What technologies are stuck in China?
China's manufacturing industry has made world-renowned achievements. From backwardness and beatings to now the giant dragon takes off, the Chinese manufacturing people have made great efforts and efforts.
However, it is undeniable that many products in China are still highly dependent on imports, and there are still technical difficulties that are difficult to overcome in the R&D and production of Chinese manufacturing in these fields. Among them, there are core products that are the lifeblood of China's industry, as well as industrial parts and components that are closely related to our lives.
The 3 technologies that China has been stuck on, lithography machines, operating systems, and chips are just the tip of the iceberg! This article is here to take stock of a number of products that China heavily relies on imports:
1. Lithography machine
The precision of the lithography machine that manufactures the chip determines the upper limit of the chip's performance, as well as the problem of power consumption. China's chip technology development is actually very early, but due to various reasons, China's chip research and development has been delayed. I also shared an article "The chip counterfeiting incident that year stagnated the development of Chinese chips for more than ten years."
There are two synchronously moving workpiece tables in the lithography machine, one carrying negative film and the other carrying film. The two need to be synchronized at all times, with an error of less than 2 nanometers. The acceleration of the two workbenches from static to dynamic is similar to that of missile launching. When working, it is equivalent to two large planes from take-off to landing, always go head-to-head on one plane, extend a knife, and engrave on the rice grains of the other plane, which cannot be damaged.
2. Chip
China’s chip technology, ZTE and Huawei’s being stuck is a typical example. Although some chips are made in China, many of them still rely on imports. The mass production precision of foreign advanced chips is 10 nanometers, while that of my country is only 28 nanometers, which is two generations behind. According to reports, my country's domestic chip occupancy rate is zero in many fields in computer systems, general electronic systems, communication equipment, memory equipment, and display and video systems.
3. Operating System
Ordinary people see that China's technology is developing very well, especially the Internet, and think that the technology gap is not big, but it is not. Three U.S. companies monopolize the operating systems of mobile phones and personal computers. The data shows that the Android system market share reached 85.9% in 2017, and the Apple IOS market share was 14%. Other systems only have 0.1%. This 0.1% is basically also Microsoft Windows and BlackBerry in the United States. Without Google to pave the way, smart phones will not be so popular, and the price for Chinese mobile phone manufacturers to use Android for free is that they may be "ran out of food" at any time.
4. Aviation engine nacelle
The cabin where the engine is placed on the aircraft, commonly known as the "house", is one of the important core components of the aviation propulsion system, and its cost accounts for about 1/4 of all engines. The nacelle needs to cover the engine to reduce flight resistance; its air inlet should also have the ability to prevent and de-icing; during flight, the engine must be protected from interference and normal operation; on the ground, it needs to be convenient for engine maintenance and repair Once the nacelle is damaged, serious engine accidents may occur during flight. The larger the nacelle, the higher the technical difficulty. Our country is still blank in this important field. After consulting all public information, my country does not yet have a specialized institution to independently develop the nacelle, and relevant colleges and universities do not seem to have set up relevant disciplines.
5. Tactile sensor
Tactile sensors are the core components of industrial robots. The strict requirements for accuracy and stability have prevented most of our companies from moving towards tactile sensors. At present, most domestic sensor companies are engaged in the production of gas, temperature and other types of sensors. In an industry with more than 100 companies, almost no sensor manufacturer produces tactile sensors. The Japanese array sensor can distribute 100 sensitive elements in a matrix of 10 cm × 10 cm, and the price is 100,000 yuan, while domestic products are mostly one-point type, generally 100 yuan each.
6. Vacuum evaporation machine
The "heart" of the OLED panel manufacturing process. Canon Tokki of Japan monopolizes the high-end market and controls the industry's throat. The industry's annual output forecast is usually between a few to a dozen. You can't buy it if you have money, that's it. Canon Tokki can control the error of vapor deposition of organic light-emitting materials on the substrate to within 5 microns (1 micron is equivalent to 1% of the diameter of the hair). No other company's vapor deposition machine can achieve this accuracy. At present, there is no company that produces evaporator in our country, and we have no say in this field.
