A big country of aerospace with black technology

Gallium and germanium both have small output.

But crucial material.

In some ways, they are as important as uranium, the raw material for nuclear bombs.

The semiconductor industry cannot do without them.

And it is similar to uranium in very low content.

For gallium and germanium, few individual deposits exist.

All are associated minerals of various types.

It can only be used when refining tin, aluminum and other minerals.

Exists as a by-product.

"We don't have enough ingredients."

Su Xiao held the folder and said with a worried look.

The first furnace of gallium oxide production went smoothly.

A total of 12 tons of reliable high-purity gallium oxide single crystal wafers were produced.

The scrap rate for the first production was a bit high.

It reached nearly 40 percent.

However, compared with the pour mold method, which uses metal iridium as a crucible and requires an investment of millions to open the furnace at one time.

The metal vapor deposition method still has unparalleled cost performance.

"Almost all the gallium raw materials currently available on the market have been sold out by us."

"In the trading market, the price of gallium has almost snowballed in the past two days."

After Su Xiao finished speaking, he looked at Zhang Xingyang helplessly.

"If we run out of raw materials, we will have no choice but to stop production."

The institute's demand for gallium is so huge that all the spot stocks on the market have been bought.

This caused the price of gallium to once reach a high of US$2,500 per kilogram.

Compared with the price a few months ago, it has increased several times!

"Since there are no raw materials, let's open the furnace less often."

Zhang Xingyang didn't react at all.

This incident had long been expected by him.

Their current production speed is simply too fast, with the current production speed of raw materials.

Even if the domestic production of crude gallium and refined gallium is increased four to five times.

They can all eat it.

"We will soon be able to produce our own gallium raw materials."

"During this period, you are just thinking about the application of gallium oxide semiconductors."

Zhang Xingyang thought for a while and said.

There are actually many applications for gallium oxide.

But during this period, whether at home or abroad.

Research on the application of gallium oxide semiconductors is not very in-depth.

the reason is simple.

Prior to this, the yield rate of gallium oxide wafers was very low.

It’s not just expensive metal iridium crucibles that need to be used.

Moreover, the purity of the gallium oxide produced is not necessarily high.

It is easy to be mixed with some impurities.

The purity requirements for gallium oxide wafers that can be made into chips and power devices are higher than 999 gold.

There are not a large number of gallium oxide wafers for everyone to use.

It is difficult to have a variety of applications.

A technology that wants to be applied on a large scale.

Massive output is essential.

"We are already doing research and have some ideas, but we don't know if it will yield results."

Lidya Su nodded and said.

Although the scrap rate of the last batch of gallium oxide wafers reached 40%.

But even the remaining 60% is enough for them to squander.

You must know that before this, their wafer output was often calculated in grams.

It can produce several kilograms at a time.

It’s already an exciting thing.

The current output is enough for the research institute to waste several years.

——

"Mr. Sun, why are you here?"

After sending Su Xiao away, Zhang Xingyang was immersed in the optimization of the metal vapor deposition method.

Some looked at the person at the door in surprise.

Sun Hongtao smiled kindly and said, "I heard that you have just accomplished something big. I'll come over and take a look."

Zhang Xingyang waved his hand: "It's not a big deal, it's just a small matter."

If someone else had said this, Sun Hongtao must have thought that he was showing off in front of him.

But when Zhang Xingyang said this, he was not surprised at all.

After all, he has witnessed Zhang Xingyang's miracles countless times over the years.

"Only you dare to say that." Mr. Sun said after sitting down:

"I heard that you have made great achievements in the fourth generation semiconductor?

Zhang Xingyang gave a thumbs up: "Mr. Sun's information is really well-informed."

"Mainly in wafer manufacturing, there has been a little progress."

When Mr. Sun heard this, he sat up straight and prepared to listen.

"The previous gallium oxide wafer manufacturing method was efficient and low-cost."

"We have found an ingenious processing method that can improve the production efficiency of gallium oxide wafers and reduce a large part of the cost."

Speaking of this, Zhang Xingyang said as if he thought of something:

"If our future power generation satellites are produced using the latest gallium oxide semiconductors."

