The NEC headquarters building of Sakamoto Electric, which was newly opened in Minato-ku, Tokyo.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the next thing we are going to visit is our NEC semiconductor experimental exhibition room...... You can see that the company has made some achievements in the field of semiconductors...... "Kenji Sakada was taking a delegation of 13 people led by Hua Pingdong, deputy director of the Yenjing Municipal Electronics Office of Huaxia, to Japan to visit the NEC headquarters.

According to NEC's arrangement, there will be a visit to the NEC semiconductor laboratory and an integrated circuit demonstration production line in the morning. In the afternoon, in accordance with Hua Pingdong's request, the possibility of cooperation between the two sides will be discussed.

"NEC was first engaged in the production, sale and maintenance of telephones and switches...... In 1904, NEC began exporting telephone sets to China......"

In the late '70s and '80s, which NEC called the C&C era, or "Computer &---Communication," NEC embarked on a path of global expansion......

In 1978, the U.S. plant in Dallas, Texas, opened and began manufacturing specialized automatic exchange (PABX) and telephone systems. In the same year, it acquired Electronic Arrays, Inc. in California and began manufacturing semiconductor chips in the United States.

Even in 1980, NEC invented the first digital signal processor, the μPD7710.

In 1981, Lexben Electric Semiconductors (UK) Limited was established to produce large-scale integrated circuits (LSI) and very large-scale integrated circuits (VLSI).

In 1982, NEC introduced the PC-9800, a series of 16-bit personal computers.

In 1984, Akaben Electrical Information System Co., Ltd. began manufacturing computers and related products in the United States. Similarly, the V-series processors were introduced.

In 1986, NEC provided an SX-2 supercomputer to the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC). Similarly, the digital switching system NEAX61 was put into service.

In 1988, the PC Engine launched the CD-ROM² peripheral, the world's first home gaming device to use CD-ROMs as media.

In 1989, the company changed to a holding company for its North American business......

"In June of this year, NEC's new headquarters building was put into use, which is the building where we are located. At present, preparations are being made to increase investment in Huaxia, where it plans to produce and sell digital electronic switching systems and large-scale integrated circuits. ”

With Kenji Sakata's explanation, Yu Zixian had a more detailed understanding of the development history of NEC, and had to admire the depth of the technical background as the leader of the current world semiconductor industry. This is true of Yu Zixian, and even more so as the other members of the delegation.

The next thing we went to visit was a demonstration production line on the outskirts of the city......

"Director Hua, distinguished guests...... The demonstration line you see now was transformed from a pilot production line built by Kaisha in 1986...... Next, Mr. Tomoki Kashima, the person in charge of the production line, will explain the specific situation of this production line......"

"Hello everyone, our production line uses the most advanced G-line stepping lithography technology that can be put into commercial production at present, and the 1:10 projection exposure process...... Heterosexual dry corrosion, LOCOS components, isolation technology, LDD structure, shallow junction injection ......"

For these technologies used in the production line, "G-line stepping lithography technology, 1:10 projection exposure process...... "Yu Zixian has also heard of these Yu Zixian, and some of the others have not even heard of it.

Yu Zixian was like this, and the others were even more confused when they heard it...... It's just that I have a deeper understanding of the management of my production line and the technology and advanced technology of the production line, and I have a clearer understanding of the advanced level of the integrated circuit industry in China and the world...... Especially the last sentence - "annual production capacity of more than 10 million 0.8 micron integrated circuit blocks".

It is a production line with a production capacity of 8,000 6-inch silicon wafers per month, a technical level of 0.8 microns, and an annual output of more than 10 million large-scale integrated circuits......

At this time, the current annual output of integrated circuits in China is less than 100 million pieces - this production line is more than one-tenth of the total annual production capacity in China, and our integrated circuit blocks are low-end and low-value integrated circuits at the level of 5-3 microns - perhaps the total value of our 100 million products is not as high as the value of the 0.8 micron 10 million integrated circuits......

This is just one production line, and it is also an experimental production line! How many such production lines are there in China? 10 or 20?

Yu Zixian conservatively estimated that even if there are no 20 such advanced production lines, at least 10 are there!

The construction cost of each of these production lines, including the construction of clean workshops, the purchase of equipment, etc., casually exceeds 500 million yuan, and the unit is US dollars......

Behind these advanced integrated circuit production lines are a series of semiconductor production, manufacturing and auxiliary material suppliers such as NEC, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Sony, Nikon, Shin-Etsu Chemical, etc., which are proud of the country, and it is they who support the world's 60% of the world's integrated circuit chip production and the crown of the semiconductor industry.

Zhang Qiyuan, deputy director of Yangang Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., was amazed and asked Kashima Tomoki curiously: "Mr. Kashima, is this how this demonstration production line is used to visit while normal production? Aren't you afraid that advanced technology will be stolen?"

Tomoki Kashima really laughed: "Impossible! No one can make semiconductors with just one button!"

This answer made everyone feel very confused, and Kashima Tomoki's next explanation let everyone see the pride of a hegemon-level enterprise in its own technology, and this pride even has a strong arrogance!

"Do you think that as long as you buy advanced equipment, line up in a good line, and press a button, everyone can produce semiconductor integrated circuits? This is pure nonsense and delusional!"

Integrated circuits are the integration of several transistors, capacitors, resistors, etc. on the silicon substrate of semiconductor materials to achieve certain electronic functions.

