Chapter 281 Glue Dropping

Chapter 281 Glue Dropping

Chapter 281 Glue Dropping
Minqin County, high-tech industrial park on the southwest side.

Many people stayed to work during the Spring Festival.

Among them, the 521 Laboratory, 522 Laboratory, and 523 Laboratory, which are composed of Hailufeng Company, Minqin Group, Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd. and several domestic semiconductor equipment companies, not only did not take holidays, but instead saw a large number of scientific researchers coming in during the Spring Festival.

The three joint laboratories currently have 493 researchers and 244 administrative and logistical staff.

In the area of ​​521 laboratory.

With the help of cryo-electron microscopes and other atomic scanning equipment, several researchers finally combined dense silver-coated silicon nanotubes with some solid silicon carbide tubes.

These tiny silver-coated silicon nanotubes are divided into special patterns by solid silicon carbide nanotubes. These patterns are part of the single-layer chip structure and are the part that does not require lithography.

In essence, the photolithography process is to use extreme ultraviolet light to dissolve and destroy part of the photoresist that needs to be removed, then remove the damaged photoresist through cleaning, and finally use etching, deposition and other processes to utilize these grooves.

Of course, in actual operation, these processes will be very complicated, requiring repeated lithography, etching, deposition, and scrubbing dozens, or even hundreds or thousands of times.

At this time, the goal of these researchers is to use silver-coated silicon nanotubes to solve the problem that China has always had difficulty catching up with the West's top lithography machine technology.

"how?"

The developing device that can see the atomic arrangement structure is now displaying a very large structural image. The researcher in charge of the inspection looked up and said, "Team leader, this piece of glue mold has been inspected and no incorrectly arranged structure has been found."

Team leader Ye Jin immediately ordered: "Then send it for cutting!"

"Okay." Another researcher took over the cutting work.

In the wire cutting studio, a 20-cm-long epoxy mold is cut little by little, divided into very precise 1-cm thickness.

These 1 cm thick glue printing templates are the core components of the glue dripping process.

Ye Jin and several other team leaders discussed the next arrangements.

"Lao Liu, now that the template is ready, let's start the experiment. Is your silicon wafer ready?"

Lao Liu is a middle-aged man with a Mediterranean appearance. He smiled and replied, "It's already been prepared. We are just waiting for your template."

"Then let's start the test according to the previous arrangement! I hope everything goes well." Ye Jin was also very nervous at this time.

"Don't be nervous, everything will work out when the time comes." Lao Liu said as he picked up the folder and looked at the information on it: "Is the adhesive material for 522 ready?"

The person who spoke was a researcher from a domestic photoresist company: "Of course, don't underestimate us. Since we don't need to consider photolithography, we only need charged adhesive materials, which is several orders of magnitude lower than that of photoresist."

Of course, in actual research, this kind of glue material is not that easy to make, but it is at least much easier than photoresist. After some research, the 522 laboratory came up with several more suitable glue materials.

Lao Liu looked at the information and suddenly felt very proud: "The etching machine of SMIC has been debugged. Now everything is ready. Let's get started!"

"agree."

"Well, whether it's a mule or a horse, we should pull it out and give it a try."

“I feel like the success rate should be very high.”

"You are quite confident, if you succeed, we will all go down in history."

Not a moment.

They came to the 523 laboratory responsible for the testing.

As the glue printing template is inserted into the glue dispensing machine, the air in the glue dispensing chamber has been evacuated and replaced with a high-purity inert gas that will not react with the glue material or undergo ionization reaction.

At the same time, the dust removal equipment is also running continuously to keep the glue dispensing room highly clean and prevent dust from being attracted by ionization, which would affect the performance of the glue dispensing machine.

After being cleaned with pure water, the 8-inch silicon wafer is dried and then sent into the glue dispenser by a machine.

The template of the glue dispenser is also round, and has a perfect slot that can be aligned with the silicon wafer to ensure that the silicon wafer and the template are completely fixed and avoid slight movement during the glue dispensing process.

