Chapter 268 Overseas Surprise, Where Do They Get the Confidence? [Subscribe]

The Academy of Sciences acted very quickly this time. Just when netizens were still worried about this matter and guessing what measures would be taken, the official announcement had already been released to the entire Internet.

The announcement first reconfirmed the previous decision and made it clear that it would not participate in radar cooperation.

At the same time, we will formulate a comprehensive and detailed response plan to the current difficulties faced by the domestic semiconductor industry.

What excites everyone most is to pool the strength of the entire institute to develop domestic extreme ultraviolet lithography machines as soon as possible to completely solve the problem of China's inability to produce and manufacture high-end chips.

In addition, the Academy of Sciences also announced the specific project leader.

Xu Yuan's name is also on the list.

Although Xu Yuan's proposal of using steady-state micro-beams as light sources has not yet been recognized by the institute, given his level in multiple disciplines, he will definitely participate in the project research and development, and his name will of course be made public.

What's more, Xu Yuan has a very high reputation in the eyes of the public and is deeply trusted by everyone.

Let everyone see that Xu Yuan will also participate in the research and development.

It will undoubtedly inspire public confidence.

Let the impact of this incident calm down as soon as possible.

In this way, the Academy of Sciences can calm down and concentrate on the research and development of domestic extreme ultraviolet lithography machines.

Facts have proved that the Academy of Sciences' approach was indeed correct, and once everyone noticed it, it soon produced positive effects.

When netizens saw that the attitude was still tough, they were naturally very excited.

But I can't help but worry about the actual situation.

Especially the future development of the domestic semiconductor field.

After all, they only have a buffer period of more than a year before the document takes effect. It is undoubtedly a pipe dream and impossible to solve the problem of high-end chip manufacturing in such a short period of time.

What's more, the reason why a buffer zone is set up overseas is to give people time to consider.

Now that they have clearly refused to cooperate on the radar, the specific time when the document will take effect may be brought forward.

But when everyone was worried and anxious, they suddenly saw a familiar name among the project leaders and instantly became confident.

It seems as if as long as Xu Yuan is here.

Then there can be no problem that cannot be solved.

What Xu Yuan has done over the years and the many scientific miracles he has created have left an indelible impression in their hearts.

It makes people believe it.

So much so that when the official announcement was released, discussions on related topics quickly topped the hot search list.

In particular, the number of messages in the comment section increased at a rocket-like rate, reflecting an overall sense of optimism and confidence, as well as a strong cohesion among netizens.

"I know we will definitely not compromise. Why should we agree to cooperate with them if they want gallium nitride radar technology? At this point, we are not afraid of any threats."

"It has to be said that there is nothing wrong with this approach, but I'm afraid our semiconductor sector will be very difficult in the future."

"If we can't solve the production problem of high-end chips, the research and development of 5G will basically fail."

"I heard that Huawei has been developing domestic 5G chips. Now it is estimated that the project will fail. After all, even if it is designed, it cannot be manufactured."

"I don't think we should be too depressed. Don't forget that Academician Xu is also involved in the research and development of this project. I believe that with God Xu's ability, he may soon be able to achieve a breakthrough in technology. You know, over the years, no project that God Xu has participated in has ever failed."

"Academician Xu's strength is indeed obvious to all, but he has never participated in any lithography project before."

"As a shining pearl in industrial development, it is indeed very difficult for us to develop the extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, and we really need to face this fact squarely. But I also believe that our scientific researchers can definitely overcome the difficulties and achieve complete success."

……

Just as the popularity of the entire network continued to rise, Warwick also received relevant news.

After learning that the country was going to make every effort to solve the problem of high-end chip manufacturing, he immediately convened a high-level meeting of the company to plan the company's future development.

And adjust relevant business structures.

2017 1 Month 5 Day.

Thursday.

Shenzhen Huawei Technology Co., Ltd.

In the conference room of the headquarters building that morning, Chairman Ren Guofei had already sat at the main seat at the conference table.

On both sides are senior executives from various departments of the company.

Among them, Xu Weifeng, who was the first to report to Ren Guofei, was also among the crowd.

There is no doubt that those who can sit in this position are smart people and they are very clear about the difficulties the company is facing now.

To put it bluntly, the economic losses are minimal.

The key point is that the previous layout for 5G has basically become a decoration.

If the company cannot overcome this difficulty, it would be normal for it to never recover and be eliminated by the industry.

