kvmb Chapter 488: Deal Made, Production Line Collapses
Chapter 488: Deal Made, Production Line Collapses
After obtaining authorization, the headhunter began a new operation.
Zhou Mingyuan also made an outrageous demand, quoting a direct price of $10 billion for the customized algorithm.
After much back and forth, the fifth transaction was finally completed.
The total technology transfer fee was $500 million.
The payment will be made in two installments. The first installment of $200 million will be deposited into the account designated by Zhou Mingyuan. The remaining balance will be paid after all the documents are delivered.
However, Zhou Mingyuan refused the work visa offered by the three parties and only accepted online guidance.
Although the headhunter was a little suspicious, he didn't ask any further questions, after all, Zhou Mingyuan's reason was:
I'm already so rich, can't I enjoy life? Why should I work like a slave... How could I?
In the end, the headhunter had no choice but to agree!
He was also very careful when delivering the technology!
The algorithm was divided into three parts, and Zhou Mingyuan would only deliver a portion of it after San Sang paid the remaining $100 million.
Moreover, none of these three parts can be omitted!
So during the second transaction, Lee Jae-yong finally got angry, and the headhunter immediately changed his tone:
"Zhou Mingyuan, we've already shown enough sincerity with just one algorithm, why are you playing me like this?"
"Don't you want to trade anymore?"
"Han Peng, are you trying to be too nice to me? This is how I do business—take it or leave it!"
Standing next to him, Li Zairong saw how assertive the other party was and finally understood the value of this technology.
"Mr. Zhou, don't be so angry!"
I still welcome you and your team to join Sansang!
"If you're willing to come, the annual salary is 100 million... plus bonuses..."
Zhou Mingyuan instantly realized that the person he was negotiating with had changed, but he still had that arrogant demeanor.
"I appreciate Mr. Li's kind intentions."
However, I just received a huge sum of money and need to launder it, so I'm not considering it for now... But I could consider Sansang for my next job.
However, I am more familiar with the MStar series lithography machines, and I hope you have sufficient production capacity.
"I understand! We're also a major client of Morningstar..."
After saying that, Li Zairong laughed heartily. It was a wild horse, but he liked it and believed it would be tamed one day.
After hanging up the phone:
"Take those two cables and test them first. If there are no problems, then we can go live!"
The head of the wafer fab hesitated for a moment. After all, this was technology bought for five hundred million US dollars. Why would he just leave it on those two lousy production lines?
Although it is also a 22nm production line, the overall yield rate is only 78% because the lithography machine is too old.
Initially, these two production lines were used as 22nm test production lines, and after two more years of continued use, they were sold to some outdated factories.
For example, Huaxin International, but now that it has the MStar series of lithography machines, this kind of business is not so easy to do!
"Just use those two rules. If there are any problems, it won't cause huge losses."
"Understood, I'll take care of it right away!"
…………
To their surprise, the algorithm worked remarkably well.
In just three days, the yield rate rose from 78% to 84%, achieving a 6% increase in three days.
This is another slap in the face to all their engineers!
"Okay! Okay! Okay!"
Upon hearing this, Lee Jae-yong's secretary immediately began to silently pray for the factory's engineers, after all, the last word was "good"...
"These idiots! I approved so much funding for them, and they're not even as good as someone else's algorithm!"
Where is the reverse recommendation process at now? Have they discovered any problems?
After finishing his sentence, Lee Jae-yong turned his attention to his secretary.
"Mr. Li... Mr. Li..."
"Don't give them any excuses. I just want to know exactly how far they've progressed. Don't tell me they haven't even improved the yield rate as fast as the factory."
The secretary gave another bitter smile. Wasn't President Li making things difficult for him?
After all, the answer is already out in the open!
But he cautiously told Li Zaiyong that things were definitely not that simple, so he decided to observe for a while longer.
A few days later, on May 20th, Zhou Mingyuan also took advantage of his rest time to provide online guidance.
The yield rate of those two production lines has been further improved to 89%, which is simply a miracle in the field of round product processing!
Upon learning this, Li Zairong was overjoyed and immediately awarded the headhunting team a bonus of $500 million, while also assigning them a new task:
That means no matter what means we have to use, we must poach Zhou Mingyuan. This is much better than Liang Mengsong, who was snatched away by Chuanyin.
Besides funding, he could be appointed as the director of the research institute.
Upon receiving this new information, he immediately sent a message to Shen Fei:
"Boss, the fish are in the net, get ready to haul it in."
…………
Sure enough, problems began to appear at the Suwon plant on May 25th.
Some batches on those two old production lines experienced photolithography pattern misalignment, resulting in a slight increase in the scrap rate.
The yield rate dropped from 89.5% to 87%.
However, the person in charge did not attribute the problem to the algorithm, but thought it was due to the lithography machine being too old and causing a deviation. So they immediately stopped the machine and began repairs.
However, after several days of inspection, no problem was found. Moreover, the second line tested in the same way showed the same problem, and the error was getting bigger and bigger.
The yield rate jumped from a few nanometers to tens of nanometers, and almost all the wafers produced were scrapped. The yield rate of the second production line plummeted from 90% to below 30%.
Sansang's technical team panicked completely. They worked through the night to check the equipment, thoroughly investigating everything from the equipment and materials to the process parameters, but they couldn't find the root cause of the problem.
They also tried uninstalling the optimization algorithm provided by Zhou Mingyuan, but the production line control system crashed directly, making even basic production impossible.
The technical lead nervously reported to Li Zairong: "Mr. Li, we haven't found any problems yet!"
However, I suspect there might be other problems with this algorithm. After all, we've been reverse engineering it for so long and still haven't found any issues. I think that's the biggest problem.
Just then, Li Zairong also received a questioning phone call from Liu Deyin.
Because TSMC also encountered the same problem, although Liu Deyin stopped production immediately, but...
TSMC's problems are clearly bigger than Samsung's.
They discovered that the objective lens system of the lithography machine had suffered irreversible damage!
"Mr. Li, that's a great idea!"
We directly damaged five production lines, which represents an investment of tens of billions!
"Since Mr. Liu has chosen this path, no one should complain. We are still investigating the relevant issues..."
"The problem is that this algorithm is deeply tied to specific hardware and material systems."
That's right, they really provided the algorithm, so we couldn't find any problems at all.
However, as I mentioned before, it requires specific hardware and material systems, which are completely incompatible with the underlying logic of our production line.
It's like adding gasoline to a diesel car; it might run for a short time, but over time it will burn out the engine.
Our objective lens system has been damaged to varying degrees. To completely repair it, we would have to reinstall all the production lines, recalibrate each lithography machine, and replace the damaged lithography machine components.
This will require a long period of debugging!
Li Zairong's face also turned pale. Then what about them...?