My Study Chat Group is Full of Real Big Shots

Outside the Fudan University Physics Building.

In the lounge area for the lead teachers, the atmosphere was remarkably relaxed and carefree.

Compared to the national college entrance exam or the CPhO, this sort of corporate-sponsored cup, in the eyes of most coaches from elite high schools, was more like a friendly competition for their top students to get some practice and broaden their horizons.

The teachers gathered in small groups, but the focus of the entire lounge was naturally on the only two powerhouse high schools participating in the competition.

Rongcheng Seventh Middle School and Modu Middle School.

One was the undisputed champion that perennially dominated the Southwest physics competitions, this time simply bringing its "smurfs" out to broaden their horizons.

The other was a behemoth enjoying a home-field advantage, backed by the top-tier educational resources of the Yangtze River Delta.

Coaches from other provinces and cities naturally flocked around the lead teachers from these two schools, eager to chat.

"Teacher Su, this year’s crop of talent from your Rong Qi is really impressive. That boy, Qiao Fan, is so composed for a first-year. He’ll probably lock down another spot on the national training team at the finals next year."

"You’re too kind. He’s not quite there yet. He needs more experience."

Listening to the chorus of mutual flattery, which carried an air of nonchalance, as if they didn’t take this competition seriously at all.

Standing in a corner, Old Zhou, the head of the Huaxuan Cup’s problem-setting team, silently took a sip of his coffee.

’They’re all pretty relaxed, but things are different this time around.’

Just then, Elder Chen walked up to him.

"Hello, you must be Director Zhou from the Huaxuan Cup organizing committee, correct?" Elder Chen greeted him politely. "I’m the lead coach for Jiangcheng Sixth Middle School. My surname is Chen."

Old Zhou nodded politely.

"Hello, Teacher Chen. How can I help you?"

Elder Chen chose his words carefully before speaking.

"Well, you see, Director Zhou."

"I was wondering, is Director Lin Wei here today? If it’s convenient, I’d like to have a word with him about handling the follow-up to a student’s academic results."

Old Zhou listened with a smile on his face, but inwardly, he was unimpressed.

’These coaches from elite high schools are certainly well-respected figures in the world of education.’

’But who was Lin Wei?’

’The R&D Director and Vice President of Huaxuan Technology, a core subsidiary of the National Power Equipment Group.’

’The man usually deals with either academicians or lab directors from top universities.’

So, Old Zhou tactfully refused.

"I’m terribly sorry, Teacher Chen."

"Director Lin’s schedule is packed. I’m afraid he won’t have time for any private meetings today."

"If you have any concerns, our legal and IP management specialists will be available this afternoon to go over them with you. Would that work?"

Hearing this, Elder Chen felt a touch of resignation. He knew the man was speaking the truth, so he could only nod.

Just as Elder Chen was turning to leave, Old Zhou suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, Teacher Chen, a quick question," Old Zhou called out, stopping him.

"Didn’t the lead teacher from Jiangcheng’s Seventh Middle School show up today? I saw on the sign-in sheet that their student, a boy named Li Dong, has already entered the examination hall."

Elder Chen stopped and turned back to him.

"Oh, Seventh Middle School didn’t send a chaperone this time. Li Dong came with us from Sixth Middle School. He’s a student in our honors program now."

Old Zhou froze for a moment upon hearing this.

’Why didn’t you just say you were with Li Dong from the start? All that talk about "handling a student’s academic results"... what results could anyone from your Sixth Middle School possibly have that’d need follow-up?’

Though he was grumbling internally, his expression remained unchanged as he nodded.

"Oh, I see, Teacher Chen..."

Old Zhou added, seemingly as an afterthought.

"Actually, Director Lin should be stopping by the exam site this morning! I’ll be sure to put in a word for you."

Elder Chen was speechless at Old Zhou’s sudden change in attitude. ’So Jiangcheng Sixth Middle School doesn’t have enough prestige on its own? I have to namedrop Li Dong?’

