After this chaotic New Year, Chen Xia has to devote himself to the work of the new year.
The development of several Chinese patent medicines went very smoothly. The secret recipes were ready, and Pumpkin Vine Pharmaceuticals had no shortage of experimental equipment. In addition, with lax supervision these days, it wouldn't be long before they were put on the market.
However, we still encountered difficulties in the area of "medical devices".
Chen Xia had previously applied for patents for all those "laparoscopic instruments", totaling more than 3,000, but there was one problem that could not be avoided and needed to be solved urgently.
If this problem is not solved, large-scale production of laparoscopy will encounter great resistance and bottlenecks, that is, "chips".
At present, Pumpkin Vine Company has solved the materials and manufacturing processes of the laparoscope.
There are two difficult problems that are difficult to overcome at the moment.
One reason is that although a large number of patents have been applied for LCD screen technology, it still cannot be produced, so for the time being it can only be replaced by "cathode ray tube TV".
It can only be a temporary substitute because the cathode ray tube technology is not high-definition enough, which makes it easy for doctors to miss subtle lesions during surgery.
When the light-sensing camera sends back signals, the LCD screen acts like the doctor's eyes. This is a very, very important topic.
Chen Xia has commissioned scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences to invest huge sums of money to conduct further research at the experimental center in Mingde Village, Xiangjiang.
It was later discovered that the original patent for liquid crystal technology was in the hands of two Swiss scientists, and Four Seasons Group could only acquire the patent for a low price of only $100,000.
This also clears the legal obstacles for developing its own liquid crystal technology in the future.
In the future, all the patents for LCD screens, including LCD technology, OLED technology, TFT technology, TN technology, STN technology, etc., will be in Chen Xia's hands, and he will become rich.
By then, whether it is a TV, computer, mobile phone, etc., which one can do without this technology?
LCD technology is easy to solve. It will take decades to upgrade anyway, so it’s fine as long as it is sufficient at the beginning.
Chen Xia has ready-made computer LCD monitors and mobile phone screen displays. When the time comes, he can let scientists disassemble and study them and then copy them. It won't be too difficult.
But there is still a problem, that is "chip" technology.
In 1993, China also had its own semiconductor and integrated circuit technology and could manufacture 1-micron chips, but both its output and technological level were far behind those of foreign countries.
This is a very regrettable thing. You should know that in 1978, the American GCA company launched the world's first commercial step-by-step projection lithography machine - DSW4800, with a lithography accuracy of about 3 microns.
Only two years later, in 1980, Tsinghua University also developed the fourth-generation distributed projection lithography machine with an accuracy of up to 3 microns. Its chip research and development technology was second only to the United States and was close to the international mainstream level.
As a result, by the mid-to-late 1980s, because the research and development of lithography machines required a lot of financial support, some people were reluctant to spend money.
Therefore, the idea of "it is better to buy than to make" became the mainstream.
Does this four-word policy look familiar to you?
A family with three loyal martyrs is a staunch advocate of "it is better to buy than to make", and even kicked out an academician who strongly demanded independent research on chips.
Because this "loyal hero" felt that he didn't need to invest too much in chip research, as importing them from abroad was cheaper anyway.
When Noyce and Moore, two of the "Eight Traitors" of Silicon Valley in the United States, founded Intel, which is still glorious today, Silicon Valley began to receive strong support from the government.
At that time, the Japanese government organized enterprises and scientific research institutions to work together and established the "VLSI Research and Development Committee", which had a huge impact in the future. It allowed enterprises that had previously been isolated from each other to communicate with each other and mobilized the whole country to develop chips.
Even South Korea, a country that originally had no integrated circuit and semiconductor technology, realized the importance of chips and began to make efforts.
Some people in China actually say that we don’t need to make chips ourselves. We can just buy ready-made chips made abroad. It is cheap and convenient.
People like this really should be hanged on the street and apologize to the people.
A typical "traitor", the biggest "traitor"!
In 1993, China introduced the so-called latest technology, which was only capable of manufacturing 1-micron chips. Even so, due to constraints such as production processes, the cost was still very high and the output was very low.
At this time, mainstream countries have generally adopted 0.60~0.35 micron technology.
Compared with the laparoscope chip that Chen Xia took out, 0.35 is barely enough, but 1 micron is really not enough, which is a headache.
Because whatever Chen Xia wants to make, such as CT, color ultrasound machine, ECG monitor, ventilator, etc., they all need "chips", which is a technical difficulty that cannot be avoided.
Oh, there is also a "hearing aid". This was originally the latest product that Chen Xia wanted to launch this year, but it was also stuck at the chip problem.
Pumpkin Vine Medical Research Center, Mingde Village, Xiangjiang.
Ye Shirong, general manager of Pumpkin Vine Pharmaceutical, and Zhang Lianchang, director of the research center and former semiconductor professor at Huaqing University, were sitting in the office, discussing chip issues with Chen Xia.
"Boss, Intel thinks our shipment volume for the latest 0.35-micron chip is too small and the design and manufacturing costs are too high, so they've set the price at $2,000 per chip. That's really too expensive."
Ye Shirong looked at the quotation in his hand and frowned.
Zhang Lianchang quickly added, "Mr. Chen, these medical chips are currently only produced by Intel in the United States and Philips in the Netherlands. We simply can't replicate them domestically, so we have no choice but to import them."
Chen Xia was also having a headache. One chip cost $2,000, and this was just ordinary stuff. If it were the chip used in CT machines, the price would be tens of thousands of dollars.
And he has an attitude that it doesn't matter whether you buy it or not.
This price is not a big problem if it is just for retail use in research, but if you want to mass produce it, you have to consider the cost and selling price.
For example, if the price of the chip for a hearing aid reaches several hundred dollars, how much do you plan to sell a hearing aid for?
Are you going to sell hearing aids worth thousands of dollars? Who are you going to sell them to? Will they become exclusive products for the rich?
How much profit can there be?
And this laparoscope,
If the pumpkin vine is to be mass-produced, selling tens of thousands of units a year is not a problem at all, but Chen Xia has currently invested more than 100 million US dollars in the laparoscope, and this is just "imitation".
When it comes to large-scale commercial production, with such costs in place and a profit to be made, how much are you going to sell the machine for?
It’s useless if everyone knows that your machine is good but no one can afford it.
Laparoscopic medical devices need to be sold in large quantities. The higher the volume, the higher the profit and the lower the cost. This is basic common sense.
Chen Xia suddenly asked: "Can we make chips ourselves?"
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