By then, it might even be an unknown whether they will be able to sit here for the meeting.

In this situation, everyone naturally remained silent, and no one dared to speak first to break the atmosphere, for fear of losing their job because of saying something wrong.

Chairman Ren Guofei, who was sitting in the main seat, swept his sharp eyes across everyone's faces.

No one knows what you are thinking in your heart.

The meeting room became even quieter, as if one could hear other people's breathing.

Of course, Ren Guofei convened this meeting today definitely not to torture his subordinates or put pressure on them. He took the initiative to break the atmosphere after seeing that the atmosphere was almost right.

"The purpose of holding this meeting today is simple, which is to make a decision on the company's next phase of planning."

"I'm sure you all know what happened in the past two days, but I want to say that this is nothing to the company. I believe that all difficulties and problems can be solved in the end."

"So I decided..."

Everyone, including Xu Weifeng, sat up straight after hearing this.

Pay close attention and wait for what comes next.

Ren Guofei did not keep the audience in suspense and continued speaking the next second.

"At this stage, the deployment measures in the 5G field remain unchanged and will proceed as planned."

"We must not lose our composure at this time."

Although Ren Guofei said this in a firm tone, after everyone heard it, the expressions on their faces were quickly replaced by surprise and astonishment.

Obviously, before attending this meeting, I had never expected such an outcome.

At the moment, no one knows when China will have the ability to produce and manufacture high-end chips.

Under such circumstances, temporarily stopping investment in 5G layout can help the company avoid greater losses, which can be regarded as the best option from any perspective.

But now the chairman wants to continue with the layout and has no intention of pausing.

Unless the problems in high-end chip production and manufacturing can be quickly resolved in a short period of time, these investments will be wasted.

Perhaps the result was too sudden, and everyone was unable to react for a while.

Don't know how to answer.

In the end, Xu Weifeng couldn't help but ask.

"Chairman."

“Does the research and development of Kirin chips really need to continue?”

"Of course." Ren Guofei glanced at Xu Weifeng and gave an affirmative answer without hesitation.

But this time, he just finished speaking when he continued to explain.

"We are already leading the world in 5G research and development."

“It’s not easy to get to this point.”

"If we choose to suspend the process now, even if China has the ability to produce high-end chips in the future, it will completely lag behind overseas countries in 5G research and development.

“So we absolutely cannot stop.”

As the chairman of the board, how could Ren Guofei not know what everyone in the company is worried about?

But sometimes you have to be courageous.

In a sense, his decision to continue with his previous plan was a gamble on the company's future.

The bet is that China can completely solve the problem of high-end chip production and manufacturing in a relatively short period of time.

As long as it can be done within a few years, the company will not be affected but will also gain a firm foothold in the 5G field.

To take a step back, even if the domestic research is not ideal, the company will only suffer some losses.

Warwick can still handle this.

When everyone understood the situation, although they were still a little worried, they finally chose to support the chairman's approach and did not change the company's current plans.

As Ren Guofei said, this is the only thing that happened in today's meeting.

Therefore, after getting the results, he did not waste everyone's time.

The meeting was soon declared over.

But it is worth mentioning that Xu Weifeng did not leave directly with everyone.

Instead, he followed in the footsteps of Ren Guofei.

After the two returned to the chairman's office, Xu Weifeng spoke again and raised the questions in his mind.

"Director Ren."

"Are you so confident in the Academy of Sciences that you believe they can definitely master the extreme ultraviolet lithography machine?"

"That is a precision instrument that incorporates the world's most advanced technology."

It’s not that Xu Weifeng wants to boost others’ morale and destroy his own prestige, but the facts are before us.

Can't pretend you didn't see it.

The extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, which has more than 100,000 parts, is hailed as the shining pearl of the industry precisely because of its complex production technology.

There are many parts inside that cannot be produced in China at present.

Compared with Xu Weifeng's worries, Ren Guofei had a smile on his face and appeared very optimistic.

After taking off his coat and sitting down, he raised his eyes to look at Xu Wei and asked:
“Why don’t you have confidence?”

"Extreme ultraviolet lithography is already a mature technology, not just a theory."

"If they can be manufactured overseas, I believe our researchers are not much behind."

"Besides, we also have Xu Yuan, a genius among geniuses."

Ren Guofei has also been paying attention to Xu Yuan. Sometimes, even he finds it hard to imagine Xu Yuan's achievements in the field of science, and he doesn't know how much surprise it has brought to everyone.

