经济学人下载:半导体 芯片技术集资

Business
商业报道

Semiconductors
半导体

Chipping in
芯片技术集资

A deal to keep Moore's law alive
一场交易使得摩尔定律劫后余生

THE arrival of a new generation of semiconductors has come a little closer.
新一代半导体诞生的日子离我们又近了一些。

On July 9th ASML, a Dutch company that dominates the market for the lithographic equipment that etches circuits onto silicon, struck a deal with Intel, the world's largest chipmaker.
7月9号，荷兰公司阿斯麦与全球最大的芯片制造商英特尔签订了一份协议。阿斯麦因拥有光刻设备将电路刻蚀在硅片上的技术而控制着大多数市场。

Intel has agreed to pay about 2.5 billion for 15% of ASML.
因特尔同意以25亿欧元收购阿斯麦15%的股份。

It will provide 829m for ASML's research-and-development efforts and will buy the resulting tools, due in a few years.
Intel将为阿斯麦的研发活动投资8.29亿欧元，并在未来几年购买其研发产品。

ASML has also been talking to its two other biggest customers, Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation. It is willing to sell 25% of itself in all.
阿斯麦也正在和其他两个最大的客户三星、台湾积体电路制造股份有限公司进行洽谈商议。阿斯麦愿意出售自身所有股份的25%。

Of Intel's R&D money, 553m will go on technology to make chips on silicon wafers 450mm in diameter.
英特尔公司的研发经费中有5.53亿欧元将用于研发用直径450毫米的硅晶圆制作芯片的技术。

Twice as many chips could be cut from these as from today's biggest, which are 300mm across.
与目前利用直径最大的300毫米硅晶圆相比，这种技术切割出来的芯片数大一倍。

The rest of the cash is for extreme ultraviolet technology, which the industry hopes will push the width of circuits below today's frontier of 20 nanometres.
其余的资金将用于远紫外线光刻技术的研发，业内希望这项技术能令电路打破目前20纳米宽的下限。

This will enable more circuitry to be packed onto smaller chips—and allow the life of Moore's law, which says that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every 18 months or so, to be extended yet again.
这将使更小的芯片上能封装更多线路—并使得摩尔定律的寿命再次得到延长，摩尔定律即集成电路芯片上所集成的电路的数目，大约每隔18个月就翻一番。

With customers taking equity, putting up research money and making advance orders, ASML will be surer of having a market for products that take a lot of time and money to create.
因为客户购买其股票、投入更多研发经费以及提前下订，ASML那些需要大量时间和金钱才能制造的产品肯定会有市场。

It reckons that EUV will cost it and its suppliers 3.4 billion.
阿斯麦估计远紫外线光刻技术的研发将花费公司和公司供应方 34亿欧元。

Moving to 450mm will require new machines and the reconfiguration of factories.
推动其研发到直径450毫米晶圆需要新机器和工厂的重新配置。

A report in 2005 by VLSI, a research firm, estimated that the shift from 200mm to 300mm wafers a decade ago cost the industry $11.6 billion.
2005年，研究公司VLSI发布了一份报告，称十年前,从200mm至300 mm晶圆的转变估计令该行业花掉了116亿美元。

Until Intel promised to pay, ASML had been reluctant to press on with 450mm technology.
直到英特尔承诺支付其经费，阿斯麦才愿意推进450毫米晶圆技术的研发。

The development of EUV, in contrast, was likely anyway.
相比之下，远紫外线光刻技术的研发势在必行。

EUV has been very important, says Richard Windsor of Nomura, an investment bank. Most semiconductor companies consider it critical to taking them beyond 20 nanometres.
投资银行野村证券的理查德·温莎称：远紫外线光刻技术一直都非常重要，大多数半导体公司认为，要制造小于20纳米的电路，这项技术是关键。

Deals like this week's should help to get the market going—and cement ASML's lead in the lithographic race.
像这周这样的交易应该会帮助市场得以运转，同时巩固了阿斯麦在半导体光刻工艺技术领域的领先地位。