Chapter 168 Statement Tech giants start by disassembling systems

Tech giants start by disassembling systems

Chapter 168 Statement

2020 11 Month 20 Day.

At 6:17 a.m., Lin Wei's phone screen lit up.

It's not an alarm clock, it's a WeChat message notification.

She barely slept all night; after the successful verification of the 250mm wafer, she had been handling various matters. The official statement was released yesterday afternoon at 4 PM, brief and powerful: "Hongyuan Feiniao's 250mm wafer-level DRIE deep silicon etching cavity has been successfully verified. The measured sidewall angle is 12.03 degrees, deviating by 0.02 degrees from the analytical prediction of 12.05 degrees using the equivalent thermoelastic approximation method. Verification passed."

But this statement is far from enough.

Lin Wei picked up her phone, and the first message she saw was from Zhou Lin in the public relations department: "President Lin, more than thirty reporters have arrived at the door, even more than yesterday. CCTV is here too."

The second message came from the administration department: "President Lin, seven media outlets have called the company landline, all wanting to arrange an exclusive interview with President Su."

The third message was from an unknown number: "Hello Ms. Lin Wei, I am Zhang Yuan, a reporter from Science and Technology Daily. I would like to interview Mr. Su Chen about his thoughts on the successful verification of the 250mm lens and his response to Bosch's 15 billion statement."

Lin Wei put down her phone and rubbed her temples.

She knew Su Chen wouldn't give an interview. After successfully verifying his identity yesterday, Su Chen only read the news for five minutes before turning off his phone and then opened the book "300mm DRIE Cavity Design Scheme - V0.1".

"He won't come out," Lin Wei muttered to herself.

But the outside world won't stop asking questions just because Su Chen doesn't come out. Reporters will keep blocking the entrance, the media will keep making calls, and public opinion will continue to escalate.

More importantly, Bosch's 15 billion statement is still pending.

The Suzhou 15 billion MEMS base, the acquisition of 67% of MicroPort Sensing, and the strategic cooperation with Hangxindatong Tianshu Chip—each of these three events is aimed at Hongyuan Feiniao, but so far, Hongyuan Feiniao has not made any official response.

Is a successful 250mm verification the best response?

Yes. But that's not enough.

Because what the public needs is not just technical data, but a story—a story about "why".

Lin Wei made a decision.

She opened her laptop, created a new document, and typed four words in the title:

A Message to the Public

……

At nine o'clock in the morning, Lin Wei sent the long article she had written to Zhou Lin.

"The announcement will be posted on the official WeChat account of Hongyuan Flying Bird at 10:00 AM, and simultaneously on Weibo and Zhihu."

After reading the entire article, Zhou Lin remained silent for a long time before replying with a message: "President Lin, once this article is published, what about Bosch...?"

"hair."

"Yes."

……

At 10:00 AM sharp, the official WeChat account of Hongyuan Feiniao published a long article.

Title: A Message to the Public – About 250mm Verification, About Bosch, About Why We Did This

Article signed by: Lin Wei, CEO of Hongyuan Feiniao Technology Co., Ltd.

The total length is 4200 characters.

The article begins by stating:

"Yesterday at 2:37 PM, in the Hongyuan Feiniao DRIE laboratory in Nanshan District, Shenzhen, we completed the first verification of a 250mm wafer-level deep silicon etching cavity. The measured sidewall angle was 12.03 degrees, which deviated from the theoretical prediction of 12.05 degrees by 0.02 degrees."

What does this number mean? It means that the equivalent thermoelastic approximation method—a theory independently proposed by our Chief Technology Officer, Chen Su—has withstood experimental verification.

But in this article, I don't want to just talk about technology. I want to talk about some things we've never publicly discussed before.

Next, Lin Wei used nearly two thousand words to describe in detail Bosch's three "encirclement and suppression" of Hongyuan Feibiao.

The first crackdown: academic suppression.

In October 2020, less than two weeks after Hongyuan Feiniao successfully verified the 200mm cavity, Fang Jianhua, an associate professor at the School of Microelectronics of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, along with five other professors, released an open letter of questioning Su Chen.

This open letter sparked huge controversy in academic circles and public opinion, and at one point Su Chen's research results were questioned.

Subsequent events proved that Fang Jianhua had a long-standing business relationship with a certain international MEMS giant—a 'joint laboratory' project worth 800 million yuan. The rhetoric used in the open letter was partly derived from a 'technical questioning guide' provided by the giant's China regional head.

Fang Jianhua has been suspended from his duties at Beihang University pending investigation. The open letter from the six professors has been withdrawn.

