Episode micro-network reported on July 5th Today, at the regular press conference of the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Commerce spokesman Feng said that the US has provoked a trade war. The Chinese side has repeatedly solemnly stated that it will never make the first shot. However, if the US takes measures, China will be forced to fight back. Resolutely defend the interests of the country and the people.
Tomorrow (July 6), the US will impose a tariff on US$34 billion worth of Chinese goods. China also plans to retaliate against US$34 billion worth of US goods on the same day, including politics on agricultural products and automobiles. Products in sensitive areas are subject to tariffs.
The Ministry of Commerce said that China is ready to do so. As long as the US issues a so-called tariff list, China will comprehensively use all necessary measures to firmly defend its national interests and people's interests.
'The US side has provoked this trade war. We don't want to fight, but in order to safeguard the interests of the country and the people, we have to fight if necessary. The Chinese will never fight the first shot, but if the US implements taxation measures, China will be forced. Carry out counteraction. ' Peak said.
As for how to view the impact of US taxation measures on foreign-invested enterprises in China, Gao said that China is an important supporter and participant in economic globalization and the global industrial chain. Many export products are products produced by foreign-invested enterprises in China. .
According to the analysis, the US announced that the list of so-called 34 billion taxable products has about 20 billion, accounting for about 59% of the products produced by foreign-invested enterprises in China. Among them, American companies account for a considerable proportion. It can be seen If the US initiates taxation, it is actually a tax on Chinese and foreign companies, including US-funded enterprises. The US measures are essentially hitting the global industrial chain and value chain. The United States is opening fire to the world, and also to itself. Open fire.
The peak further pointed out that in the past few decades, China has always been one of the most popular markets for foreign investment in the world, not only because of the huge market in China, but also because the Chinese market represents stability, rationality, and the rule of law. The legitimate rights and interests will be protected by the Chinese government. We will continue to assess and influence the impact of the trade wars provoked by the US on the company.
In addition, the US has once again threatened to levy taxes on all of China's $500 billion in exports to the United States. Not only that, but the United States has also issued similar threats to trading partners of other countries and regions.
In response, the Ministry of Commerce responded that this kind of trade bullying with a big stick of tariffs is against the trend of the times. China will neither bow in the face of threats and blackmail, nor will it shake the global free trade and multilateralism. The determination of the system. China will work with all countries in the world to resolutely oppose backwardness, outdated, inefficient protectionism, unilateralism, and strive to maintain a stable and predictable global economic and trade environment. (Proofreading/叨叨)
2. Trade war! Cree LED products will face 25% tariffs when shipped back to the US from Chinese factories.
The Wall Street Journal reported on July 4 that light-emitting diode (LED) upstream grain manufacturing giant Cree (Cree.US) failed to obtain exemption from the Trump administration, and shipped from Huizhou, China this Friday. Back to the US LED chip products will face a 25% tariff. Cree employs about 4,000 workers in the United States, mainly in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Arkansas, the company said the new tariff will bring disproportionate economic damage .
For the quarter ended March, Cree LED business closed at $143.3 million, down from $150.2 million two years ago, and gross margin fell to 26.4% from 34.7%. Cree Marketing and Public Affairs Vice President Greg Merritt 5 In the public hearing held by the US Trade Representative Office (USTR) committee, the company’s products were subject to taxation, R&D expenditures, expansion of the company and the development of the latest cutting-edge intellectual property rights. In the written testimony, Cree also mentioned that non-US competitors such as German manufacturer OSRAM Licht AG and Japanese manufacturer Nichia Corp. may receive unexpected income.
The Financial Times reported on July 5 that only $250 million worth of chips will be affected by the new tariffs in force this Friday, but the chips will play a more important role in the second wave of tax collections.
China's Ministry of Commerce spokesperson peak said on July 5 that many of China's export products are produced by foreign-funded enterprises. The US announced the list of so-called $34 billion taxable products, which is about 20 billion US dollars (about 59%). It is a product produced by a foreign-funded enterprise. Among them, American companies have a considerable proportion. He said that the US measures are essentially hitting the global industrial chain and value chain. The United States is opening fire to the world and is also firing at itself.
