1. FinFET inventor Hu Zhengming: Even if Moore's Law terminates, semiconductors are still a good industry;
On April 11th, FinFET inventor Hu Zhengming discussed semiconductor future from academic and practical circles in the forum of smart semiconductor industry and research alliance organized by Taiwan Jiaotong University.
In addition to the Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hu Zhengming has successively accepted the titles of academicians from five academic institutions at home and abroad, and at the invitation of Zhang Zhongmou, he returned to Taiwan from the United States as the first technical chief of TSMC in 2001, assisting TSMC in laying down the foundation for the process of manufacturing fin transistors, breaking through Moore. Law limit.
Hu Zhengming recalled that when TSMC served as a CTO, he knew that TSMC was "discriminated" from the government's plan for allocating alternative services. He believed that TSMC was only a foundry; he even more bluntly stated that if Moore's Law were to end in the future, would TSMC be even less affected? Supported?
However, the figures will speak and the global semiconductor output will continue to hit a record high. For the first time in 2017, it will exceed 400 billion U.S. dollars. Hu Zhengming compares the chart of world economic growth rate with the growth chart of the semiconductor industry over the past 30 years. From 1995, Semiconductors have experienced a beautiful era of 17% growth in the past year. However, after 1995, although there was no growth rate in the past, the speed did not slow down. The annual growth rate remained at 4.5%.
Hu Zhengming cited his own experience of breaking through Moore’s law in those years. In 1999, Moore’s law was not favored. The industry is concerned that turning transistors into small ones will not be able to close them, but it was made in (2010) years ago, that is, FinFET-fin transistors.
Hu Zhengming invented fin transistors (FinFETs) and “completely depleted transistors” (FD-SOI). Two revolutionary innovations brought new opportunities to semiconductors. In May 2011, Intel announced the use of FinFET technology, including TSMC, Samsung, and Apple. All of them have adopted FinFET one after another. Hu Zhengming has created a new opportunity for Moore's Law to sing.
Hu Zhengming had argued in the past that as long as it can create added value and create high-paying job opportunities, it is a good industry. He believes that the price will increase during the development of the ultimate process. Therefore, the growth of semiconductors must continue for another 100 years. "Of course, it is possible." Even if Moore's Law terminates, semiconductors are still a good industry.
2. The courageous decision of Lin Benjian 17 years ago created Taiwan's largest semiconductor settlement;
With the future of TSMC's most advanced 5-nanometer, 3-nanometer advanced process at Nanke, southern Taiwan will exceed Hsinchu and Taichung, becoming the largest semiconductor cluster in Taiwan, accounting for more than 50% of the Taiwanese revenue. To return to 17 years ago, if, at the time, the deputy general manager of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Lin Benjian was a little weaker, these achievements may no longer exist...
Jin Yong's first novel, Shu Jian En Chou Chui Lu, had a Wudang factionist and was nicknamed “Mianli Pin”. He was the first person created by Jin Yong. He is said to be an archetype of the old editor who used the newspaper’s special reminder. It is a normal gentleman, but once it is serious, even if the king of Lao Tzu dares to live vividly.
The Taiwanese technology industry's "Mian Lizhen" is not the former vice president of research and development of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. who was not retired two years ago.
Academia Sinica's first industry academician
Lin Benjian is a legendary figure of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and even the entire Taiwanese technology industry. Currently, the infiltrating lithography technology used in the world's semiconductor high-level processes comes from his invention. He has thus become the first academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
On March 30th, he published his book "Putting Your Heart Up: Lin Bianjian's New Book Presentation with "Heart Will Be Happy" and "By Life".
One of the most talked-about pieces in the book is when Lin Ben-Jian did deep-ultraviolet photolithography research in IBM's semiconductor department. The company's mainstream development is yet another X-ray lithography technology. It is not only human resources. Exceeded his team, and the supervisor in charge of X-ray lithography was also the top boss of Lin Benjian. He could imagine the situation of the company.
But this one is known as Mr. Hao, who hasn’t seen him in the past 10 years. “Burn (the name of Lin Benjian's English name) Grandpa” hasn't seen his temper. He can't help swallowing it. He humorously publicly antagonizes his boss.
One day, X-ray lithography technology has made great progress. His supervisor sent one T-shirt “X ray works” (X-ray useful) to celebrate each other. Lin Bianjian actually added three words to the back of the book. “X ray works – for the dentists” (X-ray available, at the dentist's office), and a magnet hanging on the filing cabinet behind his desk, telling all the passing colleagues (It is worth mentioning that deep ultraviolet light , became the semiconductor's main source of light for the past 30 years, and Xray has not yet been commercialized.)
