Duan Yun came to Japan this time, although all the accommodation and catering were all received by the Japanese side, Duan Yun still exchanged 300,000 US dollars in advance for emergencies.

That night, Duan Yun had been thinking until late before falling asleep, with a little uneasiness and anxiety.

Li Yun, who was in the room on the other side, also fell asleep very late, and after separating from Duan Yun, she had been sitting on the sofa by the window in the room, looking at the dazzling night view of Tokyo outside the window, and her heart was full of excitement and excitement......

......

Early in the morning of the second day, Toshiba sent a car to take Duan Yun to the chip factory on the outskirts of Tokyo, and this was the reception of them by Shinichi Tanaka, who visited China last time.

After seeing Duan Yun, Tanaka also showed great enthusiasm and led him to visit Toshiba's chip factory.

Japan's chip industry has long been dominated by six giant electronics companies, including NEC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Toshiba, Mitsubishi Electric, and OKI, which receive direct government funding to improve the technology of Japan's high-tech industry.

These companies produce not only chips but also electronic devices, but in the 80s, only 7% of their annual turnover came from the sale of chips, and among these companies, Toshiba accounted for a slightly higher proportion of about 13%.

Under the leadership of Shinichi Tanaka, after Duan Yun and Li Yun entered the production workshop, they were immediately arranged by the staff to change into dustproof clothing.

Duan Yun's Tianyin Electronics Factory also has a dust-free workshop, but compared with Toshiba's dust-free workshop, there is more than one level of difference, and the sealing degree of this workshop is very high, and workers must not only wear a full set of dust-proof clothing when entering the workshop, but also clean and disinfect the whole body.

And after entering the production workshop, the situation inside also shocked Duan Yun and Li Yun.

All the workers are working in an orderly manner, the machines inside look very advanced and sophisticated, there are only more than 100 workers in the huge workshop, but according to Shinichi Tanaka, the annual output of this workshop can reach an astonishing 5 million.

Chip production is a very delicate and complex process, and each piece of equipment in the workshop can easily cost millions, or even tens of millions of dollars, and the investment is quite huge.

In addition, the machines that produce chips mainly include lithography machines, plasma etching machines, ion implanters, single crystal furnaces, wafer dicing machines, wafer thinning machines, oxidation furnaces, low-pressure chemical gas precipitation systems, magnetron sputtering tables, chemical mechanical grinding machines, wire bonding machines, and probe test benches.

These equipment are the most advanced equipment in the current international chip industry, and the most well-known chip production equipment in the future is the lithography machine.

The lithography machine, also known as the laser engraving machine, is a kind of equipment specially used to manufacture tiny electronic components, as for how small should this "tiny" be? Take the most popular chip process in the world today, the 7nm process is about 1/10,000 of human hair, and you can imagine how difficult the technology is.

In fact, China has also carried out the research and development of lithography machines, and this matter dates back to the 60s half a century ago. At that time, China's experts had developed a 65-type contact lithography machine, and the Dutch ASML company was established in 5 years, which is ironic, since China was five years ahead of the Dutch ASML, but then plummeted, far behind the world level.

It turned out that in the 80s, there was a "Waterloo" in China's lithography machine technology, I don't know whether the scientific research funds are not enough or "floating", China's scientific researchers even gave up the research of lithography machine for a time, and advocated importing from abroad. Perhaps people at that time failed to take into account the disadvantages of imports, so the matter of self-developed lithography machines has been shelved, and even the research results of the previous 20 years have been in vain.

Maybe it is the recession of China's semiconductor industry, even the Wuhan No. 3 factory that finally stuck to the lithography machine industry finally chose to change careers and sold snacks, and later, until Taiwan's TSMC developed a 193nm lithography machine, the Chinese finally had an epiphany, it turned out that until today, China's lithography machine still relies on imports.

Through Shinichi Tanaka's inquiry, Toshiba Electronics Factory can now produce 4~5-inch wafer and 0.9 micron chips.

Hearing Tanaka's introduction, Duan Yun was secretly surprised in his heart.

In fact, long before coming to Japan, Duan Yun already had a relatively comprehensive understanding of the current technical situation of the domestic chip industry.

In 1986, the Ministry of Electronics Industry held a seminar on integrated circuit development strategy in Xiamen, and put forward the "531" development strategy of China's integrated circuit technology during the "Seventh Five-Year Plan" (1986-1990), that is, to popularize and promote 5-micron technology based on 742 factory, and at the same time develop 3-micron technology and tackle 1-micron technology.

But in fact, it was not until 1993 that the 5-inch, three-micron technology was developed in China, and this is more than 15 years behind Japan.

