Rebirth of Northern Technology

Optoelectronics research meeting room.

Luo Ningwei opened the door of the meeting room, and everyone was almost there. The topic of the meeting is the discussion of the LCD driver circuit. Several majors participated.

"Little Luo, come and sit here!"

Professor Zhao Liangcai has been discussing it for a while. Microelectronics and circuit design were originally a family, but now they are separated.

The LCD drive circuit design cannot continue to be delayed. The TFT-LCD sample, which has been born for two months, can only display a single color.

"How are you talking?"

"Not very good, we can't make this chip."

Zhao Liangcai's pressure is also quite high.

The LCD project is a key project supported by the school, but it is stuck here.

But there is no alternative.

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The LCD driver chip is different from the module driver circuit of the large screen. It already belongs to the category of large-scale integrated circuits.

Specializing in integrated circuits, I also want to make gestures, but conditions do not allow it.

The resolution of the first generation of LCD monitors is not very high, only 640x480, but that's it, the number of pixels it needs to control has reached close to one million (921,600).

The number of transistors included in the LCD driver chip can be imagined.

In the LED era, this can only be accomplished through the cooperation of thousands of chips. Although the corresponding thin-film transistors are printed on the TFT-LCD glass plate, which reduces the difficulty of a part of the driving chip and auxiliary circuits, the essential function has not changed.

There are many problems encountered when designing such large-scale integrated circuits.

The first is experience. There are not many people who have experience in this area in schools or even the whole country.

The second is the tool software. The role of this level of IC and EDA software is more important. EDA software is not cheap.

Next, the chip is designed and must be produced. Chips of this level can only be produced using advanced manufacturing processes, and at least 1 micron is required. But this level of fabs does not exist in China.

In this era, foundry has not yet become mainstream. Basically all fabs are customized for special chips. The fab that produces memory only produces memory. A fab that produces TV chips only produces TV chips.

It is for this reason that the integrated circuit profession has to rebuild a laboratory by itself to produce LED module driver chips.

Fortunately, there is no shortage of semiconductor equipment that was so rare in the past. At least 20 microns, 10 microns level equipment is not lacking, because optoelectronics has eliminated two rounds of production line equipment.

But LCD driver chips, designed and manufactured by ourselves, are simply hopeless.

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"Now what?"

The LCD drive circuit is dependent on the drive chip and exists. Every time the drive chip changes, the peripheral circuit must be adjusted.

"There is no other way but to use imported chips."

In the face of this situation, Director Zhao had no choice but to spread both hands, expressing powerlessness.

"But we can't import this kind of chips at all!"

Luo Ningwei disagrees with this approach. She is the user of the chip, and the chip will be provided to Optoelectronics only after it is integrated into a circuit here.

There is no driving chip for liquid crystal displays in the world, but none of them can be obtained by her.

The first one is the chip that the manufacturer customizes and designs on its own. Several TFT-LCD manufacturers in Japan have their own chip factories. Some are sold, and will not be sold to non-related households. Hitachi has some driver chips, but they are only available to domestic manufacturers.

The second way is to use a general-purpose DSP and add peripheral auxiliary chips and circuits to achieve the same function.

In this case, there will be more options for the DSP solution. But DSP chips, due to their general functions, can be used in other fields, such as national defense and aerospace!

Since the incident two years ago, the mainland has faced a total embargo.

This high-performance DSP, at least for now, cannot be imported on a large scale.

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"These are some of the chips we have collected, please organize someone to design a few sets of reference circuit diagrams."

Cheng Yongxing pushed a few chip samples around him, as well as the corresponding documents and information.

Embargoed or restricted chips cannot be bought in large quantities, but through special channels, a small amount, a few chips, or a dozen chips are still no problem.

"Have you found a source of chips?"

Luo Ningwei's eyes lit up. The optoelectronics market is not in China at all, and there may be some doors.

"No. But there is no need to import chips! Anyway, these displays are eventually exported. The chips are directly assembled abroad."

"But what about my circuit board?"

It stands to reason that such chips are directly soldered to the circuit board. It is completely different from the way the CPU socket is connected.

"Moreover, why should I give me three types of chips? Do you want me to do a comparative analysis, and then choose one?"

The design of each chip is different. Correspondingly, its control and use methods, and even peripheral auxiliary circuits, are completely different.

