deltrittennovels Chapter 178 Sharing
Chapter 178 Sharing
2020 12 Month 5 Day.
Conference room on the third floor of Hongyuan Feiniao headquarters, Nanshan District, Shenzhen.
Nine o'clock sharp.
The inaugural Flying Bird Alliance Technology Sharing Conference has officially begun.
The conference room wasn't large—to be precise, it was the largest conference room at Hongyuan Flying Bird, temporarily converted into a meeting space. It could accommodate a maximum of sixty people. At that moment, about forty-five people were seated.
Each of the 23 alliance member companies sent one or two technical leaders. In addition, Hongyuan Feiniao's own team—Lin Wei, Zhou Lin, Zhao Ming, and Su Chen—and a special guest were also present.
Zhou Zhiyuan.
He sat in the first row, near the corner. He wore a gray jacket and looked no different from the technical directors of the MEMS companies in the room. Nobody noticed him.
A registration desk was placed at the entrance of the conference hall. Next to the desk was a stack of documents—confidentiality agreements. Every attendee was required to sign them upon registration.
"The entire content of this sharing session is for internal technical exchange within the Flying Bird Alliance and may not be disclosed to the public without written permission."
Some attendees hesitated slightly when signing the papers—after all, it was just a technical sharing session, was it really necessary to be so serious? But seeing the earnest attitude of Hongyuan Feiniao, they still signed.
At 9:05, Lin Wei walked onto the podium.
"Welcome everyone to the inaugural Flying Bird Alliance Technology Sharing Conference."
Her opening was brief and direct:
"Today's sharing session is divided into two parts. The first part, presented by our Technical Director Zhou Lin, introduces the engineering application methodology of the 250mm equivalent thermoelastic approximation method—content that alliance member companies can directly use in actual production. The second part, presented by our Chief Researcher Su Chen, showcases the latest achievements of Hongyuan Feiniao MEMS technology."
The attendees nodded slightly. They already had some understanding of the 250mm methodology—after all, Hongyuan Feiniao's licensing documents with the Feiniao Alliance already included some of the 250mm technical specifications. Today's presentation was probably a more detailed version.
As for the "latest results"—they were curious, but not particularly expectant.
After all, judging from public opinion, Hongyuan Feiniao hasn't been doing well lately. A post on Zhihu by a "former Bosch employee" has 1.8 likes. An in-depth article by "Semiconductor Industry Observer" has over 10 views. Several accounts on Weibo are simultaneously expressing pessimism.
In this public opinion environment, what "latest achievements" can Hongyuan Feiniao produce?
It's most likely an improved version of the 250mm technology—perhaps the yield rate has improved, or perhaps the precision has been slightly enhanced in a certain direction.
Some attendees even thought to themselves – the main reason for coming today is to maintain relationships. After all, they've joined the Flying Bird Alliance, so they have to give them face.
At 9:10, Zhou Lin began the first part of her report.
Her report was very professional—the PPT was clear, the data was detailed, and the logic was rigorous.
Starting from the basic principles of the 250mm equivalent thermoelastic approximation method, this paper systematically introduces the key steps in engineering applications: parameter calibration process, temperature gradient control method, key points of DRIE equipment debugging, and optimization strategies for yield.
Each step is accompanied by detailed data and charts.
The technical staff in the audience were taking notes diligently. Some nodded from time to time—the content was indeed substantial, far more detailed than the technical specifications provided in the licensing documents.
But it lacks originality.
Because they already knew the core details—the 250mm precision data and the 12.03-degree sidewall angle. It was in published papers, in 36Kr reports, and even discussed extensively on Zhihu.
The report lasted approximately forty-five minutes.
During the session, Zhou Lin answered several questions in detail—regarding the control accuracy of the temperature gradient and the compatibility issues of different DRIE models.
It's 10:00 AM sharp. The first segment is over.
Lin Wei announced a ten-minute break.
During the break, several participants huddled together and whispered among themselves.
"The content is good, but it's basically a more detailed version of known information."
"Yes, the methodology is indeed much more detailed than in the license document; I can use it directly when I get back."
"But what is the 'latest achievement' mentioned in the second segment? Can you guess what it is?"
"I guess it's an improved version of the 250mm model. Maybe the yield rate has improved by one or two percentage points?"