7. Mobile phone radio frequency devices
"Radio Frequency Devices: The Embarrassment of a Mobile Phone" (Science and Technology Daily, May 7)
On the motherboard of a mobile phone, 1/3 of the space is the radio frequency circuit. The development trend of mobile phones is lighter and thinner, lower power consumption, more frequency bands, and larger bandwidth, which poses a challenge to radio frequency chips. Radio frequency chips convert digital signals into electromagnetic waves. 4G mobile phones must support more than a dozen frequency bands and have an information bandwidth of tens of megabytes. In 2018, the RF chip market was US$15 billion; the high-end market is basically monopolized by Skyworks, Qorvo and Broadcom, and Qualcomm also has a place. Another key component of radio frequency devices-filters, there is a greater gap between domestic and foreign. The multi-billion dollar market for high-end filters used in mobile phones is entirely owned by foreign RF device giants such as Qorvo. China is the world's largest mobile phone producer, but it cannot manufacture high-end mobile phone radio frequency devices. This requires a solid accumulation of materials, craftsmanship and design experience.
8. Heavy-duty gas turbine
""Fate Gate", the Blade of Heavy Gas Turbine" (Science and Technology Daily, May 9)
Gas turbines are widely used in ships, trains and large power stations. my country has the capability of autonomy of light-duty gas turbines; however, reignition still basically depends on the introduction. The major international reignited manufacturers are mainly American GE, Japan's Mitsubishi, Germany's Siemens, and Italy's Ansaldo. Cooperation with China is accompanied by harsh conditions: design technology is not transferred, core hot-end component manufacturing technology is not transferred, and only local manufacturing of non-core components is licensed by way of license. The lack of autonomous capability means that an important part of my country's energy security is still subject to others, and there is a risk of being "stuck".
9. Lidar
"Lidar is faint, making autonomous driving very tangled" (Technology Daily, May 10)
Lidar is a sensor with its own light source, which actively emits laser light to perceive the surrounding environment, just like a bat uses ultrasound to locate it. It is an essential component of autonomous vehicles and determines the level of evolution of the autonomous driving industry. But in this field, domestic products have almost no right to speak. Almost all of the autopilot cars that can be on the road use lidar products from Velodyne in the United States. Its lidar products are standard in the industry and account for more than 80% of the market share.
10. High-end capacitor resistance
"Without these tricks, we can't reach high-end capacitors and resistors" (Technology Daily, May 14)
Capacitors and resistors are the golden supporting roles of the electronics industry. China is a big market for basic electronic components, which consumes trillions of resistors and capacitors a year. But good consumer-grade capacitors and resistors come from Japan. The capacitor market is more than 20 billion U.S. dollars a year, and the resistance is also in the order of tens of billions of dollars. The so-called high-end capacitor resistance, it is important that the same batch should be as consistent as possible. Japan has done a good job in this regard, and there is a big gap between domestic enterprises. The products of domestic companies are mostly low-end products, relatively weak in process, material, and quality control.
11. Core Industrial Software
"Core Industrial Software: China's "No Man's Land" for Intelligent Manufacturing" (Science and Technology Daily, May 17)
China's core industrial software field is basically "no man's land." The absence of industrial software has brought trouble to smart manufacturing. When the industrial system is complex to a certain extent, it is necessary to replace the human brain computing with computer-aided industrial software. For example, EDA industrial software is the "essential artifact" for chip design and production. Compared with mainstream EDA tools in the United States, domestic EDA has no difference in design principles, but there is a big gap in software performance, which is mainly manifested in insufficient support for advanced technologies and processes. , There is a "generation gap" between foreign advanced EDA tools. The three major foreign EDA companies, Cadence, Synopsys and Mentor, account for 70% of the total annual revenue of this industry worldwide. The development of an independent industrial operating system + an independent industrial software system brooks no delay.
12. Core Algorithm
"Algorithms are not refined, domestic industrial robots are a bit "stupid"" (Science and Technology Daily, May 22)
China has become the world's largest robot application market for five consecutive years, but high-end robots still rely on imports. Due to the lack of mastery of the core algorithm, the key indicators such as stability, failure rate and ease of use of domestic industrial robots are far inferior to those of the "four major families" of industrial robots Fanuc (Japan), ABB (Switzerland), Yaskawa (Japan), and KUKA ( Germany) products. The core algorithm gap is too large, resulting in poor stability of domestic robots and a high failure rate. The algorithm gap is not only reflected in the core controller, but also slows down the response speed of the servo system.