A researcher looked very nervous, his palms were sweating, and with trembling fingers he gently pressed the start switch.

drop!
After the glue dispenser is powered on, its glue dispensing template sucks the glue liquid from the upper storage tank, and uses electromagnetic acceleration to quickly pull the charged glue liquid from top to bottom.

In an instant, tiny nano-scale droplets of glue drip from the bottom of the template onto the surface of the silicon wafer. These droplets quickly form droplets, which merge together to form lines.

Then the glue dripping machine lost power, and only one drop of glue dripped out. The rest of the glue was held up by the pipe and could not drip down at all.

The glue dispenser leaves the silicon wafer, and then the light curing equipment emits specific ultraviolet rays to the surface of the silicon wafer to photo-cure the glue drop pattern.

Ye Jin said impatiently: "Quick, check if there is any problem with the pattern."

Old Liu shook his head and said, "Don't worry, Dr. Ye! Make a few more slices and send them for inspection when the time comes."

"All right!"

In less than half an hour, dozens of glue-dropping silicon wafers were produced continuously in the glue-dropping room.

The research team responsible for testing the epoxy patterns also sends batches of epoxy silicon wafers to the laboratory for testing.

Everyone fell silent involuntarily, waiting for the result.

Time passed minute by minute.

About two hours passed.

"Hoohoo..." A researcher came running over with a report.

Everyone immediately stared at him.

"Huhu... Good news. There are no defects in the glue pattern. We can start testing the etching, deposition and other processes."

Suddenly the air became quiet.

This was followed by a deafening whirring sound.

"Oh oh oh…"

"We made it!"

"Long live!"

"Hahaha, I said the success rate is high."

“Great, we did it!”

The cheers of excitement were almost deafening. Everyone was unable to calm down and expressed their excitement to their colleagues around them.

Clap, clap, clap… After more than ten minutes, the older Mr. Liu clapped his hands and said, “We have taken the first step towards success. Now is not the time to relax. Next, let’s work harder and strive to complete the innovation of the entire process.”

"Don't worry! Lao Liu, I'm full of strength now. I feel more energetic than after drinking a hundred cans of Red Bull." A researcher who is also in his forties said with a rosy face.

Old Liu quickly reminded them, "No, no, no, no, although the work is very important, I don't want you to get sick from overwork. After all, you don't want to lose the chance to go on stage to receive the award, right?"

"You know, a balance between work and rest! But working ten hours a day shouldn't be a problem. When I was at TSMC, I often worked all night long."

Ye Jin was also in high spirits at this time: "Old Liu is right, see you at the celebration party!"

"See you at the celebration party!"

After the excitement, everyone began to calm down.

Soon they used the laboratory equipment to repeat the processes of glue dripping, etching, deposition, grinding, cleaning, and ion implantation.

The first batch of laboratory-produced memory chips were produced half a month later.

The reason why it is so fast is mainly because the overall speed has been greatly improved after the epoxy process replaced the photolithography process.

The chips they produce in the laboratory are designed based on models from Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd., so they can only produce memory chips.

Not only the peripheral logic units of the memory, but also the internal storage units use the same process, namely the 10-nanometer process.

At this time, several CEOs of Yangtze Memory have already arrived in Minqin County. Chen Nanxian, chairman of Yangtze Memory, Yang Shining, vice chairman, Liu Xiukun, director, and others, looked at the memory chips in front of them with their eyes almost shining.

Even though Yang Shining has been working in the semiconductor industry for half his life, he couldn't help but exclaim: "100G storage density per square meter? It's so terrifying..."

Chen Nanxian was also shocked. "Yes! This is equivalent to a five-fold increase in unit storage density, a 5% decrease in energy consumption, a 36% increase in reading speed, and a 33% decrease in cost. This is truly an epoch-making product."

"Mr. Chen, I think we should enter the semiconductor foundry industry." Liu Xiukun suggested.

"Semiconductor foundry?" Chen Nanxian nodded. "Indeed, we cannot miss this opportunity. After the photolithography process is replaced by the glue dripping process, the production cost of the entire chip will drop by about 30% to 40%. This is equivalent to us directly mastering the 10-nanometer process. If we do not enter the semiconductor foundry industry at this time, it will be a shame for our previous investment and layout."