The Harvest XQ Global Winner Quotation System shows that Cree rose 4.96% on July 3, closing at $43.63, up 17.47% so far this year.
OSRAM Licht AG, the global lighting products manufacturer, announced on June 28 that it will reduce its revenue growth forecast for the 2018 fiscal year (as of the end of September 2018) from 3-5% to 1-3%. The EBITDA (pre-tax, pre-tax, pre-depreciation, pre-tax surplus) was revised down from 640 million euros to 5.7-600 million euros, and the diluted earnings per share forecast range was revised down from 1.90-2.10 euros to 1.00-1.20 euros.
Osram said at the time that there were significant uncertainties in the trade and sales constraints and planning risks affecting the automotive industry.
Thomson Reuters quotation system shows that OSRAM fell 0.06% on July 4, closing at 32.12 euros, the lowest since January 6, 2015; the cumulative decline in the past year was as high as 53.88%. MoneyDJ
3. Trade wars make American chip makers feel anxious
The upcoming tariffs have made US semiconductor companies more deeply worried that their close trade links with China have been interrupted, and they worry that Washington is aiming at the wrong target.
When the US’s new policy of levying tariffs on tens of billions of dollars in Chinese imports will take effect tomorrow, only chips worth $250 million will be affected.
But these tariffs have caused deeper anxiety among US semiconductor companies, who are worried that close trade links with China have been interrupted, and that Washington is aiming at protecting the key parts of the US technology industry.
A reminder of high-risk appears on Tuesday – it is reported that a Chinese court issued a preliminary ban on Micron Technology, based in Idaho, USA, to sell some of its products in China. The memory chip is used in many smartphones, computers and other devices.
There is concern that Micron will at least be partially excluded from the Chinese market, which accounted for about half of its revenue last year, which caused the company's share price to fall by more than 5% on Tuesday.
For many observers in the United States, it is no coincidence that Chinese courts chose to make such a decision in a patent case at this time. According to Ambrish Srivastava of BMO Capital Markets, At a time when US tariffs are about to come into effect, this seems to be a tit-for-tat move.
He said: 'It shows how big the chips are in China.'
Chip makers have not ignored the growing political risks. At the end of last month, Micron added a list of official warnings to investors. It said: 'The activities of the Chinese government may limit our participation in the Chinese market, or prevent us from China. The company is engaged in effective competition'.
If the US government imposes import tariffs on Chinese goods in order to reassure US chip companies, then they fail. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association in Washington, the complexity of the semiconductor supply chain means that the loss of US companies will More than Chinese counterparts.
For example, Intel's large-scale factories in the US, Ireland, and Israel (called 'fabs') are the most challenging parts of semiconductor manufacturing. Then they produce wafers (disks used to cut chips). ) was transported to a factory including a factory in Chengdu, China for finishing and testing.
Most of the processed chips will be used by electronic assembly plants in Asia. However, a small number of chips produced by Intel and other US companies with similar supply chains (including Texas Instruments and Micron) will be returned to the US unless exempted. Otherwise, the full value of some of the chips will be subject to tariffs, even if only relatively low-value steps occur in China.
Intel won't say how much sales will be affected. Analysts say that for all US chipmakers, the impact is minimal. But as the second proposed tariff list is about to be released – this time the chip will account for a larger share – Anxiety is on the rise. 'We believe that taxation on our industry is unreasonable,' said Jimmy Goodrich, director of global policy at the Semiconductor Industry Association. 'It’s puzzling to see that we are taxing ourselves. . '
American companies say that if the Trump administration wants to protect them from the misappropriation of their intellectual property by Chinese people, they use the wrong weapon.
Goodrich said: 'We need to consider different toolkits: intellectual property protection.'
Micron's troubles in China have highlighted this problem. The world's third-largest memory chip maker received a tender offer from China's Tsinghua Unigroup three years ago, but the US regulator's concerns about technology transfer, the acquisition fell through .
