Rebirth of Northland Technology

Chapter 1995

Chapter 327

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Just after the Chinese New Year, the smoke of firecrackers has not yet cleared, and a product identification meeting is about to be held in the testing institute building.

Liyun's president, Hao Yunli, is at the end of the conference table, doing the final checks.

The meeting room was still full of people and all the chairs were full. Students from the department's student council have already gone out to move chairs.

In this accreditation meeting, almost all the leaders and teachers of the testing institute were present.

Hao Yunli graduated from the testing institute, and this only fruit was repeatedly promoted by the faculty. Her picture is posted on the side wall of the hall on the first floor.

Moreover, Hao Yunli is also a visiting professor of the institute.

Chapter 94

The Semiconductor Institute has put more effort into larger areas such as process, technology, equipment, materials and large-scale integrated circuit design.

In this case, after an amicable negotiation, the once red-hot MEMS lab was returned to its rightful owner.

Everything is back to where it was four years ago.

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Liyun Technology's main product, CMOS camera, also belongs to the sensor category, so her company is fully supported by the testing system.

Whether in terms of personnel or technology, Liyun is seen as a direct descendant of the Testing Academy.

Hao Yunli once again felt the warmth of home in the cold northern country, even though most of her teachers and classmates had no connection with her.

Today's star product is the UXGA (1600x1200) resolution CMOS sensor, which is mounted in a large box with a computer attached next to it, and can project the captured image onto the screen each time it receives a command.

The demonstration started before the appraisal session had officially begun. A group of curious young teachers were gathered in front of the computer screen. Watching Hao Yunli continuously operate.

"Quiet, please, let's all go back to our seats."

Director Zhao picked up the microphone and the appraisal will start soon.

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CMOS image sensors, and CCD sensors are based on the same basic principles. Both use a light-sensitive element as the basic means of image capture, and the core is a photodiode, which converts changes in light intensity into electrical signals.

The main difference between them is that the readout and processing of the signals are different.

The CCD has only one output node, and all signals are read out at the same time. The consistency of the signal output is good, but the bandwidth required to read out all information at the same time is large and power consumption is high.

Since the CCD itself cannot directly convert analog signals to digital signals, it also needs a special analog-to-digital conversion chip for processing, and finally in the form of a binary digital matrix, output to a special DSP processing chip for conversion to image data.

Its peripheral circuits, auxiliary circuits are complex, and the production process of different functional modules, also varies.

More importantly, the CCD scheme, until the conversion to data, has been an analog signal processing process, which is very different from the digital chip and has a very low level of integration.

The area of the CCD sensor, and the size of ordinary film is about the same.

Processes are not universal, which naturally brings high costs. When costs are high, prices are high and sales are low. As manufacturers are unable to recover costs quickly, the process progresses even more slowly, a chain reaction.

The CMOS process is different. Each pixel has an independent signal processing unit, and the optical signal, is directly converted to a digital signal. The processing of digital signals is much simpler than analog signals, and chip power consumption is greatly reduced.

Subsequent auxiliary circuits such as analog-to-digital conversion are no longer needed, and the complexity of the solution is greatly reduced.

As long as the process is improved, the pixel density will naturally increase, and the cost will be reduced accordingly.

Of course, the CMOS process is not without its drawbacks.

In order to integrate amplifiers and analog-to-digital conversion circuits, each image point is composed of a photodiode and three transistors. The effective area of the photodiode, compared with the CCD, is greatly reduced, and the light sensitivity is reduced.

Due to the unsynchronized magnification of each pixel, it leads to noise phenomenon. Due to the high degree of integration, resulting in closer components, also leads to additional noise, and so on and so forth, all problems need to be solved gradually.

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Cheng Yongxing entered the venue when the meeting had already started for more than an hour. In the morning he completely forgot that it was Wang Chen who drove the flying car to bring him here just now.

"Where is it going?"

Cheng Yongxing found an unoccupied seat in the back row, and in front of him was Feng Yan. The classmates in Bingcheng all came to support the show.

"Thought you weren't coming today."

"How could I, how could I miss such an important meeting. I drove here and got stuck in traffic, so I was late."

Feng Yan turned her head back, the next presentation was about to start.

She didn't understand at all what was meant by important in Cheng Yongxing's mouth.

Maybe it was that Hao Yunli was more important.

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The presentation continued.

A staff member, picking up a yellow box the size of a lunchbox, had a lens sticking out in the middle.

This is a temporary rush digital camera.

She picked up the ugly box, pressed a few buttons on the side in all directions, and then removed a 3-inch floppy disk from the side of the box. Someone in the room stood up, and they guessed the next step.

Sure enough, the floppy was inserted into the computer and the faces of the attendees appeared on the screen.