"The cost can be reduced by half."

“And it’s ten times more powerful.”

Even though I have heard that fourth-generation semiconductors are more powerful than third-generation semiconductors.

Sun Hongtao was still shocked by this overwhelming number.

The price drops by half and the power increases by ten times.

This is equivalent to an improvement of twenty times on the original basis!

"Is the gap between the two so big?"

Sun Hongtao said with some disbelief.

Zhang Xingyang nodded: "The gap is indeed obvious. The gap is like the gap between the mobile phones of the past and today's touch-screen mobile phones."

The development of the mobile phone industry in this world is faster than in previous generations.

In the past two years, many touch-screen mobile phones and pseudo-smartphones have appeared.

The smartphone era may be just a year or two away.

Zhang Xingyang’s metaphor is easy to understand.

"I heard that you don't have enough raw materials for gallium ore?"

Mr. Sun turned around and talked about the problems the institute is currently encountering.

Zhang Xingyang sighed: "We have bought too much recently, and many manufacturers who still have gallium are waiting and watching."

"They think there should be room for price increases."

Zhang Xingyang didn't blame them either.

With this crazy rising momentum, everyone thinks it will continue to rise.

"But it won't be long before our gallium ore can be mined."

"We won't have too many raw material problems then."

Sun Hongtao heard this and said: "Mining and refining, you have no problem."

"If there's anything you can't solve, just come to me directly."

The gallium deposit owned by the institute is unique in the world.

It is an associated mine of a very large coal mine.

Generally speaking, gallium mines are not associated with coal mines.

But nature is so magical sometimes.

Eight hundred thousand tons of gallium ore is produced near hundreds of millions of tons of black gold coal.

"The problem is not that big. We are now almost on the verge of building a full industrial line from source to product."

Zhang Xingyang rubbed his fingers and said:

"What we are most worried about now is that the product output is too large and cannot be eaten by the market."

"The current output of power-generating satellites is limited. Even if the factory operates around the clock, only four power-generating satellites can be produced in a month."

"It only consumes about two tons of gallium oxide semiconductors in a month."

"However, we can burn a furnace of gallium oxide in two days, and the output is currently 12 tons."

"That is, one furnace is enough for the satellite manufacturing plant to take the first half of a year."

"Even including the consumption of the ground receiver, it will take four months to consume."

Zhang Xingyang sighed: "It feels like we were able to produce a hundred aircraft carriers, but in the end we only had the manpower to operate three aircraft carriers."

When there is no aircraft carrier, I want an aircraft carrier.

When we had aircraft carriers, we found that there were too many.

I don’t have that many people to drive it.

The situation Zhang Xingyang is currently facing is similar to this.

When gallium oxide is not available, gallium oxide is desired.

When we had gallium oxide, we found that there was too much gallium oxide.

There’s simply no way to spend it all!

"In addition to power generation satellites, are there other applications in China?" Sun Hongtao asked curiously.

"Not yet, maybe in the future."

Zhang Xingyang thought about the flying sword and drone mothership they built some time ago and said.

"We have developed some small things so far, but we just don't know if the military is interested."

Sun Hongtao: "What a little thing, tell me?"

"To put it simply, we have created a drone aerial charging device."

Zhang Xingyang briefly summarized:

"Able to maintain the battery life of the drone."

Sun Hongtao frowned after hearing this.

Something about this thing made him feel weird.

"Will this be useful on the battlefield?"

"It has some small uses, but it mainly depends on the usage environment."

Zhang Xingyang has some own understanding of air force strategy.

"If it is used to gain air supremacy, then I'm afraid it won't be of much use."

"However, if it is used to carry out ground attack missions after seizing air supremacy, it will still be somewhat useful."

Sun Hongtao said: "Okay, what about the civilian aspect?"

"Didn't you find any use for it?"

"Gallium oxide is in many ways superior to gallium arsenide and gallium nitride, which we currently use more frequently."

"For example, computing chips and logic chips."

"But we are still researching these, and it will probably take another year or two to produce results."

They have just solved the problem of raw materials.

It will probably take several years before it can be applied on a large scale.

“However, our usage of gallium oxide is expected to be very large in the future.”