The situation is stronger than that of people. Lin Benjian was still 50 years old and applied for early retirement and started business. In 2000, he joined TSMC to take charge of lithography development.
After working for two years, you have a big event
When he worked for TSMC for two years, he created a major event that caused a sensation in the semiconductor industry around the world.
At that time, the industry’s main lithography light source—laser with a wavelength of 193 nanometers—has no longer been able to continuously promote Moore's Law. It is expected that the 157 nanometer light source that will succeed will be a headache for the industry due to various technical difficulties and the delayed commercialization process. The problem.
When Lin Benjian was invited to the 157-nanometer industry conference in 2002, he turned out to be a subject that everyone did not expect - a slight improvement of the 193 nanometres of invasive lithography with the slightest improvement in the existing technology.
Pushing Moore's Law into Seven Generations
A Japanese, U.S., and European equipment manufacturer has invested 10 billion U.S. dollars in R&D because it was put on hold by Lin Benjian.
At that time, it was Lin Benjian’s boss. Jiang Shangyi, the former chief operating officer of TSMC, recalled that at that time, senior executives of the big equipment manufacturers did express serious concerns. “I hope I can manage him and not spoil,” he wrote in Lin Benjian’s new book.
Lin Benjian’s new book will include “inventing and promoting infiltrative lithography, promoting Moore’s Law for seven generations” into one of his eight contributions in the field of projection lithography.
The other, the research he completed during IBM's work period, "The impact of imaging machine tolerance on imaging simulators," may seem inconspicuous, but it also makes a huge contribution to the continued development of Taiwan's technology industry.
In a word, let TSMC continue to build
Time back in 2001, when Taiwan’s ruling and opposition parties clashed at a speed of 300 kilometers per hour after completion of the high-speed railway, it would not affect the production of semiconductor plants in Nanke District.
At that time, TSMC had a six-factory at Nanke. The appearance of the factory of the 14th factory had just been completed. However, the construction of the 14th factory workshop had not been completed yet. The construction was suspended. “The whole park has this problem. Do not cover it, don't know what to do?” Lin Benjian Memories.
Jiang Shangyi recommended Lin Benjian to join the evaluation team within TSMC because the optical lithography he was responsible for was the most sensitive to vibration. He felt no effect, and the other part should have no effect. He readily agreed that he had done a shock at IBM. Taiwanese influence research happened to come in handy.
After doing a detailed experiment, after careful analysis, he came to the conclusion: "No effect."
"At that time, if I were to protect myself, I would say not to do it. I will not cover it. I will never do anything." Lin Ben-jian said, "I said I can do it. (In case of an accident), I have to take a lot of responsibility."
However, he is very confident with his own experimental results and calculations. The results show that there is a safe distance from the site where the high-speed rail vibration is most affected. “There is no evidence to support me saying that it is not okay. All facts support me. Yes."
Thus, at the end of October 2001, TSMC unexpectedly announced that after the company's project team on high-speed rail vibration assessed, “confirmed that under proper engineering technology, the vibrations brought about by the future of high-speed railways passing through Nankeo The company's IC production will not be affected."
▲ Nanke has become the focus of TSMC's expansion in the next ten years.
Drive the semiconductor clustering effect
The chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Zhang Zhongmou, issued an order to stop the original 14 plant resumption. The controversy over the high-speed rail turbulence has also evaporated. Other semiconductor plants such as UMC have also invested in Nanko Code.
At present, Nanke has become the focus of TSMC's expansion in the next ten years. Not only the current 16 nanometer and 20 nanometer processes are produced at Nanke, the future 5 nanometers and 3 nanometer advanced processes will also be here. It is expected to occupy Taiwan. The proportion of revenue from operations will exceed 50%. It is expected that the number of employees will exceed 14,000 and the crowding effect will be boosted. Investment spillovers will far exceed these figures.
And this comes from a semiconductor master who is focused on stability and stability, a brave decision that year.
Asked Lin Benjian, why did this incident not be written in autobiography? He smiled: "This little thing." World Magazine
3. Taiwan’s listed companies’ supervisors have a higher average wage than Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.;
According to the micro-message news, the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday released information on the remuneration of the directors of the listed companies. Looking at the total amount of employees’ total remuneration for additional directors, the company reunified, ranking at NT$818 million, followed by TSMC’s 836 million. The NT$660 million of NTD and ASE is worth NT$664 million; if the average emolument is considered, then TSMC is regarded as the crown, and the average director’s concurrent employee compensation is NT$91.11 million.
