Dr. Gao Teng, General Manager of IMEC China Branch
Neutral, independent, non-profit, international, this is the unique gene that is incredible by IMEC (Inter-University Microelectronic Center), a world-renowned microelectronics research center based in Leuven, Belgium.
Just as Dr. Gao Teng, the general manager of IMEC China Branch, mentioned in an exclusive interview with this reporter: “IMEC will not compete with potential customers, do not make products, and have no competition with customersâ€. Based on the neutral concept that has always been adhered to, since its establishment in 1984, IMEC has attracted solid cooperation from global semiconductor industry giants including Intel, AMD, Samsung, TSMC, and Applied Materials, which is not the capital of IMEC.
From the outset, it relied on limited government funding to maintain its operations. In recent years, the government has provided only 17% of IMEC's ​​revenue. Most of its funding comes from the global semiconductor industry. IMEC has created a successful business model for independent R&D institutions around the world.
It is the place where IMEC is respected and admired by the sincere cooperation with companies in the industry, sharing intellectual property and talents, and sharing the research and development costs and risks.
On May 25, 2010, IMEC established a Chinese branch in Shanghai. In the words of Dr. Gao Teng: "We are very optimistic about the Chinese market. IMEC is rooted in China and hopes to help more outstanding Chinese companies participate in the international cooperation of leading technologies in the world, which will help Chinese enterprises get some advanced technology as soon as possible." .
Sharing technology shares risk
"High-tech LED": As a well-known independent research and development platform in the field of microelectronics technology, IMEC has always had extensive cooperation with global semiconductor industry giants. What kind of unique advantages does IMEC attract so many or even competing companies to participate in the same technology research and development project? How do participating companies share common research and development results?
Gao Teng: Competing companies can participate in the same technology research project because the cost of R&D in the semiconductor industry is exponentially increasing. Big companies, including Intel, can be struggling, not that they don't have enough money, but there are so many technical options that can be studied anyway, but the resources you can invest in are limited.
We believe that the competitive process between companies is phased. From technology development to final product production, the entire technology life cycle includes the development of technology, then development, maturity, and finally aging. There is such a stage before the real white-hot competition for specific product development. We call it the pre-competition phase, which is mainly to provide some common technology research and development.
The main mode of IMEC is to organize everyone to carry out research and development of common technologies in the pre-competition phase. Under the pressure of limited resource investment and tight schedule, everyone is willing to share the research and development results at this stage.
"High-tech LED": Why is it dominated by IMEC, not led by other companies?
Gao Teng: IMEC has created a very good cooperation model, namely IIAP (IMEC Industrial Affiliation Program). Through this alliance, all participating companies can share intellectual property and talent, and share research and development costs and risks.
Another important reason is the unique neutrality of IMEC. Its neutrality has been adhered to since its establishment, including not competing with potential customers, not making products, and not competing with customers. Even if you have a good chance, such as the commercialization of research and development results can make a lot of money, but IMEC will not do it.
Secondly, it may be related to the country where IMEC is located. The national semiconductor industry in Belgium is small, and IMEC is a research and development institution invested by the local government of Flanders in Belgium. The government has not forced us to serve only local companies. Therefore, we have been serving the world since its establishment, and at the same time pursuing neutrality and independence in the service process. After so many years of development, basically the global industry has recognized the neutrality and independence of IMEC, which is why these Big companies are willing to come to us for important reasons for cooperation. Through global cooperation, IMEC has gained global technology leadership and can better serve local enterprises, making local governments willing to support IMEC continuously.
"High-tech LED": Making money is the law of survival. Is IMEC involved in these projects profitable?
Gao Teng: IMEC is not profitable. This is mainly reflected in: Even if we make money, we will not take dividends. Because our only shareholder is the local government of Flanders, Belgium, and it has to give us a grant each year.
In addition to supporting the R&D project, the funds we raise will be backed up to partners through various channels. It is this kind of feedback that attracts more companies to participate in this research and development platform. Therefore, our partners are generally very stable. For example, Intel and IMEC have cooperated for more than 20 years. What makes us even more proud is that few companies have so far suspended cooperation because they are not satisfied with our services.
"High-tech LED": You once said that "the leading edge of technology means getting patents and getting high returns." Does this mean that IMEC has a global monopoly on a technology to achieve greater profits? If so, is it contradictory to the original intention of "non-profit"?
