even if sw65 cannot be sold, it will force other lithography machine manufacturers to lower their prices to sell lithography machines of the same level.

Anyway, apart from the R&D cost, the production cost of sw65 is definitely much lower than that of foreign countries.

"How about the research and development of EUV lithography machines?"

Chen Wei knows EUV lithography machines, and he also knows that this lithography machine is the key to the production of 14 nanometer, 7 nanometer, 5 nanometer and even 3 nanometer chips.

EUV lithography machines represent the crystallization of global industrial technology and are human industrial products that countless people feel are unachievable.

Many experts and scholars feel that China itself cannot understand EUV lithography machines. On the contrary, the general public has full confidence in China's development of EUV lithography machines.

Chen Wei is the same, full of confidence.

Since 2010, our manufacturing industry has accounted for 19.8% of the world's total, ranking first in the world.

In the following time, our manufacturing industry will always be the first in the world.

And its global share is always expanding.

Chen Wei remembers that in 2019, this proportion reached 28.1%.

Even if most of such a large-scale manufacturing industry is at the mid- to low-end, high-end manufacturing companies can still be born.

China is now lacking in many technologies, including even talents.

But these can all be solved.

Because China has a sufficient population and a huge population base, there are too many talents.

Just think it and you can do it!

It just depends on the length of time.

Just like the steel balls used in ballpoint pen refills, there are many well-known manufacturers. If the country cannot produce the steel used for ballpoint pen refills, it can be directly said that the technology of the entire steel industry is not good.

It really can’t be made?

But the entire market simply cannot use that much material. After one batch is produced, it will be enough for the whole world to use for a year or two.

He Mingjun hesitated for a moment. EUV lithography machines are the future development direction of lithography machines. He Mingjun naturally knew this.

ASML began the research and development of EUV lithography machines in 1999 and planned to launch the product in 2004.

But in fact, the first EUV prototype was only built in 2010!

It looks like it takes a long time to develop, right?

Do you think that the development of EUV lithography machines is particularly difficult? It took them eleven years to develop them, and it was still a prototype.

It is still not known when the actual supply to downstream customers will begin.

There is a problem that must be mentioned here. ASML's development of EUV lithography machines is just a choice for companies in terms of technical routes.

No one knows what technical route will ultimately lead to success.

So for companies, what is the safest approach?

Of course, you need to choose more routes.

The research and development of EUV lithography machines was led by the United States at the end of the last century, with the goal of crossing 193nm.

In the semiconductor industry at that time, the chip manufacturing process was stuck at 193 nanometers.

At that time, many technical route plans were naturally given, and EUV was one of them. At the same time, Intel also firmly chose the EUV technical route.

At the very beginning, ASML did not devote all its resources to the research and development of EUV lithography machines, and was still maintaining the research and development of other technical routes.

As a result, the development time of EUV lithography machines will progress slowly.

Now that we know this, it is not surprising that Chen Wei is confident in the successful development of EUV lithography machines.

If you don't succeed in a few years, then it will take ten years.

If there is any technology missing, then develop that technology.

Chen Wei still doesn't believe it. After ten years, he still can't figure it out.

As for R&D funds?

Just throw money.

He Mingjun: "The lens and light source are two big obstacles, and it takes a lot of time to break through."

Chen Wei is also aware of these problems, and now there are two specialized companies developing this.

The two companies were established in cooperation with the state, and Hengtong Group holds shares in both companies.

Management is handled by Hengtong Group, and technical staff have transferred many people from research institutes, and even directly annexed several research institutes.

After corporate operations are carried out, naturally we cannot ignore marketization as before.

Hengtong Group is responsible for company management, so it is natural to introduce the management system of Hengtong Department.

Directly stimulate money, honor, status and other aspects, and then everyone is like a chicken blood. From R&D to production to the office, the atmosphere suddenly changes.

Chen Wei and He Mingjun did not say much about the research and development of EUV lithography machines. The research and development of EUV lithography machines has just begun, and there is still a long way to go in the future.

There are only two things to do now: maintain investment in R&D and be patient.

"I heard that in recent times, Shenwei has performed well in the back-end lithography machine market, sweeping the country?"

He Mingjun smiled and said: "The main reason is that compared with our international counterparts, we are not inferior in terms of technology, but our price is the lowest."