Chapter 30: South Korea Can Do for Thirty Trillion What China Cannot Achieve Even After Spending Sixty Trillion Every Year
Chapter 30: South Korea Can Do for Thirty Trillion What China Cannot Achieve Even After Spending Sixty Trillion Every Year
Office of the Vice President for External Affairs, TSNC Factory
“Vice President, this is the student whose tour was requested by the government.”
When an employee escorted me into the vice president’s office, a dignified-looking man stopped reading a Detective Conan manga and looked up at me.
(Translator’s Note:Detective Conan — A Japanese mystery manga written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama. It began serialization in Weekly Shōnen Sunday in January 1994 and is released in English under the title Case Closed.)
“Oh, I heard about you. Are you the student who was accepted into this government program?”
His room was filled not only with Conan figurines, but also with famous mystery novels lining the walls.
“Oh? Do you find it surprising? I’m rather fond of mysteries.”
Apparently noticing my gaze drifting toward the manga, the vice president answered with an awkward expression.
“Conan is more popular than Pokémon in Taiwan.”
(Translator’s Note:Pokémon — A Japanese media franchise originating with Pocket Monsters Red and Green, released for Nintendo’s Game Boy in Japan on February 27, 1996. The original creators and rights holders include Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures.)
“I like Conan too.”
The moment I finished answering, a middle-aged man with completely white hair entered the room.
“Good day, Vice President.”
“Deputy Director Lin, you’re here?”
“So this is the student.”
The man called Deputy Director Lin looked me up and down.
“Give him a proper tour. This is being done to promote Taiwan–South Korea relations, so show him everything without holding back.”
“Yes, understood.”
Despite his polite response, Deputy Director Lin approached me with an unmistakably annoyed expression and offered his hand.
“I hear you’re very interested in semiconductors. This is the first time since our company was founded that we have allowed an outsider to tour the facilities.”
After exchanging greetings, we put on immaculate white cleanroom suits and began touring the factory.
Inside the TSNC Semiconductor Fabrication Plant
Without missing a single thing, I began committing the structure of every component and pipe that made up the equipment to memory.
Semiconductors were the core components of the weapons industry.
It would unquestionably be better for our company to manufacture them ourselves.
“From this point onward, even our senior executives cannot enter without authorization.”
He held out a blue basket.
“Place your phone and every electronic device in here, then pass through that metal detector.”
Clatter.
Without complaint, I removed both my phone and watch and placed them inside.
We passed through multiple layers of strict air showers and retinal scans.
The procedures continued until not even a speck of dust remained on our cleanroom suits.
“We already went through an air shower, but we’re doing another one?”
“That is how important this area is.”
Eventually, a heavy metal door opened, revealing the imposing interior of an enormous cleanroom.
Under painfully bright yellow lights, massive machines the size of houses operated with a constant hum.
“This is the core equipment that allowed TSNC to dominate the global foundry market.”
“This is... a hybrid EUV cluster dedicated to ultrafine processes...”
(Translator’s Note:Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUV) — An advanced semiconductor-fabrication process that uses extreme-ultraviolet light to print exceptionally small circuit patterns onto wafers. EUV technology entered high-volume manufacturing for advanced chips in the late 2010s.)
“You know quite a lot.”
At the mere sentence that left my mouth, Deputy Director Lin sharply turned toward me with a wary gaze.
“Ah, this is famous, isn’t it? Haha.”
His expression nearly became one that said, Is this kid an industrial spy?
However, my idiotic smile apparently reassured him, and he soon nodded in acceptance.
“The base equipment comes from the Dutch company ASML, but we modified the interior slightly using our own technology.”
(Translator’s Note:ASML — A Dutch semiconductor-equipment company established in the 1980s and headquartered in Veldhoven, Netherlands. It supplies the advanced lithography systems required to manufacture leading-edge integrated circuits.)
“Almost no company uses the equipment exactly as delivered, right?”
“Probably not. Optimizing the equipment is itself part of the research.”
The machinery was completely enclosed behind thick bulletproof glass and special alloys.
From the outside, there was no way to tell what secrets it contained.
Then—
Whirrr.
Clunk.
The machine’s cover opened and closed for a fleeting moment—approximately three seconds—to replace a wafer.
I did not miss the opportunity.
My pupils scanned the machinery’s interior at dozens of frames per second.
