Yukio Sakamoto: Tsinghua Unigroup's goal is to mass produce DRAM within five years

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Tsinghua Unigroup announced on November 15 that former Elpida president Yukio Sakamoto would serve as senior vice president of the group and CEO of its Japanese branch, and the man behind the move was Gao Qiquan, chairman of Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd.

In an exclusive interview with the latest issue of Japan's "Diamond Weekly", Yukio Sakamoto talked about how he and Yang Qiquan, chairman of Yangtze Memory Technologies (a subsidiary of Tsinghua Unigroup Flash Memory), were old acquaintances. About three years ago, Gao Qiquan invited him to work on NAND (flash memory) at Tsinghua Unigroup, but he still wanted to work on DRAM (dynamic random access memory), so he declined Gao Qiquan's offer.

This spring and early September, Gao Qiquan invited him to work on DRAM again. He was worried that he was already over 70 years old and could not bear the physical load, but later he thought that if he kept up with the pace of learning kendo two years ago, he should be able to work for another 2-3 years.

Therefore, when Gao Qiquan came to Japan in September this year, he took 30 minutes to make the decision, because working on DRAM was very attractive to Sakamoto, so he took the position.

Sakamoto said Tsinghua's goal is to mass produce DRAM within five years, and his job is to help achieve the goal. Tsinghua will set up a "design center" in its Kawasaki office in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, and plans to recruit 70 to 100 engineers to work closely with the process base in China. It will take about two to three years to build a mass production system.

As the last president of Elpida, Yukio Sakamoto actually had deep regrets about Elpida. The rise and fall of Elpida were basically caused by him. He later wrote a book about his experience at Elpida, "The Disappointing Elpida Campaign".

Although he is over 70 years old, Yukio Sakamoto still has a passion for memory. He often traveled to China two years ago to assist in its layout of the DRAM industry. His appointment as a senior executive of Tsinghua Unigroup seems to be an inevitable result of this layout.

Elpida once dominated the memory industry and became Japan's national team. Under the leadership of Yukio Sakamoto, its shipments were second only to Samsung and Hynix in the world. At its peak, it also established Rexchip Semiconductor in a joint venture with Taiwan's DRAM giant Huang Chongren. Elpida's technology system can be said to have become one of the largest mainstreams in the DRAM industry at that time.

However, the financial crisis occurred in 2008, there was a serious overcapacity of memory production, and Elpida suffered losses for consecutive years. Yukio Sakamoto was suddenly knocked down from the clouds to the ground, and ran around all over the place in order to survive, hoping to continue the life of Elpida's business.

At that time, Taiwan planned to establish the Taiwan Innovation Memory Alliance (TMC) to solve the difficulties faced by the DRAM market. Yukio Sakamoto was one of the biggest promoters. He hoped to help Taiwan obtain DRAM production patents to jointly fight against the Korean memory industry. At that time, Huang Chongren twice called Yukio Sakamoto the godfather of Taiwan's DRAM at a press conference. However, the alliance later ended quietly amid internal strife and various doubts.

Yukio Sakamoto's last resort to save Elpida was to reach an alliance agreement with Micron, but the plan fell through after Micron's CEO Steve Appleton died in a plane crash. Elpida later went bankrupt and was acquired by Micron. Elpida was eventually renamed Micron Memory Japan.

In an interview with Diamond Weekly, Sakamoto mentioned that he is actively recruiting talents, who should come from Japanese semiconductor manufacturers like Renesas Electronics, or people who work in Taiwanese companies but are dissatisfied with the status quo. He emphasized that many engineers are excellent and willing to work, but are restricted by the company's division of labor strategy and can only do subdivided work and lack freedom.

Sakamoto believes that to make a good DRAM, designers must consider the product as a whole, so companies must allow them to express themselves freely. He said that Tsinghua Unigroup not only pays well, but should also be able to provide a working environment that they find interesting.

Amid the friction between the United States and China, China is now making every effort to develop the semiconductor industry. The vigorous development of DRAM has two purposes. The first is to gain control of the supply chain and reduce supply risks. Second, when deciding on DRAM development policies, DRAM prices are rising. If China can produce its own products, it will increase revenue on the one hand and reduce capital outflow on the other.

Currently, the main patents and supply chains of electronic components are in the hands of Europe, the United States, Japan and other countries. If the conflicts between countries intensify, it may have a negative impact on the development of China's electronics industry, including consumer products and infrastructure, which may fall into an unsustainable situation.

In order to develop its own DRAM technology, China has used various circuitous methods to obtain relevant patents, but this has also caused a lot of trouble, such as the Fujian Jinhua incident.

Tsinghua Unigroup has poached Taiwan's DRAM godfather Kao Chi-Chuan and Japan's Yukio Sakamoto, and is planning to produce NAND and DRAM itself. I'm afraid it still prioritizes technology. After all, DRAM patents are still in the hands of three major companies: Micron, Samsung and Hynix. How Sakamoto will solve the problem is worth paying attention to.