Yang Shining reminded: "Mr. Chen, what did Academician Jiang say?"

Hearing this, Chen Nanxian also knew that this matter could not avoid Jiang Miao and Hailufeng Company, so he picked up the phone and called.

beep...

"Hello, Mr. Chen, what's going on?"

"Academician Jiang, the project we collaborated on has achieved initial success. I would like to ask what plans Hailufeng Company has for the next step?"

Jiang Miao, who was on the other end of the phone, had naturally received the relevant news, but he had no intention of entering the semiconductor industry, so he replied:
"Mr. Chen wants to enter other semiconductor industries?"

"Exactly. I wonder if Academician Jiang is interested in investing?"

"Okay, Hailufeng Company will invest 200 billion! We will make a financial investment, and the proportion of shares will be calculated based on the investment ratio of each party."

"No problem." Chen Nanxian knew very well in his heart that if Hailufeng Company was willing, it would be no problem to come up with hundreds of billions of working capital. However, it seemed that Jiang Miao did not intend to hold a controlling stake in this semiconductor foundry company. It was really just a pure financial investment.

After all, for the semiconductor industry, 200 billion can barely build a small wafer factory.

Although the outside world did not receive the news of this technological breakthrough, the official must have known about it.

Therefore, the majority of investment will definitely come from the National Semiconductor Industry Fund and the State-owned Assets Investment Company. In addition, Yangtze Memory Technologies, as the operating and management party, will definitely get a portion of the shares.

He estimated that the 200 billion yuan from Hailufeng Company could only account for about 10% of the shares.

Of course, this does not mean that Hailufeng Company suffered a loss, because 51% of the shares of Minqin Precision Instrument Company belong to Hailufeng Company.

这个精密仪器公司剩下的49%股份中，长江半导体只拿到了7%的股份，凉州国资投资公司10%、中微半导体8%、其他几个出人出力的合作企业拿到了24%的股份。

In the future domestic semiconductor industry chain, the glue dripping process that will replace the photolithography process will be dominated by Minqin Precision Instrument Co., Ltd.

After chatting for a while, Chen Nanxian hung up the phone.

"Academician Jiang said that they can just be an equipment supplier, and then they plan to invest 200 billion in our semiconductor foundry company as a pure financial investment, and they do not plan to enter semiconductor production."

Yang Shining secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Hailufeng Company had no idea, otherwise it would be troublesome. After all, Hailufeng Company's position in China is too special.
Especially for a state-owned enterprise like Yangtze Memory Technologies, they certainly don't want to offend Jiang Miao, who is behind Hailufeng Company.

Liu Xiukun narrowed his eyes and said, "Mr. Chen, I don't think we should announce the technological breakthrough right away."

Chen Nanxian immediately understood his idea: "Do you want to gather some equipment before launching a fierce attack?"

"Well, the outside world doesn't know that we have succeeded yet. I don't think it's necessary to announce it right away. After all, if we announce it now, it will do no good at all. Instead, it will make Western forces react. They will definitely become desperate and increase the ban on the purchase of other equipment."

Yang Shining nodded: "I agree with Xiu Kun's opinion. Now that we have the match point, we should calm down instead of revealing our cards in advance."

After thinking for a moment, Chen Nanxian also felt that he should not act rashly: "Okay, I will communicate with Hailufeng Company later, they should cooperate with us."

"There is one more thing. I think we should contact HiSilicon now." Liu Xiukun hinted.

"HiSilicon?" Chen Nanxian nodded immediately: "Okay, contact them secretly, but don't tell them the key information. Ask them to send core management over, and then discuss cooperation between the two sides."

The reason for inviting HiSilicon Semiconductor is that Yangtze Memory does not have the design capabilities for other logic chips.

The emergence of the glue dripping process instantly raised Yangtze Memory's chip processing technology to the 10-nanometer level.

This level of chip manufacturing process is already at the international advanced level. As for the 7-nanometer and 5-nanometer processes, they are not really 7-nanometer and 5-nanometer, but equivalent 7-nanometer and equivalent 5-nanometer.