Gao Teng: Indeed, the leading edge of technology means getting patents and getting high returns. The positioning of IMEC determines that we must be the world's leading technology. Our aim is to serve the industry. Technology is not leading, our industrial partners will not be willing to pay us money, Intel will not cooperate with us for 20 years.
At the same time, IMEC has never thought of monopolizing a certain technology in the world. All technologies are transferable and sold, as long as you pay a reasonable price. Secondly, we believe that the monopoly of technology is very difficult to do, and technology is actually knowledge in the human mind. As people move, knowledge moves to other places. IMEC is constantly moving toward the most advanced technology to ensure its technological leadership, rather than relying on monopoly.
There is also a very important reason why IMEC does not make products. Therefore, the transfer of technology by IMEC to partners does not pose any competitive threat to us. This kind of customer will be very reassured to us and will continue to cooperate with us in more fields.
For some commercial companies, technology transfer to other companies will be second thought. First, they will not transfer the most advanced technology. Secondly, when transferring technology for some return, they will worry that you will become his competitor in the future. Retain, only teach you how to do this thing, not willing to teach you why you should do this. They just teach you to be an "operator", and IMEC wants to teach you how to do it, why do it, wait until the market changes, and when your product needs improvement, you know how to change it. This is where our technology transfer is not the same as other companies. We refer to this as a white box transfer, or a transparent box transfer. Unlike the black box transfer, the white box is where you can know what is inside the box, how to do it, and why. This is a very valuable piece of content that we can bring to our customers and partners.
"High-tech LED": IMEC, a business model that cooperates with enterprises and jointly develops, what is worthwhile for China's current large number of government research institutes? In a sense, China's traditional official R&D system has largely restricted the industrialization process of technology and the ultimate benefits it brings, even though China has not lacked top-notch technology R&D engineers.
Gao Teng: For the research institutes of a national nature, I personally feel that the first is to locate some problems. Whether you are making products for sale or for business, you only want to develop products for it. If you choose to sell your own products, your potential customers may be scared away. If a domestic research institute cannot guarantee its neutrality, its attractiveness to the enterprise will be greatly reduced.
Of course, there are many research institutes in China that are also very neutral. It does not make products, but it will still be criticized by others. It says that it does not meet the requirements of the industry. I think this may be more with our country. Some systems are related. For example, researchers are mainly concerned with the number of papers published, because this is closely related to the title of the appraisal. If the source of funds is mainly the funding of research projects, naturally the focus of its work will be on how to obtain more research project funding, rather than making industry-compliant results to obtain industry funding.
The focus of IMEC is how to attract companies, and is willing to pay us to develop technology. At this time, the concept of the above research institutes is completely different. What we have to do must be useful to the industry, so we must fully consider the needs of the industry in the process of research and development, otherwise our technology will ultimately have no market.
The purpose of IMEC is to solve problems for customers.
GaN-on-Si will significantly reduce LED costs
"High-tech LED": In 2009, IMEC launched a joint development program (IIAP) with the goal of developing GaN-on-Si technology for power conversion and solid-state lighting applications. There are two cores in this, one is the Si substrate, and the other is the CMOS process of traditional semiconductors.
Gao Teng: This IIAP is a project to grow gallium nitride on silicon. Before that, we have successfully grown gallium nitride on 6-inch and 8-inch silicon. However, the quality of the 6-inch is better, the quality of the 8-inch film needs to be improved, and there is no crack, but its stress and defects are not enough to meet the requirements of LED devices. The ultimate goal of our project is to use a CMOS-compatible process on a large-size (8-inch) silicon substrate to grow a good enough GaN film and make efficient LED devices on it.
If LED technology is to be truly successful, it must be able to be industrialized on a large scale, because cost is very important for large-scale application promotion.
For how to quickly reduce costs, we have always had two points:
First, the carrier (substrate) area is large enough so that more chips can be made while the manufacturing process is substantially unchanged, and the cost per chip can be greatly reduced.
Second, it is best to use the currently very mature manufacturing technology, that is, silicon-based semiconductor manufacturing technology. This can make full use of existing equipment and process technology, greatly reducing investment costs.
As of now, we have proved that this technology is feasible. In addition, we have also proved that this project can be industrialized for mass production. At present, IMEC is working closely with the world's most well-known equipment company: US Applied Materials in this field, because they have very rich experience in equipment development for large-scale manufacturing.
