Chapter 83 Head-to-Head
After a simple working lunch, the meeting resumed at noon.
When the discussion turned to the control system, Li Mingliu and the others from Yuanchip joined in. That's when everything went off the rails — what was supposed to be a straightforward collection of requirements was quickly turned into a full-blown technical debate.
Several times, Zheng Zhenchuan wanted to remind them not to stray off-topic, but seeing Su Yuanshan listening with great interest and even jotting down notes, he held back.
Just as the engineers from Chengguang Institute were preparing to fetch more blueprints, Su Yuanshan glanced at his watch.
"Ahem... how about we pause for a moment?" Su Yuanshan raised his notebook and smiled. "Everyone, Professors, Senior Brothers and Sisters, I've roughly noted things down. To achieve the ideal alignment system, it looks like, aside from micro-motors, we'll also need a variety of optical diodes, right? And I heard from Old Liu that we'll also need to redesign the control circuit PCB."
"Of course, I'm no lithography expert. But from a technical intuition standpoint, I know lithography will become the ultimate bottleneck in semiconductor manufacturing. As EDA developers, we at Yuanchip know that our tools can already support process nodes far more advanced than current foundries. So whenever we can use new technologies, we must. Whenever we can use new circuits, we should — since PCBs, like everything else, mature through iterative trial and error."
"Especially for precision instruments like lithography machines, even heat dissipation and electromagnetic interference need extensive validation. Right, Uncle Zheng?"
Zheng Zhenchuan smiled meaningfully and nodded: "Absolutely right. Old Zhou, you and Master Li, no need to argue anymore."
Old Zhou was a veteran engineer in his forties, responsible for much of the alignment system's circuit design. To be honest, he had always been somewhat resentful about Zheng inviting a private company like Yuanchip into the project. Plus, when Yuanchip came in and immediately overturned much of his previous work, it was hard for him to accept. Over the past two months, he and Li Mingliu's team had been trying — with limited success — to find a middle ground for upgrading the circuits.
Today, when Li Mingliu, emboldened by Su Yuanshan's presence, revisited old disputes, Old Zhou simply couldn't swallow it.
Old Zhou snorted: "Director Zheng, it's not about arguing. Lithography is so precise that even the PCB thickness matters. How could we just redesign everything from scratch? We might as well rebuild the whole machine!"
"Sure!" Li Mingliu retorted without hesitation. "Zhu Jianting's team has been working on mechanical CAD for six months already. By the second half of the year, we'll have a full test version. Then we can redraw everything. No more squinting at blueprints under a magnifying glass, Engineer Chen."
The middle-aged Engineer Chen coughed awkwardly.
Su Yuanshan couldn't help but laugh and coughed lightly too.
He knew that even at Tsinghua, Li Mingliu had always been a prideful maverick. Joining Yuanchip hadn't changed his pride — only tamed it somewhat. And when it came to circuit and IC design, where Li Mingliu had participated fully in developing Yuanchip's EDA simulation tools, he was undisputedly an expert.
Catching Su Yuanshan's hint, Li Mingliu realized he had been too sharp and quickly softened his tone: "Old Zhou, listen to me. We can reserve some tolerance margins for the PCB thickness if you're worried about that. But the old designs really won't cut it. When I designed the VCD board, we shrank it from the size of a serving tray down to a dictionary — sounds amazing, right? Not really. It was just basic engineering."
His last comment eased Old Zhou's scowl slightly.
"Everything we designed was backed by EDA simulation," Li Mingliu continued. "What about your old board designs? Were they ever simulated to the same standard?"
Old Zhou opened his mouth but found himself unable to retort.
Frustrated, he sulked silently.
Su Yuanshan looked at Zheng Zhenchuan, who just smiled casually: "It's fine. It's all for the project. Give it time. You think Engineer Chen is sipping tea calmly now? You should have seen him yelling louder than anyone back when we were first drawing up the schematics."
Zheng Zhenchuan straightened his face: "Alright. Since Young General Manager Su is here today, let's settle it. All circuits — full redesign."
One of the engineers immediately asked: "Will that mean changes to components? Will we need new procurement?"
"Let's finish the design first. Compile a list of urgent needs today."
Zheng Zhenchuan waved his hand, concluding the meeting.
Su Yuanshan declined Zheng Zhenchuan's invitation to stay for dinner, letting only Li Mingliu and the others walk him back to the parking lot.
Since Shen Haoran had decided to join Yuanchip, they were all insiders now.
"Boss Su, you saw it yourself," Li Mingliu said with a bitter smile. "As kids, we thought the Academy was some grand, mysterious place. Seeing it up close... sigh!"
Shen Haoran, trying to smooth things over, laughed: "To be fair, the old military-industrial system relied heavily on vacuum tube technology — mature and reliable. Even now, as they pivot into semiconductors, most of the lithography demand is for civilian equipment. So investment has been relatively low, and people are used to scraping by."
"Just because you're poor doesn't mean you shouldn't adapt!" Su Yuanshan said with a chuckle. "If you spend years painstakingly crafting an abacus that can do 100 calculations per second but refuse to use a calculator that can do 10,000 — because of 'emotional attachment' — how the hell are you supposed to move forward?"
Everyone burst out laughing at the analogy.
"Alright, enough complaining. Help them build the damn lithography machine. If we get it right, they'll get more funding for the next one."
Li Mingliu pouted: "More funding? How much more? I heard Nikon and Canon spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually on R&D."
"Heh. Step by step. You have to understand: if they can build a machine that achieves decent yields at a reasonable linewidth, there's a huge market."
"If they can't do high-end, they can at least dominate the low-end. As the semiconductor industry grows, the demand for cheap ICs will skyrocket."
"That's the minimum goal for our collaboration with Chengguang."
After waving goodbye to everyone and getting into the car, Su Yuanshan asked Zhou Xiaohui to show him the procurement list from Chengguang.
He wasn't prepared for what he saw.
It was staggering.
Chengguang Institute was so broke it was laughable.
Aside from motors, capacitors, and inductors — which had to be imported — they even wanted Yuanchip to help buy basic components like surface-mount diodes.
"Did we talk money today?" Su Yuanshan asked, turning to Zhou Xiaohui.
Zhou Xiaohui pursed her lips, smiled, and shook her head.
Su Yuanshan laughed: "Fine. Record every single item meticulously. Not even a single diode should be left out. If they dare stiff us later, we'll haul the whole damn machine back ourselves."
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