My first three or four years in the United States were studying, and the last ten years were work, all of which were preparing, so that I could do something for the people when I returned to my home country, because I was Chinese.
——Qian Xuesen
Qian Xuesen returned to China with his wife and children
On August 3, 2022, Tsai Ing-wen hosted a visiting delegation from U.S. House speaker Pelosi at noon yesterday, and at the request of the other party, invited TSMC founder Zhang Zhongmou, chairman Liu Deyin, and Vice Chairman Cheng Jianzhong of Pelosi to accompany them to exchange views on "deepening cooperation" between Taiwan and the United States. Transmet expects TSMC Arizona to invest in further plant expansion.
In the wave of national condemnation of "Pelosi Channeling", we must cast a glance at TSMC.
While we are resentful of what TSMC's senior management has done, we must never forget the contribution of Zhang Rujing, the "godfather of Chinese semiconductors", to the semiconductor industry of the motherland.
Guiyan Zhang Rujing
01 Leaving home
In 1949, Zhang Xilun, an expert in the steelmaking industry, together with his wife Liu Peijin and his family, took Zhang Rujing, who was in his infancy, with the large army fleeing from the Kuomintang, boarded a ship in Nanjing on a hazy early morning and went to Kaohsiung, Taiwan, leaving the mainland of the motherland that haunted their dreams, and began a wandering half-life's hard journey.
At that time, 18-year-old Zhang Zhongmou studied at Harvard University in the United States, was the only Chinese among the more than 1,000 new students in the school at that time, and was able to go abroad and enroll in famous schools in that era, which showed that his family situation and academic performance were very unusual (his father Zhang Weiguan graduated from Shanghai Hujiang University, and when Zhang Zhongmou was born, Zhang Weiguan was already the director of ningbo finance bureau). ）。
Zhang Zhongmou
Zhang Rujing studied hard and achieved excellent results since childhood, and was admitted to The National Taiwan University, which ranked first in Taiwan Province, and then went to the United States to study, and successively studied for a master's degree in engineering and a doctorate in electronics.
In 1977, at the age of 29, Zhang Rujing entered the world semiconductor giant Texas Instruments (the company invented a single-chip microcomputer in 1971, obtained a single-chip microprocessor patent in 1973, launched the first single-chip language synthesizer in 1978, and realized low-cost language synthesis technology for the first time) and joined the research team of Nobel Prize winners in physics and inventors of integrated circuits. At Texas Instruments, Zhang Rujing started as a grassroots design engineer in the company and continued to cultivate for 20 years. With the support and promotion of his boss, Dr. Shao Zifan, Zhang Rujing participated in the preparation of 9 large-scale chip factories, covering many countries, and grew into a recognized "factory building master" in the chip industry.
Texas Instruments
At that time, Zhang Zhongmou had been working at Texas Electric for 19 years, during which Zhang Zhongmou also studied for a doctorate in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, and in 1972 he became the vice president and senior vice president of Texas Instruments, the third person of Texas Instruments, second only to the chairman and president. At this time, Texas Instruments has long become the world's first, with 60,000 employees around the world, half of which are under the management of Zhang Zhongmou. He was the first Chinese to enter the top management of large American companies.
Second from right: Zhang Zhongmou
Although "two sheets" work together in Texas Electrical Appliances, there is almost no intersection.
02 Father's problem
After Zhang Rujing gained a firm foothold in the United States, he took his retired parents to live in the United States, but Zhang Xilun, who has great feelings for his home and country and always misses the motherland, asked Zhang Rujing such a question after his son grew into an expert in the chip industry: When will you return to the mainland to build a factory?
Such a simple question planted a seed of service to the motherland in the heart of Zhang Rujing, who was in his prime, and made him re-examine his life, although he had gained fame and fortune in the United States at that time, but the love of repaying the country with a fist inherited by the blood of the Chinese nation was not extinguished.
He made a decision that has a far-reaching impact on China's chip industry, and I believe that this decision will continue to affect the chinese descendants who have drifted overseas to continue the enthusiasm of the sages to serve the country and devote themselves to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
03 Son's answer
In 1997, Zhang Rujing, who had been working in Texas Electrical Appliances for 20 years, resolutely resigned and prepared to serve the motherland by returning to China to develop the semiconductor industry.
Zhang Rujing returned to the mainland to conduct a survey and found that the time to build a factory directly in the mainland was not mature enough, so at the age of 50, he used the contacts and related engineering personnel accumulated in Texas Instruments to choose to return to Taiwan Province to build a factory - Shida Semiconductor, but the plan to build a factory in the mainland has always been the most important item on his schedule. He gave full play to the work experience in Texas Instruments, quickly achieved mass production and profitability after founding Shida Semiconductor, and planned that the future branch factory must be built in the mainland.
