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 time and space. From the X86 series, to the Pentium series and the Core series, Intel has been leading the trend of the entire semiconductor manufacturing process.

Before Li Xuan was reborn. 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%. In the highest-end market, such as 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 is in a state of brutal competition. 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. and develop a new lithography machine product. It can take years and billions of dollars. 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. Also take the lithography machine market as an example, by 2010. There are only three companies on the market that can provide commercial lithography machines: ASML, Nikon and Canon. Among them, the former controls most of the mid-to-high-end market. The latter two carved 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 is because its founder's surname is Lin ("Lam" is a transliteration of Lin), and 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 has led his Lam research company to success. Ordinary people in China may have never heard of LamResearch, but in fact, its profitability can rank among the top 20 among all IT companies in the United States.

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

The eighties were the last opportunity to enter the field of lithography machine equipment manufacturing. With the continuous progress of semiconductor process technology, the R&D cost of lithography machines will soar, and 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, a contact lithography machine with a maximum resolution of 5 microns. The technical level of the 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.

As a result, 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 fact that 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 can be said to be a buyer's market in the mainland. Previously, Factory 742 imported equipment and technology from Toshiba Corporation of Japan to build a complete TV integrated circuit production line, 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 used to produce digital chips is not the same as the equipment used to produce analog chips, 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 thoughts, if Dongfang Electronics Company came forward to help the mainland build a new wafer factory, not only could it make a lot of money. It was also able to sell new Lam research 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 has no problem reaping a profit of $10 million or 20 million in this project. More importantly, Oriental Company can also gain the goodwill of the mainland.

Thinking of this, Li Xuan couldn't help but feel a little moved. But the biggest problem before him. is an export restriction 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 and said approvingly: "Not long ago, the Reagan administration just proposed to Congress that it wants to give China the treatment of a "friendly non-ally" country. I think the U.S.-China relationship is likely to enter a honeymoon period in the future. That's when I thought we could try to push it!"

Li Xuan couldn't help but glance at Yu Youcheng with some surprise, showing a somewhat approving smile. Yu Youcheng's growth rate is far faster than he expected. The other party has completely entered the state, and no longer looks at the problem from the perspective of a self-improvement technician. 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 the mainland build wafer fabs, Yu Youcheng is quick to think of helping Lam Research achieve technology exports, and he can also keenly grasp potential opportunities from sensitive changes in international politics.

This makes Li Xuan very happy, as one of the core assets of the entire Oriental Group, 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 to do for those politicians. You can't just let them just collect checks and work hard!" Li Xuan said with a smile.

Within both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, he has made friends with a number of influential key figures. For Dongfang Electronics to help the mainland government run this fab project, the possibility of getting approval from the U.S. government is really very high.

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. If the project can really be approved by the U.S. government, Zhang Zhongmou's Dongfang Semiconductor Company will definitely be responsible for the specific preparations.

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, who now only serves 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 Games, Aikang Computer, and Computer Park. The latter is an important link connecting the entire Oriental system, responsible for providing intelligence gathering, raw material procurement, product distribution and many other matters for the entire group of companies.

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

Yu Youcheng can just use this action to strengthen exchanges with them, the core bigwigs in the Oriental Group, and gradually integrate into the top decision-making level of the Oriental Company.

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 its first complete commercial wafer fab more than a decade ahead of schedule, it is unlikely to fundamentally 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 now 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 the foreign blockade of China is still so strict, it is not realistic for a high-tech industry like the semiconductor field to want to build a car behind closed doors. Therefore, the leaders naturally hope to introduce a physical factory that can achieve faster results.

As far as Li Xuan is concerned, he is not ready to single-handedly change the face of an industry in China, because this is not realistic at all! If the Chinese government is willing to spend 1 billion US dollars now, it will take 10 years, and under the condition that Uncle Sam is willing to fully relax the technological restrictions, it will be possible to replace Taiwan in the future and become an important link in the division of labor in the global semiconductor industry in the future.

But these conditions are simply 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 went north to participate in the Beijing-Beijing visit group organized by Mr. Huo Yingdong, he had a meeting 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 the establishment of a "China Experimental University" in China to catch up with the electronics industry.

Professor Chen's choice of location for the establishment of the university is the Deep Sea Special Economic Zone, which he hopes to develop into China's Silicon Valley. (To be continued......)