252: Chapter 252 14nm Chip Fabrication, Morris Chang's Visit

That night, Shen Fei was lying in bed when his phone rang.

It was Zhang Shiqing.

"Xiao Fei, congratulations. The inspection passed. Old Zhao didn't give you a hard time, did he?"

The person on the other end of the line was also smiling.

"No. Dad, you should have told me earlier. Since Uncle Zhao is your friend, we wouldn't have been so worried."

"Sigh, Old Zhao is a very upright person. If I had told you, it would have… Also, the Governor and the Party Secretary just came to the house."

"Huh? Aren't you in Shenzhen?"

"Yes, I came here for a meeting, and the meeting is about you. As industry role models who suffered such a big loss, you deserve some compensation."

"Dad, what kind of compensation?" Zhang Mingzhu instantly perked up at the mention of this.

A burst of laughter came from the other end of the line, but a trace of sadness could still be heard in Zhang Shiqing's voice.

After all, his little darling had been with him for so long, and already her elbow was turning outward.

"For now, it's just some free land use, tax exemptions, and talent recruitment. You shouldn't be lacking anything else."

Shen Fei nodded.

Transsion was already very powerful now, so other support wasn't really needed…

Finally, Zhang Shiqing added: "By the way, keep in mind what Old Zhao told you before he left.

Currently, all I can tell you is that the small aircraft is almost fully developed, but the engine is still constrained by the Big Brother over there. This is not a good thing.

If you can help, then…"

Shen Fei gave a soft hum.

"It's good that you understand. It's getting late, and Zhang Mingzhu needs to rest well. You two should go to sleep early, okay?"

After hanging up the phone, Shen Fei pulled Zhang Mingzhu back into his arms. Before long, Zhang Mingzhu fell asleep.

But Shen Fei couldn't sleep at all.

He knew that the small aircraft had already begun test flights and would start experiments on the large flat-top next year. He also knew that Chief Engineer Luo…

This was also a regret. Since he had the engine in his hands, he would send the United States another surprise.

……

Just as the entire group was preparing for the Transsion Auto launch, on the morning of April 29th, Professor Li Jiahui was waiting at the door of Shen Fei's office early in the morning.

He was holding a report, and his face wore a strange expression—both excited and nervous.

"Boss, the initial debugging results for Line 3 are out."

Shen Fei opened the first page of the results report.

This was done according to Shen Fei's previous request to skip 22 and 1.

At the time, Professor Li Jiahui said there was a complete direction, and combined with the 28nm process, they had accumulated enough experience.

The equipment, processes, and materials were all mature; there was no need to proceed step-by-step with 22nm, otherwise, it would waste at least a year.

In the end, they followed Shen Fei's method to skip directly and get it done in one step. There were risks, but they were entirely within a controllable stage.

"The technology, as far as I can see, has no issues. How high is the risk of starting the production line?"

"There certainly is," Professor Li Jiahui answered honestly. "The process window for 14nm is much narrower than for 28nm, and the yield ramp-up might be very slow.

In the worst-case scenario, the yield rate gets stuck below 60%, and the cost becomes even higher than 28nm."

"And the best-case scenario?"

Professor Li Jiahui smiled.

"In the best-case scenario, the yield rate easily reaches over 90%, performance improves by at least 50% compared to 28nm, and power consumption is reduced by 40%.

Taishan 920 benchmark score easily hits over 40,000 points."

Shen Fei signed the report directly. He trusted that the technical roadmap provided by the system was absolutely fine; as for the bad results, those were merely a guess.

"When is the tape-out?"

"Next Monday, the Taishan version."

"Go ahead." Shen Fei looked at him. "If problems arise, there's no real danger."

The date for the tape-out was set for April 30th.

Early in the morning, all the engineers arrived at the Transsion chip factory.

Compared to last year, manufacturers No. 2 and No. 3 were added this year, and all the equipment was brand new. Those two immersion Lithography Machines alone were enough to shock the world.

The most critical point was that this equipment was all acquired for free.

Unless he wanted his system to go out and play cards or rob someone again, good things like this were always welcome.

"Mr. Li, we are ready to begin."

The person in charge of the chip factory led them into the factory building. Everyone walked to the observation window, watching as the wafer inside was fed into the Lithography Machine by a robotic arm.

Everyone silently counted down to the start in their hearts.

The Lithography Machine emitted a low hum. Ultraviolet light passed through the photomask, etching layer after layer of circuit patterns onto the wafer.

A single wafer contained hundreds of chips, each with billions of transistors. This process would last for several hours.

Professor Li Jiahui and Factory Manager Yuan Guoqing did not leave; they pulled up a few chairs to sit in front of the observation window, staring at the wafer.

At 12:00 PM, photolithography was completed.

At 2:00 PM, etching was completed.

At 4:00 PM, deposition was completed.

At 7:00 PM, the final layer of metal interconnects was completed.

The wafer finally came off the production line.

Professor Li Jiahui stayed at the testing station, watching the engineers cut the wafer into individual chips for packaging and testing.

But everyone in their hearts understood that as long as one chip worked, it meant success.

After all, this chip had only been adjusted in EDA; they hadn't performed a test tape-out first, but went straight to production… The main goal was just for it to work.

"Mr. Li, it's powered on."

The chip on the testing station lit up.

A line of text popped up on the screen: Taishan 910.

"Run a performance test."

The engineer clicked the mouse a few times, and numbers began to appear on the screen.

Single-core performance improved by 30% compared to the 28nm version of the Taishan 910, multi-core improved by 52%, and power consumption dropped by 42.2%.

These numbers all represented that the 14nm process was a success.

Professor Li Jiahui didn't speak; he picked up the chip and examined it over and over for a long time.

The surface of the chip was printed with the words Taishan 910, with a brand-new logo next to it.

Before advanced semiconductor technology, they were once again at the forefront of the world.

Although the yield rate was only 18.23%, for a chip that hadn't undergone a test tape-out, this result was already excellent.

Meanwhile, in Taiwan, Morris Chang had held back for so long and finally called Shen Fei.

"Mr. Shen, I am Morris Chang of TSMC. I would like to meet you in Kyoto tomorrow."

Shen Fei looked at his calendar and thought for a moment.

"You are welcome."

……

The next morning, Morris Chang's private jet landed at Guangzhou International Airport.

At 79 years old, Morris Chang was still in high spirits.

Shen Fei received him at the Transsion headquarters.

"Old Mr. Zhang, I've long admired you."

Morris Chang shook his hand and sized him up for a good while.

He truly couldn't believe that a world-class giant capable of surpassing TSMC in semiconductor foundry services had actually emerged from the hands of this young man.

"Mr. Shen, you are younger than I imagined."

"Age is not important, as long as your mind is clear, just like how Mr. Chang is still leading the enterprise of TSMC to explore the way forward."

This remark was like rubbing salt into Morris Chang's wounds; after all, who didn't know that he had retired twice, but still had to step up when big issues arose……