At that time, Zhang Zhongmou had been founding TSMC (founded in 1987) in Taiwan Province for 10 years, at the beginning of its establishment, Zhang Zhongmou found that the chips of Intel, Samsung and other giants at that time were designed by themselves, produced by their own fabs, and independently tested and packaged, so they created another way to create a wafer foundry model.
Zhang Zhongmou also used the management experience of Texas Instruments to take TSMC to a new height after a decade of struggle, and was on an equal footing with another semiconductor company in Taiwan, UMC (hereinafter referred to as UMC).
TSMC
In the face of the newly rising Shida Semiconductor, in order to consolidate the position of TSMC and seek greater expansion, Zhang Zhongmou secretly negotiated with the major shareholder of TSMC in 2000 to spend $5 billion to acquire Shida Semiconductor without Zhang Rujing's knowledge. Zhang Rujing's talent was deeply appreciated by Zhang Zhongmou, and he assigned Zhang Rujing to continue to preside over the work of Shida Semiconductor and gave TSMC a generous remuneration for its shares, but the only requirement put forward by Zhang Rujing was that in the future, Shida Semiconductor must build a factory in the mainland, but later Zhang Zhongmou did not fulfill his promise and did not build a factory in the mainland.
Zhang Rujing resolutely resigned again because Zhang Zhongmou did not support the construction of a factory on the mainland, and made up his mind to return to the mainland to start a business; during this period, Zhang Zhongmou also threatened to take back Zhang Rujing's TSMC shares after resigning, and Zhang Rujing was unmoved, gave up the stock, and resolutely went north to !!!
Zhang Rujing gave up his shares to return to China
04 North to report to the country
In 2000, Zhang Rujing's first stop on his return to the mainland was Beijing, but neither the mayor of Beijing nor the vice mayor in charge of science and technology were in Beijing. At this time, Jiang Shangzhou, deputy director of the Shanghai Economic Commission, learned that Zhang Rujing wanted to return to China to start a business, and invited Zhang Rujing to Shanghai to investigate, during which the mayor and vice mayor of Shanghai all attended Zhang Rujing's research and reception, and made a statement of "Shanghai speed", accompanied Zhang Rujing to the Site Selection of Zhangjiang High-tech Park, and made a decision on the spot.
Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park
In April of that year, SMIC was founded.
In May, Zhang Rujing led hundreds of engineers to Shanghai.
In August, construction of SMIC's plant began.
SMIC's first pile
In June 2001, the mask factory (Plant 1 and Plant 3B) was completed.
In September, the film trial production.
What has to be mentioned here is that when Zhang Rujing, who has a high reputation in the industry, was preparing to return to China to start a business, Zhang Rujing shouted, more than 300 talent teams from Taiwan and more than 100 people from the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea responded to the call, following Zhang Rujing all the way north, including many "old ministers" of Shida Semiconductor, which has been incorporated into TSMC. Of course, it also laid the groundwork for the later STEMC sniper.
A first goose who served the motherland, with a group of like-minded geese, rushed to the great cause of the rejuvenation of the motherland.
Gui Geese
05 The Inheritance of Loyalty and Righteousness
In 1949, Zhang Rujing's father, Zhang Xilun, went to Taiwan with the Kuomintang and took with him more than two hundred young metallurgical apprentices from the arsenal. Before setting off, many of the apprentices' parents pleaded with Zhang Xilun like orphans to take good care of these children. In the decades since, Zhang Xilun has been a senior senior officer in the arsenal, and at the same time, like a parent, he has taken care of more than two hundred young people, helping them to learn and start a family, and these young children grow up and get married, and Zhang Xilun will always be a witness.
In 2000, Zhang Rujing returned to the mainland to found SMIC, not only persuading his American wife to move the family back to Shanghai from the United States, but also taking his mother, Ms. Liu Peijin, who is more than 90 years old, to Pudong as a way to express his determination (by this time his father Zhang Xilun had passed away). In order to take good care of the families of employees who followed him back to the mainland from Taiwan and overseas, Zhang Rujing specially built a 1500-unit housing area for employees, and built a bilingual school from kindergarten to high school for the children of employees, and also provided some employees with the opportunity to continue their studies at the Shanghai Institute of Microelectronics.
If Zhang Xilun had a spirit in heaven, he would definitely be pleased by what Zhang Rujing had done!
