The Millennium Semiconductor Survival Guide.

Chapter 318
The Tokyo Semiconductor Equipment Show has a history of many years. This year, because Xinxin announced that its lithography machine business line has broken through the 40nm process, the Tokyo Semiconductor Equipment Show is particularly eye-catching.

The name Xinxin is no stranger to the semiconductor industry, and even has the aura of being famous, because this company, like its founder Zhou Xin, has quickly risen to occupy an important position in the industry.

TSMC is extremely uncomfortable being suppressed by it. ARM's mobile chip architecture is indispensable for becoming the mainstream new core. Old giants such as Texas Instruments, Samsung, and Intel have bet on mobile chips because of the new core.

Because of Xinxin's status and industry reputation, everyone believes that Xinxin has indeed broken through the 40nm process, especially friends, who are more concerned about another thing.

"How does Xinxin do it?" At the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Semiconductor Show, Komatsu Masashi asked Hirito Sato next to him in a low voice.

Komatsu Masashi is the executive director of Neon EUVA and the president of Komatsu Co., Ltd., a light source manufacturer.

Under the leadership of Neon Sankei Co., Ltd., Nikon, Canon, Komatsu Co., Ltd., Toshiba and Mitsubishi are all members of EUVA. The full name of EUVA is the Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography Development Association, and extreme ultraviolet light is light with a wavelength of 13.5nm. .

Therefore, after Xinxin announced that it had conquered the 40nm process, EUVA members did not have much sense of crisis, because once they conquered extreme ultraviolet light, the process from 65nm to 5nm would be unimpeded.

Even from the perspective of EUVA, that is, the standpoint of the association and the standpoint of Komatsu Corporation, Komatsu Masashi is a little bit eager for the new core to be a real breakthrough, that is to say, the kind of breakthrough that can be used in mass production with guaranteed yield. Not a laboratory breakthrough.

Because Xinxin has conquered the 40nm process, it means that EUVA will receive more resource support. Komatsu Co., Ltd., as the only light source manufacturer, will naturally receive more resource support.

As for Xinxin's complete defeat of Neon in the lithography machine market, Komatsu Masashi has never thought about this possibility. In his opinion, it is impossible.

However, later generations of ASML were able to achieve a complete reversal in just three years with the help of technological advantages, and Nikon and Canon were never able to recover. This was not a market-oriented behavior at all, but a behavior led by Amerikan Capital behind ASML.

Why do you say this? Because after ASML took the lead in conquering the 40nm process by relying on the infiltration method and obtained Intel's production verification, they held a lithography future technology seminar at which they invited 10 major chip manufacturers, that is, they main customers.

At the meeting, ASML said that they have successfully overcome the threshold with the help of the infiltration method, which is the threshold that is blocking the continued development of the chip process. I hope everyone will support the immersion method lithography machine as the only technical route in the future. To put it bluntly, it only supports ASML.

There are 10 technical representatives from the 6 chip manufacturers present. Your immersion lithography machine is fine, but we also hope that the 157nm dry lithography machine will continue to develop as a backup technical route, because in this way, once the immersion lithography machine technology If the route encounters obstacles, we have a second option.

This is a very reasonable request. From the perspective of that time, no one can guarantee that there will be absolutely no problems with the immersion method, and the development of the process can be smooth and smooth without any obstacles.

As a result, ASML criticized the technical representatives of these chip manufacturers at the meeting for having no vision, and the reference value of their views was extremely limited.

ASML organized this technical seminar, but after the seminar the discussion results of the meeting were completely useless. Under the leadership of the capital behind them, Nikon and Canon's 157nm dry lithography machines lost the entire chip foundry market dominated by Western capital.

Komatsu Masashi and his Komatsu Corporation also disappeared from the industry during this process, and there is no news about them anymore.

"Most likely, the infiltration method is used, which is to add liquid between the lens and the silicon wafer. The person in charge of their photolithography machine line is Dr. Lin Benjian. He has always insisted that the infiltration method is the key to breakthroughs in semiconductor processes.

I just don't know how they got around the difficulties of the infiltration method. " said Hirato Sato, head of EUVA's R&D team in Gotemba City.

After the failure of the lithography machine, Sato Boruto also experienced a long period of loss and silence. Compared with Komatsu Masashi, he finally came out and even changed his research direction and became active in academia again.