"More or less. It definitely can't be 300mm—aren't people saying that Hongyuan Feiniao's 300mm is still a long way off?"
"Did you see that post on Zhihu? It said that 30% of the packaging for Hongyuan Feiniao relies on minimally invasive sensors—"
"I've looked at it. To be honest, I'm a little worried."
Their voices were very soft. But Zhou Zhiyuan, sitting in the corner, heard them all.
He held a paper cup of coffee, a slight smile playing on his lips.
10:10. The second segment begins.
Lin Wei stepped onto the podium again:
"The second segment will feature Su Chen, Chief Researcher of Hongyuan Feiniao, presenting our latest technological achievements."
Su Chen stood up from the first row and walked onto the podium.
He wore a dark blue shirt—Lin Wei had Zhou Lin prepare it for him yesterday; he usually only wore lab coats or T-shirts. He looked somewhat reserved standing on the podium—completely different from the composure of those professional managers.
Hello everyone. I'm Su Chen.
His opening remarks consisted of just this one sentence.
Several attendees in the audience frowned slightly—this was far too brief.
Su Chen didn't say anything more. He pressed the remote control, and an image appeared on the projection screen behind him.
That's a three-dimensional topographic map from a white light interferometer—the precise morphology of the microstructure on the surface of a 300mm silicon wafer. The color height mapping transitions from blue to red, and the grooves of the microstructure are clearly visible.
"These are the experimental data from December 3rd."
Su Chen's voice was flat and unadorned:
300mm P-type silicon wafer. DRIE etching.
Some people in the audience stopped writing.
300mm?
"Side wall angle - 12.07 degrees."
Su Chen clicked on the remote control. A line of large numbers appeared on the screen.
300mm DRIE etching verification results
Sidewall angle: 12.07°
Accuracy deviation: ±0.018°
Sidewall roughness: Ra 2.3nm
Silicon wafer usage: 1/3 (success on the first try)
There was a three-second silence in the conference room.
Then someone gasped.
"300mm... Verification successful?"
A middle-aged man sitting in the second row—the technical director of a MEMS packaging company in Suzhou—said this in an almost incredulous tone.
Su Chen glanced at him: "Verification successful."
"±0.018 degrees?!" another person exclaimed. "That's even more precise than 250mm?!"
"Yes," Su Chen said. "The third-order correction model actually has higher prediction accuracy on large scales. This shows that the model captures the correct physical essence."
A buzzing sound began to rise in the conference room.
Someone adjusted their glasses, repeatedly glancing at the data on the screen. Someone took out their phone to take a picture—then remembered the confidentiality agreement and put their phone back. Someone exchanged a glance with their colleague next to them, both seeing shock in each other's eyes.
"Wait a minute—" a voice came from the third row. It was a woman in her forties with her hair neatly tied in a ponytail—she was the CTO of a MEMS sensor company in Shenzhen and one of the earliest members of the Flying Bird Alliance.
"Mr. Su Chen, you said 'success on the first try'—do you mean the 300mm test etching was only performed once? Without multiple iterations?"
"Yes," Su Chen said. "We prepared three silicon wafers. We only used one. The first etching attempt achieved the target precision."
The meeting room fell silent for two seconds.
"Success on the first try"—these four words carry more weight than 12.07 degrees Celsius itself.
In the field of MEMS, high-precision etching of 300mm is a recognized challenge. Bosch's own technology roadmap indicates a pre-research period of two to three years for 300mm etching. Even in the experimental stage, it typically requires dozens or even hundreds of process iterations to achieve the target precision.
Su Chen said—once.
This is not the accumulation of engineering experience. This is the power of theoretical prediction.
If the theoretical model is accurate enough, then there is no need for multiple iterations—the calculated parameters are the final answer.
What does this mean?
The technical leaders in the MEMS industry in the audience—who knew more about the field than the writers outside—immediately understood what this meant.
This means that what Hongyuan Feiniao has mastered is not an "engineering skill", but a "theoretical system".
Engineering skills can be caught up with—you do a hundred experiments, I do two hundred, and one day I'll catch up.
But the theoretical frameworks are different. A theoretical framework means that while you're still doing your hundredth experiment, the other person has already arrived at the correct answer with a single calculation.
This gap cannot be bridged by time.
