There are two very important metrics for building a fab, one is the diameter of the monocrystalline silicon rod, and the other is the line width of the process. The larger the diameter of the rod, the larger the area of the cut individual wafers, and thus the greater the number of chips that can be divided into each wafer.

In fact, the manufacturing cost of a 3-inch wafer is not much different from that of a 4-inch and 5-inch wafer, and the area of a 5-inch wafer is 2.78 times that of a 3-inch wafer. That is to say, in the manufacturing cost of the same chip, the cost of using a 5-inch crystal rod in the wafer preparation process is only about one-third of that of the 3-inch process.

Another key metric is process linewidth, also known as etch size, which refers to the minimum size that a manufacturing device can etch on a silicon wafer. To be more specific, this line width refers to the width of the wires between the connected transistors on the wafer surface.

You can imagine: if you use a hatchet knife and a scalpel to scratch a wooden board, the size of the scratches will definitely not be the same. The "chai knife" is like the 5 micron process that has gradually become obsolete, and the "scalpel" is like the most advanced 1.5 micron process.

After each wafer has undergone pre-processing, the usable area is fixed. If the wire is thinner, it will occupy less area on the wafer, leaving more area for integrating more transistors. At the same time, the thinner the wire, the lower the resistance and the faster the current velocity. The former can reduce the power of the chip, and the latter can increase the frequency of the chip.

The equipment that determines the level of the process is mainly the lithography machine, which is also the core and most critical equipment in the entire semiconductor manufacturing process. In another space-time, Intel from the x86 series. Later, the Pentium series and Core series have led the trend of the entire semiconductor manufacturing process.

Before Li Xuan was reborn. The Dutch company ASML is one of the world's largest semiconductor equipment manufacturing companies. In the mid- to high-end lithography machine market, ASML has a market share of about 60%. and the highest-end market (e.g. immersive lithography machines). ASML's market share is as high as 80%.

In order to maintain its leading position in technology, Intel acquired part of ASML's equity early, and also provided ASML with huge R&D expenses to support their exploration of new processes.

Thirty years later, the semiconductor industry has gone through brutal competition, and the industrial concentration has been greatly improved. The upstream semiconductor manufacturing equipment industry is a winner-takes-all industry. Because the price of a lithography machine can easily exceed tens of millions of dollars or even more than 100 million dollars. Developing a new lithography machine can take years. Billions of dollars have been invested. The average company simply cannot afford such a high R&D investment.

So much so that after today's continuous market elimination, only a few of the top semiconductor equipment manufacturing companies can survive in the end. In the lithography market, for example, by 2010, there were only three companies on the market that could provide commercial lithography machines: ASML, Nikon, and Canon. Among them, the former controls the vast majority of the mid-to-high-end market, while the latter two carve up the low-end market.

But in the early eighties, high-end lithography equipment was only a few million dollars, and the semiconductor equipment manufacturing industry was still in the stage of a hundred flowers. As early as the end of 1980, Li Xuan began to invest in a semiconductor equipment manufacturing company called LamResearch.

The company's Chinese name is Lam Semiconductor Equipment Technology Corporation. The reason for this name. Because its founder's surname is Lin ("lam" is the transliteration of Lin), his name is Lin Jieping.

In another time and space, Lin Jieping is one of the most famous Chinese-American IT tycoons in Silicon Valley. Compared with Yang Zhiyuan, who has been kicked out of Yahoo, and Chen Shijun, who has sold YouTube, Lin Jieping has led his Lam research company to continuous success. Perhaps ordinary people in China have never heard of LamResearch. But in fact, its profitability ranks among the top 20 among all IT companies in the United States.

It is precisely because of knowing Lin Jieping's ability that Li Xuan provided sufficient funds for Lam Research as early as the beginning of the other party's business. While in another time and space in Lam. It is famous for its front-end wafer fabrication equipment, but Li Xuan also expects it in this life. It can also gain a place in the field of lithography machines.

The eighties were the last opportunity to enter the field of lithography machine equipment manufacturing. With the continuous advancement of semiconductor process technology, the R&D cost of lithography machines will skyrocket. The threshold will be higher and higher in the future.