According to the data released by the Stock Exchange, the top ten directors of listed companies in the 2017 annual plan are concurrently entitled to the total amount of employee remuneration, namely: Uniform, TSMC, Riyueguang, Unicom, CITIC, DaLiang, Fubonjin, Wang Acer, and Taiche and AUO, the total amount of the above-mentioned corporate directors plus employees' remuneration has a level of NT$300 million or more. Among them, the semiconductor industry ranked among the top three in the list, and the optoelectronics industry ranked second. In the list, the food industry, the trade department store industry and the auto industry were all shortlisted.
If the average individual director plus concurrent employee remuneration, the top 10 are: TSMC, Uniform, CITIC Jin, Riyueguang, Unicom, MediaTek, DaLiang, Kecheng, AUO and Hon Hai. Top 4 The average number of concurrently-employed employees in the name of the company is more than NT$60 million, while other companies that have squeezed into the top 10 have an average of NT$32 million in additional remuneration for each director. the above.
4.AI chips or give users a reason to upgrade smart phones;
AI is everywhere. For example, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg referred to AI dozens of times during this week’s testimony submitted to the US Congress. At that time he was referring to the solution of falsehood. Potential solutions to problems such as accounts and error messages. Artificial intelligence has become a buzzword for mobile phone makers such as Apple, Samsung and LG.
Linley Group analyst Linley Gwennap said: 'Most of the high-end smart phones have an AI accelerator, including the iPhone A's Apple A11 chip and the Galaxy S9's Samsung Exynos 9810. He said at the chip analysis company's processor conference held last week: 'We have seen it gradually infiltrate into the high-end mobile phone market, and over time, it may continue to penetrate the low-end mobile phone market.'
AI smart chips will spread even further than smartphones. This means that today's computing intelligence revolution is really just beginning. It can finally help digital assistants from Amazon and Google expand into new devices, let your car recognize pedestrians and Everything else around you, and making your PC smarter, enabling photos and editing.
Gwennap predicts that personal computers can run AI on relatively powerful main processors, but as more software comes along, they will also acquire AI chips. Adobe Systems software like Photoshop and Premiere Pro has pushed processors. To the limit, the company launched Sensei AI technology to accelerate tasks such as photo editing. cnbeta
5.3D high resolution map high data volume to achieve self driving non 5G
In the development process of smart cars and automatic driving, the application of 3D precision maps is indispensable. As the on-vehicle image information goes from 2D to 3D, for the high requirements on the amount of transmitted data and real-time performance, the opening time of 5G will become The key turning points that affect the development of on-vehicle image sensing.
In the face of self-driving demand for 3D precision maps and low latency requirements for data transmission, the amount of data transmission will become a bottleneck for the development of self-driving cars. Liang Wenlong, Chairman and General Manager of Sasol Co., Ltd., stated that the current 2D image transmission speed Although it has been reprocessed by excellent chips and algorithms, it is difficult to achieve real-time performance without delay, let alone achieve 3D image sensing in the future.
Therefore, although many car networks are currently connected, smart car functionality can already be achieved through existing mature online technologies. 5G technology must also have a complete infrastructure to be popularized. However, to achieve a complete 3D panoramic image Sensing, still have to watch the development process of 5G. Texas Instruments (TI) Embedded System Director Zhan Xunqi pointed out that the gap between the 3D precision map and the current 2D image data volume is not a phase distance comparable. In this case, 5G Import is necessary.
On the other hand, the technical development and cost changes of various automotive sensors are attracting attention. At present, the penetration rate of image sensors is the highest, and the future will continue to grow.
In the current automotive market, image sensing is the most pervasive sensing technology. Since all manufacturers are familiar with the application of image sensing, the sensing technology will continue to play a key role in the automotive sensing market. Zhan Xunqi said that in the future, the shipment of image sensors will continue to grow.
In the future, various on-vehicle image sensing technologies will be used extensively. At present, image sensing is still the most familiar vehicle sensing technology currently used by users. Zhan Xunqi further exemplifies the push to MMS as it has been successfully promoted in the 2G era. Multimedia messaging has faced a period of stagnation. However, by the time 4G networks and Wifi become popular, multimedia messaging has become a daily routine. Similarly, flexible application of various types of sensing technologies in smart cars is an inevitable trend. It will also gradually improve through different technologies.