Every time the robot completes an action, the core controller, servo driver and servo motor need to work together. For a single servo system, domestic robots have high dynamic and static accuracy, but high-end robots generally have more than 6 servo systems at the same time, and it is difficult to achieve good control results with traditional control methods.
13. High-end bearing steel
"High-end bearing steel, China's manufacturing shortcomings that are difficult to fill" (Science and Technology Daily, May 25)
As an indispensable core component in mechanical equipment, bearings support the mechanical rotating body, reduce its friction coefficient, and ensure its rotation accuracy. Whether airplanes, automobiles, high-speed rails, or high-precision machine tools, instruments and meters, bearings are needed. This puts forward high requirements for its accuracy, performance, life and reliability. While my country's shaft-making technology is close to the world level, but the material-that is, high-end bearing steel almost all depends on imports.
The research and development, manufacturing and sales of high-end bearing steel are basically monopolized by the world's bearing giants Timken of the United States and SKF of Sweden. In the past few years, they established bases in Yantai and Jinan, Shandong, purchased low-end materials from China, used their core technology to make high-end bearings, and sold them to the Chinese market at ten times the price. Adding rare earths in the steelmaking process can make the original steel more "strong". But how to add, this is the core secret of the world's bearing giants.
14. High pressure plunger pump
"High-pressure plunger pump, a thorn in the throat of China's equipment manufacturing industry" (Science and Technology Daily, May 28)
The hydraulic system is one of the key components of the equipment manufacturing industry. All engineering fields, where there are mechanical equipment, are inseparable from the hydraulic system. The high-pressure plunger pump is the core component of high-end hydraulic equipment and is called the "heart" of the hydraulic system. The scale of China's hydraulic industry has become the world's second largest in 2017, but the industry is large but not strong, especially for high-pressure plunger pumps with a rated pressure above 35MPa, which rely on imports for more than 90%. Compared with foreign brands, domestically produced hydraulic plunger pumps have a large gap in technological advancement, working reliability, service life, variable mechanism control functions, and dynamic and static performance indicators, which are basically equivalent to those of foreign brands in the early 1990s. level.
15. Aviation Design Software
"Aviation software embarrassed, domestic aircraft design puts on a "tightening curse"" (Science and Technology Daily, May 30)
Since the 1980s, the world aviation industry has entered a new stage of digital design, and has now reached a high degree of dependence that cannot be designed without software. Designing an aircraft requires at least a dozen professional software, all of which are products of European and American countries. Domestic design units not only have to invest huge sums of money to buy software, but also wear steel rims on their heads. Once they are chanted, the entire aviation industry will be paralyzed. According to media reports, when designing the J-10 aircraft, the entire metal parts of the main bearing structure of the main landing gear were commissioned to be manufactured abroad. But after it was built, there was a problem with the retracting and retracting of the landing gear, and there was an error of 5 mm, so I had to re-order the manufacturing. It was just this little error that affected the delay of the first flight of the J-10 for eight or nine months. Without the support of all-digital software, any slight error may become a nightmare in the manufacturing industry.
16. Photoresist
"China's semiconductor industry is eclipsed by photoresist" (Technology Daily, May 31)
Although my country has become a major semiconductor producer in the world, the overall industrial chain of the panel industry is still relatively backward. At present, almost all photoresists for LCD rely on imports, and the core technology has been monopolized by Japanese companies such as TOK, JSR, Sumitomo Chemical, and Shin-Etsu Chemical. Take BOE, which has a certain degree of competitiveness in the world, for example, it has established 17 panel display production bases, of which 16 have been put into production. However, the photoresist used by BOE for high-end panels is still provided by foreign companies. The main components of photoresist include polymer resins, color pastes, monomers, photoinitiators, solvents and additives. There are many technical problems involved in the development. It is necessary to design and screen oligomer structures, determine and optimize synthesis processes, and activate The selection and control of monomers, the control and stability of the fineness of the color paste, the design and optimization of product formulations, the optimization and stability of product production processes, the matching of use conditions and the adjustment of tolerance are adjusted. Therefore, it is very difficult to develop and produce independently.
