Video Game Empire

Silicon is one of the most abundant elements on earth, making up 264 of the total mass of the earth's crust, second only to the first oxygen 494. However, silicon is hardly found on the earth, because silicon is relatively active at high temperatures, and the earth was in a high temperature environment for a long time in the early days, so the silicon on the earth was converted into silicon dioxide and silicon through chemical reactions. compounds such as acid salts.

With the advancement of human technology, it has gradually become possible to reduce silicon to a simple substance. Modern technology usually uses quartz stone silica to undergo redox reaction to obtain silicon element. Silicon can be divided into crystalline silicon and amorphous silicon according to whether it is crystallized or not, and crystalline silicon can be divided into monocrystalline silicon and polycrystalline silicon according to the different crystallization conditions.

In the semiconductor industry, the basic material wafers used to produce ultra-large-scale integrated circuits such as processors and memories are actually high-purity monocrystalline silicon wafers. In addition to the semiconductor industry, another big silicon user is the photovoltaic industry.

The commercialization of the photovoltaic industry originated from the energy exhaustion thinking caused by the oil crisis in the 1970s, so renewable solar energy quickly entered the attention of scientists. However, the real explosive growth of the photovoltaic industry is due to the large-scale subsidies for new energy by the German government since 2004.

Subsequently, other European countries began to follow, thus creating the rapid rise of the global photovoltaic industry. But after the subprime mortgage crisis swept the world in 2007, the world economy fell into a slump. European countries immediately began to gradually reduce relevant subsidies, and the photovoltaic industry, which was once the darling of high-tech investment, has quickly become a yellow flower of yesterday.

In the 1980s, the photovoltaic industry was only a small lotus, and solar cells were just beginning to be applied in some small electronic products such as calculators. But the amorphous silicon technology developed for solar cells has gradually matured. In fact, in terms of the photoelectric conversion efficiency of silicon, the order from high to low is monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon and amorphous silicon.

Single crystal silicon is used to make solar cells. Although the light conversion efficiency is the highest, the manufacturing cost is also the most expensive. Far less cheap than amorphous silicon. Therefore, starting from the 1970s, amorphous silicon technology was the first to attract a research and development boom.

Silicon is used as a substrate in the semiconductor industry. High-purity single crystal silicon is first drawn into silicon rods, and then sliced ​​into wafers. Then through a series of complex processes such as CVD chemical vapor deposition, photolithography, etching, etc., a large number of tiny circuits are fabricated on the wafer to form ultra-large-scale integrated circuits.

However, in tft liquid crystal, it is different. It needs to attach a silicon film to the substrate glass, and then fabricate the integrated circuit used to control the liquid crystal display on this silicon film. The process of preparing wafers obviously cannot be used for the manufacture of silicon films on liquid crystal panels. In contrast, cvd equipment used in semiconductor processing to form stable solid-state thin films. It can just solve the problem of covering the silicon film on the glass substrate.

However, in addition to being indispensable in the semiconductor industry, cvd equipment has also been used in the photovoltaic field to manufacture amorphous silicon thin films. In fact, this amorphous silicon thin film technology was first used by the University of Dundee in the United Kingdom to trial-produce amorphous silicon tft as early as 1979.

After the British helped guide the way, Japanese and European companies and scientific research institutions began to follow up quickly, and the development results of amorphous silicon tft-driven LCD display. However, there is still a big gap between laboratory trial production and industrial-scale production. Sharp, which was the first to start large-scale investment, stepped on the thunder.

Solar cells are not at all sensitive to the cleanliness requirements of cvd equipment, but the cleanliness requirements of tft liquid crystals are even more stringent than those of the semiconductor industry. Therefore, the cvd equipment used in the photovoltaic industry is simply improved and used to produce tft liquid crystal panels, and the yield rate of the products obtained is simply appalling. The real feasible way is on the basis of semiconductor cvd equipment. Re-developed special cvd equipment in combination with amorphous silicon coating technology.

The primary purpose of Fanlin's acquisition of Applied Materials is naturally to obtain the other party's accumulation in the field of cvd equipment. Due to the sophisticated technology and complex process in the semiconductor industry, it ranges from wafer preparation in the early stage to chip packaging and testing in the later stage. There are dozens or even hundreds of equipment used in the entire production line.

Among them, lithography machine, etching equipment and cvd equipment account for nearly half of the sales of the entire semiconductor equipment market. Pan-Lin has previously put most of its energy on the etching equipment on which it started, as well as the Pearl lithography technology in the entire semiconductor equipment process.

After the annexation of GCA, Pan-Lin is in the field of etching equipment and lithography machines. are already at the top level in the world. This time, if Applied Materials can also be won, then Fanlin's layout in the field of semiconductor equipment will be more profound.

You must know that Applied Materials has a much longer history than Lam. It was founded as early as 1967, a year before Intel was founded in 1968. In addition to technical excellence in the field of cvd equipment. Applied Materials also has strong strength in the fields of vapor phase epitaxy furnace and plasma implantation equipment. You must know that the applied materials company of the future generations has been the world's largest semiconductor equipment supplier for 15 consecutive years~www.readwn.com~ is by no means a false name.

When Lin Jieping flew to Hong Kong, it was already the next morning. Instead of flying directly from San Francisco to Hong Kong, he switched to Japan and stopped overnight in Tokyo. Sharp is not a fool, of course. When they find that there is a huge yield gap between their own LCD production line and Jiachuang Technology under the Oriental Research Institute, they will naturally try their best to find the reason.

The difference in production equipment must be the focus of Sharp's first study. After Sharp's inquiries and analysis, the vcd equipment provided by Fanlin for Jiachuang Technology is likely to be the key. Therefore, Sharp was in a hurry and wanted to find Fanlin to understand the relevant technical situation.

From the perspective of Jiachuang Technology Company, it naturally hopes that its own factory can always maintain the leading technology. However, Fanlin Company relies on selling equipment to make a living, and it is impossible for it to sacrifice its own interests for the interests of Jiachuang Company. Therefore, since a Japanese manufacturer came to the door, Fanlin Company was naturally unable to ask for it.

In order to show his importance, Lin Jieping made a special detour to Japan this time, and went to meet with the representatives of Sharp in person. Of course, Lin Jieping was just expressing a gesture of willingness to cooperate, after all, it was the other party who wanted something from him.

At this time, Fanlin Company doesn't need to worry at all, just wait for how to slaughter the opponent.

Therefore, Lin Jieping did not stay in Japan for a long time. After having dinner with the president of Sharp Corporation in Tokyo, he flew to Hong Kong early the next morning. His top priority now is to convince Li Xuan that his move to buy Applied Materials is to be continued.