The United States has been suppressing my country in the chip field, but this time there is a Japanese company that can directly hinder the development of American chips, and it is also a MSG factory that seems to have nothing to do with chips. What is going on?
An important raw material for the production of chips
To this day, some people still think that the chip is just a part fixed in the mobile phone. There is insufficient recognition of the importance. In fact, chips are a symbol of technological production levels, just like the human brain, and have a very core position. At present, the United States has the absolute say in the field of chip technology production.
Japan has such a low-key company. On the surface, it is a major manufacturer of MSG, but in fact it can change the pattern of the global semiconductor industry chain and even choke the neck of the United States. All major chip manufacturing companies around the world rely on it.
An unexpected discovery
As early as the 1970s, an employee of Japan's Ajinomoto Co., Ltd. discovered that the MSG produced was One by-product is extremely insulating. Subsequently, food factories began to invest a lot of money to establish specialized teams to develop insulation products, which is currently the ABF (Ajinomoto deposition film) used by global chip manufacturing companies. Because this film has good insulation and heat resistance, and can handle complex circuit combinations, there are no complicated steps during application and installation, and it has become an indispensable and important raw material for many manufacturing companies.
As we all know, the process of chip production is extremely complicated. A seemingly inconspicuous little thing contains billions of transistors. Only by connecting the transistors can the connection between circuits be realized. When connecting, the circuits must be insulated and must not be affected by each other. The insulation materials used in the past required a lot of time and energy because they had to go through the process of spraying and drying. When semiconductor production is in urgent need of labor-saving insulation and heat-resistant materials, the emergence of ABF just meets the requirements. This material not only reduces production costs, but also improves production efficiency.
Indispensable ABF
At the beginning, ABF was not recognized by the market. Only in 1999 did some companies apply ABF to chip production field, and then made such products popular and became an important raw material in the development of the entire semiconductor industry. Without this raw material, the chip industry will be severely hindered.
At this point, some people may ask, since this kind of insulation material is so important, why no other company produces it? In this regard, some professionals pointed out: Ajinomoto has always controlled ABF's profits at low prices and maintained the development concept of small profits but quick turnover, which has resulted in other similar companies being unable to get involved in this industry, and even if they do, it will be difficult to make a profit.
In addition, this material has relatively high requirements for production technology, especially high-end chips that require materials with stronger insulation capabilities. They have reached this standard after decades of technological research and development, and products produced by other companies naturally cannot take advantage. In addition, the required costs are relatively high and the quality is difficult to control. Therefore, this Japanese MSG company has a monopoly on ABF.