Not long ago, Lam Research finally developed its first full-fledged lithography machine, the LAM-MA1, which is a contact lithography machine with a maximum resolution of 5 microns. The technical level of LAM-MA1 is only equivalent to the level of the mid-seventies. At present, the mainstream lithography machine on the market has gradually replaced the contact type from the proximity type. When Intel produced the 80286 processor last year, it has adopted a new projection lithography machine, which can reduce the etching size to 1.5 microns.

Therefore, Lam's LAM-MA1 lithography machine can only be regarded as an outdated low-end product, and there are many similar mature products from other companies on the market. When Lam Research first entered the lithography machine industry, it was not yet well-known, so it was naturally difficult to convince customers to purchase their own products. After all, even such a slightly outdated lithography machine from Lam Research costs more than $1 million.

According to Li Xuan's plan, the biggest use of these products in the early stage is to achieve technology accumulation. He and Lin had ambitions, and when they communicated about Lam's future development plans, they never expected the company to be profitable in a few years.

But if Lam Research products can be sold on the mainland, the situation is completely different. Don't look at the LAM-MA1 only reached the technical level of the mid-seventies, but now the country simply does not have the ability to realize the commercial production of large-scale integrated circuits. In fact, in another time and space, it was not until the 21st century, 30 years later, that the technical level of the domestic lithography machine could not reach the level of the current LAM-MA1.

There is no technology of the same level in China, and foreign procurement is blocked, semiconductor equipment in the mainland can be said to be a buyer's market. Previously, the 742 factory imported equipment and technology from Toshiba Corporation of Japan. A complete TV integrated circuit production line was built, with a total investment of up to 66 million US dollars.

It was a 3-inch fab. Dongfang Semiconductor has just completed and put into operation a larger 3-inch wafer factory in Taiwan, with a total investment of less than 40 million US dollars. Although the equipment for the production of digital chips and the production of analog chips are not the same. But TV chips are not high-end products.

It can be said that Factory 742 was definitely slaughtered by Toshiba as a fat sheep, but they were still slaughtered willingly. This is because other companies other than Toshiba are reluctant to provide relevant technology to China.

Li Xuan understood Yu Youcheng's idea, if Dongfang Electronics Company came forward to help build a new wafer factory in the mainland, he would not only be able to make a lot of money from it, but also be able to sell Lam's new equipment by the way. In addition to the newly developed lithography machine, Lam's other R&D focus is wafer fabrication equipment.

These two parts can be said to be the core equipment of a fab. If Lam Research provides the main equipment, then Oriental Semiconductor will provide production technical support. If it works properly, the entire Eastern Bloc is in this project. Reaping a profit of $10 million or 20 million is not a problem at all. More importantly, Oriental Company can also gain the goodwill of the mainland.

Thinking of this, Li Xuan couldn't help but be a little moved, but the biggest problem in front of him was the export restrictions imposed by the U.S. government. That's what makes the project a reality.

First of all, we must first figure out the red line of US technology exports to China. If the 3-inch, 5-micron technology level is not on the list of strictly prohibited technologies, we can start the next step of operation!" Li Xuan said to Yu Youcheng.

Yu Youcheng nodded. "Not long ago, the Reagan administration proposed to Congress that it wanted to give China the treatment of a "friendly non-ally" country. I think the relationship between China and the United States is likely to enter a honeymoon period in the future, so I think we can try to push it!"

Li Xuan couldn't help but glance at Yu Youcheng with some surprise. A smile of approval. Yu Youcheng's growth rate is far faster than he expected, and the other party has completely entered the state, and he no longer looks at the problem from the perspective of a self-improvement technician. And from the perspective of a high-level manager. Consider a problem from a more macro and higher level.

For example, when it comes to helping build wafer fabs in the mainland, Yu Youcheng quickly thinks of helping Lam Research achieve technology export. It can also keenly grasp the potential opportunities from the sensitive changes in international politics.

