Ren ZhengfeiHangml4 once pointed out that the reason why Huawei was stucked is because the high-end chips were designed, which were not yet manufactured by domestic basic industries. " leaks and rains all night long ", on October 7, the United States included 31 Chinese companies and related research institutions on the entity list, strictly restricting the sale of cutting-edge production equipment to them to produce advanced process chips.
The United States has made "technology without borders" a joke with practical actions. We should also abandon the fantasy of win-win cooperation with a certain country. Only by relying on one's own strength and realizing the independence of the semiconductor industrial chain can we completely get rid of the US's technological blockade. Although it is no less difficult to achieve this step than to reach the top, fortunately, the United States is not the final word for such a complex industrial chain. Mr. Ren's words are actually half right...
"100 million words are engraved on one grain of rice"? This legendary boss did it!
"We can now engrave 100 million words on a grain of rice." It is not someone else who says this sentence "crazy talk and lie", but the legendary returnee and the "father of etching machines" in China, Yin Zhiyao . He returned from the United States empty-handed at the age of 60 and founded the China Micro Company . Now it has become a world-class etching giant. Because of its complete independent research and development of technical patents, even the United States has no choice but to release it on the white list.
However, for a long time, most netizens have never heard of Yin Zhiyao's famous reputation. This is not unrelated to the problem of media selective rendering of lithography machine , which directly leads the public to ignore the importance of etching machines. In fact, in the chip manufacturing process, there are three main production technologies, namely lithography technology, etching technology and thin film deposition technology. The corresponding equipment is lithography machine, plasma etching machine and thin film. These main production equipment are indispensable, and the film machine does not have a choke problem at present. The etching machine has already achieved its own independence and has long been equipped with the etching conditions for 5nm high-end chips. TSMC, SMIC , etc. are all customers of micro , so Mr. Ren said that it is impossible to produce high-end Kirin chips designed by HiSilicon in China. In fact, it is only half right - , we have already done the independent etching of cutting-edge SoCs, and the biggest contributor to completing this historic step is Yin Zhiyao.
In order to give readers a more full and three-dimensional understanding of the boss, as usual, let’s first take a highlight resume of Yin Zhiyao:
Yin Zhiyao, born in 1944, can be said to be a descendant of a famous family. His father was a famous electric chemistry expert who returned from studying in Japan to serve in the society. Perhaps because of his influence, Yin Zhiyao has developed a strong interest in chemical science since he was a child, and has won many scholarships because of his excellent grades. ;
In 1962, Yin Zhiyao was successfully admitted to (later) , which is known as the ceiling of chemistry majors. After graduation, Yin Zhiyao was assigned to work in Lanzhou Oil Refinery and the Lanzhou Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. This has been done for 10 years. However, Yin Zhiyao also wanted to further consolidate himself in his major. He was not satisfied with an iron rice bowl with no worries about food and clothing. There was always a voice in his heart who did big things.
1978, Yin Zhiyao used his spare time to study and successfully entered the Department of Chemistry of Peking University. When he visited the most advanced computers in China at that time, Yin Zhiyao was greatly touched and planted the spark of his love for semiconductors in his heart. After obtaining a master's degree in chemistry from Peking University, he went to the University of California to study for a doctorate. In just 3 years, he obtained a doctorate degree in physics.
1983~1985, Yin Zhiyao worked as an engineer at Intel Corporation in Silicon Valley, and the Research and Development Department of Intel Center. It was the starting point of his career in gilding in Silicon Valley. The development of vision and ability in the stage lay the groundwork for Yin Zhiyao's subsequent career as a result;
In 1986, Yin Zhiyao was favored by LAM Research and joined LAM. It took only 5 years to lead LAM to the top of the world and become the world's largest etching machine company. At that time, LAM's market share was as high as 40%. Once the LAM was successful, Yin Zhiyao also became famous. Many top companies extended olive branches to him, including the famous applied materials company and AMAT, the largest semiconductor equipment manufacturer today.
At that time, AMAT took advantage of the turbulence of LAM management and sucked Yin Zhiyao into his command. In the past ten years, with Yin Zhiyao's joining, AMAT became more powerful and soon became the world's largest etching machine company, and its revenue scale was far ahead of the largest lithography machine manufacturer ASML.
can be said to be the golden twenty years in which Yin Zhiyao shined in his career. He started as a small engineer and worked as vice president of the global etching machine overlord. It is no exaggeration to say that half of the people in the world use equipment he (participated in) to develop.