Just talking about academicians of the two academies who are 30 years old, there has never been such an appearance in history.

In his opinion, Xu Yuan's existence is a variable in the development of domestic science and technology.

Always able to turn the tide at the critical moment.

Create miracles.

Therefore, he has full confidence in Xu Yuan and believes that the research on extreme ultraviolet lithography machine will definitely not disappoint.

"Academician Xu is truly amazing." Although Xu Weifeng was worried, he had to agree with what the chairman said.

There seems to be no better way at this point, and we can only place our hopes on Xu Yuan.

"okay."

"I'm fine here, you go ahead and do your work. Remember, the development of the Kirin chip is of great significance to us."

"We must give a satisfactory answer."

Ren Guofei did not continue chatting with Xu Weifeng, and then smiled and ordered him to leave.

Xu Weifeng naturally didn't say much about this. He just nodded and turned to leave the office.

"Don't worry, Chairman."

Soon he completely disappeared from Ren Guofei's sight.

……

at the same time.

As the relevant information spread overseas, many people and companies expressed great shock.

I didn't expect that I could handle such pressure.

Completely different from what I expected.

Because in their perception, compromise is the most appropriate way. As for developing extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, that is an even more stupid approach and is simply impossible to do.

It is no exaggeration to say that the difficulty is higher than the previous research on atomic bombs.

The key is to spend several years or even more than ten years to successfully develop an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine of the same specifications.

As for overseas Ames, it is likely that it has already achieved a technological breakthrough.

The final result is still lagging behind others.

This will only work if we can achieve technological overtaking in a short period of time.

Of course, no one would think about this situation.

"It's a shame they made a very stupid choice."

East view.

In the Shin-Etsu headquarters office, President Keita Takezawa said with a smile that he finally felt better after so many days.

Even the Haratani Shinobu on the opposite side seemed much more relaxed.

The pressure is almost invisible.

Previously, the extremely low price of gallium nitride materials almost dealt a heavy blow to Shin-Etsu, and all the efforts they had made in the early stage to research gallium nitride technology were wasted.

But no one expected that there would be a sudden turn of events in this situation.

China can no longer obtain high-end chips, which means that the semiconductor industry is half dead.

Even if we master the gallium nitride material technology, the impact on them will be greatly reduced.

Shinobu Haratani finally no longer had to work hard on researching gallium nitride. Without the pressure, he smiled more often.

Upon hearing this, he immediately took over the conversation and agreed.

"President, you are right. I don't know where they got the confidence to develop an EUV lithography machine on their own."

“It’s not impossible at all.”

"Perhaps it's because of the luck in the aerospace field in recent years that they have had an illusion." Keita Takezawa raised the corners of his mouth slightly, and immediately added a sentence in line with what Shinobu Haratani said.

Everyone is well aware of the difficulty of EUV lithography and chooses to conduct their own research rather than compromise or cooperate.

That can only be a misjudgment of one's own strength.

In his opinion, the rapid development of aviation and aerospace fields in recent years has made the other side too confident.

That's why he believed that he could develop an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, so he explicitly rejected Northrop's cooperation.

But the result of doing so is that in nine out of ten cases you will regret it in the end.

At that time, you still have to choose to compromise.

The thought stayed here, and soon Takezawa Keita seemed to suddenly think of something.

He immediately raised his eyes and looked at Haratani Shinobu and said:

"Since they are still confident in developing EUV lithography machines, it means that the pressure they are under is not that great. You should immediately make arrangements to announce to the public that our high-end photoresist products are also included in the document catalog and will not be sold to them."

In order to produce high-end precision chips, in addition to extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, high-end photoresists are also essential.

Looking around the world, the best international photoresist brand is definitely Shin-Etsu.

Regardless of whether it is announced publicly or not, their photoresists will not be sold to each other.

But doing so will undoubtedly add some invisible pressure.

Especially for ordinary people, they will certainly be more skeptical about the correctness of domestic decisions.

As expected of someone who had been working with the president for a long time, Haratani Shinobu immediately understood what he meant after hearing these words.

Soon the smile on his face became even wider.

The next second he nodded in response.

"Yes, President. I will do it right away."

After he finished speaking, without any hesitation, he immediately turned and walked towards the outside of the office.

-

Compared to what Shin-Etsu has done, the media is undoubtedly more curious about Ames' attitude.

As the only company in the world that can produce extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, their position in the semiconductor industry is unshakable. The mere fact that they can integrate the world's top opportunities to produce products is enough to represent the authority in the semiconductor field.