Micron said it has faced more malicious attempts to acquire its intellectual property. Last year, it filed a lawsuit against Taiwanese chip design company United Microelectronics and Chinese mainland chip maker Fujian Jinhua. They tried to steal some of their chip designs.
Both companies denied the allegations and filed a lawsuit against Micron in a court in Fujian, alleging that they infringed their patents. This led to this week's verdict - UMC said the decision included a ban on Micron's sales of some products in China. On Tuesday, it said that it did not see the ban and could not confirm the verdict.
Other US companies are worried that China will respond with Sino-US trade tensions as an excuse, or punished them as they work to accelerate the development of their chip industry.
One victim may be the US wireless chip design group Qualcomm's $44 billion acquisition of Dutch chip company NXP (China's NXP) - China's regulators have postponed approval of the deal. Qualcomm said it believes the deal is positive Influenced by the current US-China trade relations situation'.
Despite the increase in tension, China relies heavily on US-made chips. Cowen's analyst Karl Ackerman believes that Chinese chip companies will not be able to catch up for at least five years. The situation may be different within ten years, even though Much depends on how quickly China can build the required skills. This backwardness gives both parties the incentive to keep the electronic supply chain running smoothly.
Sankoy Mehrotra, CEO of Micron, said last month about trade tensions: 'Free trade, fair competition and respect for international rules are good things. We are optimistic that all these issues will eventually be Solve. ' FT中文网
4. Taiwanese media: The mainland took the USG patent case and warned that Samsung and SK Hynix intend to
Set micronet messages, Yesterday, in January this year, Jinhua and UMC sued Micron for patent infringement cases. The Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court has proposed a 'temporary ban' to Meiguang, and both Jinhua and UMC won a phased victory. Taiwanese media said that between Micron and UMC The patent litigation has evolved from the intimidation of Micron's resistance to the development of the mainland memory industry to the outpost of the Sino-US trade war. At the same time, the final outcome of the lawsuit will also affect the development of the mainland memory and the reshuffle of the global memory map. The future is not a fight Who wins more, but who has the least loss.
Jiwei.com reported yesterday that the 'temporary ban' in patent litigation is rare, but it does not mean that the court has already determined the fact of the patent infringement of Micron. The final result still needs to wait for the judgment of the court. But the 'temporary ban' will be for the Micron products. Sales in China have a significant impact.
According to the process, if Micron refuses to accept the ruling, it can file a reconsideration with the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court within 10 days of receiving the ruling. It does not stop the ruling during the reconsideration. This means that at least at this stage, Micron will not be able to sell related infringing products in China.
Taiwan media said that from the process of UMC and Micron, this is no longer a purely infringement case. The significance of the representatives of the two parties has been expanded to rebel against the Sino-US trade war and mainland semiconductors. First, it can be traced back to 2015, in the country. Under the support of the big fund, Ziguang Group intends to acquire Micron for US$23 billion, and rapidly improve the R&D strength in the memory field, but it was finally rejected. In 2016, the mainland region accelerated the development of the memory industry, including UMC and Fujian Jinhua signed DRAM technology cooperation. The development agreement, followed by Ziguang and the big fund to jointly establish the Yangtze River storage, Hefei Changxin also announced the investment of 50 billion yuan to build a fab, the mainland's three major memory factories shoulder the burden of developing 3D NAND and DRAM technology in the mainland.
The Taiwan media pointed out that the Sino-US trade war has strengthened the determination of the mainland government to fully develop the semiconductor industry. The Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court proposed a "temporary ban" to Micron, which can be said to be a good strategy for two birds and one stone, in addition to making a strong counterattack against the Sino-US trade war. At the same time, it also set a moat for the development of the mainland semiconductor industry, adding chips for future patent wars.