On a 200mm (8 inches) diameter wafer, hundreds of such integrated circuits are implanted at the same time, and then divided one by one to make them bare dies, and the chips that meet the production technical standards are selected through testing and other means, and finally packaged into ceramics or plastics, and finally a usable integrated circuit chip is formed.

"Do you know how many processes are required from the wafer to the final chip product, which is just the manufacturing process?"

Looking at Kashima Tomoki's pretentious appearance, although it was very annoying and wanted to slap him, Yu Zixian knew that what he said was really good.

"Excluding wafer drawing, cutting, grinding, etc., as well as photomask plate making, etc., just the manufacturing and production of integrated circuits requires no less than 500 processes!"

The integration of transistors has developed from Intel's "4004" microprocessor integrating about 2,300 10-micron transistors to 16MB-bit DRAM integrating 30 million transistors, which is more than 10,000 times higher!

Relying on rice milling technology, precision machining currently contributes 80% to the reduction of chip manufacturing costs.

In addition, there is the expertise required in the three price segments of semiconductor manufacturing: component technology, integration technology, and mass production technology......

The mission of our laboratory integration technicians is to do their best to develop the process of IC chip production so that at least one chip can be fully operational, and the technicians of the mass production plant are based on this process to complete the process that will achieve a high yield rate.

It is not surprising to know that after the equipment of a new factory is installed in place, the yield rate is very low, or even zero!

Only after repeated process adjustment and equipment debugging by skilled professional and technical personnel, it is possible to obtain a high yield rate, which can only be achieved with the cooperation of the process developers who fully grasp the process process, that is, the process of repeated debugging and adjustment needs 5~10 times, and the debugging cycle may take half a year to a year!

Sometimes it will even encounter the dilemma that it is difficult to improve the yield rate, or large-scale process adjustment is required, and then the process will be returned here to readjust or redesign the process!

The key to these processes is the patented technology that has been researched and developed and registered, as well as the vital professional and technical personnel behind it!

Yu Zixian's eyes lit up: "This old Mr. Kashima has some goods in his stomach, why don't you find something for him to do at night?!"

When Luo Shouwu heard this, he suddenly sighed and said: "While introducing production line equipment, we must also introduce the technical process supporting the production line!

It seems that Comrade Lao Luo is still unwilling to sell the semiconductor factory!

Yang Haoming, who was explaining what Kashima Tomoki had just said, suddenly smiled at Luo Shouwu and Ye Zuxin, turned his head and said a few words of Japanese to Kashima Tomoki.

Kashima Tomoki's gaze immediately turned: "...... （）%@#……#￥@”

"Just now, Mr. Kashima said: What this gentleman said is right, if you want to achieve a high yield introduction, you have to introduce relevant technology at the same time as the introduction of production lines!" Yang Translation originally translated Luo Shouwu's words to Mr. Kashima.

"Then, how much will the introduction cost increase?" Director Hua suddenly asked.

"In the past, when I was at Haneda Seiko, I might have to think about those issues, but for me now, I don't care about them anymore, I only care about the process realization process of the production line and the effective improvement of the manufacturing yield!"

"Nima, it turned out to be a nerd. Yu Zixian couldn't help but think.

But on second thought, perhaps, this is not a nerd, but a kind of paranoid nature unique to the pursuit of extreme technology unique to RB technophiliates.

"No, isn't Suwa Seiko an electronic watch and a liquid crystal? Is there a story in between? It seems that Suwa Seiko at this time seems to have something wrong because of financial constraints...... led to the discontinuation of the LCD project. Yu Zixian reacted a little bit more.

However, listening to Kashima's arrogant words and looking at Kashima's triumphant appearance, Yu Zixian still wanted to say something to scare the devil, but in his memory, he didn't think of any obvious weaknesses in the semiconductor world at this time......

At this time, the semiconductor is too strong: 11 of the world's top 20 semiconductor factories are based on the company - the top three of them are all based on the company, while there are only 5 semiconductor companies in the United States...... Samsung Electronics, the DRAM giant in later generations, is still the younger brother, ranking 18th, which is considered to have just broken into the top 20.

It is said that the company is almost the whole industry chain layout from integrated circuits, and the strength in each subdivision is not bad, there are a large number of top three companies on the list: from the upstream industrial chain of semiconductor materials, production equipment, to the midstream design, manufacturing, packaging and testing samples, the most buggy may be in the development and application of electronic products, that is, semiconductor applications - this can be seen from the RB people invented various household appliances, game entertainment equipment, etc.

It seems that there is a little bit of a difference in ICCAD integrated circuit design software......

In June 1991, the United States used Section 308 to force the signing of the "Japan-US Second Semiconductor Agreement", and it was this agreement that made the RB semiconductor industry feel the pain of being emasculated for the second time!

Taking advantage of this agreement, American companies took a breath and survived, while South Korea's Samsung took advantage of the situation to emerge under the strategy of the United States to balance the capital.

By the time the delegation returned to the NEC headquarters again, it was already three o'clock in the afternoon.

"Mr. Sakata, the purpose of our trip has been said before, we want to introduce an integrated circuit production line, and the technical specifications are not less than 6 inches 1.5 μm......" Hua Pingdong clearly put forward the purpose of this trip this time, as well as the technical indicators that need to be introduced into the production line......

"Director Hua, if you really want to introduce a production line, I will report it to the club now...... You will be met directly by our superiors. ”

This report, as soon as I waited, an afternoon actually passed...