"No, I need three different reference circuits. In the end, customers decide which one they want to use."

"Reference circuit? What does this mean?"

"This sales will take another form. We only sell to the panel level, and the final drive circuit is the responsibility of the customer. We only provide reference solutions and reference designs, so as to avoid the embargo issue. "

"This..."

If a reference circuit must be designed for each type of chip, its workload is completely doubled.

More importantly, there is no money at all! The circuit board is gone!

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"Sister Luo, this is only a temporary measure. When the production line is mass-produced in the second half of next year, the embargo will be alleviated. Then, the chip problem will no longer be a problem.

Due to the ever-changing international situation, the eyes of all countries in the world have been attracted by the changes in the huge monster to the north. In addition, at the end of 1991, that is, now, China has begun a series of active diplomatic activities, and the blockade of China by countries around the world has also been loosened.

By the end of 1992, most of the blockades will be gradually lifted, and China will also usher in a short period of market easing.

"Hey, how do you know that the embargo will be eased in the second half of next year? Do you have any news?"

Several people in the room were interested. The embargo has lasted for more than two years, and the dismantling of many large projects has something to do with the embargo.

"I have heard it too. After all, we have a lot of overseas customers, and the information in this area is relatively well-informed."

"Really? From what channel did you hear it? You still have this kind of relationship?"

This is a super big gossip. Something that even the country could do nothing, found the answer in this small meeting room.

The value of this information is too great.

If you have money, it is hard to buy.

"I guessed it too. Otherwise, it would be impossible to solve the problem of chip import in the end. We will also pay for the use of the reference design according to the output."

Cheng Yongxing quickly changed the subject.

"That was not what I meant."

"It's okay, my brother has settled the bill."

The relationship between the two people has been normalized, but it will be awkward to meet again. It's not right to be polite, it's not right to be polite.

Faced with this situation, Luo Ningwei didn't know what to say, so she picked up the chip sample and related materials, turned around and walked out.

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"Director Zhao, the LCD driver chip still needs to be caught."

After the beauty left, the people in the room continued to discuss the topic of chips.

Experience can be cultivated, EDA software can be purchased with money, and it is unreasonable to retreat.

"The difficulty of designing this chip is not small. If nothing else is the DSP core, it can't be done in a short time."

Professional in integrated circuit design, of course, I am interested in the design of such level chips as LCD driver chips. But the most difficult part is the DSP core.

When was the first time China solved general-purpose DSP design?

2012!

"The DSP core is better to buy third-party IP."

This kind of special chip, there is no need to jump DSP design this big hole. The common practice of system integration chips is to purchase commercial IP modules and then integrate them.

The performance of the DSP core obtained by this method may not be very good, but the performance requirements of the LCD driver chip for the DSP are not very high, and it is just right.

This method also has a disadvantage, that is, the need to pay for the related IP. Coupled with a series of hardware investments such as EDA software and workstations. It is not an exaggeration to say that money is spent like running water.

"How about tape-out? What about tape-out?"

Chip design can be solved by purchasing IP module integration. But after the chip is designed, where can I find a 1 micron wafer processing plant?

The 908 project can still be completed in 6 years.

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"It seems that it is time to solve the problem of chip processing."

With the growth of optoelectronic research, the consumption of chips is also increasing.

Large LED screens have relatively low output at the beginning, and only consume a few thousand chips a month. With laboratory equipment, small batch production can also be dealt with.

But the output of large screens will soon reach double digits. The demand for chips has reached tens of thousands.

And LCD has greater demand for chips.

In the general chip solution of DSP, the core chip is not mentioned, only the peripheral expansion interface chip, dozens of them are indispensable. And LCD, a month's production capacity, at least start with a few thousand pieces.

The demand for chips from the Optoelectronics Group alone is enough to feed a small fab.

The international situation will improve significantly next year, and the chip embargo will disappear substantially. But this disappearance is only temporary. By 1995, the embargo will start again.

If the problem of the fab is not solved in the past two years, it will be too late to solve the problem at that time.

"Yeah, do you have any suggestions?"

Everyone likes building a chip factory, but where does the money come from?

The 908 project, but it cost 2 billion! Project 909, 10 billion!

There is no financing channel at all. Banks are the only way out. But the bank has no money anymore.

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