“老兵”新声 ——俎永熙博士的芯片产业之旅分享
2022年8月10日，俎永熙博士受母校UIUC（伊利诺伊大学香槟分校）邀请，以荣誉校友的身份为中国内地三所重点大学（浙江大学、华南理工大学与南方科技大学）的近两百位学子举办了一场在线讲座。
讲座题为“一位老兵的半导体行业之旅”。俎博士旨在借助这次难得的交流机会，与学子们分享他的经验之谈与行业洞察。作为一个在半导体行业深耕近30年，见证了几轮周期与起伏的资深从业者，他显然是作此分享的不二人选。回顾职业生涯，他用“3E”来概括自己的身份转变：工程师（Engineer）、高管（Executive）和创业者（Entrepreneur）。
UIUC毕业后的第一站，是半导体巨头，集成电路的发明者Jack Kilby的孕育摇篮——德州仪器公司（TI）。在TI的九年光阴，他不仅拥有了多项发明专利，发表了数篇高水平论文，更对行业领导者的管理运作一窥究竟，为今后走上高阶管理岗位打下坚实基础。
随后，他回到祖国，在中芯国际（SMIC）开启了职业生涯的华彩篇章——领导研发部门，首创国内0.13微米铜互连工艺研发和量产，之后与IBM在45纳米制程上艰苦谈判并最终成功实现产业化，凭借卓著成绩，被擢升为副总经理。
2018年，他来到青岛，担任采用中国模式CIDM（共有共享式的垂直整合芯片制造商）的晶圆厂——芯恩总经理，并全力以赴，仅用三年就建起了3座工厂（光掩膜厂，8英吋厂及12英吋厂），促进山东青岛渤海湾区域的集成电路产业发展。
而现在，他回到上海并创建了一家车规芯片设计公司，成为了一名有愿景和价值观的企业家。
讲座围绕两大主题：对半导体产业的整体看法，该行业的职业道路选择。
过去22年间，他亲眼见证了中国半导体行业的突飞猛进，并坚信半导体行业仍将不断为社会生活生产各领域加大赋能，仍会保持长期向上的发展势头。而中国大陆的众多半导体企业正在快速成长，能为众多天赋出众的学子提供更多一展身手的机遇。
谈及职业道路选择，主要围绕晶圆厂和芯片设计公司两大领域。这两者尽管密切关联，但对技能甚至个性的要求不尽相同。晶圆厂更强调对工艺、设备及材料的深入理解，更适合那些希望生产高品质可靠芯片的人。为此，他善意提示道：“为了更好地驾驭先进制程的种种挑战，必须保持耐心。”而作为孕育千万种各类芯片的领域，芯片设计公司则对芯片架构、功能仿真、与工艺的结合及其他底层“要诀”强调更多。当一位女同学问及是博士还是硕士更适合进入该行业时，他的建议是，“你得与时俱进、敏学善思。学位只是一个基本起点”。为了让同学们更直观地了解这两大领域，他特意选择了两段精彩视频与大家分享。
最后，他推荐了几本业界知名的书籍供大家深入研读，包括施敏博士的《半导体器件物理与工艺》和业界推崇的芯片设计公司必读书——《Fabless Semiconductor Implementation》。
当前，由于其先进性和复杂性，以及对国民经济繁荣和国家竞争力至关重要，半导体行业已成为世界各大领先国家的兵家必争之地。对于有志于从事这一行业的学子来说，俎博士衷心建言道：“如果你希望驾驭最新的前沿技术，那就脚踏实地不断实践，并勇于拥抱挑战，把它们转化为成长的契机。更重要的是，要放眼长远，保持乐观。”
他还特地向大家传达了自己创业公司——杰平方半导体的核心价值观——诚信、创新、以人为本。诚信、以人为本看似与技术无关，但在他看来，这不仅从业人员研发先进技术、推出可靠产品、为社会谋福祉的必需，也是学子们走向成功职业生涯的必需信念，更是成功企业基业长青必备的基石。正是这些多年来坚持不渝的特质，帮助他持续成长、贡献社会。
Experience Sharing of an UIUC Alumnus
On the morning of Aug.10, Dr. Tsu was invited by UIUC as a honored alumnus to give an online speech to an audience from three universities in mainland China: ZJU, SCUT, and SUSTECH.
The speech, titled A Veteran’s Exploration in Semiconductor Industry, was aimed at sharing his experience and insights about the semiconductor(SC) industry. Having engaged in this fast moving business for almost 30 years and witnessed several SC industry cycles, he is truly entitled to this task. In retrospect, he referred to 3Es as a summary of his identity: engineer, executive and entrepreneur. To be specific, he started as an engineer at Texas Instruments where he achieved a lot in innovation and publications, then moved to SMIC and was finally promoted as VP via making breakthroughs in R&D and leading nodes commercial implementation. Xin’en (Tsingtao, an emerging valuable CIDM) was his last stop where he culminated as CEO through 2018 to 2021, during which completed 3 fabs. Since 2022, entrepreneur is his current new title with his newly founded design house.
The whole speech was centered on two major points: a holistic view on the industry and personal advice on choice of the career path.
Although he had witnessed several cyclical periods over the past 30 years, he unwaveringly held the view that the whole industry will maintain its upward momentum as semiconductors increasingly empowering more and more human endeavors and areas. China mainland is expected to offer more opportunities for aspiring talented students with its many listed SC companies who are managing to catch up with their powerful international counterparts.
On career choice, Dr. Tsu focused mainly on either Fab or Fabless area. These two major areas, based on his years of learning, are closely interconnected but effectively require different expertise and even personalities. Fab emphasizes more on a deep understanding of process and materials, more suitable for those who are keen on pursuing reliable and high quality chips. “You need to be patient enough to harness challenges in the process of scaling the leading edge node!” he kindly reminded the audience. Fabless, a highly diversified area where numerous innovative chips are being brewed, requires more skills in chip architecture, design methodology and other comprehensive know-how. “You have to be a quick learner. Degree offers you only a starting point”, he responded to a girl who was eager to know what degree is more eligible for this industry. For a better demonstration of the difference, he offered two video clips that are vivid and convincing enough.
In closing his speech, Dr. Tsu recommended several renowned books, Semiconductor Device and Fabless Semiconductor Implementation included. Furthermore, he deliberately shed light on the cornerstone values for his startup: integrity, innovation and people first which he firmly holds true for lifelong growth and success.
As such an advanced, sophisticated and vital industry for national prosperity and competency, it is becoming a fiercely competitive arena attracting a huge amount of attention and resources among leading countries worldwide, “If you want to jump in and savor the cutting edge technologies, hit the road now and try to leverage every challenge for growth. More importantly，look far ahead and be optimistic,” concluded Dr. Tsu.
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