But the damage had already been done—Su Chen endured criticism and abuse from the entire internet for those two weeks.

The second encirclement: securing a foothold in the supply chain.

"2020年11月18日，就在250mm验证的前一天，某国际MEMS巨头宣布以15亿元投资苏州MEMS基地，同时收购深圳微创传感科技有限公司67%的股权。

Who is MicroPort Sensing? It is the MEMS packaging supplier for Hongyuan Feiniao, and it accounts for about 30% of our packaging capacity.

The timing of this acquisition—exactly the day before the 250mm verification—was no coincidence.

The third encirclement: market substitution.

On the same day, the giant also announced a strategic partnership with Hangxindatong Technology to jointly develop the "Tianshu" flight control chip.

The combination of Hangxindatong's Tianshu chip and the giant's MEMS sensors equals a complete drone flight control solution.

Who are the target customers for this solution? All of Hongyuan Feiniao's downstream customers.

At this point, Lin Wei changed the subject:

"What did we do in the face of these three encirclements?"

Nothing was done.

We did not hold a press conference to condemn the other party. We did not launch a media campaign. We did not file a complaint with any organization. We didn't even post a single update about this matter on our social media.

Because Su Chen said one sentence: 'I don't need to know. Nor do I need to respond.'

He said this while working on a system integration test of a 250mm cavity in the lab.

So what is our response?

12.03 degrees.

This is our response.

We don't need to cut off anyone's supplies, we don't need to condemn anyone, and we don't need to ask anyone to stand up for us.

We only need to do what others cannot do.

12.03 degrees Celsius is the best statement. The successful verification of 250mm is the best counterattack.

As for the 300mm—Su Chen is already working on it.

The last paragraph of the article:

Someone asked me, "Will Hongyuan Flying Bird retaliate?"

My answer is: We have been fighting back.

However, our counterattack method is not a business war, not public opinion, and not capital operation.

Our method of counterattack is called—technology.

Thank you for your attention.

……

Within thirty minutes of its publication, the article garnered over 10 views.

An hour later, the number of views exceeded 87.

Two hours later, the full text was reprinted by mainstream media such as Xinhua News Agency, CCTV News, The Paper, Jiemian News, and 36Kr.

The Weibo hashtag #HongyuanBirdsToThePublic# reached the top of the trending searches at 11:00 AM, with 430 million views.

Another topic, #12.03 degrees is the best statement#, followed closely behind, ranking third on the trending searches, with 2.8 million views.

The comments section exploded.

The top-rated comment on Weibo:

"I cried. So Bosch was doing all this the day before Su Chen did the 250mm verification. And he 'didn't need to know'! How did this guy do it?" — 18.7 likes

Second most popular comment:

"Lin Wei's article is so well written. No sentimentality, no accusations, just a simple presentation of the facts. And that last sentence, '12.03 degrees Celsius is the best statement,' completely silenced me." — 14.2 likes

Third most popular comment:

"方建华800万的事我知道，但微创传感被收购的时间点我没注意过。11月18日收购，11月19日验证。博世这个时间卡得……呵呵。"——点讚11.9万

Fourth most popular comment:

"‘We don't need to cut off anyone's supply; we just need to do what others can't.’ This sentence should be engraved on the wall of every Chinese technology company." — 9.4 likes

……

On Zhihu, a new question was created at 11:00 AM:

How would you evaluate Lin Wei's lengthy letter to the public, written by the CEO of Hongyuan Feiniao?

387 answers within two hours.

The top-ranked answer came from a Tsinghua University postdoctoral researcher, titled: "This is my third long article for Su Chen; this time I won't use 'maybe'."

"The first time I wrote a long article was when the 200mm verification was successful, and I said, 'It may change the MEMS industry.' The second time was after the live broadcast when Academician Wang Deming recognized the equivalent thermoelastic approximation method, and I said, 'It may change the DRIE design paradigm.'"

This time, the 250mm test was successful, so I won't say 'maybe' anymore.

It has changed.

12.03 degrees. Deviation 0.02 degrees. What does this accuracy mean on a 250mm scale? It means that the temperature field coupling model of the equivalent thermoelastic approximation method has a predictive capability that surpasses all existing commercial simulation software on large-size cavities.

I ran the same test with COMSOL using the same parameters. COMSOL's predicted value was 11.87 degrees, with a deviation of 0.16 degrees.

Su Chen's manual calculation value is 12.05 degrees, with a deviation of 0.02 degrees.

The deviation of the commercial simulation software was 8 times that of Su Chen's manually calculated value.

Eight times.

This isn't progress. This is dimensional reduction.