At this time, they are vigorously pointing out the new core lithography machine technology, but they have no idea that this future will only be more cruel to Neon's lithography machine industry.

Nikon and Canon can't even get the scraps this time.

"I'm also curious, because Xinxin first purchased our photolithography machine technology. If they want to use the infiltration method, they need to completely rebuild the entire objective lens optical path.

This is no small job.

This requires a lot of manpower and material resources. "Masashi Komatsu said.

As a light source manufacturer, he knows very well that there are too many difficulties in using the immersion type as Nikon's key technology.

The biggest difficulty is the transformation of the optical path of the objective lens. The last objective lens of Nikon's technology is curved. There is a natural incompatibility between curved lenses and immersion lenses.

The last lens of ASML's 193nm lithography machine is flat, and ASML's objective lens system can be seamlessly connected to the immersion system.

Hirato Sato said: “Every time I talk to Dr. Lin at IEEE optical conferences, he is very proficient in how to use light sources in the field of lithography machines.

Presumably under his leadership, coupled with Xinxin’s talent reserve and resource investment, reconstructing the entire objective lens optical path is a completely feasible technical route. "

"No, it's not because of Lin. Xinxin can transform the optical path of our objective lens because of the full support of Zeiss." Jeff White said, he is the newly appointed CEO of Nikon. I don't know when he sat down with Sato and Komatsu Masashi. beside.

Komatsu Masashi and Sato Boruto both quickly greeted Jeff White.

After a brief exchange of greetings, Jeff White said: “Although I don’t want to admit it, Xinxin’s research and development speed in the field of lithography machines has far exceeded our expectations.

One of the reasons is that Xinxin itself has poached a large number of R&D personnel from Nikon and Canon, and the more important reason is that they have obtained the full cooperation of Zeiss.

For a new set of optical pathways, without the cooperation of Zeiss, Xinxin would not be able to reconstruct the entire objective lens optical path in just two years. "

Jeff White was helpless. He was not the CEO of Nikon when Nikon made the decision to sell its technology to Xinxin. Later, when reviewing the review, he thought that if he had been the CEO of Xinxin at that time, he would definitely not sell the technology. For Xinxin.

Nikon in Tokyo will not know how amazing Newman is. Only Jeff White in Silicon Valley feels this most. Since Newman's rapid rise, he has become the celebrity that Jeff White hears about most in his daily life. .

The chat between the three people came to an abrupt end after Lin Benjian took the stage. Everyone wanted to hear Xinxin’s technical roadmap.

"We added a layer on top of the wafer photoresist and used this layer of medium to shorten the wavelength of the light source to less than 150nm. Therefore, without changing the wavelength of the photolithography machine, the NA was expanded in disguise, so that the 193nm wavelength can be equal to Effectively produces wavelengths within 150nm!”

"At the same time, because there are a large number of chip manufacturers in the industry, they will produce a large number of different chips on a large silicon wafer, and the immersion lithography method can avoid high mask costs."

Lin Benjian demonstrated the advantages of immersion lithography machines through some pictures and experimental results on the stage. The lecture was very boring, with a large amount of technical content mixed with a few words about the technical advantages of immersion lithography machines.

Even so, none of the business representatives from different aspects of the semiconductor industry in the audience were distracted. Everyone was listening intently to Xinxin's technical roadmap.

“I just said that immersion is feasible, and we should not invest any more money in dry lithography machines.

Immersion lithography machines are the future.If we continue to invest along the technical advantages of Nikon and Canon, then we will never have a chance to surpass Canon and Nikon.

Xinxin has such confidence, so they successfully achieved transcendence in just a few years. "

“The problem now is that Xinxin has taken the lead in achieving a breakthrough in immersion lithography machines. First, they have achieved a breakthrough, one step at a time, and every step is slow.

It will take a year at the earliest for us to come up with a similar immersion lithography machine.

Once Xinxin registers a patent for a key technology, one year is not enough; three to five years is entirely possible.

After a new device is launched, it takes 1 to 3 years for the manufacturers to work together to adapt. If the new core is mass-produced earlier than you, it will give you more time to improve problems and improve yield. This will make it more difficult for us to surpass and fall behind. , falling behind step by step.