"High-tech LED": After using the CMOS process, how much can the LED production cost be reduced?
Gao Teng: At present, we have not specifically calculated, because there are many factors involved, and the final rate of finished products is not guaranteed. These jobs must be done together with our partners.
But it can be said that semiconductor technology is currently the finest process in human history, and it can make you incredibly low cost. From the previous 6-inch to 8-inch, 8-inch to 12-inch and the development of the entire semiconductor industry in recent decades, this cost reduction will not be a simple small adjustment, but a substantial decline, but also It continues to drop rapidly over time.
Silicon is expected to replace sapphire substrate in 2015
"High-tech LED": We know that there are currently three mature LED substrates in the market: sapphire, SiC and Si, of which sapphire is still the mainstream in terms of current share. From the perspective of IMEC, how do you view the future share changes between the three? Or can you give a replacement schedule between three substrates?
Gao Teng: This change depends on the development of technology. The sapphire substrate is now the mainstream, because its own technology is relatively mature, and now 6-inch is also beginning to have mass production, but its cost is relatively high. Second, sapphire substrates are not very compatible with CMOS processes. The silicon substrate is different. The first is low cost, and the second is compatible with CMOS. You can even combine the control circuit and LED to produce high integration and low manufacturing cost. In addition, the silicon substrate is easy to be thinned, so the heat dissipation problem will be relatively small.
"High-tech LED": In terms of cost, will it be silicon replacement sapphire in the future? Is there a timetable?
Gao Teng: Our GaN-on-Si project can have a more mature result within three years. If it succeeds, the future should be silicon instead of sapphire. If you follow this calculation, it may take three to five years for the trend of share changes to come out. At the time, silicon should be the mainstream, ranking first.
But it is undeniable that sapphire is relatively mature at present. Because GaN is needed to grow on silicon, you have to do the LED device. If both are done well, silicon is definitely the mainstream.
Participating in international cooperation, becoming bigger and stronger is the way out for the domestic LED industry
"High-tech LED": We know that LED industry leaders including Samsung, Dow Corning, and Sanso of Japan have participated in this joint development plan. Is there any Chinese company involved? If Chinese companies want to participate, is there a chance?
Gao Teng: There are no Chinese companies coming in yet. However, there are indeed Chinese companies that have been in contact with us. Maybe they think that this technology is still two or three years away from maturity, so everyone wants to wait for the time of maturity. But what I want to say is that if the technology matures, these companies can only invest in capital by pure investment. Perhaps Chinese companies are less willing to take on the risks of this research and development.
Everyone knows that the maturity of any technology requires a process, and obviously the later it is added to the R&D alliance company, the higher the cost. I think this is a reasonable logic: because the risk you are taking is reduced, you have more intellectual property and you have to pay more. If the whole project is finished, it is not a cooperative relationship, but a technology license transfer. That is another model, and there is no intellectual property sharing.
"High-tech LED": In the past year, the "arms race" for MOCVD equipment appeared in the world, especially in China. What do you think of this phenomenon?
Gao Teng: We know that MOCVD equipment is expensive. If a large number of MOCVDs are purchased in a short period of time, but they are not aware that there may be more advantageous alternative technologies, these companies will face greater commercial risks. The previous introduction to the use of silicon technology, the cost should have obvious advantages. Therefore, I suggest that when investing in mature technology, you should consider the technological development in the next two or three years, and whether your technology will become backward technology. The government should also guide and carry out mergers and acquisitions to make LED companies bigger and stronger, rather than making home-style workshops. Each family has several MOCVDs, which makes it difficult to form a competitive advantage.
"High-tech LED": What kind of advice do you have for the status quo of the LED industry?
Gao Teng: I personally think that the first is to actively participate in international cooperation. Participating in international cooperation can obtain advanced technology with lower R&D costs. Second, the LED industry needs to plan ahead, to start some integration, reduce some blind projects, and avoid Waste of resources and vicious competition. If these two pieces can be done, I think it is possible to produce several relatively large LED lighting companies in China, which can compete vigorously around the world.
China's LED market is definitely an important market for us, because we know that the Chinese government attaches great importance to this piece. We also hope that Chinese companies will be attracted to participate in global cooperative R&D as a part of the world.
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