Zhang Xingyang said seriously:

"So I think we need to impose controls on the export of gallium."

Sun Hongtao was a little surprised.

He originally thought Zhang Xingyang would want to increase exports of gallium.

Even the export of gallium oxide wafers.

You must know that the current price of gallium oxide wafers is comparable to gold.

And their current output is so large.

Exports can earn a lot of foreign exchange.

"Isn't it good to make money by exporting?" Sun Hongtao said in a somewhat unclear tone.

Zhang Xingyang said: "It's better not to make this kind of money."

"You have to know that what we manufacture are high-purity gallium oxide wafers."

"Currently, everyone is developing the most research on gallium oxide..."

Zhang Xingyang paused, and then said: "It's military equipment."

"Whether it is active phased array radar, various avionics systems, or even electronic warfare systems."

“At present, everyone uses gallium nitride, and its performance is much worse than that of gallium oxide.”

"If we export gallium oxide in large quantities, it will be equivalent to increasing the enemy's military strength."

Sun Hongtao breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this.

Of course he understands this.

But he was afraid that Zhang Xingyang wouldn't understand.

“Then should we ban the export of gallium oxide?”

Zhang Xingyang said with a rare serious expression:

“In fact, I think it is not only necessary to ban the export of gallium oxide wafers, but also to ban the export of gallium nitride.

Even gallium arsenide would be best banned from export.

All gallium products are not exported, that is the best. "

Gallium is a raw material with extremely high added value.

Previously, more than half of the tens of tons of crude gallium produced in China each year were exported.

This is largely due to the underdeveloped domestic related industries.

To put it simply, domestic production of gallium cannot be consumed so much.

But with the successful development of the third generation gallium oxide semiconductor.

This situation has changed a lot.

Zhang Xingyang and his colleagues have successfully developed fourth-generation semiconductors, which will make China an importer of gallium in the foreseeable future.

"Actually, we knew this before, but the related domestic industries were not very good, so we allowed exports."

Sun Hongtao was silent for a while and said:

"We have just joined the WTO, so a rash ban is not a good thing."

This is also something Sun Hongtao needs to consider.

In order to facilitate business in the international market, the country has agreed to many conditions.

Among them are many related transactions related to import and export.

Why can future generations ban the export of gallium and germanium in China?

To a large extent, it is because the environment is different.

And it has been subject to relevant sanctions from others.

"In that case."

Zhang Xingyang touched his fingers:

"I have an idea."

“Instead of proactively banning exports, we can adopt a passive approach.”

Sun Hongtao motioned for him to continue.

“For example, our institute can push up the price of gallium in the domestic market so that they don’t want to export it abroad.”

This method cannot be used by ordinary people.

Because pushing up prices means they will lose money.

But Zhang Xingyang didn't care very much.

The high-purity gallium oxide wafers they smelted have more than ten times the profit.

No matter what, they make money.

It's just a difference between making more and less.

And this may be able to induce domestic manufacturers to pay attention to the production of gallium.

It can be considered a good thing.

"This way, even if someone complains, we can use the reason that their price is too high and foreign customers don't want to buy it."

"These are all raw materials. What if someone wants high-purity gallium oxide?"

Sun Hongtao asked immediately.

"The high-purity gallium oxide wafers are basically in our hands. Whether we want to sell them or not is not up to us."

Zhang Xingyang said with a smile.

Except for the research institute, no one has the technology and strength to mass-produce high-purity gallium oxide wafers.

Even if others want to buy it, they can't.

After all, doing business is based on the principle of voluntariness.

If the institute doesn't want to sell, why do others still want to forcefully buy it and sell it?

If anyone really does this.

That Zhang Xingyang admired his courage.

Do you think that the institute is just for people to shape and flatten?

I still feel that the institute’s missiles are not powerful enough and the stealth bombers have not a long enough range.

"We will ask them to ban the export of all gallium-related products as soon as possible."

Sun Hongtao said after listening.

"Germanium should also be banned."

"I have a hunch that you will soon have something to say about germanium!"

Zhang Xingyang couldn't help but give a thumbs up: "Mr. Sun, you are really good at judging people!"