"苏辰先生。"那个马尾女性CTO又开口了，声音比刚才更沉稳，"250mm的精度是12.03度正负0.025度。300mm的精度是12.07度正负0.018度。精度反而提高了——这是否意味着你们的理论模型在更大的尺度上表现更好？"
"Yes," Su Chen answered without hesitation, "The contribution of the third-order correction term is more significant on large scales. The model's prediction accuracy improves with increasing scale."
"What about 400mm?" she pressed.
"Theoretically, it should be more accurate," Su Chen said, "but currently there are no 400mm DRIE devices available."
"What if there is?"
"If there is—" Su Chen paused for a second, "the accuracy should be within ±0.015 degrees."
Silence fell over the meeting room once again.
±0.015 degrees. This figure means that at the 400mm scale, Hongyuan Feiniao's theoretical model can achieve a level of accuracy that is currently difficult for any MEMS company in the world to match at the 200mm scale.
A young technician sitting in the back row couldn't help but whisper to his colleague next to him:
"So those previous articles saying 'the lead is only half a generation'—"
"Shut up," his colleague interrupted him in a low voice. "Not half a generation. A whole generation. At least."
Su Chen stood on the stage for about twenty minutes.
He didn't have a PowerPoint presentation. He only had that one 3D topographic map from the white light interferometer and that set of data.
In twenty minutes, he answered twelve technical questions. Each answer was brief, precise, and without any unnecessary words.
"刻蚀气体配比是多少？"——"SF6/C4F8，比例4.2:1。"
"Loop duration?" — "45 minutes per loop. Three loops."
"The boundary transition section of the seventh region—" Su Chen raised an eyebrow slightly—this was a very professional question—"The third-order coupling term converges after 1031 iterations. Subsequent optimization can reduce the mesh density to below 700 iterations."
Each answer further convinced the technical staff in the audience that this was not a set of manipulated data. These were real, verifiable experimental results.
10:35. Su Chen's report ended.
Applause erupted in the conference room.
This wasn't just polite applause. This was genuine, heartfelt applause.
Because the forty-odd people present—all of whom were practitioners in the MEMS industry—knew better than anyone what 12.07 degrees and ±0.018 degrees meant.
This means they made the right bet.
Joining the Asuka League was the right decision.
Signing that licensing agreement was the right thing to do.
When everyone outside was questioning Hongyuan Feiniao, they chose to stand by Hongyuan Feiniao's side—that was the right thing to do.
Amid applause, Su Chen stepped down from the podium and returned to his seat in the first row.
Zhou Zhiyuan sat beside him and gently patted his shoulder. He didn't say anything.
Su Chen didn't say anything either.
……
Ten forty.
Lin Wei stepped onto the podium again.
"There's one last segment before we conclude today's sharing session."
She looked at Zhou Zhiyuan in the corner of the first row:
"Hongyuan Feiniao has officially appointed Professor Zhou Zhiyuan of the Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, as our technical advisor. Professor Zhou has made key contributions to the angular symmetry dimensionality reduction method—it is this method that makes the calculation of parameters for 300mm possible."
Zhou Zhiyuan stood up.
The attendees below the stage all turned to look at him—no one had noticed this middle-aged man in a gray jacket before.
"Zhou Zhiyuan? From the Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences?" someone whispered to their colleague.
"One of the leading authorities on continuum mechanics in China," his colleague replied in a low voice. "I hadn't heard of any connection with the MEMS industry before."
Lin Wei handed a letter of appointment to Zhou Zhiyuan. The letter was simple—white cardstock, the blue logo of Hongyuan Flying Bird, Zhou Zhiyuan's name, and the words "Technical Consultant".
Zhou Zhiyuan accepted the letter of appointment.
"Thank you," he said. Then he glanced at Su Chen, then at the attendees below the stage, "I'll only say one sentence."
The audience fell silent.
"Su Chen's equivalent thermoelastic approximation method—and the third-order modified model he developed based on it—is one of the most elegant applied mechanics theories I've seen in the past decade. It's not a collection of empirical formulas, nor a patchwork of numerical simulations—it's a self-consistent and predictable theoretical system based on first principles."
He paused for a moment:
"The 12.07 degrees and ±0.018 degrees you see today—this is not the end. It's the beginning."
Applause erupted in the conference room again. This time, the applause was even more enthusiastic.
10:45 AM. The sharing session officially ended.
