Chapter 55: A Silver Lining
Fan Ren greatly appreciated people like Ke Fengyun who were extremely sensitive to new technology, so after receiving the other’s telephone call three days ago, he had been busy in the laboratory with his new idea.
Ke Fengyun didn’t even think about it before signing a confidentiality agreement with Xinghai Technology.
“General Manager Fan, please believe me. To be honest with you, this agreement is routine for us.”
Fan Ren smiled without saying anything, then led the other toward the laboratory.
In the laboratory, on a workbench temporarily set up, a high-voltage radio equipment was quietly lying there at this time.
Fan Ren instead first walked to the nanoscale microscope nearby, pointed at the eyepiece, and said in a somewhat mysterious tone: “Come take a look at what this is.”
Ke Fengyun puzzledly looked inside through the microscope.
Just a few seconds later, he raised his head and looked at Fan Ren with a face full of surprise.
“This, this is carbon nanotube! Carbon nanotube!”
Fan Ren nodded with some pride on his face, then walked to the workbench nearby and extended his slender finger to turn on the power button.
“I’ve applied this material in it. Guess what effect it will have?”
“Better magnetic field stability and compatibility, higher conductivity, thermal conductivity, and lightweight!”
Ke Fengyun’s eyes lit up completely.
Pure graphene couldn’t achieve this level, but carbon nanotubes with specific structures were different.
Fan Ren didn’t answer and turned to the data panel nearby.
“Now, do you have any new ideas for the solution of applying high-voltage radio technology to replace the lithography machine?”
Ke Fengyun nodded repeatedly. This trip today was truly worth it!
But.
“General Manager Fan, these carbon nanotubes are not easy to produce, right?”
Fan Ren turned his head to look at him, shook his head with some apology on his face, and said: “This is why I signed the confidentiality agreement with you. Come, go to my office.”
With that, he turned off the equipment while leading Ke Fengyun toward the office.
Although the layout of Fan Ren’s office was somewhat different from that in the Xinghai building, the layout hadn’t changed much.
After leading Ke Fengyun to sit on the sofa, Fan Ren didn’t continue to keep him in suspense.
“This is our company’s new product. To be honest, your reminder inspired me greatly. Originally, my initial purpose for developing carbon nanotubes was to apply them to graphene chips, but unfortunately our lithography machine was embargoed.”
“Graphene chip!”
Ke Fengyun hurriedly covered his mouth, his eyes wide round. He felt like he was being too easily shocked today.
Just these simple five words had stunned him again.
But thinking about it, if Xinghai had mastered the technology for mass-producing carbon nanotubes, it seemed really feasible.
Fan Ren nodded indifferently and said: “Xinghai invested 3.5 billion in this project and spent half a year, and now it has indeed mastered the mass production technology for carbon nanotubes.”
With that, he turned to the cabinet, took out the patent backup, and handed it to Ke Fengyun, while lighting a cigarette himself and standing by the window, quietly waiting.
Ke Fengyun skimmed through the text on the document at a glance, but after seeing keywords like using biomaterials with unique cell structures, adsorption, catalysis, metabolism.
He couldn’t help but marvel at how imaginative this idea was.
“General Manager Fan, this is really amazing.”
Obviously, Ke Fengyun wasn’t very good at language; the praise he could find in his mind was this plain and simple.
Fan Ren extinguished the half-smoked cigarette butt, waved his hand to disperse the smell of smoke. From the other’s white teeth, he could tell the other didn’t smoke.
“I still have to thank your reminder, which opened up many ideas for application domains for me.”
With that, he walked to the sofa and sat down.
“Then I’ll be straightforward.”
Seeing Fan Ren suddenly become serious, Ke Fengyun also nodded along. He knew Fan Ren wouldn’t provide him with this technical guidance and new material unconditionally.
All of this must come with conditions.
“General Manager Fan, I still have to give you a heads-up. My master might not approve too much money. Every time I have some ideas, the master says there’s no money.”
Ke Fengyun spoke this sentence ahead of Fan Ren, nearly making him laugh out of character.
Fan Ren hurriedly held back his laughter and shook his head.
“You misunderstood. Listen to me finish. As I said before, Xinghai’s initial purpose for developing carbon nanotubes was to research and develop graphene chips. You should be aware of this, right?”
“I am aware. We are also in related industries.” Ke Fengyun nodded quickly. Today, he had returned to the state he was in when he first entered under his master’s tutelage, nodding quite frequently.
“Initially, we ordered a 14-nanometer process lithography machine from As Company. Don’t misunderstand; it was mainly because time was too tight. Guo Xin Technology’s production capacity couldn’t keep up, and the schedule would be two years later, so we chose foreign goods.”
At this point, Fan Ren suddenly looked helpless. If he had known it would be like this, he would have chosen domestic from the start. This back-and-forth delay would add another six months.
But fortunately, heaven never seals off all paths. Ke Fengyun’s appearance gave him a new choice.
“Actually, this is good too. From what you just said, your side doesn’t seem very enthusiastic about the upgrade solution for high-voltage radio, right? Otherwise, it wouldn’t be just you who came?”
Ke Fengyun felt somewhat apologetic and didn’t refute.
Fan Ren continued: “In that case, I propose a cooperation method. Xinghai Technology will provide your research institute with high-voltage radio technology, as well as all the technology, raw materials, and partial R&D funds needed for the subsequent research on high-voltage radio conversion for the lithography machine.”
This time, Ke Fengyun didn’t nod again and hurriedly interrupted Fan Ren.
“General Manager Fan, sorry, I need to make a telephone call to my master.”
This was no longer a cooperation that he, Ke Fengyun, could decide.
“Don’t rush, let me finish.”
Fan Ren held him back and continued: “Xinghai can provide all these, with only one demand: after successfully developing the lithography machine improved based on high-voltage radio, all lithography machine equipment needed by Xinghai will be provided by your institute at cost price.”
After saying this, Fan Ren released his hand pressing on the mobile phone.
Ke Fengyun’s mind was a bit chaotic; he really didn’t understand this aspect well. He picked up the mobile phone apologetically and said: “General Manager Fan, I’ll go out to make a telephone call.”
With that, he ran outside.
Fan Ren didn’t mind his hasty and somewhat impolite style, sitting alone in the office with his mind also turning.
As the inventor of the technology, his understanding of high-voltage radio was absolutely top-tier. If the other side could agree to this condition, he had confidence to lead the team to complete the lithography machine modification in a very short time.
As long as the other side agreed to his condition, the lithography machine urgently needed by Xinghai Laboratory could be solved.
This was just one of them.
In the past two days, he had done a lot of theoretical verification. If there were no major surprises, the modified lithography machine would greatly improve in cost, power consumption, precision, and even production success rate.
This way, the manufacturing cost of graphene chips could be further reduced, which was his main purpose.
For this, Fan Ren was willing to provide these technologies, equipment, and partial funds for free to help them complete this improvement project.
The demand he proposed was also very simple, merely the ability to purchase the successfully developed lithography machine equipment at cost price.