The light-source module is an original ASML component. The lenses seem to have been replaced. Could they be from Germany’s Carl Zeiss? They might also be Japanese Canon lenses. They must have experimented with optimizing the angle of reflection...
(Translator’s Note:ZEISS Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology — The semiconductor-optics division of the German ZEISS group. ZEISS supplied its first circuit-printing optics in 1968 and later formed a long-term strategic partnership with ASML to develop lithography optical systems.)
“Of course, simply looking at it does not mean all our secrets will leak.”
“What?”
“Are you listening?”
Deputy Director Lin continued speaking behind me, but I could barely hear him.
What mattered was engraving this brief moment into my mind.
The wafer-transfer robot is made by Japan’s Yaskawa. But there are signs that every vacuum valve was replaced with Swagelok valves.
(Translator’s Note:Yaskawa Electric — A Japanese manufacturer of motors, motion-control systems, and industrial robots. It was founded in Kitakyushu in April 1915 and is a major supplier of factory-automation equipment.)
The results of decades of optimization painstakingly accumulated by TSNC were being recorded through my eyes in real time.
“Deputy Director, why did you replace components throughout the equipment instead of using it in its original configuration?”
“To improve the yield, even if only slightly. These are the results of tens of thousands of experiments conducted to find the optimal data.”
So they had tested every machine here by replacing components one after another.
What tenacious people.
Then again, that was probably how they had become the best in the world.
If we order all the equipment here exactly as it is and have Hermes conduct the optimization-tuning experiments through simulations, we should be able to stabilize the yield with far less money than the astronomical amount TSNC invested.
“What do you think? You cannot understand anything merely by looking at the exterior, can you?”
“Yes. I have no idea at all.”
I answered with a bright smile.
However, my eyes never stopped moving.
I had already memorized the factory’s contamination-control methods and the angles of its exhaust ports.
“The floor beneath the EUV equipment is slightly elevated.”
“It is highly sensitive to vibration. It cannot be allowed to shake in the slightest.”
They had undoubtedly installed this system to prevent the machinery from vibrating due to employees’ footsteps.
“What material is used for the floor?”
“Special high-density, non-shrink concrete... You really are interested, aren’t you? Are you planning to build a factory?”
“Come on. How could a high school student like me build a factory?”
Naturally, I did not say, How did you know?
The reason the equipment layout was considered a state secret was also connected to vibration control.
Simply replicating the layout could save hundreds of trillions of won in accumulated expertise.
We had nearly completed a circuit of the factory and were heading back outside when we saw someone collapsed unnaturally against a cold, transparent glass wall.
“Huh? Deputy Director, is that person all right?”
“Department Head Zhang Qinghu!”
Deputy Director Lin turned deathly pale and rushed over.
Hiss—
The sealed door opened with the sound of escaping air.
Thud.
Department Head Zhang Qinghu collapsed limply onto the floor.
“Call an ambulance... Call an ambulance!”
Security Waiting Room Inside the TSNC Factory
Because of the sudden death, I was sitting on the waiting-room sofa without even having removed my cleanroom suit.
“You must have been badly frightened.”
The vice president, who had rushed over in a panic, looked at me with concern.
“This is the first time our company has ever allowed a student to tour the facilities, and I’m sorry you had to witness something so terrible.”
“It’s all right...”
Beyond the window in the corridor, Deputy Director Lin could be seen repeatedly explaining what had happened to employees from the safety team.
“Is the man who collapsed all right?”
At my cautious question, the vice president’s expression immediately darkened.
“He died. They say it was suicide.”
Come to think of it, the hushed conversations outside did sound unusual.
“They say it was suicide.”
“Oh dear. Apparently, he was taking antidepressants because of severe stress.”
“What is going to happen to our company...?”
The employees looked genuinely grief-stricken and worried.
“He must have been an extraordinary person.”
“He was known as Taiwan’s greatest genius. He personally designed sixty percent of this enormous TSNC complex.”
People thought it was a tragic situation that perfectly fit the cliché that geniuses died young.
However, there was something strange.
“I don’t know whether this is appropriate to say in this atmosphere...”
What should I do?
Would it be better to remain silent?
Perhaps I was being far too meddlesome inside another country’s national-security facility.
But...
I might never have another chance to say those words.
