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Chapter 190 The research and development of lithography machine technology is more difficult (Please subscribe! Please support!)
Even so, in the market competition between Xingguang Technology Company and Huaxin International, it is impossible for Ouyang Dehe to give in. When it is time to fight, he must fight without mercy.

However, compared with the wafer production process and the manufacture of smart chips, the research and manufacture of lithography machines is the biggest difficulty.

In [-], before Ouyang Dehe was reborn, he had seen such a piece of news.

ASML, the giant of Helan lithography machine, released its 2020 Q4 and full-year financial report. The world's lithography machine overlord shipped a total of 31 EUV lithography machines last year. Due to various reasons, mainland China did not buy them. to any of them.

It is not an exaggeration to say that ASMAN is the only company that can beat TJT.

The lithography machine produced by Asman is the most critical tool for semiconductor factories to produce chips.After all, without a knife, even the best master can't carve flowers.

If any manufacturer's lithography equipment needs to be repaired, the manufacturer will pay them hourly dollars from the moment Aschin's engineers board the plane.

Once, after a listed company had a problem with its lithography machine, it took three years to wait in line for Asman's engineer.

As a result, the engineers of ASMAN came to take a look and said that it had been stored for too long. Instead of repairing it, it is better to buy a refurbished second-hand mobile phone, which only costs more than 2000 million US dollars. They are so arrogant.

ASML was born out of Philips. When it was established, it had not sold a single lithography machine, and it was the last one in the industry.

Employees are only waiting for the company to close down and return to the arms of its parent company, Philips. The company is short of money all year round, and its bank accounts often have only five-figure balances.

After overcoming various difficulties, its happiness also came quickly.It went public 11 years after its establishment, and was selected by one of the most powerful technology alliances in the United States to join, and was deeply bound with companies such as Intel.

Aslow took the customer's money and developed the strongest EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography machine. So far, no second company can compete with it in the high-end lithography machine market.

Only by understanding the rise of the world's top lithography machine overlord can we have a clearer look at how Starlight should catch up.

ASML was born in Philips Physics Laboratory (Natalab for short) and Philips Science and Industry Department (S&I for short), and was once a toy in the hands of a group of talented scientists.

The exposure-etching process of chip manufacturing is similar to the principle of printing photos, and some people describe it as engraving, except that the lithography machine carves chips, and the "knife" is light.

The process of lithography machine determines the size and performance of the chip, and is one of the most important equipment for producing semiconductor chips.

Philips believes the lithography opportunity is the most valuable legal money printing machine as the chip industry booms.

However, in the 70s, Helan's economy was in recession, and Philips, which was in a business crisis, lost interest in hatching eggs and wanted to divest this project that had burned hundreds of millions of dollars.

Trost, who was in charge of the lithography machine project at that time, approached three companies to discuss the joint venture of the lithography machine project, but all ended in failure.

Just when Trost lost hope, Helan's semiconductor equipment manufacturer ASM International appeared.

Del Prado, the chief executive of ASM, has always hoped to build a relationship with the giant Philips, but he failed to visit Philips several times.

Del Prado is a very ambitious man, good at taking advantage of opportunities and not afraid of risks.

One dared to buy, the other wanted to sell, and the deal was quickly concluded.

In 50, S&I and ASM established a joint venture, Asman, with each party holding [-]% of the shares.

Philips and ASM originally agreed to each inject $210 million into the joint venture, but after excluding 180 lithography machines worth $30 million and other inventories, Philips only transferred $[-] to the AS slow account.

At that time, there were ten players in the lithography machine market, including the American GCA and Perkin-Elmer, which occupied a large market share, and the rookies of Japan's Nikon and Canon, who were eyeing up. Asman belonged to the bottom one.

Almost no one is optimistic about Aspen.Some analysts publicly stated that the joint venture between ASM and Philips is doomed to fail. Philips has the world's most advanced "stepper lithography machine" technology, but it doesn't know what to do with the lithography machine.

The 47 employees who were transferred from Philips to Asman thought that they were just a joke in the lithography machine market. All they had to do was wait for Asman to close down. Within four years, they would pack their bags and return to Philips. embrace.

Asman's first CEO, Jate Smit, is a keen scientist. After hearing all kinds of bad news, he has a lot of confidence in Asman.

In his view, Asman's lithography technology is ahead of the times, and its alignment technology is very advanced. The "electric wafer stage" will become Asman's unique selling point.

As long as there are excellent optical components, Asman can create world-class products.

The three major components of alignment technology, wafer table, and optical lens will also become powerful tools for Asman products in the future.

In addition, under Moore's Law, the number of transistors that can be accommodated on an integrated circuit will double every eighteen months, which requires the lithography machine that produces the chip to keep iterating.

Even better, at the time of technological change in the semiconductor industry, manufacturers were seeking to transform from large-scale integration (LSI) to very large-scale integration (VLSI), and lithography machines would also usher in a major technological change.

Schmidt believes that as long as a new device that meets the manufacturer's needs can be manufactured within two years, ASMAN will be able to achieve cornering overtaking and become the first in the industry.

After all, in the face of new technologies, all players stand on the same starting line.

Since then, the first half of ASML's life of rushing to push new products has begun.

In 2500, ASML started developing the product that carried all the company's hopes, the PAS [-].

Smit initially estimated that it would require $150 million in R&D funding.The two parent companies only agreed to increase the investment by [-] million US dollars each, and the rest had to be figured out by themselves.

The first step for Aspen to survive slowly is to win the order of Philips Semiconductor and Materials Division, hereinafter referred to as Elcoma.

Winning the order of Elcoma is equivalent to getting the platform of the parent company Philips.

The first step for ASML to survive is to win an order from Philips Semiconductor and Materials Division (hereinafter referred to as "Elcoma").Winning an order from Elcoma is equivalent to getting the platform of parent company Philips.

Fat water does not flow to outsiders, Elcoma placed an order for face, but asked ASML to deliver the first PAS 2500 before April [-], [-].

The Elcoma executive also said, "It can't be a day later, otherwise, I will choose Niguan."

In the 80s of the [-]th century, the rapid rise of Nirvana in the island country, compared with GCA, the leading lithography machine in Citigroup, the performance of Nirvana's lithography machine is more stable.

In 90.00, GCA was still in the island market, occupying a market share of [-]%.

By 40.00, it had dropped to [-]%[-], and most of the market was taken away by the island nation's Nirvana.

In addition, it is also a necessary step to send the new lithography machine products to Citigroup's SEMICON West exhibition to gain the reputation of Asman.

But this meant that ASML needed to deliver one PAS 2500 in April and May [-].

The research and development time should be shortened from two years to eighteen months.

Schmidt demanded that PAS 2500 must come up with a prototype product on January [-], [-], otherwise, the order would not be delivered and the company would be ruined.

(End of this chapter)