Japanese people find it hard to accept China's rise because they are afraid.
The emergence of Wujiang Microelectronics and Wujiang Photoresist directly made their competitors uneasy.
Not long after, Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (Tokyo Shoka) suffered a fire, resulting in insufficient photoresist production and the termination of its cooperation with Wujiang Microelectronics.
JSR adjusted its production, increasing the production of i-line photoresist and reducing the production of g-line photoresist, and also terminated its cooperation with Wujiang Microelectronics.
Sumitomo Chemical and Fujifilm stated that due to the fire at Tokyo Ohka Kogyo, the global supply of g-line photoresist is tight. Sumitomo Chemical and Fujifilm will only prioritize supplying g-line photoresist to long-term strategic partners, so they have temporarily suspended their cooperation with Wujiang Microelectronics.
The four companies—Tokyo Ohka Kogyo, JSR, Sumitomo Chemical, and Fujifilm—can essentially work together to control the global photoresist market. Their orchestrated drama immediately caused global photoresist prices to soar.
The announcement specifically targeting Wujiang Microelectronics Co., Ltd. explicitly stated that they would not sell photoresist to Wujiang Microelectronics Co., Ltd.
Other photoresist manufacturers also received notifications from these four companies, requesting a joint effort to block Wujiang Microelectronics and informing them of Wujiang Photoresist's existence. If they didn't suppress them now, who would be able to compete with Wujiang once it developed its photoresist?
The alarmist rhetoric from RB manufacturers is effective.
Several photoresist manufacturers, including DuPont, Texas Instruments, and Micron Technology, have decided to suppress Wujiang Microelectronics.
Although there was no supply disruption, the high prices and purchase restrictions allowed them to make a fortune.
The price of photoresist has increased four or five times.
Wujiang Microelectronics was caught off guard. The supply of RB photoresist was cut off, and the US photoresist took advantage of the situation and even imposed purchase restrictions, which almost forced Wujiang's wafer fab to shut down.
However, the stock of photoresist is not large and cannot last for three months.
If the wafer fab shuts down, the Kirin 1 chip and MMC chip cannot be produced, and the production of many products under Wujiang Company will be suspended as a result.
“Boss, we can also get supplies from other photoresist manufacturers. Although the quantity will be smaller, it will at least be enough for emergency use. In addition, we can buy the photoresist inventory from some overseas chip companies’ wafer fabs.”
Chip companies typically build their own wafer fabs and have some photoresist inventory.
Some chip companies are on the verge of bankruptcy, so why not sell their photoresist to Wujiang Microelectronics at a high price? Even if a chip company doesn't go bankrupt, it can still free up some photoresist and resell it to Wujiang Microelectronics at a high price, thus making a fortune.
Of course, photoresist manufacturers will not allow these chip companies to take advantage of the situation and resell photoresist on a large scale for profit, and will strictly monitor every chip company that comes to buy photoresist.
At this moment, Zhao Ye mobilized all available resources to purchase g-line photoresist from all over the world.
However, even if they do this, it will only solve the problem temporarily. In the long run, Wujiang Microelectronics will definitely not be able to sustain it.
Ultimately, we still need to develop our own photoresist.
...
Headquarters of Wujiang Microelectronics Co., Ltd.
People from Wujiang Photoresist Company also came.
Everyone in the meeting room felt stifled.
Zhao Ye, on the contrary, was the most open-minded. In his previous life, he had experienced the tragedy of Huawei's mobile phone chip supply being cut off.
In fact, this kind of thing happens very often; it's not just about chip supply disruptions, but also about production equipment supply disruptions, EDA supply disruptions, and so on.
China must rely on its own efforts to develop its semiconductor industry; there is no turning back!
Don't expect others to be exceptionally kind.
The United States and other Western countries have allowed Japan and South Korea to develop advanced semiconductor industries.
But that doesn't work in China.
There's no way around it, China is just too powerful.
Two tigers cannot share one mountain, unless one is male and the other female.
Earth is just a bigger mountain.
The United States will not allow anyone to threaten its status as the world's leading power.
Therefore, any wishful thinking is wrong.
After his rebirth, Zhao Ye became determined that China's semiconductor industry must pursue independent research and development. Although difficult, it was not impossible.
China is the only country in the world with a complete industrial chain!
Although it lags behind in many aspects, it has enormous potential.
Moreover, the Chinese market is so large that it will be able to support companies across the entire semiconductor industry chain in the future.
While ASML's evu series boasts over 100,000 parts and 5,000 parts suppliers, most of these parts could actually be developed in China. As for the few technically challenging parts, surely China could overcome the challenge even with more time and effort?
It's all up to human effort!
Moreover, it's the 1980s now, and the development of lithography machines is just beginning. If China's lithography machine development progresses, it will actually suppress the development of other semiconductor companies.
As far as Zhao Ye knows, lithography machines have not made much progress in the last one or two decades since the 1990s. The industry generally believes that 193nm lithography cannot be extended to the 65nm technology node, and 157nm will become the mainstream technology.
Until 2002, TSMC's Ben-Chien Lin proposed the concept of 193nm immersion lithography. Before that, lithography machines were all dry lithography machines.
In 2007, ASML collaborated with TSMC to successfully launch the first immersion lithography machine, which shortened the equivalent wavelength of 193nm light waves in water to 134nm, which is enough to surpass the limit of 157nm.
At this time, ASML completely defeated Canon and Nikon with its technological advantage in immersion lithography machines, becoming the dominant player in lithography machines.
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