Why do I feel like I will die faster if I do the immersion method now? "

ASML's technical experts regret that they once had the opportunity to take the immersion lithography machine route, but this opportunity was rejected by their internal decision-making. No one in the industry took this technical route, so why could they?
When the news that Xinxin and Zeiss were cooperating to develop immersion lithography machines reached ASML's ears, they had already determined the direction of technology research and development.

“We have no choice but to give up the market in the past few years to Xinxin and wait until EUV comes to make a comeback.

This is the only way. "

"Oh, do we really have the money to burn it for so many years?

In other words, what if Xinxin completes the research and development of the EUV lithography machine before us? "

"Impossible, absolutely impossible. We have even developed a prototype. Xinxin did not participate in the preliminary demonstration of EUV LLC. The Chinese national level has not invested in this research and development at all.

No matter how powerful Newman is, he cannot change the rules of the physical world. If it is the Internet world, I believe Newman may be able to do it. "

EUV is an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine. The wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light is only 13.5nm. At this time, ASML's laboratory already has the world's first EUV prototype.

After seeing that the new core has broken through 40nm, ASML's technical experts put their hope in EUV. They believe that EUV will make this competition completely lose suspense.

To be precise, it’s not that they think so. It’s that all manufacturers in the industry think so. Whoever conquers EUV technology first will win the final victory in the field of lithography machines. Neon’s giants established EUVA under the leadership of Neon’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. research and development.

American established EUV LLC under the leadership of the Department of Energy, and American's three top national laboratories: Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory conducted technical demonstrations.

The industry will implement it after the technical demonstration is completed.

Therefore, both Amerikan and Neon are desperately investing in EUV. The defeat is only temporary. Whoever conquers EUV first will be the end of this war.

Xinxin's lead is only a phased lead.

But it is still very painful. After the market for advanced processes is lost, these companies have to rely on government blood transfusions to support themselves, which is a lot of money.

"We welcome everyone to use Xinxin's immersion lithography machines. Companies with purchasing needs can contact Xinxin."

After Lin Benjian's speech, thunderous applause erupted from the audience. Even the technical representatives of direct competitors ASML, Nikon, and Canon did not hesitate to applaud.

In this era of economic globalization, chips should be the industry with the deepest economic globalization. Any technological progress will benefit the entire industry.

Xinxin has successfully found light with wavelengths below 150nm through the infiltration method. So can Nikon first develop a 157nm dry lithography machine, and then use 157nm wavelength light for the infiltration method to further shorten the wavelength?
Therefore, Xinxin’s technological progress will also be helpful to direct competitors, not to mention manufacturers in other fields of chips.

"How was the photo and video shooting? After the shooting, we had to quickly go backstage to interview Dr. Lin and then go back to the hotel to cut out the film and send it back.

This news will be broadcast on the news program at [-] o'clock tonight. "

"It's done.

You can rest assured that my technique is absolutely perfect and I captured all the key elements.

This is the first time I see so many expressions on the faces of neon people.

When Dr. Lin said that they had completed the technical verification, the Neon people's faces turned green.

When I had to applaud at the end, it made me want to laugh. "

"Just take the photo and say less. Little Neon can speak a lot of Chinese."

"This kind of occasion is interesting. I always go to foreign exhibitions, and Chinese companies don't speak. They just sit down and listen to what others say. Then when they come to be interviewed by us, they just stand and say a few words about what we want to achieve technological breakthroughs and what we want to do. Clichés like innovation.

It's really boring to go out on the field. I'm willing to pay for it at my own expense.

Just now when I went backstage to get equipment and prepare to interview Dr. Lin, Neon’s media asked me in Chinese if I could help him introduce himself to Dr. Lin for an interview.

How could I have encountered this kind of thing before when I was out in the field? "

"Okay, stop being poor, adjust the camera, and we're going to go find Dr. Lin.

There must be a lot of people looking for him today, and we can't waste their time. "

This is Yangma’s international news team. Xinxin’s technological breakthrough in the field of lithography machines is a rare technological breakthrough in China at the moment, and it is fully worthy of a special mention.

This gold content is much higher than that of Hanxin, which is just a chip design.

Therefore, Yangma sent a whole team to make a documentary. The news program tonight only showed a short segment of real-time news.

(End of this chapter)