As for Lin Wei's article—I just want to say one thing: what you saw was a CEO writing a PR piece. What I saw was a woman expressing her deepest anger in the most restrained way.

'12.03 degrees is the best statement.'

Yes. It's the best.

This answer received 4.7 upvotes within two hours, becoming the most upvoted answer to this question.

……

In the WeChat group, the aviator Lao Chen sent a voice message.

He didn't type, because his voice was choked with emotion.

After speech-to-text conversion, the following is displayed:

"Everyone... I just finished reading Lin Wei's article. To be honest, I'm a little... speechless right now. Yesterday I was worried about MicroPort Sensing being acquired, and I was even asking, 'Can Su Chen handle this?' Turns out, he didn't need to handle it at all. He just shut everyone up with 12.03 degrees Celsius. I... I've been making drones for fifteen years. Today is the proudest day I've ever had."

Xiao Wang from Shenzhen:

"陈哥别激动。不过说实话，我也看哭了。那个时间线——11月18日博世砸15亿，11月19日苏辰验证成功。他居然说'不需要知道'。他是真的不知道吗？"

Calm Analyst:

"He genuinely didn't know. The day before the verification, he was doing system integration testing and his phone was off for 14 hours. This isn't a persona; it's true. Because in his priorities, the ±0.005 degree accuracy of the calibration program was far more important than Bosch's 15 billion."

This is what distinguishes Su Chen from the others.

Old Chen the Flyer:

"Oh, by the way, Lao Wu called me."

Xiao Wang from Shenzhen:

"Old Wu from Minimally Invasive Sensing?"

Old Chen the Flyer:

"Yes. He said he also read Lin Wei's article. He said... he said he felt ashamed. But Bosch's offer was simply irresistible—a 67% stake at 2.3 times the market price, plus a 5-year management retention agreement and priority orders for the Suzhou plant. His small company couldn't resist such temptation."

Calm Analyst:

"Old Wu doesn't need to feel ashamed. The business world is like a battlefield, and he made a rational choice. The real focus shouldn't be on Old Wu, but on how Hongyuan Feiniao will address the 30% packaging capacity shortfall."

Old Chen the Flyer:

"Lin Wei didn't mention this in her article."

Calm Analyst:

"She won't mention it in her open letter. But she's definitely thinking about it."

Xiao Wang from Shenzhen:

"So what's next for Hongyuan Feiniao? They've lost MicroPort Sensors, who will do the packaging?"

Calm Analyst:

"Two options. First, find another packaging manufacturer. MicroPort Sensing isn't the only company in China doing MEMS packaging, but there aren't many that can achieve flight controller-level precision. Second, build your own packaging line. But this requires a significant investment and will take at least six months."

Old Chen the Flyer:

What will Su Chen choose?

Calm Analyst:

"Ask him. Oh, by the way, his phone is off."

Flyer Lao Chen sent a facepalm emoji.

……

At 2 PM, the People's Daily published a commentator's article:

"Looking at China's Path of Independent Innovation in Science and Technology from a 12.03-Degree Perspective"

The article points out: "The successful verification of Hongyuan Flying Bird's 250mm DRIE is not only a technological breakthrough for one company, but also a significant milestone on the path to independent control of China's MEMS industry. Faced with the capital encirclement of foreign giants, Chinese technology companies have responded with technological innovation as the most powerful measure. This spirit of 'not arguing, but doing practical work' is worthy of emulation by all Chinese companies."

At 3 PM, Academician Wang Deming posted on Weibo:

"After reading Lin Wei's article, I wholeheartedly agree with her statement that '12.03 degrees Celsius is the best declaration.' In the face of science, capital and the power of discourse are temporary. Only technology is eternal. Su Chen, using only one person, a pen, and a blackboard, derived the equivalent thermoelastic approximation method, defeating a multinational corporation with annual revenue of 800 billion euros that spent 15 billion yuan on an encirclement strategy. This is the power of science. Today is a day the MEMS industry should remember."

Number of reposts: 47.

……

36Kr published an in-depth report at 4 PM, titled:

Bosch invested 15 billion yesterday, and Su Chen responded with a return of 12.03 degrees today.

This headline went viral on social media, and was shared over 120 million times that evening.

The last paragraph of the article reads:

"In a sense, Bosch's 15 billion statement was the best endorsement for Su Chen. Because if Su Chen wasn't worth paying attention to, Bosch wouldn't have needed to spend 15 billion. And Su Chen's 12.03 degrees was the best return gift for Bosch—it used a 0.02-degree deviation to tell the world: your 15 billion can't buy this level of precision."