Chips have many applications, but their specific applications in medical devices are not too numerous.
For example, according to data from 2019, total semiconductor sales in the global medical device terminal market were US$5.6 billion, accounting for only 1.3% of the total semiconductor market.
What's the result? If your volume is too low, the chip manufacturers will find it unprofitable, so they'll raise prices sharply.
The price increased 100 times in one go. Are you afraid? (This is what really happened)
No matter how powerful medical giants such as Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson, GE Healthcare, Siemens, Abbott, Stryker, Roche, etc. are, they still have to rely on chip companies.
The shipment volume of your products depends on how many chips others supply you.
Your technical ceiling also depends on the level of the chips sold to you.
Other industries don’t know whether the prices of medical device chips are going to skyrocket, and then the prices of medical devices will skyrocket. This is the biggest headache for all manufacturers.
Those who pay the bill are downstream purchasing hospitals or physical examination centers, and the ultimate payers are the patients.
Just like the Pumpkin Vine Pharmaceutical Company now, it has just developed a new type of "laparoscopic instrument", and the other party is about to raise the price by dozens of times. Without the chip, Pumpkin Vine's medical equipment will be discontinued?
So what flashed through Chen Xia’s mind was, if I don’t want to buy it, can I make it myself?
At the Japan Industrial Expo that year, in addition to stealing several five-uranium machine tools, he also stole several photolithography machines, which are key machines for manufacturing chips.
But after so many years, China's chip technology has not made any progress, which leaves Chen Xia puzzled.
It is estimated that the "it is better to buy than to make" thinking of some people like "Three Loyal Martyrs in One Family" has become mainstream, causing the chip development plan to fail like Chen Xia in his previous life.
This made him understand a truth: he would never be a saint again and would no longer steal things to give to the country.
If you really want to make a contribution to society and the nation, you might as well make it yourself for fun. It is better to rely on yourself than to rely on others.
The person who was most excited when he heard his boss say that he wanted to make chips was Zhang Lianchang.
Zhang Lianchang is in his 40s and studied under President Xie Xide, who is known as the "Mother of Chinese Semiconductors."
Making chips, making China's own chips, has always been the dream of Ms. Xie and her students. However, with the arrival of certain special times, the research was forced to be interrupted.
After waiting for a long time for the reform and opening up, just when chip researchers were preparing to work hard to catch up with the United States and Britain, the country suddenly stopped supporting chip manufacturing, resulting in the project being cancelled.
It was with such a disappointed mood that Zhang Lianchang returned to Huaqing University to teach.
Later, the Pumpkin Vine Pharmaceutical Company planned to develop medical equipment on its own. As a professional in integrated circuits and semiconductors, Zhang Lianchang was also seconded to Pumpkin Vine.
In the end, he was poached and became the director of the Pumpkin Vine Medical Device Research Center.
He was willing to resign from his professorship at Huaqing University just to have the opportunity to develop his own chips.
Now that the boss himself said he wanted to make chips, Zhang Lianchang was really excited:
"Boss, you finally thought of making chips. I tell you, we have to hurry up. Now European and American countries, including South Korea, Japan, and even Taiwan are focusing on developing the chip industry. If we don't catch up quickly, I'm afraid we will fall behind completely."
Chen Xia understood the importance of chips, and also knew how backward Chinese chips were in later generations (not just bragging), but he was unsure.
Making chips is a project that even the country doesn't dare to undertake. Can a small private company like him afford the cost?
In his previous life, Chen Xia had read a report that said the United States was preparing to build a new production line for mass production of 3-nanometer chips, with an investment of more than 25 billion US dollars, close to 200 billion RMB.
Wow, that's an astronomical figure. Even if Chen Xia sells everything he has, he can't come up with that much money.
"Professor Zhang, if we were to manufacture our own chips, do you think it would be difficult? I heard that a single wafer production line would cost tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars. Can our Four Seasons Group afford that?"
Zhang Lianchang looked confused.
"Mr. Chen, where did you hear that? Who said building a wafer production line would cost tens of billions of dollars?"
Chen Xia was also confused: "Huh, isn't it?"
Zhang Lianchang looked puzzled and said, "It doesn't have to be that expensive. A production line that can produce 0.35-micron wafers and produce 30,000 wafers per month would only cost about $500 million."
"$500 million?"
Chen Xia thought about it and felt that the number was quite exaggerated. Fortunately, he could still afford it.
Zhang Lianchang saw his boss looking thoughtful and decided to add fuel to the fire and cheer Chen Xia up:
"Mr. Chen, let me tell you the three key things needed to make chips.
One is to have money.
Research investment is driven by money, and this is true all over the world. I believe that for Pumpkin Vine to have developed to this day and invented so many drugs, Mr. Chen must have invested an astronomical amount of money, and I can definitely relate to this."
Chen Xia rolled his eyes in his heart and thought, "I rely on the golden finger, not a huge investment, okay?"
Zhang Lianchang didn't know what was going on in Chen Xia's mind, so he started to lecture her earnestly:
"The second most important thing is people.
Making chips requires a large number of professional engineers, so Mr. Chen doesn’t have to worry about not being able to recruit technical talents.
You have to know that we Chinese are one of the smartest races in the world. The reason why the mainland cannot produce chips is not because the Chinese are stupid, but because the system is limited.
If you don’t believe it, you can go to Silicon Valley and see how many Chinese scientists are working in these high-tech companies.
Most of the chip experts in the United States are Chinese. There are about 200,000 Chinese semiconductor engineers in Silicon Valley, and more than half of the top talents in the US chip industry are Chinese.
Top semiconductor experts like Jensen Huang, Ming-kai Tsai, Realtek, Weili Dai, Lisa Su, and Shengli Peng are all Chinese.
So we don't lack talent; what we lack is a stage where they can perform. When Mr. Chen goes to Silicon Valley and waves a check, there will definitely be a large number of chip talents willing to join our company."
Chen Xia thought so too. He had a childhood friend in his previous life who went to study in the United States after graduating from university. After graduation, he joined Lam Research in the United States and became an engineer.
When the two were chatting, this childhood friend said that his major was useless in China, and when the semiconductor industry was developed in China one day, he would definitely consider returning to China to develop and be closer to his parents.
Even if we don’t talk about feelings, as long as there is money, who can’t be recruited?
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