This made Li Xuan very happy. As one of the core assets of the entire Oriental Group, the helmsman of the Oriental Research Institute must not only have sufficient technical level and insight into the development direction of future technology, but also need to have the same excellent comprehensive ability in enterprise management and market analysis.

"I will simply leave this matter to you to be specifically responsible, and I will let Han Peng and Zhang Zhongmou fully cooperate with you! Our company has also sprinkled a lot of money in the American political circles in the past few years, and it is time to find something for those politicians to do. You can't just let them just collect checks and work hard!" Li Xuan said with a smile.

He has made friends with a number of influential key figures in both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, and the possibility of Dongfang Electronics Company helping the mainland to operate this wafer factory is really very likely to be approved by the US government.

Yu Youcheng nodded, he knew that Li Xuan still attached great importance to the mainland, and he also hoped that through this project, he would deepen his influence in the entire Eastern Bloc. For example, if the project can really be approved by the U.S. government, it will definitely be Zhang Zhongmou's Dongfang Semiconductor Company in the end.

In the process of tackling key problems with relevant departments in the United States, it seems that Li Xuan, the big boss, will not come forward in person, so many things need to be solved by Han Peng, the number two person in the group.

Don't look at Han Peng's current position as the president of Oriental Technology Holdings and Oriental Commercial, but the former holds the equity of most of the subsidiaries of Oriental Group, including Oriental Research Institute, Oriental Game, Aikang Computer, Computer Park, etc., and the latter is an important link connecting the entire Oriental system, responsible for providing information collection, raw material procurement, product distribution and many other affairs for the entire group companies.

Since last year, Li Xuan has been intervening less and less in the specific affairs of the entire group, and more in formulating the development direction at the highest level, so Han Peng has to be responsible for the communication and coordination between various internal companies.

Yu Youcheng can just use this operation to quickly get acquainted with these core bigwigs in the Eastern Bloc and integrate into this collective faster.

In fact, in another time and space, it was not until the mid-90s that the mainland really had its first large-scale wafer factory. But in Li Xuan's view, even if he now helps China build the first complete commercial integrated circuit production line more than a decade ahead of schedule, it is unlikely to reverse China's weak situation in the semiconductor field.

Even if China can build a 3-inch or even 5-inch first-class wafer factory now, in the context of rapid technology upgrading, the equipment introduced at a high price will lag behind in a few years. In fact, compared with the introduction of factories, Li Xuan believes that if China wants to catch up in the semiconductor field, it needs to work hard in the field of upstream equipment manufacturing.

But R&D is a bottomless pit, often a large number of banknotes are thrown into it, and you can't even hear a sound. What's more, when foreign countries are still blocking China so strictly, it is not realistic for a high-tech industry like the semiconductor field to want to build behind closed doors. Therefore, it is natural for leaders to want to introduce physical factories that can achieve faster results.

As for Li Xuan, he does not have the ambition to change the face of an industry in China by himself, because this is simply unrealistic. If the Chinese government is willing to spend 1 billion US dollars and spend 10 years, under the condition that Uncle Sam is willing to fully relax the technical restrictions, it is possible to replace Taiwan in the future and become a part of the global semiconductor industry division of labor.

As long as this situation is underway, Li Xuan will take advantage of the trend and contribute to the prosperity of the country's industry. But these conditions are impossible, so this is just a business for Li Xuan. He can reap tens of millions of dollars in profits, strengthen his influence on China's semiconductor industry, and gain the goodwill of the country's upper echelons.

With so many benefits in front of him, Li Xuan was naturally willing to give it a try!

Yu Youcheng was sent back to Hong Kong by Li Xuan to investigate the feasibility of building the first digital chip fab for the mainland. And soon another figure came to the door and asked for Li Xuan's help.

Two years ago, when Li Xuan participated in the northbound petition group organized by Mr. Huo Yingdong, he had a relationship with the other party on the plane. At that time, Professor Shubai, who had returned from the United States, went to Beijing on the same plane to propose to China's top leadership the establishment of a "China Experimental University" in China, so as to catch up with the electronics industry and develop it into China's Silicon Valley. (To be continued......)