In 2004, Yin Zhiyao, who had already been in the high position of vice president of AMAT, resolutely resigned and led 15 confidant generals to return to China. In the same year, he founded the China Micro Semiconductor Equipment Company, and then the story began.
ten years of hard work, and the science and technology service
60 returned to China to start a business. Yin Zhiyao's determination is understandable. However, in the first few years of founding Zhongwei in Shanghai, he never stopped the trouble. Former owners such as LAM and AMAT sued Zhongwei many times on the grounds of returning to China with false "carrying technology secrets" and attempted to kill Yin Zhiyao's ideal of serving the country with science and technology in the cradle, but in the end, they all miscalculated...
Neckshaw still needs to be strong himself, Yin Zhiyao has been from the United States He left cleanly and returned home almost empty-handedly without carrying any relevant technical information on paper or electronic files. Because Yin Zhiyao and his team firmly believed that I could create and invent a series of technical patents in the United States, and after I returned to China, I could also use original independent technology to make great efforts. Sure enough, the two giants of Panlin and Applied Materials filed a series of lawsuits against Zhongwei, and they eventually lost without exception. After repeated reviews, the United States found that there was no handle for Zhongwei, so they opened a whitelist to it (Zhongwei can supply American companies and around the world). Yin Zhiyao was not only not bored, but also unexpectedly obtained a world communication certificate, creating the history of Chinese semiconductors.After removing obstacles from
, Yin Zhiyao led the team to work day and night, working hard for more than ten years, and finally pushed Zhongwei Company to the top five suppliers of etching equipment in the world, completely filling the gap in domestic high-end etching equipment. How powerful is Zhongwei's technical strength?
As of the end of 2021, Zhongwei has applied for 2,012 patents, including invention patents, , , 251 utility model patents, and the remaining 20 patents, accounting for nearly 90%. It is worth mentioning that Yin Zhiyao alone has won more than 400 domestic and foreign patents. First-class R&D strength and smart results output capabilities have become Zhongwei's greatest confidence.
The so-called "high-skilled people and brave people" are also hardworking. Yin Zhiyao's China Micro team also participated in the research and development of Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 970 chip in 2017, which played a crucial role in the iterative evolution of Huawei AI chips. Of course, this is a later story.
In April 2018, Zhongwei was the first to break through 5nm etching technology, which caused a sensation in the industry. However, at that time, many media and self-media were aiming to attract attention and irresponsibly said, "We have broken through the 5nm chip manufacturing process." This made Yin Zhiyao very distressed because he understood that scientific researchers should be the most down-to-earth. Zhongwei can etch 5nm high-end chips, but it does not mean that we can be free from fear of US sanctions, because "printing" IC design patterns on chemical films still requires EUV lithography that relies on ASML.
In April 2021, Yin Zhiyao revealed in the Yang Lan interview program "The Wind Chaser" that the design, manufacturing, testing and preliminary process development and evaluation of Zhongwei 3nm etching machine Alpha prototype have been completed. In Yin Zhiyao's view, Moore's Law is going to be constantly broken. He said that he and the practitioners in the semiconductor industry are still striving to impact the physical limits of 2nm and 1nm. "Our etching machine has actually engraved with one or two atoms ," which is probably unparalleled technical confidence!
Of course, Zhongwei has made important contributions to the independence of my country's semiconductor equipment, and the country has never treated it unfairly. It can even be said that since Yin Zhiyao returned to China to start a business, he has attached great importance to it and continued to support it. The real money that can be found only includes the first phase investment of the National Big Fund (the specific amount is unknown, conservatively estimated to be more than 1 billion) and the second phase investment of the Big Fund as high as 2.5 billion.
However, this is also the preferential treatment that Yin Zhiyao and Zhongwei should receive. Investing in such an independent etching leader is 10,000 times more reliable than spending massive funds on chip projects that cheat subsidies, right?
As of the end of June 2022, Yin Zhiyao held 6.2 million shares, accounting for 1% of the company's issued share capital. Zhongwei offered Yin Zhiyao with sincerity, up to 6.6968 million yuan. Of course, even an annual salary of tens of millions is not an exaggeration, because technical tycoons like Yin Zhiyao and Liang Mengsong have created direct economic value of 100 million yuan, and their contribution and far-reaching impact on China's semiconductor industry chain are by no means measurable. The legendary story of
and Yin Zhiyao continues. Next, we should look forward to the surprises that Shangwei brings to us in the field of self-developed lithography machines. I believe that with such a group of top scientists and entrepreneurs who are determined to serve the country, it is only time for us to completely get rid of the technology blockade in the United States!
The future number one technological power will surely belong to China!
Reference materials:
Economic Observer, China Micro Company Public Report, Yang Lan Interview Record, etc., Tuyuan.com
