For the next ten hours or so.
Liang Mengnan and the others adjusted the parameters five times and finally obtained five yield values. All of them were in line with the actual situation.
In other words, Xing Hai Technologies' "Virtual Factory" technology was reliable and proven to be useful. It was a super technology that could be described as a "divine skill."
"With this virtual factory, we can adjust, improve, and optimize our chip manufacturing process in the future. The cost will be a few tenths of what it used to be, and the time will be a few tenths of what it used to be. The cost of trial and error will be greatly reduced!" Liang Mengnan was so excited that he was incoherent.
"The yield of our 14-nanometer chip has not increased in the past two years. It doesn't mean that we will be satisfied with a yield of 95%. The OEM factories of Mossy Electrics and Samsin have a yield of more than 98% for their 14-nanometer chips. A difference of three to four percentage points means that they can earn a few more percent of profit, or maintain a few percentage points advantage over us in terms of price, so that we do not have a competitive advantage in terms of price.
Moreover, the OEM factories of Mossy Electrics and Samsin not only have a higher chip yield, but their production efficiency is also higher than ours. Their production line can produce 300,000 chips a day. We can only produce 250,000 at most. Our production efficiency is not as good as theirs.
The most fundamental reason for their lead is that they have money. They have the conditions to make continuous trial and error, adjust and improve the chip manufacturing process, and increase the chip production efficiency. They have a lot of money to invest in the research and development of the next generation of processes. Under the Matthew effect, their lead is becoming more and more stable.
But Zhong Xin International can't do it. We have no money, we have no manpower, and we need profits to maintain the company's operations. The 14-nanometer production line is the company's biggest source of profit. We can't stop for even a moment! Not to mention continuing to improve the production process. Hence, the yield has been stuck there. "
"Now, Xing Hai Technologies' virtual factory has perfectly solved the difficulties we have encountered! We can do process improvement experiments in the virtual factory, adjust parameters, add new processes, or reduce cumbersome processes. Through computer simulations, we can explore ways to achieve high speed production! "
"The simulation speed of the supercomputer is very fast. What we gain in a month in reality is not as good as what this supercomputer can achieve in three days. The efficiency of exploring better processes will be greatly improved!"
"Our chip yield and production efficiency will both increase!"
The technical director, Yang Ming, explained the significance of the virtual factory with great excitement. He said loudly, "With the virtual factory, the technological gap between Zhong Xin International and the world-class OEM factories will shrink by ten times. We can definitely catch up to them in two years!"
"That's right, we'll catch up to them."
Zhang Wei Jin and the rest nodded. Yang Ming's statement was not exaggerated at all. Assuming that Zhongxin International lagged behind Mossy Electrics and Samsin by 20 years, there was hope for them to catch up within two years if they were to catch up at ten times the speed.
The cost of catching up would only be a few tenths of what it was before.
The Virtual Factory was that terrifying!
Talking about the chip manufacturing process.
Was the process really that mysterious?
As long as there was a good photolithography machine, what kind of chips could not be produced?
In fact, this statement was extremely absurd.
The photolithography machine was only an important part of the chip manufacturing process. It was not the entire process.
There were more than 2000 processes, and this was the core technology of the chip manufacturing.
This required the OEM factory to have extremely strong system integration and precise production coordination capabilities. The process of exploring thousands of processes was definitely more difficult than the core technology research and development.
Don't underestimate the OEM chip industry just because of the word "OEM" in the OEM chip factory. If there were no OEM chip factories, the lithography machine factories, etching machine factories, ion implantation machine factories, and other core equipment suppliers wouldn't be able to manufacture chips.
The chip manufacturing process of the OEM chip factory was also the most important and core technology.
In addition, in the field of chip manufacturing, foreign countries had lifted the embargo on the Z country a few years ago, including the photolithography machine and other core equipment. Other than the fact that the order of supply was a little behind, the Z country's chip enterprises could buy the most advanced photolithography equipment as long as they had the money.
The reason why foreign countries did not impose an embargo on the Z country was that a few research institutions in the Z country had conquered many key technologies in the field of photolithography. Once the embargo was imposed, the Z country's enterprises would be able to achieve breakthroughs in a few years, and they would be shooting themselves in the foot. On the other hand, having advanced photolithography machines did not mean that they had mastered the first-class chip manufacturing technology.
For example, the photolithography machines currently used by the chip giants in the world were mostly the 193nm immersion lithography machine produced by the Dutch company Asmael. The existing chips were all made with the 193nm immersion lithography machine. (As for the photolithography machine with such a large wavelength, how could it produce chips with a smaller process? This was the power of advanced processing technology).
As for the chips with a smaller process such as the 10nm, 7nm, and even smaller, the 13nm extreme ultraviolet lithography machine (EUV) must be used to ensure that the chips had stable performance and a higher yield. There was no embargo on the sale of this kind of photolithography machine to the Z country. Zhong Xin International had ordered an EUV two years ago at a cost of 120 million USD! The goods arrived last year and were used in the research of more advanced process chips. However, no substantial breakthrough had been achieved until now.
Now, with the development bonus of Xing Hai Technologies' virtual factory, they could wait until the yield and production efficiency of the 14-nanometer chips were improved before they moved on to the 10-nanometer, 7-nanometer, and even the smaller 5-nanometer chips. Zhang Wei Jin and the others predicted that they would definitely achieve a major breakthrough in a short period of time!
"President Zhang, Brother Liang, why don't we skip the 10-nanometer and go straight to the 7-nanometer? With a magical tool like the virtual factory in our hands, we will have endless opportunities for trial and error even though there will be many difficulties in the beginning. Our trial and error costs are extremely low! If we skip the generation and go straight to the 7-nanometer, we will reach the most advanced level of Mossy Electrics and Samsin. Once we complete the breakthrough, we will definitely shock the entire industry! "
A whimsical idea suddenly popped up in Yang Ming's mind.
Everyone's eyes lit up.
"I think … we can give it a try!"
"Actually, we are almost done with the 10-nanometer chip. The yield rate is terrible, but at least we have produced a few chips that are up to standard and can be used. We can use these as our technical reserves and directly enter the 7-nanometer. We should not encounter too many detours."
"Indeed, we can be bold and give it a try. We can develop by leaps and bounds! If we succeed in the development of the 7-nanometer chip, not only will the industry be shocked, but the confidence of our shareholders will also soar. Our stock prices will definitely skyrocket! "
Zhang Wei Jin's face was flushed with excitement.
It did not matter even if the attempt failed. At most, it would only delay some time and waste some research and development costs. Compared to the huge potential benefits, it was worth the risk!
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