I Found A Planet

September 20.

Eight thirty in the morning.

In Baoshan Industrial Zone, Xinghai Technology's fourth R\u0026D factory, a group of special "guests" came over.

Most of these "guests" have solemn faces, hurried steps, and slightly shaking hands, indicating that their hearts are not peaceful.

Among these people, Zhang Weijing, the chairman of Zhongxin International, was at the front, followed by Qiu Cifeng, the executive president, Liang Mengnan, the general manager, and Yang Ming, the R\u0026D director... The management of Zhongxin International came collectively.

"Mr. Zhang, you are here. You are rude and rude, and you didn't go to the door to greet you."

Chen Jin in the R\u0026D factory thought that Zhang Weijing and others would come after 9 o'clock, but he didn't expect to be half an hour earlier, so he had to apologize.

Zhang Weijing waved his hand and didn't care. He shook hands with him, moved closer to him, and asked very solemnly: "Mr. Chen, your company...is it really successful in developing the 'technology' you mentioned?"

He still had some disbelief on his face, so is it possible for such a dreamy technology to become a reality?

"Almost ready to use."

Chen Jin smiled and nodded: "The second TC9000 that Xinghai bought for 500 million, although the computing speed is still not enough, but it is not a big problem to deal with more complicated production scenarios."

"no problem?"

Zhang Weijing's eyes widened: "Chip manufacturing is not as simple as 'complex', but 'extremely complex'! Can your 'virtual factory' simulate such a complex production scenario?"

He still didn't quite believe it.

In the industrial world, two things are the crown of the crown.

One is an aero engine, and the other is a chip!

In particular, the manufacturing process of chips is very complicated. A production line involves more than 50 industries and 2000-5000 processes.

Taking the foundry as an example, it is necessary to first purify the "sand" into silicon, then cut it into wafers, and then process the wafers. The wafer processing plant includes two processes: the front process is divided into several major modules-lithography, thin film, etching, cleaning, and injection; the latter process is mainly packaging-interconnection, wiring, and sealing. Among them, lithography is the link between manufacturing and design.

Many of these processes are carried out in independent factories, and the equipment used also needs to be manufactured by a specialized equipment factory; the materials used include hundreds of special gases, liquids, and targets, all of which require specialized chemical industries. In addition, the production of integrated circuits is carried out in ultra-clean rooms, so systems such as exhaust and air purification are also required.

Take the most advanced 14nm chip manufacturing process that Zhongxin International can master at present as an example: billions of transistors and control units must be integrated on a wafer with a surface area of ​​only 2-3 square centimeters. Packaging, testing...the whole process exceeds 2000.

If the scale of the transistor is made smaller, the resulting process will increase.

Now Xinghai Technology's virtual factory technology tells him: Just input the assembly line equipment, technical parameters and process flow in the real world into the supercomputer in the form of data to build a "virtual factory". To completely simulate the real situation and simulate the manufacture of chips.

In the "virtual factory", more than 2,000 procedures are carried out from wafer cutting to packaging and testing, and virtual "chips" are processed.

Zhang Weijing didn't know whether this was a simulated animation or a "virtual factory" that was infinitely close to reality. When he heard this concept, his eyes widened and he immediately realized the great significance of it.

It will bring about a revolution in the industrial field!

Such a dreamy technology in the hands of a young company that has only been established for two years?

Chen Jin shook his head and said, "Mr. Zhang, why can't supercomputers simulate industrial production even if a supercomputer can simulate nuclear explosions? If you don't believe me, you can take a look at our 'virtual factory' and try it out yourself. Manufacturing of analog chips?"

"Okay! Seeing is believing!"

Zhang Weijing nodded, and asked Zhongxin International's general manager Liang Mengnan and R\u0026D director Yang Ming to sit in front of the computer screen and operate the virtual factory in the computer.

Liang Mengnan and Yang Ming have been groping in the chip field for many years. They are the two generals of Zhongxin International. Without these two generals, Zhongxin International’s chip process technology may still hover around 28nm for many years, and it is impossible to enter 14nm so quickly. era.

"Hiss~"

Liang Mengnan, who was adjusting the viewing angle with the mouse, suddenly took a breath.

So realistic.

The virtual factory on the computer screen looks almost the same as the real factory, and the picture quality is so realistic that it is breath-taking.

Move the viewing angle and enter the factory, and the equipment on the assembly line can be seen at a glance.

Photolithography machine, plasma etching machine, ion implantation machine, wafer dicing machine...

All kinds of equipment are restored in a one-to-one ratio.

If you zoom in the viewing angle and enter the interior of the lithography machine, you can even see the light beam inside the lithography machine, which is exposing complex circuit structures on the photosensitive material.

"The simulation is too realistic." Standing behind the chair, Zhang Weijing took a breath and sighed, a little excited in his heart. Maybe Mr. Chen didn't lie to him, this technology is real.

"Old Meng, adjust the parameters of that ion implanter a little bit, and then observe the product yield." Technical Director Yang Ming said.

"How much to adjust?"

"Adjust the sixth decimal place, one millionth."

"Okay." Liang Mengnan entered the parameter setting interface and slightly changed the parameters.

After waiting for more than two hours.

The virtual factory shows that the new chip yield rate has dropped from 95% at the beginning to 0.1%.

"It's exactly the same as what we have encountered in reality."

Yang Ming, who has been in charge of the production line operation, took a deep breath and said.

Wow~

Everyone present was surprised.

"Do a few more experiments!"

Zhang Weijing said, in fact, he was already on the verge of yelling, but he still pressed the back of the chair hard, restraining his inner excitement, and wanted to confirm this shocking fact first!

Standing aside, watching them discuss how to adjust the parameters, Chen Jin folded his hands and smiled.

The virtual factory technology is the first technology that can be called "black technology" developed by Xinghai Technology Co., Ltd. after the Wawa robot and the intelligent learning machine.

Also on the basis of the "intelligent learning program", a smarter and more powerful "intelligent simulation program" has been developed, and has a certain ability of independent learning.

Based on the "intelligent simulation program" and a "virtual factory" combined with an 80 exascale supercomputer, the simulation degree has reached 99.99%, and the error with reality is less than one ten thousandth.

However, since Zhongxin International provided a large number of real parameters and data for correcting errors in various process links, the actual error rate of this virtual chip factory does not exceed one in 100,000,000.

And the more real data provided, the smaller the error in the virtual factory.

The existence of this virtual chip factory will have an extremely significant impact on Zhongxin International's chip manufacturing capabilities.

It will even subvert the existing pattern of the global chip industry, indicating that in the field of chip manufacturing, a humble fish will soon expand into a giant shark.