Rebirth of the Military Industrial Overlord

Although it was several years earlier, when Wang Dongsen saw Tan Zhenhua, he accepted the invitation without hesitation, joined the team of domestic TFT LCD project construction, and took the lead.

At the same time, he also put forward an opinion, hoping that the "national team" engaged in the development of LCD equipment and technology can take a long-term view, and if technical conditions permit, abandon the development of the second-generation LCD panel line and jump directly. To the third-generation line, and if some of the technologies cannot meet the requirements, you might as well find a way to obtain an industrial technology transfer from the Japanese country through the relationship. Even if the transfer cost is slightly higher, it is acceptable.

Because Wang Dongsen believes that through these years of development, compared with traditional CRT displays, LCD panels have shown greater and greater advantages in terms of power consumption, weight, and color performance. In the civilian market, there are already a large number of Personal computer systems began to use small-size LCD panels as displays. With the improvement of technology, the size and yield of LCD panels will further increase. Then the next foreseeable market is home TVs. When the cost drops to a certain extent After that, this market is bound to usher in a round of explosive growth, and according to the current development trend, the time of this outbreak is likely to appear within the next ten years-then, it is necessary to do well from now on Sufficient preparation, the most important of these preparations is to keep up with the trend of advanced technology, and be able to quickly expand production capacity at a critical moment.

It has to be said that the founder of BOE, a leader in the international market in the future, has an extraordinary long-term vision. I am afraid that this is also his daring to borrow heavily in 2003 when the international LCD market collapsed and shrank and spent US$380 million. The reason for acquiring the TFT-LCD business of South Korea Hyundai Display Technology Co., Ltd. (HYDIS), so as to cut into the core link of the TFT industry chain.

Tan Zhenhua took Wang Dongsen’s opinion deeply, which contributed to his 4055 trip today. Obtaining technology and industrial transfer from the country of Japan, he certainly has a way to do it, and of course it can help China to quickly master some of the advanced production technology of LCD panels, but if it can’t be digested and absorbed, it is nothing more than becoming a generation of backward technology. The successor can never grow into a true leader in this market. Tan Zhenhua is very sober about this.

Fortunately, he was very pleased to visit the liquid crystal pilot line in the 4055 Institute. This small-scale production line has been able to process 550*650 mm glass substrates. It is only compared with the Japanese in some other performance parameters. The latest third-generation LCD panel still has a slight gap, which can be regarded as a product of the 2.5+ generation. What makes Tan Zhenhua happy is not only the technical level represented by this production line, but after the 4055 has obtained Hitachi’s transfer technology, Instead of standing still and being satisfied with the vigorous and lucrative military needs, but actively researching, making continuous progress, and improving its own capabilities, Tan Zhenhua believes that this is the fundamental driving force for gradually catching up and surpassing the Japanese nation in the future. .

Just a simple exchange, Tan Zhenhua reached an agreement with the 4055 Institute-led by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the 4055 Institute will fully cooperate with BOE to build a TFT-LCD production line that represents the most advanced level in China. At the same time, "Ningdu Flat Panel Display Equipment Co., Ltd. "We will immediately send people to Beijing to discuss cooperation with BOE. Both parties will use capital as a link and technological cooperation as the premise to establish a TFT industry consortium.

In this way, Tan Zhenhua’s first goal has been achieved. However, although the LCD display is important, it is not the most important goal he came to 4055 this time. His goal is actually...

4055, in the recognition of Chinese military fans, is far less famous than 4014, which was later dubbed the "Radar Big Devil". Of course, we have to admit that even in another time and space, the 4014 can get the other name. Well deserved. The radar, especially in the field of active phased array radar, is in the world's first camp, able to compete with Mi Di and slap all competitors except Mi Di. Whether it’s a long-range national strategic early warning radar the size of a house, a space-based phased array radar carried on a China AWACS, or a dual-band radar on a sea-based shield ship, the active phase control equipped on most of China’s advanced fighters Array fire control radar, and even the small millimeter-wave radar installed on active missiles, 4014 has advanced products leading the world.

But for any radar system to be powerful, it is inseparable from the most basic and excellent component support.

And the infamous 4055 Institute, the main business is doing this, chip-level components, is the core competitiveness of this institute.

Let us set the time back to 1991. In that year, Tan Zhenhua promoted the full implementation of a number of plans in one breath. Among them was the "Flying Leopard B" plan with one aircraft and three types. In this plan, "Flying Leopard B" "The airborne fire control radar system will be upgraded from 1491 to 1493. Compared with the previous 1491, one of the major upgrades of this radar is the use of high-performance and high-power imported from the former Soviet Russia and the later successor Rakshasa. The grid-controlled traveling wave tube replaces the domestically-made products with lagging performance.

When it was first imported, the 4055 Institute planned to imitate this vacuum tube, which had quite good performance and was ahead of China’s current level. However, this plan was cancelled under Tan Zhenhua’s suggestion, and the 4055 Institute started from that time. , Turned to another research direction of new parts.

In the traditional radar system, including the development to passive phased array radar, the method of centralized transmitter + feeding array is adopted. However, in recent years, more and more new radars have evolved from mechanically scanned rotating antennas. The model has evolved to electronic scanning with a fixed array. The benefits of this evolution are obvious. The data refresh rate of mechanical scanning is limited by the rotation speed of the rotating antenna that receives and feeds. Electronic scanning has completely solved this problem. Changing the beam synthesis method emitted by the antenna surface array to change the beam scanning direction can reduce or completely avoid the use of mechanical motors to drive the radar antenna to achieve the goal of covering a larger detection range. This greatly reduces the mechanical structure of the radar. The complexity and weight of the radar, on the other hand, greatly improves the data refresh rate of the radar itself, thereby laying the foundation for further improving the sensitivity of the radar.

But even passive phased array radar, due to its working principle, also needs a high-power transmitter, naturally it cannot do without a high-power vacuum device in the transmitter, that is, a grid-controlled traveling wave tube.

This vacuum tube is so important that Chief Engineer Zhang of the 4014 Institute once said something like this: "With the traveling wave tube, you can build radar."

Of course, China can make traveling wave tubes.

However, in terms of the quality of the manufactured things, it can only barely be regarded as the second-rate international level, which is inferior to Mi Di, Mao Zi, a European industrial power and even Isaac, so that a new generation of PD radar was developed for "Flying Leopard B" At that time, for better performance, it was necessary to import this key component from Rakshasa.

However, Tan Zhenhua, who has always paid attention to self-mastering of the core key technology, is uncharacteristically distracted by the imported device that has the greatest impact on radar performance. According to him, buying a few tubes is enough for a period of time. No need to spend money and energy to toss this stuff.

Is this for Mao?