06 Second meeting
As a "master of factory construction", Zhang Rujing accelerated the development of SMIC, purchased a large number of low-cost second-hand equipment, built three eight-inch chip factories in Shanghai, built two 12-inch chip factories in Beijing, and then acquired a Motorola 8-inch chip factory in Tianjin. Quickly lead SMIC on the fast track.
The rapid rise of SMIC attracted the attention of the Taiwan authorities, and Chen Shui-bian resorted to the next three indiscriminate means, imposing a huge fine and punishment on the grounds of investing in Shanghai without permission, and wanted Zhang Rujing to be arrested, and made Zhang Rujing give up the so-called "Taiwan passport."
Chen
Zhang Rujing's public statement at that time was:
Although I am a U.S. citizen, I grew up in Taiwan and have a deep affection for Taiwan, and after returning to Taiwan from the United States in 1990, I built four chip foundries in Taiwan. In 2000, I began to build a chip foundry on the mainland, and I did the same for the semiconductor industry on both sides of the strait and the semiconductor industry for the Chinese. I am convinced that compatriots on both sides of the strait share the same roots and the same lineage, and that only through cooperation and mutual assistance can we achieve a win-win situation, and I hope that the Taiwan authorities will not suppress our development on the mainland again.
In 2003, under the leadership of Zhang Rujing, SMIC has become the world's fourth largest foundry, and the title of "Factory Builder" has been completely confirmed.
As mentioned above, SMIC's backbone engineers are mostly from TSMC, and TSMC silently collected evidence of SMIC's theft as early as the establishment of SMIC.
In August 2003, SMIC was about to launch in Hong Kong, and TSMC launched the most high-profile war in China's semiconductor industry.
TSMC chose to sue SMIC in the United States for $1 billion in damages, in a vain attempt to strangle SMIC in the cradle, the lawsuit continued until 2005, Zhang Rujing had no choice but to settle with TSMC, which is equivalent to admitting to the use of TSMC technology and compensating $175 million. TSMC's most vicious trick is to require SMIC to set up a "technology third-party escrow account", that is, SMIC places all its technology in this account, and TSMC has the right to inspect the account, which completely locks the path of SMIC's development based on TSMC's R&D strategy.
In 2006, when SMIC had just eased up, TSMC's backhand came again, once again accusing SMIC of using TSMC technology in the latest process, and although Zhang Rujing counterclaimed in Beijing, somehow, Beijing HLFA rejected the claim. In this campaign, TSMC won the case, receiving a $200 million and 10% stake in SMIC, with rumors that Zhang Rujing must leave SMIC.
After Zhang Rujing received a call from his lawyer, he cried bitterly on the other end of the phone. He resigned three days later and left SMIC, where he had struggled for 9 years. This was the first time in his life that he had left his job involuntaryly, thanks to Zhang Zhongmou!
07 Continuous entrepreneurship
After leaving SMIC, Zhang Rujing did not choose to retire from the jianghu, but founded Shanghai Sunrise Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd., and later set up the first CIDM (Collaborative Integrated Circuit Manufacturing) model in Qingdao.
In June this year, Zhang Rujing joined Shanghai Jita Semiconductor Co., Ltd. as an executive director, Zhang Lao, who is now 74 years old and is still campaigning for China's semiconductor industry.
At the same time, Zhang Zhongmou, 91, attended a reception luncheon for Pelosi, who was visiting Taiwan, in August this year.
Liu Deyin, the current chairman of TSMC, also made the following remarks before Pelosi's visit: "If the mainland launches armed reunification, it will only get Taiwan as an 'economic ruin.'" If the mainland dares to use force, it will cut off the supply of chips. ”
08 Returning geese to the tide
While praising Zhang Rujing, we would also like to list other Guiyan geese who have made great contributions to China Semiconductor:
Zhongxingwei's Deng Zhonghan returned to China in 1999, Spreadtrum's Wu Ping and Chen Datong returned to China in 2001, VeriSili's Dai Weimin returned to China in 2002, and GigaDev's Zhu Yiming returned to China in 2004, and they threw themselves into the historical process of China's semiconductor industry with rich experience and precious sparks.
Finally, it ends with a sentence from Zhang Rujing at the Xinen Semiconductor Oath Ceremony:
"Everyone must have patience, confidence, determination, with more perseverance and perseverance to make the project successful, and contribute to China's semiconductor industry!"
Guiyan Zhang Rujing
Resources:
1. Shen Sihan Shi Dan: "The Godfather of Semiconductors" Zhang Rujing: Three times entrepreneurship and China's "core" wishes
2. Lu Kevin Studio: China's chip past
3. Idle Egg Yolk 2021: A TSMC, half of the history of chips
4. It is to speak the core language: the past of China's semiconductor core acid