Chapter 396 Technology Transfer

1986年的“531战略”，1990年的“908工程”，1995年的“909工程”，国家组织三次技术攻坚。

We are aggressively attacking electronic technology in the hope of maintaining the domestic market.

Many integrated circuit and semiconductor companies were born one after another, including Wuxi Huajing, Shaoxing Huayue, Shanghai Belling, Shanghai Philips and Shougang NEC.
But except Wuxi Huajing, which achieved break-even after the injection of capital from Taiwan, the rest of the companies all failed.

Because before the reform, the main customer of domestic electronic technology was the military, there was no market pressure and the yield rate was very low.

The yield rate of 3-micron chips is less than %, while the US technology has reached %.

The country realized early on that the semiconductor industry needed to make progress, but the industrial cluster was besieged and blocked, with no external technology input and no internal market circulation.

Several attacks ended in failure.

If we directly tell the country that the idea of establishing "Hong Kong TSMC" would be difficult to gain support in the 1980s, and it would be easy to be attacked by conservative forces.

It will take three complete failures in the “technological battles” before the country will change its mind.

As a patriotic Hong Kong businessman, it is easier to come to China to buy equipment and talk business than politics.

Liang Manping contacted his superiors and quickly got approval. He came to Yin Zhaotang's room and said with a smile, "Atang, the Components Industry Administration of the Ministry of Electronics Industry has specially approved Tsinghua Research Institute to build a fourth-generation lithography machine for export. The price still needs to be negotiated."

“How many units do you plan to order?”

Yin Zhaotang said: "One or two will be enough. It depends on the price. It won't be a lot."

In high-end technology transactions with high unit prices, the purchase amount is the bargaining chip, so how could I tell Liang Manping? Liang Manping laughed, his eyes full of meaning, and stopped pursuing: "As for the price, a three-micron one might cost half a million dollars."

The current mainstream lithography machines are between 3 microns and 1.5 microns, and the price of the 1.5 micron machine is as high as 200 million US dollars.

The most well-known is Nikon NSR-1010G, which is famous for its cutting-edge technology and low price, and accounts for % of the sales volume in the global lithography machine market.

The products of the American GCA are priced at up to 500 million US dollars.

Of course, the 3-micron one will be cheaper, but Nikon's price is as high as 100 million US dollars, while the domestic 3-micron one is sold for 50 US dollars, which once again reflects the advantages of domestic manufacturing.

The Walkman's circuit boards are completely manufactured using 3-micron technology.

"Five hundred thousand, that's a bit expensive."

"I don't have much cash on hand, I can only buy one at most." Yin Zhaotang said with a smile. Liang Manping lit up a cigarette: "You make over a million dollars a month, but you are so stingy, you don't have the generosity of Hong Kong businessmen."

Yin Zhaotang said: "It's all hard-earned money, boss!"

Liang Manping nodded: "Okay, I'll help you negotiate the price."

Half a million US dollars is already a considerable amount of foreign exchange, and Tsinghua Institute is definitely willing to accept the order. Legally speaking, lithography machines are allowed to be exported, but they are blocked in China and there are no buyers.

The people at the Shanghai Electric Factory No. 14 had never sold anything at all. Out of vigilance against external forces, they refused to sell cutting-edge equipment and wanted to receive orders by providing finished circuit boards.

In fact, it is still a very smart and responsible plan, but the tone is unquestionable and a bit arrogant.

Liang Manping is not a "mechanical and electrical system" person. No matter how high his position is, he can only coordinate when purchasing equipment. People who work in foreign affairs have great power abroad, but their influence in local areas at home will decline rapidly. Without coordination, nothing can be done.

But the advantage of a high level is that it has more tentacles and more solutions. Since Shanghai Electric’s 14th Factory couldn’t buy them, it went directly to Tsinghua Research Institute to place an order.

In terms of cost, it has actually decreased, and the power of the position is fully reflected.

The next day, morning.

The people from Tsinghua Research Institute flew to Guangzhou and went to the hotel without stopping to negotiate the order. The technology of photolithography is indeed sensitive, but the red-top businessmen can help the country sell goods and even buy goods from the country!

Yin Zhaotang was politically qualified, and his development of Chunghwa Electronics attracted much attention from the higher-ups. Mr. Wu from Shenzhen helped, and there was no problem in transferring the technology to Hong Kong. The only remaining issue was the price.

The Tsinghua faction's representative was extremely cunning. He insisted on a price of US$500,000 per unit and refused to give an inch.

Yin Zhaotang even suspected that the trump card had been revealed, and finally increased the order quantity to three units, with a transaction amount of US$1.5 million, without any discount on the price.

The negotiations stopped at noon that day, but continued in the evening. The Tsinghua representative showed goodwill and proposed preferential terms: "For each device, the institute can assign three technicians to go to Hong Kong Island to be responsible for debugging and research work."

Yin Zhaotang picked up the teacup, drank a sip of hot tea, and said slowly: "Can technicians apply for permanent residency in Hong Kong Island?"

The representative said: "The law does not set restrictions. It depends on their personal wishes. But if someone returns to China to work or study, Tsinghua will continue to send them. Three people per device is the minimum configuration."

Yin Zhaotang smoked a cigar and looked at the Tsinghua representatives.

The representative uses the action of drinking water to avoid eye contact and hide his guilty conscience.

Debugging equipment is secondary. Collecting data, learning foreign technology and bringing it back to China is the real thing!
He was too lazy to expose the Tsinghua Research Institute's little tricks, but being able to get a few high-tech talents for free and reach early cooperation with the country's top university was a win-win situation for both parties.

If we go to the United States or Japan to buy lithography machines, we will also need to equip them with relevant personnel and pay them high salaries.

Because the research of cutting-edge equipment requires a large amount of data, and the flow of each device must be clear, in order to prevent the equipment from falling into the hands of competing countries, or even leaving a backdoor.

Yin Zhaotang agreed and added: "Researchers cannot enter and leave Hong Kong through legal channels, and many of the factory's equipment must be imported. If they are discovered abroad, some of the equipment may be confiscated."

The Tsinghua representative looked delighted: "No problem."

Liang Manping also said: "Don't worry, we will solve your concerns."

If we don’t cooperate with foreign equipment and raise the yield rate of the production line to more than 70%, the cost of the Walkman will be too high and the electronics factory will not be able to make a profit.

Although the photolithography machine is an important machine for integrated circuit boards, it is not the only machine. The domestic cutting-edge technology is sufficient, but the supporting technology is not enough. We can cooperate with foreign supporting technology and optimize it step by step.

According to the policy, most of the foreign exchange costing 1.5 million US dollars for these three devices will be converted into domestic currency and allocated to the research institute. At the same time, a small portion of the foreign exchange will be returned. It can be regarded as a transfusion to the domestic semiconductor industry. Be a buyer!
In the evening, the two parties signed a purchase agreement at Guangcheng Hotel. The first deposit of US$300,000 was traded through an offshore account.

The first equipment and personnel will arrive in Hong Kong Island this month, and the remaining two equipment will arrive in succession within three months.

Tsinghua Research Institute had no export orders before, but the parts of the domestically produced fourth-generation lithography machines are all independently manufactured, and finished products have been supplied to the Ministry of Electronics Industry, so the production process is very fast.

Zhou Jianhua was still staying in the hotel waiting for the order. After learning that Tsinghua Research Institute would directly export the machines, he felt empty inside, as if he had been heartbroken.

(End of this chapter)

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