Global monopoly of technology

Côte d'Azur laboratory, dust-free studio of Zixing lithography machine.

Early this morning, Luo Sheng came here when he received the news. At this time, in this clean room of more than 20,000 square meters, dozens of engineers and Luo Sheng were wearing clean work clothes in his hands. A piece of wafer tape is repeatedly observed and appreciated. The art of this size is the masterpiece of the Purple Star lithography machine.

An engineer standing next to him said excitedly: "The conversion efficiency of the light source has reached the same level, and the correct control has been achieved. The team has overcome a 250-watt light source, and the customer can achieve a throughput of 155 wafers per hour. In the laboratory, a light source power of more than 300 watts can be achieved. After the final test, the Zixing equipment can be officially shipped."

Several top chip manufacturers around the world have always insisted that 250 watts of light source power is a necessary condition to achieve a throughput of 155 wafers per hour, and ASML and light source technology supplier Cymer have not yet achieved this. Light source power target, this company was acquired by ASML two years ago, but progress is limited. This is also the reason why ASML is not developing smoothly, although they have already developed the extreme ultraviolet lithography machine one step in advance.

Luo Sheng handed the tapes in his hand to the engineer next to him, and smiled: "Good job, we can now have the confidence to say the most important lithography machine for semiconductor manufacturing equipment. We are leading the world. Asking ASML to buy the banknotes depends on the mood of the other party. It’s time to end."

The people present were also very excited when they heard this. Just after Luo Sheng's voice, they couldn't stop the excitement and applaud, applauding for the milestone breakthrough in the domestic semiconductor industry, and applauding themselves for their own business. .

More than two thousand days and nights of fighting, not for anything else, just to fight for a breath.

With the cooperation of tens of thousands of engineers, researchers, and hundreds of manufacturers, they focused their firepower on one point and continuously launched firepower impacts. In the more than two thousand earth sunshine cycles, Luo Sheng only focused on the development of extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment. It invested more than 100 billion US dollars, which is five times as much as ASML's investment in the research and development of extreme ultraviolet lithography machines.

But there is no doubt that it is all worthwhile.

Li Chunsheng, the director transferred to the purple star lithography machine project, said: “Compared with the industry’s approximately 25 watt light source in 2012, a 250 watt light source means a tenfold improvement. The ASML engineers were very brief when they briefed on EUV production economics Reluctantly said: 250 watts of light source power will always be the goal for next year, haha."

Domestic semiconductors have always been inferior to foreigners. The confidence of relevant domestic practitioners has been hit for a long time. This breakthrough is not only a tangible breakthrough, but also gives great confidence to those with lofty ideals in the domestic semiconductor business. .

Belief sounds a little bit mysterious, especially when it comes to scientific and technological work, but sometimes it’s really important. This is a morale problem.

The purple star lithography machine was successfully completed before ASML's NXE. Although the other party will solve this problem sooner or later, and will not wait too long, this is definitely a milestone event in the field of semiconductor equipment.

Because this will break the pattern of the global semiconductor industry chain, it will certainly push the entire industry into a new era.

Luo Sheng looked at the technicians present. He could see that everyone's heart was difficult to calm at the moment. He said: "Outside people always say that our technology development cannot be successful, and our talents are not as good as foreigners. It took a long time and a lot of investment in human, material and financial resources, but we finally reached the end and reached a place that everyone outside thought was impossible."

It is worth mentioning that in addition to reaching the milestone of light source power, there are also significant improvements in the performance of the purple star lithography machine tool, and the industry’s progress in the deployment of the purple star lithography machine infrastructure has also received good news, including light Mask, photomask protective film and photoresist, etc.

There are some pig teammates in the team, but most of them are reliable.

The breakthrough of extreme ultraviolet lithography technology means that the life of Moore’s Law is renewed, but this is not something that two manufacturers can complete. For the domestic integrated circuit business, foreigners will not take you to play the most high-end, just give you Play with them and play the rest.

Therefore, the domestic semiconductor industry chain built by Luo Sheng can only be built up bit by bit by himself. The funds alone cost five times as much as foreign competitors. It also requires materials, equipment, and knowledge in the entire semiconductor industry chain. The major sub-fields work together, like a team game to solve technical problems, and then smoothly move towards the destination.

The difficulties can not be summed up in a few words. During the period, team running-in, interest disputes with upstream and downstream manufacturers, technical differences, etc. are all problems that must be resolved.