"Pop, pop, pop."

Applause rang out from the back row of the conference room, and the crowd's attention was drawn to the late Sung Yong-Hsing, who turned out to be applauding.

Led by him, the crowd also applauded.

Cheng Yongxing could not confirm the emergence of CMOS digital cameras, whether they have their own credit, perhaps he had mentioned a few years ago, but did not expect to see the real thing so soon.

Digital cameras ruled the market for more than a decade before smartphones came out. Cheng Yongxing has bought six or seven digital cameras before and after, and has to change one every year or two because the pixels are gradually improving.

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Led by him, the atmosphere in the meeting room became warm.

The appraisal meeting soon came to an end.

The experts invited were not stingy with words for the new image sensor, and all kinds of nice adjectives and definite words were snapped up.

Industry leading, the world's first industrial grade two megapixel image sensor, international leading, world class, fill the gap in China. And so on, and so on.

But after talking for a while, there are no more words.

Recently there have been a lot of innovations from IIT, and this level of achievement is nothing anymore. Hao Yunli is also a man of the hour, I am afraid that only the Nobel Prize level results can make everyone satisfied.

"Who else wants to speak? No more?"

In fact, many people want to say a few words on this occasion, after all, the director and the principal are present in the opportunity but not many.

"Let Xiao Cheng say a few words! He is our industrial expert."

Dean Xi named Cheng Yongxing. It was the first time he had seen Cheng Yongxing leading the applause.

Professor Wang didn't come today and he was hospitalized, so he represented the sister units and the former division heads to cheer on his former disciple.

"Has the patent been applied for?"

Cheng Yongxing took the microphone handed over by Lian.

"All have been applied for. there are more than three hundred patents in CMOS."

Hao Yunli nodded her head.

CMOS is a brand new technology line, basically every step is a patent. Liyun Technology has initially established a patent moat.

"There are dozens of patents on digital cameras, too."

Digital cameras have not yet entered the mainstream market. The high price and low pixels have led to it being just a plaything for some tech enthusiasts. It is not taken seriously by mainstream camera manufacturers. It is also considered a patented blue ocean.

"This is an epoch-making product."

Cheng Yongxing paused for a moment to give everyone time to think.

"Some people may not recognize my comment, because the CCD camera has long been available. CMOS sensor can only be considered another technical route, at most, it is considered a product and technology upgrade, when not an epoch-making name."

Cheng Yongxing looked around, everyone was waiting for his explanation, including Hao Yunli.

His prediction, its reputation, especially in IIT, belonged to the mythical level. All kinds of legends, rumors, true and false, circulated on the campus.

The reunion committee also organized several big discussions among students to set aside superstitious ideas. But in the ranks of teachers, many people have their own judgment.

If he said that tomorrow the earth will be extinct, it is estimated that someone will immediately go to jump off the building.

"I'll use a project that was once similar for comparison, and people will realize its value."

Unfortunately, everyone was waiting for the answer to the riddle, and there was no one to hold up the joke.

"That's blue LED!"

Along with the unveiling of the riddle, the quiet conference room was filled with buzzing sound in vain.

Everyone understands the story of blue LED, that is the starting point of all things.

The Department of Optoelectronics, the most successful school-run enterprise of IIT, originated from a simple process improvement and product upgrade.

"That's why I said it was epoch-making!"

This comment was beyond everyone's expectations, even Hao Yunli's.

Blue LED is the key step, the last link in the LED industrialization. If CMOS camera also has such a status, then its future is simply unlimited.

Liyun Technology focuses on various MEMS semiconductor sensors. CMOS sensors are just one of the products in her plan. Other MEMS sensors, too, have been invested with resources and manpower.

How really as Cheng Yongxing said the market is so big, all the plans need to be adjusted.

To leave him behind and talk about it.

Two people have not been alone for a long time. One reason is both busy, the other reason, still both busy.

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"Does anyone else want to speak?"

Director Zhao drowned out the buzzing chatter with the sound of the speakers.

A few hands went up and down. This was a product identification meeting, not a Q&A session.

Hao Yunli wasn't the one answering questions either.

"To be honest, I don't even know what to write in the conclusion."

Director Zhao's words elicited a light laugh from everyone.

"What I regret most now is that I invested less when financing. The percentage is too small."

At that time, the Department of Testing invested 50 million, still many people have a little view. But now it seems that this is simply a big advantage.

"Don't sell yourself short here, we didn't invest a single penny."

Director Xi interrupted Director Zhao's bragging.

"When's your next round of financing?"

Some unknown person in the room shouted.

"Silence! Silence! Don't get off topic, okay."

Director Zhao wrenched his face up again.