As the world's third largest memory manufacturer, Micron's revenue in the mainland market accounts for about half of the global market. It can be said that it is highly dependent on mainland business. Taiwanese media believes that the mainland is the first to take a case with a higher proportion of revenue, and warned Samsung. The intentions of electronics and SK Hynix and other international semiconductor manufacturers are obvious. As the strength of the mainland semiconductor industry and the major international manufacturers still have a clear gap, the memory is still in its infancy. At present, the mainland government has set 2019 as the first year of DRAM. As long as the R&D process can be promoted, any trick is a good strategy. The mainland’s attempt to help the semiconductor will accelerate the global semiconductor reshuffle schedule. For UMC, the 'binding' with the mainland continues to deepen. From the design and manufacturing layout of Suzhou Hejian, Xiamen Lianxin to Shandong Lianhe, and the technical cooperation agreement with Fujian Jinhua, and the memory product infringement case with Micron, UMC did not choose to report in Taiwan, but In January, he filed a lawsuit in the Fuzhou court in mainland China. In addition, the newly planned Suzhou and ship listings all showed that UMC truly implemented the foundry of the mainland. Business localization strategy. With the mainland government vigorously supporting the memory industry, and in the midst of the Sino-US trade war, it is intended to contain the US offensive with the United States, and the U.S. government has won the UMC, and the force is expected to force the U.S. (Proofreading / group)
5. What are the patents involved in the dispute between Fujian Jinhua and Meiguang?
On July 3, 2018, at the application of Fujian Jinhua, Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court issued a ban on the ban, ruling that Micron immediately stopped selling some solid-state hard drives, memory modules and related chip products in the mainland. Fujian Jinhua and its affiliated company Taiwan United Electronics The event has issued an announcement. The patent infringement case has also attracted widespread attention from domestic and foreign media and has become an international news. The news of various media is concentrated. The domestic focus is on Micron as one of the three largest memory suppliers in the world, infringing Fujian Jinhua. The patents led to the court issuing a temporary injunction; while the foreign media focused on Taiwan’s United Electronics and Micron’s grievances last year, linking the ban to the Sino-US trade war. In December 2017, Micron sued the California court in the United States. , accused Taiwan of joint electronic stealing Micron trade secrets.
The announcement of Fujian Jinhua and the news media's patent affidavit against Micron's alleged infringement are unknown. Based on the public information, reasoning and verification are used to arrive at a logical conclusion. It is a science. Before I entered the patent industry, I had two years. The experience of intelligence consulting, can not help but find out, trying to lock the patents involved in Fujian Jinhua and the United States Micron, or at least reduce the scope of patents involved.
1 How to lock the patent in question based on the public information
Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit was established in February 2016. The patent applied for it was also in the stage of its establishment or review, and it was not authorized. The patent rights of Fujian Jinhua are not from their own applications.
According to the website of Fujian Jinhua Company, it has carried out technical cooperation with Taiwan Lianhua Electronics to build a production line of the crystal crystal factory, and at the same time that Fujian Jinhua issued a notice of injunction, Taiwan Lianhua Electronics also issued an announcement. The company is closely related.
In the incopat database, it was found that Taiwan Lianhua Electronics had transferred 25 patents to Fujian Jinhua and completed the transfer on January 3, 2018, and Jinhua sued Micron on January 19, 2018. The transfer of patents prepares for prosecution, and Jinhua’s prosecution of patents must exist among the 25 patents transferred.
According to the announcement of Fujian Jinhua, “Zhenhua’s patents were authorized in 2009 and 2012 and announced to the outside world.” It can be seen that the patent authorization date is 2012 and 2009, and among the transfer patents, only 5 are authorized. Piece, as shown in the table below.
'The pad structure' patent grant date is 2012, and only one, must be one of the patents involved. According to the announcement of the 'advanced laboratory continuation of fine and rigorous layer-by-layer analysis', the infringing product is the memory stick, solid state The hard disk and related chips, as well as 'the characteristics obtained by the analysis and the technical features in the claims of Jinhua are compared one by one', and it is reasonable to infer that the infringing patent is a chip patent, which is related to the structure, and can exclude the patent number 4-5. The layer-by-layer profiling feature is more likely to be an 'interconnecting structure'.
Based on the above analysis, it can be confirmed that the patents involved in Fujian Jinhua and American Micron must include 'pad structure', and the high possibility includes 'internal connection structure and its fabrication method', 'electrostatic discharge protection using substrate-triggered silicon controlled rectifier Circuit ' also has certain possibilities.