……
But the real "sharing session" only began afterward.
From 10:45 a.m. to noon, a line formed outside Lin Wei's office.
Representatives from 17 of the 23 alliance member companies immediately approached Lin Wei or Zhou Lin after the sharing session, proposing various cooperation intentions.
"Mr. Lin, the authorization agreement we signed before was the basic version—can we upgrade to the full version now?"
"Mr. Lin, when will the 300mm technology licensing be made available? We are willing to prepay the licensing fee."
"Mr. Lin, our company has an unused 200mm packaging line—if Hongyuan Feiniao needs it, we can convert it into a 250mm line."
"President Lin—"
"President Lin—"
Lin Wei greeted them one by one, her expression remaining calm throughout.
She mentally calculated that among the 17 companies that proactively offered to deepen cooperation, 3 were willing to provide packaging capacity support.
3 companies.
This means that supply chain pressures will ease faster than expected.
The supply reduction from MicroPort Sensors—from 4 million to 3 million, and still decreasing month by month—remains a problem. However, if the production capacity of these three companies can be brought online within three months, then the supply reduction from MicroPort Sensors will no longer be a fatal threat.
More importantly, it includes companies that had not previously joined the Flying Bird Alliance.
The technical sharing session was open only to alliance members. Only alliance members saw the 300mm data. But the news would spread. Lin Wei knew very well that at least half of the forty-odd people present would be discussing today's content with their industry friends that very evening.
Confidentiality agreements can prevent them from publicly releasing information, but they cannot prevent them from mentioning in private that "Hongyuan Flying Bird's 300mm lens has been successfully verified."
A week. Maybe two weeks. The news will spread throughout the entire industry.
At that time—those companies that hesitated to join the Flying Bird Alliance will come to us on their own initiative.
And those companies that participated in the media suppression—if any—will realize they've chosen the wrong side.
Lin Wei does not need to respond to any articles questioning her. She does not need to issue any public relations statements.
She just needs to wait.
12.07 degrees will do all the work for her.
……
Noon.
Su Chen, Zhou Zhiyuan, and Lin Wei had lunch at a Chaoshan beef hot pot restaurant downstairs from the headquarters.
Zhou Lin originally wanted to come too, but Lin Wei kept her in the office to receive the company representatives who were still in line.
"You did a good job with today's report," Lin Wei said to Su Chen.
"I only presented the data," Su Chen said.
"So you did a good job," Zhou Zhiyuan interjected. "If you had said one more word, it would have made things worse."
Su Chen glanced at him but did not refute him.
"It's about the paper." Zhou Zhiyuan used serving chopsticks to cook a slice of beef. "I've already drawn up the outline. The main framework consists of three parts—theoretical derivation, computational methods, and experimental verification. It's expected to be around forty pages long. Should we submit it to Nature Materials or Advanced Materials?"
"I'll vote for either one," Su Chen said.
"Then submit it to Nature Materials. The impact factor is higher. And this paper—" Zhou Zhiyuan put down his chopsticks, looking intently at Su Chen, "is significant not only for MEMS. The third-order extension of the equivalent thermoelastic approximation method is a breakthrough in the entire field of continuum mechanics. If the reviewers can see this—this paper could be the most important one of your academic career."
"It's not the most important thing to me," Su Chen said.
"So which one do you think is it?"
"Next chapter."
Zhou Zhiyuan paused for a moment, then laughed: "You're quite confident."
"It's not about confidence," Su Chen said, "it's that there are still many problems to solve. I'll write about them once I've solved them."
"for example?"
"For example, 400mm. For example, the application of the third-order correction model to non-silicon materials. For example, MEMS processes other than etching." Su Chen picked up a slice of beef with his chopsticks. "300mm is just the first step."
"You make it sound so easy," Zhou Zhiyuan shook his head. "You know that just getting to the 300mm step would take at least two to three years in any MEMS lab in the world."
Su Chen did not respond. He was eating beef.
Lin Wei listened quietly to their conversation. She didn't participate in the technical discussion—but she noticed something.
Su Chen was more talkative than usual today.
Maybe it's because Zhou Zhiyuan was there. Maybe it's because the 300mm camera was a success. Maybe it's just because beef hot pot tastes better than boxed lunches.
Whatever the reason, Lin Wei felt it was a good omen.