King of Technology: A Fresh Start in 1983

The news of the failed chip fabrication, like the snow and ice of Oymyakon, suddenly and completely enveloped the spring of the Tian Factory.

A week later, the technical backbone gathered in front of that cold test report, their faces extremely grim as they looked at the appalling yield curve and performance deviation data.

Zhou Yuguang slammed his fist on the table: "Damn it! It must be doping process drift in the silicon island area! We didn't leave enough design margin!"

Chen Jianghe forced himself to calm down, but his mood had sunk to rock bottom.

Without our own chips, we simply can't reduce costs.

As a result, the cost of the [Xuanyuan] brand and the continuity of orders from the D assembly plant are facing enormous challenges!

"What's the panic?"

A cool, clear female voice came from the doorway.

"Su Gong?"

"Engineer Su..."

...

All eyes were on this goddess of China's computer field.

She was still dressed in the same clean and neat outfit, exuding a cold and aloof air that seemed to pierce the cold wind.

"Engineer Zhou is here too."

She nodded slightly to Zhou Yuguang, then walked directly to the conference table.

Pick up that wafer fabrication analysis report and data charts, including wafer mapping diagrams and statistical distributions of key parameters…

My gaze scans line by line…

Without even looking up, he gave orders to the two graduate students from the Tsinghua group.

"Zhang Wei, copy out the original design layout file (GDS)."

"Zhao Lin, compare the manufacturing plant's process specification (SPEC) with this measured SPC (Statistical Process Control) chart."

"Enlarge the layout of this key driver transistor..."

The series of commands were clear and decisive.

Instantly, the technical team felt like they had found their backbone and immediately sprang into action.

The small R&D department instantly became Su Wanqing's "dissection table".

Time passed second by second.

Su Wanqing was hunched over her computer, which was connected to a Tsinghua University minicomputer, and a thick stack of blueprints...

Sometimes he would ponder deeply, and sometimes he would quickly perform calculations on paper.

She manually marked the layout design details, upper and lower limits of process parameters, and spatial distribution of measured wafer parameters before performing overlay analysis.

"Found it."

Three hours later, Su Wanqing finally raised her head.

She pointed to the extremely fine wiring layout of a driver stage tail current source transistor on the layout.

"Here! To save 0.1% of area on the layout, the gate trace of this tail current transistor has been made to make a small bend, which increases the additional parasitic capacitance (Cgd)."

"When the threshold voltage (Vth) of the manufacturing plant is at the lower limit of the process, combined with this additional Cgd, it causes an unacceptable charge injection effect during high-speed switching!"

"This results in excessively high quiescent current (Iddq) and asymmetrical rise/fall times throughout the entire drive stage!"

"This is the core reason for the sharp drop in yield!"

"The problem isn't the fluctuations in the process itself, but rather the insufficient robustness of our design to edge process points!"

Design margin!

The tolerance of process corners!

Su Wanqing's diagnosis confirmed Zhou Yuguang's judgment, instantly illuminating the fog!

It wasn't a fault of war!

The design is too close to the "typical value" and does not leave enough room for the extreme edges of the process!

"We only performed simulations for typical process points; we didn't run the full Corner (FF, FS, SF, SS)!"

"Especially high thresholds!"

Zhang Wei instantly realized his mistake and felt deeply ashamed.

"Should we revise the plan?" Chen Jianghe asked anxiously.

Su Wanqing nodded: "Option 1: Readjust the tail current source size (W/L ratio) according to the original layout."

"Slightly increase the area allowance to significantly improve tolerance for high-threshold processes!"

"Give me the SPICE model parameters, and I'll fine-tune them."

"There is a second solution: optimize local routing to reduce parasitic capacitance."

"But that would require a complete overhaul of the metal layer layout, and there's not enough time!"

Chen Jianghe didn't hesitate: "Then let's use Option 1! Immediately model and simulate to determine the optimal weight-to-volume ratio!"

Su Wanqing opened the simulation tool directly on the computer and entered the parameters.

New simulation results are in!

Even with the worst slow process, the Iddq and timing parameters of the driver stage all fall into the green zone!

The theoretical yield rate is predicted to return to above 85%!

Instantly, the cheers nearly lifted the roof off the factory!

Hope has been rekindled!

Su Wanqing didn't join in the cheering. She put down the mouse and looked at Chen Jianghe: "Send the document to Shanghai Component Factory No. 5 immediately."

"Here, Department D will notify Director Song with an official document."

"Have them use the original mask and fine-tune the exposure dosage and development time."

"Compensate for process deviations and conduct another trial fabrication. The cycle is three weeks."

"There's still time! I'll take the losses!" Chen Jianghe's eyes gleamed with a do-or-die spirit.

"Don't forget the patents this time!"

Su Wanqing picked up a pen and quickly wrote down an international patent number (USxxxxxxx) and a contact address on the back of Chen Jianghe's marked drawing.

"The core claims of this patent must cover your dynamic calibration structure for the output impedance of the driver stage."

"Although you're not using this structure now, you'll encounter it in future optimization designs. It's good to plan ahead."

Unexpectedly, Su Wanqing even gave an early warning about future patent barriers!

Looking at her neat and powerful handwriting, Chen Jianghe was filled with emotion.

The existence of this youngest female academician in the Information Science Division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in her previous life, and a participant in the development of domestically produced chips, is not only a stabilizing force in technology, but also a strategic beacon!

The soul of bus-driven technology was reborn on Su Wanqing's dissection table!

Just as Tiangong was busy revising the design and preparing for the second tape-out, a thunderclap came from the front lines of the trademark war!

Hong Kong Stars has suddenly escalated its efforts, filing a lawsuit in the Hong Kong High Court against "Tiangong Precision Electronics Processing Plant for infringing on the trademark rights of [Pangu]"!

They demanded that Tiangong cease all import and export of products bearing the relevant markings, intending to completely block Huaxin's access to bare boards, and demanded exorbitant compensation!

Meanwhile, Zhao Xiaobo sent an urgent telegram from Guangzhou:

"Brother Jianghe! Industrial and commercial bureaus in several southern coastal cities, including Guangzhou and Shenzhen, have conducted surprise inspections of electronics markets! The focus is on [Xuanyuan Cards]! Some goods have been seized!"

"The reasons given are mostly procedural flaws such as 'failure to label production batch numbers' and 'vague implementation standard numbers'! There's suspicion that something is pulling the strings behind this!"

Lin Jianye's swift and decisive strike, like a torrential downpour, plunged Tiangong into a double storm of international legal battles and local market crackdown.

Copies of the lawsuit documents from Hong Kong and speculative reports from international media have brought unprecedented public pressure to Tiangong.

The crackdown in several southern cities did not severely damage the foundation of the city.

However, this severely impacted the newly rebuilt sales channels for [Xuanyuan], causing customer confidence to waver once again.

The atmosphere at the Huilongguan factory area was somber.

The lawyer's interpretation was suffocating:

"The legal procedures in Hong Kong are complicated, and mainland companies are in a very passive position to deal with them."

"Lin Jianye's top-notch legal team made full use of the rules."

"Their chances of winning this lawsuit are slim. Their strategy is simply to delay, to drag it out until Tiangong's cash flow collapses!"

...