Fujian Jinhua has transferred 25 patents. As the layer-by-layer analysis progresses, it may find that Micron products infringe other patent rights. In these 25 patents, the patents on manufacturing processes and manufacturing equipment of memory chips are removed. Including 'partially depleted SOI metal oxide semiconductor devices', 'light-emitting diode lighting devices', 'silicon controlled rectifiers with matrix triggering effect' and other patents related to product structure, these patents are also the key patents that cause patent infringement.
2 Introduction to patents involved
According to the Jinhua website announcement, Micron’s allegedly infringing patents include not only the MX300 2.5-inch SSD 525GB SSD, Crucial DDR4 2133 8G notebook memory, but also several DDR4 notebook and desktop memory sticks, TB500 series 2TB, 1TB. , 500GB, 250GB 2.5-inch solid state drive, and related infringing chips. Comprehensive information, memory, solid state drive due to the use of infringing chips and the corresponding patent infringement.
1, CN200810109427.X——Tider structure
Claims 1: A pad structure, located above an active circuit structure, comprising: a pad; a protective layer covering the pad and having an opening, the opening exposing a portion of the pad; and the active circuit structure The uppermost metal layer, the portion of the uppermost metal layer below the opening is a support layer, the support layer has at least one slit, and the uppermost metal layer is electrically connected to the pad through a plurality of via plugs Sexual connection.
The patent was authorized in 2012. According to the specification, in the pad structure, the support layer has at least one slit, so that the Young's modulus of the support layer can be increased, thereby improving the lead tensile strength and reliability of the pad, and avoiding the progress. During the wiring process, the pad is broken or detached from the dielectric layer. In addition, the support layer can prevent the lead pressure from injuring the semiconductor structure under the pad.
2, CN200510118495.9 - Inner connection structure and manufacturing method thereof
Claims: An interconnect structure comprising: a substrate having a conductive region; a first dielectric layer disposed on the substrate; a first light absorbing layer disposed on the substrate Between the bottom and the first dielectric layer; a dual damascene structure disposed in the first dielectric layer and the first light absorbing layer, and the dual damascene structure is electrically connected to the conductive region; a second dielectric a layer disposed on the first dielectric layer; and a second light absorbing layer disposed between the first dielectric layer and the second dielectric layer, wherein the first light absorbing layer and the second The light absorbing layer absorbs ultraviolet light.
The patent was granted in 2009. According to the specification, because a light absorbing layer is formed between the dielectric layers in the interconnect structure, the light absorbing layer can effectively absorb the characteristics of the ultraviolet light, so that the lower layer is interposed. In the photo-curing process, the electric layer is not affected by multiple UV light aging, so as to avoid the physical properties of the dielectric layer changing with the number of photo-curing treatments, resulting in a dielectric layer between each layer. Physical properties vary. 3 Possible consequences
1. Infringement of the patent infringement, Micron will inevitably invalidate the corresponding patent, and the bottom of the law will be paid. The Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court has issued a ban on the lawsuit. Because the amount of the target is large, the guarantee is involved, the court must be carefully considered, plus the current Sino-US The international background of the relationship, Micron reconsideration of the ban is not very likely, the final result is extremely weak for Micron. According to the Fujian Jinhua website announcement and patent transfer, Jinhua v. Micron patent infringement is prepared, along with the Micron products Fine and rigorous layer-by-layer analysis 'continuously, Jinhua may also file patent infringement lawsuits against other products of Micron.
2, the memory industry has formed a pattern of Micron, Samsung, SK Hynix three oligarchs, of which 50% of Micron's revenue comes from the Chinese market, the Chinese market is as important to Micron as the US market for ZTE, the difference is that the US government can Directly let ZTE shock, bankruptcy. Micron may choose the same coping strategy as ZTE, and Fujian Jinhua and its affiliates Taiwan jointly electronic reconciliation.
3, Fujian Jinhua as a new entrant of the memory industry, no products listed, but after this battle, 'no one, first heard its voice', is conducive to the development of domestic and foreign markets, breaking the oligopoly situation. Patent Ark