This period of time, the “lack of core door” intensified, cell phones, tablets, automotive companies hope to save some chips for the winter, but the chip production capacity is so large, who has the money, who has the relationship, who can grab the chip. The global media’s perspective is once again focused on the chip industry chain, and the mysterious chip manufacturing link is frequently seen in the press. While the veil is lifted, people are beginning to understand: chip production capacity really can’t be increased casually.
When it comes to chip manufacturing, people will first associate TSMC, Samsung, that their manufacturing capacity stuck in the neck of the chip industry, and later people know that the Dutch lithography, the United States EDA software is the chip manufacturing more in-depth technology. Just when people are lithography technology, software systems, but surprised to find: chip manufacturing requires material processing, but also an indispensable link, and the vast majority of materials technology in the hands of the Japanese, which is why the Korea-Japan trade war, Japan has been the bottom of the barrel.
The “lack of core door” panic everyone’s God. A few days ago it was revealed that a shortage of a “super insulating material” used in chip manufacturing, resulting in some chip manufacturing lines can not start, and the supplier of this insulating material turned out to be a Japanese monosodium glutamate manufacturers, they extracted a material in the monosodium glutamate by-products, insulation and thermal insulation performance first-class, strong deformation force, fundamentally ensure the the normal operation of the chip. Now a small MSG tight, but the impact of the global chip industry, very dominant.
MSG to make up for the chip, what is this matter?
Since the beginning of the computer era, CPU manufacturers have begun the path of technological breakthroughs: faster and faster processing speed, larger and larger capacity, but smaller and smaller volume requirements, and finally the emergence of nanoscale circuit. In a small space, the line can not be laid flat, only similar to the building iteration, so the line between the “insulation material” becomes the key to the success or failure of the process. In the earliest days, chip manufacturers used “insulating liquid paint” method of processing, which not only requires a lot of man-hours, insulation performance is also not very good. Only two rounds of Moore’s Law, insulation coating liquid began to be unable to cope with the shortcomings completely exposed.
While experts in the chip industry were at their wits’ end, a researcher from a Japanese MSG manufacturer made a discovery. They initially thought about how to deal with the waste from the MSG manufacturing process, and then discovered that the MSG by-products contained resin-like substances that had excellent insulation and could be made very thin. Believing that “garbage is just a misplaced resource”, the researcher worked hard to improve the process and eventually turned the MSG byproduct into an insulating film that was supplied to a chip manufacturer. After getting such materials, the latter were overjoyed that they were not only self-contained, undertaking various circuit combinations, heat-resistant and insulated and very easy to install, safer and more efficient than the previous insulating coating. Subsequently, the world’s leading chip manufacturers have invited this MSG manufacturer to provide samples and join their own procurement system. Previously, 100% of computer chips used “MSG by-products” to do insulation treatment. Even in the era of mobile Internet, Apple, Qualcomm, Samsung, TSMC and other popular chip makers, are dependent on “MSG by-products”. It is no exaggeration to say that without this thin layer of insulating film, the chip almost impossible to manufacture: then the good design and lithography, can not be packaged to complete.
According to conventional business logic, this MSG manufacturer can cooperate with Apple, Qualcomm, and play a very key role, should have long been frequently seen in the media, brand recognition should also be a global level. But I do not want to write the name of this company, because they do not need. Obviously, this has a lot to do with the values of Japanese companies.
Craftsmanship, unique in the noisy business environment
In fact, there are many invisible champions in Japan, who hold the most core materials of the global industrial chain, even if they are small, even if they are insignificant, including chip materials, special steel, turbine blades and so on. Japanese business owners or wage earners like to do things to the extreme, they can fully enjoy the “skill upgrade” sense of achievement, than the business returns to more than 20 times more cool. That’s why, Japanese companies do not rely on “stuck others neck” in exchange for huge business interests. MSG manufacturers just want to do their part: insist on making good MSG, and incidentally provide the materials used for chips. Although this “incidentally” is changing the world, and let Apple, Samsung, TSMC become the world’s most profitable companies.
In addition to the chip used in the insulating film, Japan also has a large number of cutting-edge materials. According to SEMI speculation, Japanese companies in the global semiconductor materials market, the share of 66%. In the 19 major materials, Japan has 14 kinds of market share of more than 50%, and the four core materials, including silicon wafers, photoresists, electronic special gas and mask adhesive and other areas, Japan has three occupies 70% of the share. Patent applications are countless.
Japan can achieve such success in the field of chip materials, naturally not overnight, they insist on doing the best in their respective fields, and upgrade every year, the only way not to be afraid of any trade war, after all, Japan is not like China’s vast, resource-rich, they can rely only on people’s craftsmanship. Take the silicon wafer used in the chip, for example, its raw material is the sand that exists all over the world, but the requirements for purity and formulation are extremely high. First of all, the purity is an endless road, semiconductor silicon wafer purity requirements is 99.9999999999999%, equivalent to a playground can only allow a grain of sand, more terrible is that Japan is still continuing to improve this purity; secondly, the formula for the material has a great impact, this requires patience to accumulate, in other words, is to use decades of time to continue to test, continue to find the optimal Combinations, generations of configurations, until the best formula is found, stuck in the neck of the global chip.
There is no denying that Japan has many merits that are worthy of deep consideration by the Chinese, including craftsmanship, technology accumulation, and being unique in a noisy business environment. When the whole world likes to be lively and high-profile, busy fighting for brand recognition and the right to speak, Japan is able to stand alone, not simple!
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