’Then again, it seemed Li Dong’s name really did carry more weight than the school’s. At least for now.’

"Then I’ll be counting on you, Director Zhou."

...

「Inside the examination hall.」

Only forty minutes remained.

Li Dong sat in his seat, a complicated look in his eyes as he stared at the final page of the exam.

He’d always felt that using an alias in his group chat to leech knowledge off those scientific titans just to change his own destiny was a pretty shameless thing to do.

But after seeing this final, capstone problem from Huaxuan Technology, Li Dong finally understood the true meaning of the phrase "the brazen shamelessness of capital"!

A certain semiconductor equipment enterprise is developing a mass-production model immersion lithography system for the 28nm process node. The core of the system utilizes a 193nm ArF excimer laser light source and a local immersion imaging architecture. The space between the final lens of the projection objective and the wafer surface is filled with ultrapure water (refractive index n=1.44) as an imaging medium to enhance system resolution and imaging precision.

During operation, the wafer stage performs a linear scan at a constant velocity to expose the entire wafer. The energy from the exposure laser causes a local, transient temperature increase in the immersion fluid, which in turn induces imaging errors.

’A certain semiconductor enterprise? I wonder which one that could be. It’s so hard to guess.’

After reading that background information, he moved on to the question itself.

The corner of Li Dong’s eye began to twitch.

Please design a corresponding real-time compensation solution for the imaging error. The design must simultaneously satisfy all of the following strict requirements:

Compensation Accuracy: Must control the exposure line width error caused by fluctuations in the immersion medium’s refractive index to within ±1.2nm.

Response Speed: Compensation latency must be ≤1ms, compatible with a constant wafer stage scanning speed of ≥1200mm/s.

Interference Resistance: The compensation effect must be unaffected by transient temperature fluctuations, flow rate disturbances, or variations in the dissolved gas content of the immersion fluid.

Structural Constraints: The solution must not alter the core structure or parameters of the existing exposure optics system, change the composition or fundamental physical properties of the immersion medium, or include any components that make direct contact with the wafer surface.

Mass Production Requirement: The core components of the solution must be suitable for standardized mass production, with a per-system material cost of ≤1 million RMB.

"Heh."

’To put this question in layman’s terms:’

’We at National Power Equipment are currently developing an immersion lithography machine.’

’And we’ve run into a little problem.’

’After the laser heats the water, the refractive index changes, the light path gets distorted, and so our production yield has tanked.’

’Now, we employ a whole bunch of top-tier PhDs in optics and fluid dynamics experts, each earning millions a year.’

’BUT! They don’t seem to be getting anywhere.’

’So, we thought we’d let you bunch of high school students, who haven’t even set foot in a university yet, try and see if you can solve this problem for us in a flash, for under a million RMB?’

’How shameless!’

Just as Li Dong was internally roasting the problem, a series of "CLACK... CLACK..." sounds began to echo through the examination hall.

It was the sound of students putting down their pens.

The boy from Modu Middle School sitting diagonally in front of Li Dong was now staring blankly, a look of profound, life-questioning doubt on his face.

Not far away, Qiao Fan’s scratch paper was covered in the Navier-Stokes equations of fluid dynamics and partial differential equations for heat transfer...

These academic aces were completely dumbfounded. ’What in the world is this?’

This was no longer a question of whether the problem was beyond the scope of the curriculum.

It was a problem that was never meant to be solved at all!

After all, high school physics competitions—no, even undergraduate-level general physics—focused on "ideal models."

They dealt with frictionless surfaces, perfectly rigid rods, and mediums of uniform, constant temperature.

But this problem was "engineering reality"!

Forget about solving it—many of these students, who specialized in physics competitions, couldn’t even understand the logic behind the parameters involved!

If someone could actually propose a perfectly self-consistent and viable solution...

...they would be helping the domestic semiconductor industry clear a critical hurdle toward achieving independent control over mature manufacturing processes.

’You people at Huaxuan Technology... you’ve really got some nerve.’