17. High pressure common rail system
"The high-pressure common rail is not in use, and the domestic diesel engine is very injured" (Science and Technology Daily, June 4)
The electronically controlled diesel high-pressure common rail system is equivalent to the "heart" and "brain" of a diesel engine, and its quality seriously affects the use of the engine. The diesel engine industry is an important equipment foundation that promotes a country's economic growth and social operation. China is the world's main market and production country for diesel engines, and in the domestic electronically controlled diesel engine high-pressure common rail system market, companies such as Germany, the United States, and Japan occupy a large share. Compared with the products of advanced foreign companies, the domestic high-pressure common rail system still has a certain gap in performance, function, quality and consistency, and the cost advantage is not obvious.
18. Transmission electron microscope
"Our protein 3D high-definition photos rely on imported transmission electron microscopes" (Science and Technology Daily, June 6)
Cryo-electron microscopes can take high-definition 3D "color photos" of microstructures. They are a powerful tool for life science research. The production capacity of transmission electron microscopes is one of the foundations of cryo-electron microscope manufacturing capabilities. At present, there are only three manufacturers of transmission electron microscopes in the world, namely, JEOL, Hitachi, and FEI. There is no domestic enterprise that produces transmission electron microscopes. The tools used to match the cryo-electron microscope need to be original. If the parts are broken, no one can repair them. You can only wait for the parts to be replaced after they arrive in the mail. For users of cryo-electron microscopy in China, this experience may continue for a long time.
19. Main bearing of roadheader
"My own roadheader has to use someone else's main bearing" (Science and Technology Daily, June 7)
The main bearing, known as the "heart" of the full-face tunnel boring machine, bears the main load during the operation of the boring machine, and is a key component of the cutter head drive system. The working condition is very bad. Compared with traditional rolling bearings with a diameter of only a few hundred millimeters, the main bearing of a roadheader is generally a few meters in diameter, which is a kind of bearing with a complex structure and requires hundreds of processes to manufacture. As far as the manufacturing capacity of the roadheader is concerned, the domestic roadheader is close to the world's advanced level, but the key main bearings are all dependent on imports. Rothe Erde of Germany, IMO, FAG and SKF of Sweden occupy the market.
20. Microspheres
"Microsphere: The Unbearable Lightness of National Industry" (Science and Technology Daily, June 12)
The diameter of the microspheres is one-thirtieth the thickness of the hair. In the mobile phone screen, one hundred microspheres per square millimeter are used to prop up two glass panels, which are equivalent to a skeleton. In the gap between the two glass panels, liquid crystal is filled. Without it, the LCD screen you are staring at will not be produced. Without microspheres, chip production, food safety testing, disease diagnosis, biopharmaceuticals, environmental monitoring...many industries will fall into a dilemma. In the field of microelectronics alone, China has to import microspheres worth tens of billions of yuan every year. In 2017, China's LCD panel shipments reached 33% of the world's total, with an industry scale of approximately US$100 billion. But the key materials in this panel, spacer microspheres and conductive gold balls, are only available from one or two Japanese companies in the world. These materials are also like chips, jamming people's necks.
21. Fuel Cell
"Without three key materials, the commercialization of fuel cells is difficult to be an article" (Science and Technology Daily, June 14)
Foreign fuel cell vehicles have been mass-produced, but my country's fuel cell vehicles are still in the stage of technical verification. The current situation of my country's vehicle fuel cell is that there are almost no component manufacturers, no vehicle stack production company, and only a very small number of commercial fuel cell vehicles. A number of key materials determine the life and performance of fuel cells. These materials are not completely absent in our country, and some laboratory results have even reached the international level. However, without mass production lines, the fuel cell industry chain is still obstructed. Key materials have long relied on foreign countries. Once they encounter a ban on sales, my country's fuel cell industry will have no basic support.
