擁有 80 年歷史的日本公司可能是下一代芯片的關鍵

Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:

Bloomberg

Eighty-Year-Old Japanese Firm May Be Key to Next-Gen Chips

Pavel Alpeyev and Yuki Furukawa

Tue., June 29, 2021, 11:39 p.m.

(Bloomberg) -- One Japanese company that got its start making grinding wheels for machinery more than 80 years ago believes it holds the key to helping manufacturers create ever slimmer and more powerful semiconductors to power next-generation mobile phones and advanced computers.

Disco Corp.’s machines can grind a silicon wafer down to a near-transparent thinness and cut the tip of a hair into 35 sections. That knowhow will allow chipmakers to stack integrated circuits on top of each other in a process called 3D packaging, promising smaller chip footprints, reduced power consumption and higher bandwidth between various parts.

“Imagine having to cut a croissant cleanly in half,” Disco’s Chief Executive Officer Kazuma Sekiya said in an interview. “That takes a special kind of knife and considerable craftsmanship.”

The semiconductor industry has long relied on Moore’s Law as a model for chip-technology breakthroughs, but makers are now approaching the physical limits of their ability to cram more transistors onto silicon as leaders like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. migrate to ever-smaller nodes such as 3 nanometers. That’s prompting manufacturers to turn to solutions like 3D packaging to provide an edge. Disco’s technology has been in the making for four to five years and it’s finally ready for practical use, Sekiya said.

The small number of specialized machines Disco has already shipped have had very high gross margins, the CEO said, without providing details. Dicers are typically used toward the end of the fabrication process to cut individual chips from a wafer. Slicing more chips earlier in the process, where per-unit prices are higher, will result in a boost for Disco’s revenues, he added, declining to give a specific timeline.

“Disco has grown at twice the semiconductor industry’s pace because of this need for precision grinding and dicing equipment,” Damian Thong, an analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd., said. “Over the last 40 years, they have worked on every kind of cutting application imaginable, so they are well positioned for this next shift to 3D integration and packaging.”

Some memory chips and image sensors -- devices that convert light into ones and zeros -- already make use of vertical integration. TSMC has said it will spend about one tenth of its $30 billion capital expenditure budget this year on advanced packaging and masking technologies.

Sekiya’s grandfather founded the company in 1937 to cash in on demand for grinding equipment amid Japan’s pre-war military buildup. After the war, Disco’s abrasive wheels found use in grinding magnets for electricity meters and slitting fountain pen nibs. In 1974, it was tasked by the University of Tokyo with the job of cutting the moon rock brought back by the Apollo 11 mission.

It opened its U.S. office in 1969, a year after Intel Corp. was founded and at the very dawn of the microchip revolution. Disco is now one of a number of little-known Japanese companies that are indispensable to semiconductor production. It controls 81% of the market for grinders and 73% for dicers in semiconductors, according to Nomura Securities Co. Shares of Disco climbed 0.7% in Tokyo trading Wednesday while the broader market fell, adding to a roughly 30% increase in the past year.

Disco is unusual in that for the past decade it has used an internal currency called “Will” to create a micro-economy where sales teams pay factory workers to produce goods, who in turn pay engineers to design products. Even office desks, PCs and meeting rooms have a price. When a sale is made, the coin trickles back through the supply chain. Balances are paid in yen at the end of each quarter as bonuses.

When the pandemic hit, the company set up a system where those working remotely paid a certain amount of Will to be divided among the employees who came in. Early on, some 40% of employees chose to show up in person, earning considerable bonuses, Sekiya said, without giving specific figures. But infections at the firm stayed low, totaling in single digits in Japan. Now that almost 90% of its staff are back in the workplaces, the payout has dwindled. Disco employs roughly 5,600 people.

“We had to prove to employees that going to work isn’t scary,” Sekiya said. “Although some felt that it was too harsh, and several people have quit.”

The effort has helped the company run its factories at full capacity for the past year amid a flood of orders from chip manufacturers racing to boost supplies in a global chip shortage. Disco’s revenue grew 30% last fiscal year to 182.9 billion yen ($1.65 billion), while profit jumped almost 46% to 53.1 billion yen. Sekiya said there are still no signs of slack in demand and Disco is shopping for land in Hiroshima and Nagano prefectures to expand its factories.

“This momentum will definitely continue through the fiscal first half,” he said. “There are zero signs of a slowdown right now.”