"I want this equipment. Duan Yun walked up to a lithography machine and said to Shinichi Tanaka.

"Mr. Duan Yun......" Tanaka was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then said to Duan Yun with a smile: "This is the most advanced lithography machine in our company at present, and there are only 6 in Japan, so it is impossible to sell this to you...... In addition, the flash memory chips you produce do not require such a high-precision lithography machine. ”

"Then which lithography machine is your company going to sell us?" Duan Yun asked.

Duan Yun actually knew for a long time that Toshiba would not be able to sell the most advanced things to himself, and even if he did, the Japanese government would not agree.

The Japanese government has always been very supportive of the chip industry, not only in terms of tax incentives, Toshiba's chip industry tax rate is only 20%, far lower than the 45% ~ 50% tax rate of American companies, in addition, the Japanese government has been encouraging college students from top universities in China to engage in chip industry technology research, and set up high scholarships for related majors, it is precisely because of the above measures that Japan's chip industry has surpassed the United States and become the world's first.

In addition to the strict supervision of the Japanese government, and the restrictions of the Batumi agreement, Toshiba's equipment in the Chinese half factory was not destined to be the most advanced from the beginning.

In fact, the lithography machine has always been a bottleneck restricting the development of China's domestic chip industry, and there is a gap between domestic technology and the international in other aspects such as pre-die cutting machine and etching machine, but this gap is not large, and in terms of technical difficulty, it is much simpler than the lithography machine.

It is precisely because of this that Duan Yun focused on the introduction of lithography machines from the beginning.

"Please follow me. Hearing this, Tanaka took Duan Yun to another dust-free workshop.

Compared with the workshop just now, there are fewer operators in the dust-free workshop here, only fifty or sixty people, and the machines are also a little different from the first dust-free workshop.

"According to the previous design plan of Fujio, this lithography machine fully meets the production requirements...... "Tanaka pointed to a lithography machine in the corner and said to Duan Yun.

"How many micron chips can this lithography machine produce?" Duan Yun asked directly.

"This kind of equipment can produce chips in the 5-inch and 3-micron range, which belongs to the previous generation of production equipment of our Toshiba Group......" Tanaka replied to Duan Yun.

In fact, the most advanced chip production line that China can buy from abroad at a high price can only produce 5-micron chips, if it were not for the joint venture factory and the design of Fujio Masuoka flash memory chips is based on the production technology of three-micron chips, then Toshiba Group would not be able to sell lithography machines that can produce three-micron chips to China, after all, it is a joint venture, it is impossible to give the best equipment, but it is absolutely impossible to give the inferior.

Even if the three-micron chip technology was not developed in Chinese mainland until 1993, and it was only developed, and the real mass production was a few years later.

Therefore, if Duan Yun gets this machine, it is equivalent to leading the domestic chip technology for 10 years, and there is only a gap of about 5 years between the most advanced one-micron technology in the world!

If Duan Yun can grasp this opportunity, with his skills in microelectronics technology in his previous life, it is very likely that he will complete the corner overtaking, and at that time, Duan Yun will have the strength to compete with the world's top chip companies.

"Hmm. Duan Yun nodded, although he was a little excited in his heart, he looked a little indifferent on the surface.

Subsequently, under the leadership of Tanaka, Duan Yun and his entourage visited other equipment in the workshop.

"Mr. Tanaka, are there any good sushi restaurants here in Tokyo?" I would like to invite you to have a drink together at noon......" After leaving the workshop, Duan Yun said to Tanaka.

Generally speaking, domestic business is discussed at the wine table, and sometimes business that cannot be negotiated on a formal occasion can be done once it is on the wine table, a few glasses of wine will be eaten, and no matter how difficult the business can be done, Duan Yun also wanted to invite Tanaka to drink together, because when they were in China before, the two of them had drunk together, so this was not an abrupt invitation.

"This ......," Tanaka suddenly looked embarrassed when he heard this.

It turned out that unlike Tanaka's visit to China at that time, this time things were different, because after visiting the venue and equipment, there was a matter of later negotiation.

The Japanese treat their work very rigorously and seriously, and they are very disciplined, especially the employees of large companies, everything is in the interests of the company, and the Japanese generally do not talk about formal business at the wine table, and Duan Yun's banquet fills in the matter, if the company's senior management knows, he may be questioned for accepting bribes to sell the company's interests, once the board of directors raises a no-confidence motion against him, then he, the minister of the Ministry of Electronics, can not continue to be in office.

Therefore, before the formal negotiation is over, Tanaka must keep a distance from Duan Yun, and Duan Yun's business negotiation in China is obviously not easy to use in Japan......