22. High-end welding power supply
"Domestic welding power source "misfire", robots are weak in underwater operations" (Science and Technology Daily, June 20)
my country is a large maritime country with more than 3 million square kilometers of sea area. It is vigorously developing high-end marine resource development and marine rights protection equipment. Once the equipment in the sea has cracks and other faults, it needs to be repaired with welding equipment known as the "sewing machine" of industrial manufacturing. The realization of deep sea welding relies on underwater robots. Although my country is a large welding power supply manufacturing base with an annual production capacity of over 10 million sets, high-end welding power supplies are basically still monopolized by foreign countries. my country's underwater robot welding technology has been difficult to improve, because the high-end welding power source technology is restricted by others. The full digital control technology of foreign welding power sources has been relatively mature, while the domestic ones still rely mainly on analog control technology.
23. Medical imaging equipment components
"Blunt Detector Blurs Medical Images" (Science and Technology Daily, June 25)
At present, most of the components of domestic medical imaging equipment rely on imports, and it will take at least 10 or 20 years to reach the current level of others. In traditional medical imaging (CT, magnetic resonance, etc.), China's early patents are 20 years later than the United States on average. In terms of the number of patents, the United States is 10 times that of my country. This means that the entire industry is completely in the hands of foreign companies. All intellectual property rights, all original achievements, and all scientific research accumulations are in foreign countries, and China only accounts for a very small part.
24. Ultra-precision polishing process
"Towards the pinnacle of ultra-precision polishing process, the road is long and long" (Science and Technology Daily, June 26)
How important is the ultra-precision polishing process in modern manufacturing? Its application fields can directly explain the problem: integrated circuit manufacturing, medical equipment, auto parts, digital parts, precision molds, aerospace. "It is the soul of technology." The United States and Japan firmly grasp the initiative of the global market, and its material composition and production process have always been a mystery. In other words, buying and using their products does not mean that they can imitate or even copy their products.
25. Epoxy resin
"Epoxy resin lacks toughness, domestic carbon fiber lacks strength" (Science and Technology Daily, June 27)
Carbon fiber can be lighter than metal aluminum, but its strength is higher than steel. It also has the characteristics of high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, fatigue resistance, and creep resistance. One of the key composite auxiliary materials is epoxy resin. However, all the epoxy resins used in domestically produced high-end carbon fibers are imported. At present, my country has been able to produce higher-end carbon fibers such as T800, but the time when Toray mastered this technology was the 1990s. Compared with carbon fiber, my country's high-end epoxy resin industry lags behind the international situation more seriously.
26. High-strength stainless steel
"The Rocket Engine "Rust Disease" That Cannot Be Removed" (Science and Technology Daily, June 28)
The steel used in rocket engines needs to have many characteristics, among which high strength is an important index that must be met. However, the strength and anti-rust performance of stainless steel is a contradiction like a fish and a bear's paw. If the rocket engine material is severely rusted, it will have a great impact. Relying on the material itself to achieve both high strength and anti-rust performance is a worldwide problem. At present, most of my country’s aerospace materials use foreign materials used in the 1960s and 1970s. Developed countries will strictly control the impurity content during the production process. If the purity is not up to the standard, they will be returned to the furnace. However, domestic manufacturers often lack this rigorous manner.
27. Database Management System
"Database Management System: China is still looking for the "right way to open"" (Science and Technology Daily, July 2)
The two popular database management systems are Oracle and MySQL, both of which are owned by Oracle. Competitors also include products from IBM and Microsoft. Several American companies, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, and Teradata, accounted for most of the market share. Domestic products in the database management system also have a market share, but it is only a fraction. Its stability and performance cannot convince the market. Banks, telecommunications, electric power and other companies that require extreme stability will not consider domestic products.
28. Scanning Electron Microscope
"Scanning electron microscopy is "amblyopia", it is difficult to see the details of industrial manufacturing" (Science and Technology Daily, July 3)
Scanning electron microscope, a high-end electronic optical instrument, is widely used in materials, biology, medicine, metallurgy, chemistry and semiconductors and other research fields and industrial sectors. It is called "micro camera". At present, my country's scientific research and industrial sectors The scanning electron microscopes used are heavily dependent on imports. Among the hundreds of scanning electron microscopes that my country spends more than 100 million US dollars to purchase each year, they are mainly produced in the United States, Japan, Germany, and the Czech Republic. Domestic scanning electron microscopes only account for about 5%-10%.
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