Translation

（彭博社）—— 一家在 80 多年前開始製造機械專用砂輪的日本公司, 被認為是會幫助製造商製造更纖薄、功能更強大的半導體, 有可能成為驅動下一代手機和先進計算機的關鍵。

Disco Corp. 的機器可以將矽晶片研磨成近乎透明的薄度，並將頭髮尖端切成 35份。這種專有技術將使芯片製造商能夠在稱為 3D 封裝的過程中, 將集成電路堆疊在一起，從而實現更小的芯片足跡、減低功耗和使各個部件之間有更高的頻寬。

 Disco Corp. 的首席執行官 Kazuma Sekiya 在接受採訪時說: “想像一下去把一個羊角麵包乾淨地切成兩半”; “這需要一種特殊的刀和相當可觀的手藝。”

半導體行業長期以來一直依賴摩爾定律(Moore’s Law)作為芯片技術突破的模型，但隨著台積電等領先企業遷移到越來越小的節點, 例如3 納米，製造商現正在接近他們在矽片上塞入更多晶體管的能力的物理極限。這促使製造商轉向 3D 組件等解決方案以提供優勢。 Sekiya 說，Disco 的技術已經醞釀了四到五年，現終於可以投入實際使用。

首席執行官在沒有提供細節之下表示，Disco已經出貨的少數專用機器的毛利率非常高。切片機通常用於在製造過程結束時, 從晶片上切割單個芯片。他補充說，在此過程中越早切割越多芯片，將會促進 Disco 的收入, 因為這時芯片每個單位價格是更高之故。但他拒絕給出具體時間流程。

Macquarie Group Ltd. 的分析師 Damian Thong 表示： “由於對精密研磨和切割設備的需求，Disco 的增長速度是半導體行業的兩倍” 。 “在過去的 40 年裡，他們致力於各種可以想像的切割應用，因此為他們下一次向 3D 集成和封裝的轉變做好了準備。”

一些存儲用芯片和圖像傳感器 - 即是將光轉換為 1 和 0 的裝置 - 已經利用了垂直集成。台積電表示，今年將把其 300 億美元資本支出預算中的約十分之一用於先進封裝和遮蔽技術。

Sekiya 的祖父於 1937 年創立了這家公司，利用日本戰前軍事擴展期間, 需求研磨設備的情況下而獲利。戰後，Disco的砂輪被用於研磨電錶的磁鐵和切割鋼筆筆尖。 1974 年，東京大學委託它切割阿波羅 11 號任務帶回的月球岩石。

它於 1969 年開設了美國辦事處，也就是英特爾公司(Intel Corp.)成立一年後, 是微芯片革命的極初發展之時。 Disco現在是半導體生產不可或缺的眾多鮮為人知的日本公司之一。根據野村證券公司的數據，它控制著 81% 的研磨機市場和 73% 的半導體切割機市場。 Disco 股價週三在東京交易中上漲 0.7%，而大市則下跌。在過去一年中共上升了約 30% 。

Disco 的不尋常之處在於，在過去十年中，它使用一種名為 “Will” 的內部貨幣來創建一種微型經濟。在這種經濟中，銷售團隊支付工廠工人來生產商品，而後者又支付工程師來設計產品。即使是辦公桌、個人電腦和會議室也是有價格的。當完成銷售時，金錢會通過供應鏈流回。剩餘額在每個季度尾以日元支付作為獎金。

疫情來臨時，公司建立了一個制度，在家上班的員工支付一定數量的Will給返回公司上班的員工作自行分配。Sekiya在沒有給出具體數字之下曾說，在早期大約40%的員工選擇親自上班，獲得可觀的獎金。但該公司的感染率一直很低，在日本的總數為個位數。現在，幾乎 90% 的員工都回到了工作場所，支出減少了。Disco僱用大約 5,600 名員工。

Sekiya說: “我們必須向員工證明上班並不可怕”; “雖然有人覺得太苛刻了，亦有幾個人已經不幹了。”

在全球芯片短缺的情況下, 芯片製造商競相增加供應。該公司這受其制度幫助, 在過去一年中在大量訂單之下, 生產能力到達極限。 Disco 上一財年的收入增長 30% 至 1829 億日元（16.5 億美元），而利潤增長近 46% 至 531 億日元。 Sekiya 表示，需求仍然沒有減弱的跡象，Disco 正在廣島和長野縣進行選購土地以擴大工廠。

他說:“這種勢頭肯定會持續到上半年度”; “目前經濟放緩的跡象為零。”

              So, Disco Corp. has grown twice recently thanks to the increasing need for precision grinding and dicing equipment globally.  

Note: Disco Corp.  engages in the manufacturing and sale of precision cutting, grinding and polishing machines. It operates through different business divisions. Its Precision Machines division deals with dicing saws, laser saws, grinders, polishers, wafer mounter, die separator, surface planer, and water jet saws. The Precision Processing Tools division produces dicing blades, grinding wheels, and dry polishing wheels. (https://www.forbes.com/companies/disco-corp/?sh=a1e4f0b69748)