In other words, if Yangtze Memory continues its research, they can also achieve the so-called equivalent of 7 nanometers and equivalent of 5 nanometers through similar technical means.

The problem facing Yangtze Memory now is to find suitable customers.

If there are no suitable customers, no matter how large the chip production capacity is, you will still lose money.

At this stage, many domestic mobile phone and computer companies are unreliable. The reason is very simple. These companies need to consider the international market and America’s attitude.

After all, these companies use the software systems, chips and technologies of Western companies, so it is difficult for them to avoid the influence of Western capital.

The only company that does not need to consider this issue is the Pollen Company. After all, they are already on America's blacklist.

Other companies, on the other hand, do not have the determination to go all out.

Therefore, Yangtze Memory has chip production capacity and also needs a stable customer; while Huafen has advanced chip design capabilities and also needs a chip foundry company with advanced technology.

The ecological niches of the two can be highly complementary.

If there are no customers, Yangtze Memory can only bite the bullet and learn from Intel and do chip design and processing on its own.

As for the chips needed by state-owned enterprises, the vast majority of this market does not actually require the use of 10-nanometer process chips.

For example, for the chips needed for power grids and automobiles, many products with a range of 20 to 40 nanometers are basically sufficient.

10-nanometer chips are generally used in computers, mobile phones, and servers.

This is actually the difference between industrial-grade chips and consumer-grade chips.

Consumer-grade chips require high performance, power consumption, and high added value, so they can naturally afford 10-nanometer chips.

However, industrial-grade chips often do not require such good chips. For example, if you feel that the computing power of automotive chips is not enough, you can simply stack more chips. After all, the car has enough space and there is an on-board radiator.

After all, the cost of chips made with advanced processes is also very high.

However, Yangtze Memory can also consider adopting a low-price promotion method to replace those low-end chips with advanced process chips. After all, after switching to the glue dripping process, the production cost of the entire chip will drop by 30% to 40%. It can completely use the advantages of high performance and low cost to directly take over this low-end and mid-end market.

In any case, the country has to import a large number of low- and medium-end industrial chips every year.

However, it is indeed very difficult for Yangtze Memory to seize the market for mid- and low-end chips. The reason is that from the beginning to the end, Yangtze Memory has not been a professional logic chip design company and does not have strong logic chip design capabilities, which means that they have to start from scratch.

This is much more difficult than doing OEM.

Moreover, many professional chips cannot be designed by simply hiring a few hundred engineers, such as automotive chips. The reason why there are still chip companies in Europe is because they have good professional chip design capabilities.

For example, STMicroelectronics, Infineon, etc., are the leaders in professional chips.

If not necessary, Yangtze Memory still intends to replace TSMC's ecological niche rather than becoming a full-system semiconductor company like Intel.

At the same time, in terms of mid- and low-end chips, domestic companies such as SMIC already have good strength. There is no need for Yangtze Memory to focus on mid- and low-end chips, but instead to concentrate on advancing to advanced processes.

After all, from a technological perspective, in the process of developing chips equivalent to 7 nanometers and 5 nanometers, the glue dripping process is easier to implement than the photolithography process.

Because light diffracts, a large number of precision lenses are needed and the control accuracy requirements are very high.

The glue dripping process is different. The difficulty lies in how to make a defect-free glue dripping printing template. As long as the template is made, the subsequent process is very simple.

At the same time, the glue material of the glue dripping process is not as harsh as the photoresist, and even some special designs can be achieved through different glue materials.

Chen Nanxian and others also had to sigh that materials are the cornerstone of modern technology.

The three of them did not leave Minqin. Instead, one person was left here to coordinate the work, while the other two rushed back to the headquarters of Yangtze Memory Technologies.

While secretly deploying troops, it also laid out the semiconductor foundry industry.

On the other hand, it negotiated cooperation with many semiconductor processing equipment suppliers, requiring domestic equipment suppliers to speed up technological research and development, and also paying more money to foreign equipment suppliers to ship as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)