Rebirth of a technological power

In the blink of an eye, a few days passed.

Cai Jin is thinking about getting a treadmill to strengthen his physical exercise.

After a few days, he seemed to be as fierce as a tiger, but in fact he was very weak.

Now I feel a little shaky when I walk.

"Master, please contact me below. The ordered equipment has arrived."

At this moment, Benben reminded him loudly.

Cai Jin came to his senses at this time. He had previously asked Huawei to help him purchase a batch of machinery, equipment and materials.

I didn't expect the goods to be delivered so quickly.

Cai Jin took Benben downstairs and saw a large transport truck at the gate.

Cai Jin asked the transport truck to go to the small factory next door and then unload the goods.

Laser, beam straightener, energy controller, beam shape setting, light shielding table, energy detector, mask

These equipment and instruments are all domestically produced equipment and are quite common in the international market.

Top-notch equipment is harder to get, but ordinary stuff like this is easier.

What China lacks is mid-to-high-end and top lithography machines, but there is no shortage of low-end lithography machines!

Just like, what China lacks are high-end and top-notch chips, but it does not lack ordinary chips.

What Cai Jin wants to do is photolithography machines and photoresists that are essential in the semiconductor manufacturing process.

As the crown jewel of the semiconductor manufacturing industry, the significance of lithography machines is self-evident.

Chips require 20 to 30 times of photolithography during production, which takes up about 50% of the IC production process and accounts for one-third of the chip production costs.

Generally speaking, as long as the problem of the photolithography machine is solved, half of the chip manufacturing project is completed.

Unfortunately, high-end lithography machines are mainly controlled by a few overseas giants such as ASML, Nikon, Canon, and Otech, while the most advanced lithography machines in the world are in the hands of ASML.

Speaking of lithography machines, it is definitely a pain for China’s semiconductor industry.

The cost of a high-end photolithography machine, such as the FX85 exposure machine, will not exceed 20 million, but Nikon dares to sell it to domestic customers at a crazy price of 200 million per machine.

Still acting like you have to beg me!

As for the 7nm lithography machine, each unit was sold for 1.2 billion yuan after tax.

Not only is it expensive, you can’t even buy it.

So far, only SMIC in China has managed to obtain an ASML top-level lithography machine.

Reality is always helpless!

China, a land of 9.6 million square kilometers, has only one tokki top evaporation machine and only one ASML top lithography machine!

Every year, China has a large trade surplus and earns a lot of foreign exchange, including US dollars and euros.

But in the final analysis, dollars and euros are just paper. People use paper in exchange for a large number of industrial products.

If you want to buy these high-tech products with dollars or euros, they don’t want to sell them to you at all!

Even if you buy it through various means, the final price you pay will be much higher than overseas.

There are still many people in China who naively believe that overseas is democracy, freedom, and a market economy. If they work hard to earn dollars and euros, they can use dollars and euros to buy high-end equipment to enhance their own strength. But the result is that they cannot buy this. , that one cannot be bought.

Technology is the real king.

Money cannot buy high technology, but high technology can continue to create wealth.

Cai Jin started to assemble the photolithography machine.

The lithography machine assembled in this way is just a low-end lithography machine.

But for Cai Jin, enough is enough!

Following the instructions and videos, it took five hours to finally assemble a photolithography machine.

Put your hand on this lithography machine, and the virtual panel appears:

[Item: Broken low-end photolithography machine (repairable)]

[Experience value: 0/100000]

[Optimization point: 250.8]

Cai Jin was stunned. He didn't expect that the photolithography machine he assembled according to the video and instructions would be defective, that is, there was a problem.

But it doesn’t matter, it’s easy to solve!

"System, repair!"

Uh-huh!

A glimmer of light flickered.

The repair was completed in an instant, and the virtual panel became:

[Item: Broken low-end photolithography machine]

[Experience value: 0/100000]

[Optimization point: 250.8]

Cai Jin moved the corresponding semiconductor materials and conducted experiments.

Semiconductor chip production is mainly divided into three major links: IC design, IC manufacturing, and IC packaging and testing.

The so-called IC is the English abbreviation of integrated circuit.

IC design is a high-end technology, and it is also one of the most important factors for companies such as Inter to stand at the top of the semiconductor industry.

Mainly based on the design purpose of the chip, logic design and rule formulation are carried out, and masks are made according to the design drawings for subsequent photolithography steps.

IC manufacturing is the manufacturing of semiconductor chips.

Generally, it is necessary to transfer the chip circuit diagram from the mask to the silicon wafer and realize the predetermined chip functions.

Including photolithography, etching, ion implantation, film deposition, chemical mechanical polishing and other steps.

As for IC packaging and testing, it is to complete the packaging and performance and functional testing of the chip, which is the final process before product delivery.

Cai Jin doesn't have to worry about IC design, as he masters the process technology of various specifications.

IC manufacturing and photolithography are the most complex and critical process steps in the semiconductor chip production process, which are time-consuming and costly.

The difficulty and key point is to transfer the circuit diagram from the mask to the silicon wafer.

This process can currently only be most effectively achieved through photolithography.

Therefore, the process level of photolithography often directly determines the process level and performance level of the chip.

The principle of photolithography is actually very simple.

The surface of the silicon wafer is covered with a layer of highly photosensitive photoresist, and then light is irradiated on the surface of the silicon wafer through the mask.

The photoresist exposed to light will react.

After that, a specific solvent is used to wash away the irradiated or unirradiated photoresist, thereby realizing the transfer of the circuit pattern from the mask to the silicon wafer.

This is actually somewhat similar to ancient Chinese printing, but photolithography technology is millions of times more difficult than printing.

The general photolithography steps include vapor phase base film formation, spin coating, soft baking, exposure, development, and film hardening.

Next, there is inspection, mainly development inspection, so that the compliant silicon wafers can enter the subsequent etching process.

The so-called etching is the process of selectively removing unnecessary materials from the surface of silicon wafers through chemical or physical methods.

After completion, the remaining photoresist on the surface of the silicon wafer can be washed away with a specific solvent.

Of course, this is the simplest photolithography step. In actual manufacturing, it is hundreds of times more complicated.

It took Cai Jin more than three hours in just a few steps from starting the photolithography to finally washing off the remaining photoresist.

Of course, there is also the factor that he has just come into contact with the photolithography machine and is not comfortable with the operation.

Looking at the 300nm chips produced, Cai Jin smiled on his face.

Although it is a low-end chip, it is a good start.

His goal is not these 300nm chips. To be precise, it is not for the chips.

But the photolithography machine.

This is his purpose to upgrade the lithography machine by constantly using it.

Once the manufacturing machine is solved, using the machine to produce is no longer a problem at all.