What is the use of silicon wafers?

In the manufacture of microcircuits on silicon wafers are manufactured in batches, in a tiny area of transistors, resistors, capacitors, and according to the requirements of the circuit is not easy, and in a certain area of silicon wafers on the manufacture of a consistent performance of the chip is even more difficult. The production of integrated circuits, mostly from the beginning of the preparation of silicon wafers, the preparation of silicon wafers require specialized equipment and strict production conditions. The production process of integrated circuits is even more complex, in order to ensure the quality of the process requires the use of a large number of expensive equipment. Just take photolithography as an example, we buy a photolithography machine from abroad is the price of 20 million U.S. dollars, and photolithography machine model upgrades such as upgrading from 5000 to 6000, it is necessary to invest hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars. Moreover, the production of integrated circuits on the production plant temperature, humidity, air cleanliness have high requirements, integrated circuit production are generally in the ultra-clean workshop, the plant's capital investment is also much higher than the general plant, as opposed to the 0.25-micron 6-inch production line construction investment of $200 million, the construction of a 0.25-micron 8-inch line will need to invest 1.0 billion to 1.5 billion U.S. dollars.

Integrated circuit manufacturing process, equipment is not only very complex and expensive, but also requires continuous innovation. Intel has recently announced that it will invest 7.5 billion U.S. dollars to transform its current 0.18-micron production technology and equipment to use 0.13-micron manufacturing process, and in this process of manufacturing integrated circuits on the chip using copper wire technology rather than the current aluminum wire technology, because copper wire technology can make the chip run faster, lower cost and use of the warming amplitude is smaller.

When we have somehow overcome the technology blockade and equipment embargo, we are constrained by the fact that there is still a considerable gap in the foundation of our technology industry. To give an example, the development of photolithography requires optics, precision instruments, machinery, computer control and other disciplines of knowledge, although we can prototype photolithography instruments and principles clear, but after a series of materials, processing to the production of the link, is not able to make the mass production of such a machine to. We can buy photolithography from the United States, from Italy to buy the etching machine, etc., but we are difficult to configure these devices together, China's research in the IC process has not been a major breakthrough in the IC process is the bridge between the design and the equipment and the basis of the design and the process is not combined with the design can not be done, the equipment can not be done.

There is also a worth pointing out that the introduction of technology is not equal to the promotion of independent technology. With China's opening to the outside world, the economic environment is increasingly relaxed, and now technology, capital, equipment are introduced in sets, which has a certain positive effect in promoting China's equipment and materials, but for the other aspects of the impact is not too much, because the introduction of this has not changed the technological and industrial basis of China's integrated circuits, in the core technology level and did not make us shorten the gap between the advanced level and what.

Tell us about a personal experience. Shougang N EC's initial introduction of 6 inches, 0.5 micron (part of the 0.35 micron) production process, the beginning of the N EC is responsible for the management of production, product sales, the days are very good, we proposed that we would like to research and development cooperation with them, but quite cold. However, a few years later, the technology they introduced became outdated, and the foreign side also let go of the license to do "OEM", but without technical support, what can be done? Later, they came back to us for cooperation. Recently, we also heard the news of Huahong NEC's huge loss, and some people asked: if, as the relevant person of Huahong NEC said, its loss was due to the decline in the world's demand for semiconductors and the plummeting of the price of D RAM, can we do something else when D RAM cannot be sold anymore? We don't have the development capability to make a product transition.