Originally, in the morning, Kajedi, the president of Ames Company, was going to attend an event.

But he was just a guest participant, not the protagonist of the event.

As a result, because of the extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, he was soon surrounded by a group of reporters.

Before he could react, many microphones were already in front of him, asking him questions.

"Mr. Kajedi, have you heard about the news that China is going to develop its own extreme ultraviolet lithography machine?"

"Do you think they can succeed?"

"If the other party really develops an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, will this have an impact on ASML's orders?"

……

Although Kajedi was a little surprised by the scene before him, as the president and CEO of ASML, he would certainly not be nervous about such a scene.

He quickly adjusted his rhythm and waited until the voices of the reporters in front of him gradually stopped.

Only then did he answer the question just now.

"I'm so sorry, I just found out about this news, and I want to thank you for telling me."

"I admire the decision they made because this is definitely the most difficult one. Even if we give them the EUV lithography machine blueprint, it is impossible for them to develop it."

“May God bless them.”

"As for the order, we are the only one in the world that can produce this sophisticated giant."

"Who do you think can take away Ames' order?"

It is no exaggeration to say that Kajedi was quite arrogant in his answer, and his words were full of confidence in his own extreme ultraviolet lithography machine.

As for whether other people are researching extreme ultraviolet lithography machines or not, he can be said to not care at all.

It will all end in failure anyway.

It has no impact on their AMS Semiconductor company at all.

As for the reporters in front of them, after listening to these answers, they keenly smelled the scent of hot news.

They took photos of Kajedi one after another, planning to write a news report based on Kajedi's evaluation after returning.

Because the event was about to start, Kajedi did not stay with the reporters for too long. After answering their questions roughly, he walked past the reporters and left.

For journalists, now that they have obtained the interview content they want, the rest doesn't matter.

Soon after returning to work, the content of the interview was published.

On that day, the comments of Ames President Kajedi on China's development of extreme ultraviolet lithography machines appeared on the front pages of major newspapers and media.

From the perspective of overseas users, there is nothing wrong with the content of the report. After all, the difficulty of extreme ultraviolet lithography machines is there, and it is normal that others cannot develop them.

There can't be two Ames in the world.

But when the relevant reports were spread back to China, they actually stimulated netizens.

If there were differences of opinion before, now we must conquer the extreme ultraviolet lithography machine at all costs.

Let Ames see whether others can make a lithography machine.

In the comment section of the relevant hot topic, everyone's messages were filled with indignation and were very cohesive.

"This is too arrogant. Why do you assume that we can't develop an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine? Aren't you afraid that you will get slapped in the face when the time comes?"

"The extreme ultraviolet lithography machine is indeed very difficult, but after all, it is a mature technology. There is no reason why others cannot make it. Our predecessors have seen many difficult problems like this."

"This news made my blood pressure soar. We must show them our true level in the semiconductor field."

"We must support Academician Xu."

"Even if you give us the blueprints, we can't get them done. If you have the ability, just send us the blueprints first."

"I believe in Academician Xu. With Academician Xu's participation, there will definitely be no problem."

"When we were building the space station, people overseas said it was impossible to achieve, but what was the final result?"

"I hope Academician Xu will create another miracle in the semiconductor industry and let overseas people know that there are always better places to go."

"I always have a feeling that this day will come soon."

After Xu Yuan finished his meeting at the Academy of Sciences, he went straight back to Qinghua University.

I didn't know much about what happened subsequently online.

After all, since he wanted to try to use a steady-state micro-beam light source to bypass the lithography machine and directly build a lithography factory, he must first come up with a feasible plan. He certainly couldn't do it alone, and he needed to ask Professor Zhao Xiang for help and participation.

In any case, the concept of steady-state microbunching was proposed by the other party, even though he made great contributions to its successful verification.

However, the specific application of steady-state micro-bunching will undoubtedly be smoother and more time-saving with Zhao Xiang's help.

You know, what they lack most right now is time.

It is worth mentioning that he originally thought about going to Mr. Yang first, but finally decided to clarify things with Zhao Xiang first.

Soon he arrived at the Physics Department with ease and confirmed that Zhao Xiang was in the office.

So I went straight there.

In addition, after meeting Zhao Xiang, he did not keep anyone in suspense and directly told him his idea of ​​using steady-state micro-beaming to build a lithography factory.

……

(End of this chapter)