Military Industry of Great Powers: Build the Strongest Flanker

On October 12, 1987, 101 Xinneng Lithography Machine Factory welcomed three special guests.

Zuo Yang, Gu Renda, and Ding Bangkai are three Bay Islanders who work at the Texas Instruments chip processing plant.

Dongsheng Shipbuilding paid the money, and the three of them only had to stay here for a month.

Zhao Guoqing personally received them, as well as Professor He Zhenhua, Chief Engineer Lu Yirong, Wang Lijia, Liu Chengmin, Lu Jinchao, Shui Quanxiang and several key players from the Core Energy Optical Machinery Factory.

Teacher Xiao Zhao has high expectations, especially when he heard Zuo Yang say that Texas Instruments has conquered the 800-nanometer manufacturing process.

"What type of photolithography machine does Texas Instruments use? What kind of light source does it use?"

Zuo Yang said: "The Nikon NSR-120 stepper scanning lithography machine is used, and the light source is the i-line of a high-pressure mercury lamp. ASML also has two machines in its PA2000 production factory. Texas Instruments also bought two machines from GCA last year. The laser scanning lithography machine can easily realize the 800nm ​​process!"

The word laser made Zhao Guoqing very sensitive. He asked: "What laser was used?"

Ding Bangkai shook his head and said: "We are just teaching you how to use the PA2000 lithography machine. Sorry for the rest!"

Well, that's because the money was not enough. Each person added an additional $20,000, which was enough to catch up with their income for several months, so they could naturally speak freely.

Zuo Yang said: "I don't know what kind of laser the 246-nanometer violet laser machine is. Anyway, with this photolithography machine, we can double the mask gap."

Chief Engineer Lu Yirong, chief engineer of the photoelectric radar, said to Zhao Guoqing: "Director Zhao, their laser should be a krypton fluoride excimer laser. Our institute is currently studying it, but the current technology does not emit enough laser power!" "

The conditions for laser generation require the formation of particle number inversion. Then when the particle number inversion exceeds a certain value, oscillation will be formed and laser light will be generated.

When the laser is emitted, the number of particles in the upper energy level is consumed, so the oscillation stops until the next time the number of particles is accumulated and then reverses. This is why the peak power of ordinary lasers cannot be increased.

How to increase the power of the laser, he has more than one method in mind, including Q-switching technology, mode-locking technology, and optical parametric amplification technology.

Originally, I wanted to bypass the krypton fluoride ultraviolet laser and the argon fluoride deep ultraviolet excimer laser and directly use the x-ray light source.

Teacher Xiao Zhao found that he was overthinking. The United States, which has the strongest light source in the world, could not manufacture an ASML deep ultraviolet lithography machine. If it wanted to use it commercially, it would need breakthroughs in many aspects and rely heavily on the light source. It certainly can't be solved.

Moreover, the technical difficulty required for x-ray light sources is not small. It is still necessary to develop more technically mature deep ultraviolet lasers.

It seems that these technical routes still need to be taken again.

Zhao Guoqing told Lu Yirong: "The next step for ultraviolet and deep ultraviolet laser light sources will be the key projects of the 101 Institute, and the research on extreme ultraviolet light projects will also be included!"

Lu Yirong smiled. Those who can be upgraded to key projects by 101 will receive great favor in terms of funds and personnel, but?

Lu Yirong asked: "Director Zhao, how are extreme ultraviolet lasers classified? Why haven't I heard of them?"

Zhao Guoqing said: "It's not necessarily a laser, a light source with a wavelength of 13.5 nanometers, which is second only to x-rays!"

"..."

Teacher Xiao Zhao shook his head. Extreme ultraviolet light source technology is extremely confidential. What can be found is that a small tin ball is shot with a carbon dioxide laser, which radiates 13.5 nanometers of deep ultraviolet light. The light is still dispersed and requires a concave mirror. Reflection, no matter how you look at it, looks like a technical trap given by the United States.

There must be another way...

The people in the Bay Island do not have high-level positions, but fortunately they are all on the front line.

Teacher Xiao Zhao tried again and again. They really didn't have much research on the manufacturing process, and their daily work was also formulaic. However, one advantage was that it could bring about standardized workshop management.

Asked again about the structure of the chip transistor, Teacher Xiao Zhao understood clearly.

It’s no wonder after thinking about it. The i-line 386nm light source has not yet been utilized to its limit. Intel’s currently mass-produced 386 processors still use a 1.5 micron process, but the limit process of the 386nm light source is between 600 and 800nm.

In terms of the manufacturing process, the main chip processing plant needs to solve the most appropriate semiconductor structure, which is mostly explored at the physical level of the transistor to make it more suitable for photolithography and ensure the yield rate.

For example, the deep trench and substrate ion implantation pads used by Texas Instruments to solve the transistor leakage problem caused by the 800nm ​​process are actually an improvement on the PN structure itself, and do not involve a revolution in the effect transistor structure. FinFET fin field effect transistors are the breakthrough.

It was not until after 65 nanometers that the light source of the lithography machine began to restrict the improvement of the chip manufacturing process. Only then did people begin to study how to break through the theoretical process limits of the existing wavelength light sources.

That’s when multiple exposure technology began.

Teacher Xiao Zhao wanted to understand this matter, and he suddenly relaxed his thoughts on the development of the chip manufacturing process of 101 Institute.

He has researched FinFET field effect transistor chips in depth enough that they can be directly used in the 800nm ​​process and plans to enter commercialization within three years.

At the same time, it increased investment in multiple exposure technology, and within six years, the 300nm process was commercialized.

To this end, the final performance of the PA2000 lithography machine is squeezed out, and the limit of the 386-nanometer light source is almost the same, up to 200 nanometers.

In six years, we are preparing to install krypton fluoride light source and argon fluoride light source on PA2000, or on our own lithography machine.

130 nanometer, 90 nanometer, 65 nanometer, 45 nanometer, 28 nanometer, 14 nanometer...

Until the X-ray Terminator light source came online.

The long twenty-year chip development plan...

The next day, Teacher Xiao Zhao taught in person at the 101 Laser Research Laboratory.

"If the phase difference is constant and the vibration direction is the same, interference will occur, right!"

"When the phase difference between different laser longitudinal modes, that is, the frequencies, is locked, will most of the energy be concentrated at the interference enhancement point?"

"Look, this is the time-domain distribution of light intensity in the ordinary unlocked phase, this is after locking!"

Teacher Xiao Zhao opened up new ideas to Lu Yirong's team with just a few words, and they hurriedly picked up their pens to calculate.

Tens of minutes later, Lu Yirong said to Teacher Xiao Zhao with a fierce expression: "With this interference method, multiple laser generators can be used to send out interference and compress the pulse width to the picosecond level, or even to the sub-femtosecond level. The power reaches 10^9W level, Director Zhao, you are really amazing!"

Zhao Guoqing shook his head, took the pen from Lu Yirong's hand, and drew a sketch on the paper.

"This is an oscillator, this is a stretcher, this is an amplifier, this is a compressor. Look at the laser light that is first broadened, then amplified, and then compressed into high-power short pulses..."

"..."

Classmate Xiao Lu is already numb.