In the process, there are also pig teammates like Pengxing Precision who cheat money. This is Luo Sheng's most angry. It doesn't matter if he cheats his money. He has money, but it is the most helpless to delay the development progress because of this matter. of.

The biggest difference between the semiconductor industry and other industries is that all major sub-sectors need to go through the barriers together. You lose a chain here. Other links are okay. But in order to wait for you to put down your steps, you can only stare during this period. The barrel effect is This area is enlarged.

Obviously, this is certainly an annoying scolding for other manufacturers.

"Chunsheng, you notify the person in charge of the technical departments, and a small meeting will be held in ten minutes." Luo Sheng confessed and left the clean room of the purple star lithography machine.

"Okay." Li Chunsheng.

...

Less than ten minutes later, in a lounge inside the Riviera Lab, Li Chunsheng notified the heads of the major technical departments that they had all put down their work and came here.

At this moment, more than 20 people are sitting, standing, or leaning against the wall in the lounge in twos and threes.

Luo Sheng looked at everyone with a radiant face at this moment and beamed with joy. After all, today is indeed a time to celebrate. The outside world does not know that the domestic integrated circuit business has made a milestone breakthrough, but they are on the front line. The researchers already know.

Everyone can't wait to report this exciting news to the whole country.

"Everyone, in the past six years, my financial investment in the domestic semiconductor business alone has exceeded 3 trillion yuan, of which the R&D investment in lithography equipment alone has exceeded more than 660 billion, which is all'make-up fees'. , I also use love to generate electricity, at any cost, I have been emptied for reason, and there will be no more 3 trillion yuan in it."

Luo Sheng’s remarks caused everyone to laugh. The domestic integrated circuit business has been silently moving forward for the past six years. It is naturally the credit of the entire team. But everyone knows that Luo Sheng is inseparable to achieve such a milestone breakthrough. .

Without his courageous move, without his financial support and key technology support, and his strong cohesion to bring together the top talents of the entire industry, it would be absolutely impossible for the domestic integrated circuit business to achieve today's results.

Who is the biggest contributor to the round, it must be Luo Sheng, and no one is dissatisfied.

Luo Sheng continued: "So, the official commercialization of the Zixing lithography machine is on the agenda, but the people present are all engaged in technology, and other teams will come to the commercialization. We still have to Talking about technical issues, the breakthrough of the extreme ultraviolet lithography machine does not mean that the high-end manufacturing of domestic integrated circuits has been completely independent. I am not afraid to tell you that we have only achieved 40% of the target so far, and 60% of the target is still To be overcome."

As soon as this remark came out, everyone poured cold water from the joyful atmosphere and calmed down.

Yes, the reason why the semiconductor business is difficult is that it seems that there are always hurdles in front of it, and the core links still have not been fully localized.

For example, the wafer purification technology of chips, domestic related manufacturers have not yet reached the point of high-precision. This link is monopolized by Shin-Etsu Chemical in Japan. Shin-Etsu Chemical is used for high-end chip wafers all over the world. If he does not give it With your high-purity wafers, the entire industry is still in a state of slack.

In other words, Luo Sheng's investment of 3 trillion yuan still cannot realize the autonomy of the entire domestic high-end chip industry. As long as the other party has a card for one and a half years, the money may be lost.

There are other key links too.

There is a long way to go on the road to the autonomy of the entire domestic semiconductor industry chain.

Luo Sheng said in a deep voice: “The current news in the industry is that next year, both Liji Electronics and Samsung have successfully introduced EUV technology into 10 nanometers and started mass production. In the field of high-end chip manufacturing, we are now in the top echelon and the light source is fixed. However, some technologies and materials are still a huge challenge. After entering a new chapter in Moore’s Law, processes below 9 nanometers require extreme ultraviolet photoresist technology with lower costs and higher resolution."

Photoresist, this is the next technical pain point.

Everyone has guessed what Luo Sheng is going to talk about. Today's semiconductor technology has been extended to the 10-nanometer process, but it is becoming more and more difficult to achieve specific patterns, and multiple exposures have also brought about an increase in production costs.

Luo Sheng continued: "After the introduction of extreme ultraviolet lithography technology, its role is the key lithography layer of the latest logic process. Before the introduction of chip manufacturers, extreme ultraviolet has lithography machines, light sources, and photoresists. And photomask."

Everyone nodded silently. In the past, the extreme ultraviolet lithography technology was most critical in the light source, because insufficient power of the light source would affect the production efficiency of the chip.

After the light source problem is solved, the new challenge is the limitation of photoresist technology.

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