My habit of interfering in other people’s affairs was trying to activate again.
“What is it?”
At that moment, Deputy Director Lin finished the questioning and began heading out of the waiting room.
No.
I had to say it now!
Scrape!
Unable to hold back, I stood abruptly, causing the chair to grind roughly across the floor as it slid backward.
“Department Head Zhang Qinghu did not commit suicide.”
“...What?”
Everyone who had been mourning turned toward me with expressions that clearly said, What absurd nonsense is this?
“He was murdered. And the culprit...”
Ah, this was driving me crazy.
My lips would not stop moving.
My heart pounded.
“...is in this room.”
At my audacious declaration, the mystery-novel-loving vice president’s eyes lit up.
Science Facility Factory No. 2 Office
“No, so you identified the culprit before coming back?”
Taeju stared at me with an utterly dumbfounded expression.
“Yeah...”
The culprit was none other than Deputy Director Lin, who had personally accompanied me throughout the tour that morning.
“But you said he was with you the entire time, so he had a perfect alibi. How did you even become suspicious?”
“There were traces of a neodymium magnet attached near the door sensor. It must have been difficult to remove quickly, because he twisted and shoved it off by force. There were long scratches across the metal.”
(Translator’s Note:Neodymium Magnet — A powerful permanent magnet made primarily from neodymium, iron, and boron. Such magnets are widely used in motors, sensors, industrial robots, data-storage devices, and precision manufacturing equipment.)
I spoke while recalling what had happened.
Unable to contain his agitation, Deputy Director Lin had shouted.
What bullshit is that? How could anyone smuggle a neodymium magnet past the metal detector?
Magnets with that level of performance are everywhere in the overhead-hoist transport equipment.
(Translator’s Note:Overhead-Hoist Transport (OHT) — An automated ceiling-mounted transport system commonly used inside semiconductor fabrication plants. It moves wafer carriers between production tools while reducing contamination and unnecessary human handling.)
At my answer, Deputy Director Lin had been left speechless.
The evidence should still be in your trouser pocket.
In the end, the neodymium magnet used in the crime was found in Deputy Director Lin’s pocket, catching him red-handed.
“Wow. That’s impressive. But in such a heavily secured company, they actually listened to a high school student’s absurd claim all the way through?”
“Conan is extremely famous in Taiwan.”
“Really?”
Conan was so overwhelmingly popular in Taiwan that large-scale festivals dedicated to the series were held every year.
“So after the case was solved, the vice president told me to visit Taiwan again whenever I had time.”
Following the incident, it was confirmed that Deputy Director Lin was a Chinese industrial spy and that he had received orders to assassinate the genius engineer.
“But anyway, how was it? Was the factory tour worthwhile?”
Taeju dropped his playful tone and asked about the true purpose of my visit to Taiwan.
“I calculated it on the way back.”
It was the result of an intense discussion with Hermes on the flight home, based on the data I had stolen with my own eyes.
“What did you calculate?”
“We need around thirty trillion won.”
“What? Thirty trillion?”
“To construct our own semiconductor fabrication plant at least equal to TSNC’s level, we need thirty trillion won in initial capital.”
“We need that much?”
Hermes’s dry holographic voice came from my smartwatch.
[China invests sixty trillion won every year in its semiconductor self-sufficiency initiative, yet it still has not even grasped the fundamentals.]
(Translator’s Note:Semiconductor Self-Sufficiency — A national industrial strategy intended to reduce dependence on foreign chip designs, manufacturing equipment, materials, and foundries.)
“What? It’s that difficult? Then can we really do it with only thirty trillion?”
“We can. What I saw this time helped.”
Memorizing the equipment layout had been an especially valuable gain.
“So this really was something whose value could not even be measured in money.”
“Taeju. We’ll also need... around ten thousand employees.”
“What? Ten thousand? It’ll be difficult to gather that many semiconductor specialists in South Korea. We might have to hire foreign employees.”
“Foreigners won’t work.”
“Why?”
“There could be someone like me among them. Every core employee must be South Korean.”
This trip had made me understand it even more clearly.
Some people could obtain tens of trillions of won’s worth of value simply by looking.
“Hey, even if we recruited every engineering student in South Korea, that probably wouldn’t be enough.”
“Then... we’ll have to hire people without relevant majors too. But all core personnel must be South Korean.”