I was born again with 100 million

Chapter 344 Carrying weight!
Lan Yumo continued to collect wool, and the Nasdaq ATMs continued to provide funds for future investment.

While Zhang Jing stayed in Yanjing for the past two days, he also received a message that Lin Benjian was willing to be a project consultant for the new company.

Lin Xiao was undoubtedly overjoyed when he heard the news.

In the chip manufacturing industry of later generations, Lin Benjian is definitely a well-known figure.

In the last 20 years of the last century, the island nation has always been the absolute overlord of the semiconductor industry. They have mastered many key technologies and products in the semiconductor industry, one of which is very important is the lithography machine.

The lithography machines of Nikon and Canon occupy a large market share, and even the United States, a major lithography machine country, has been pulled down by them.

Nikon, in particular, is a well-deserved industry giant.

Because the essence of a lithography machine is similar to that of a projector + camera, it uses light as a knife to project a designed circuit diagram onto a silicon wafer.

In the era when the chip manufacturing process was still in the micron range, there were dozens of companies that could manufacture lithography machines. With the accumulation of the camera era, Nikon grew into a giant in the lithography machine industry in the era when the semiconductor industry in the island country was fully rising. .

It is no exaggeration to say that at that time, major semiconductor manufacturers such as Intel, IBM, AMD, and Texas Instruments queued up at the entrance of Nikon every day to wait for the enthusiasm of the latest products to go offline, and everyone in the future waited eagerly for the delivery of ASML EUV lithography machines. The degree of urgency is almost the same.

And later, the reason why the giant of the industry became ASML was the technical dispute between the 21nm light source dry etching method and the 157nm light source wet etching method in the early 193st century.

In the 90s, the wavelength of the light source of the lithography machine was limited to 193nm, which became a difficulty facing the whole industry.

The light source of a lithography machine is equivalent to a carving knife. To carve more finely, the tip of the knife must be sharp, and when the technology of the tip of the knife gets stuck, it also means that the chip manufacturing technology is facing a bottleneck.

Companies represented by Nikon advocate the use of 157nm F2 lasers and continue to study light source technology.

Some companies in the United States are betting on more radical extreme ultraviolet technology, that is, the famous EUV lithography in later generations, trying to directly use tens of nanometers of extreme ultraviolet light as a light source.

But both have many obstacles to overcome and the process is very slow.

In the previous life in 2002, the genius Lin Benjian was born. He proposed the "immersive lithography" solution for the first time at an exchange meeting.

His theory sounds very simple, that is to use the high school knowledge that water will affect the refractive index of light, add a layer of water between the lens and the silicon wafer, so that the original 193nm laser will directly pass through the 157nm after refraction Bottleneck, down to 132nm?
Later, Lin Benjian took his immersive lithography plan to the United States, Japan, Germany and other places to lobby various semiconductor giants, but all of them were rejected.

In the eyes of these giants, this is just an ideal situation. Adding water to a precision machine to build an infiltration environment requires consideration of both actual performance and pollution. If you spend energy on this "alternative solution", the research on the light source will be delayed. It is possible to be overtaken by the opponent.

Because Lin Benjian's idea is too simple or too idealistic, and it is tantamount to denying the technical route that other giants are taking, it has been collectively rejected by major semiconductor giants, and once put pressure on TSMC to stop Lin Benjian from running around to disrupt the situation.

At that time, ASML, a Dutch manufacturer with a small market share in the field of lithography machines, decided to take a gamble after knowing this, because at this time they could not compete with giants such as Nikon in the market, and they bet on the possibility of immersive technology. From small to big.

So Lin Benjian and ASML hit it off right away, and it only took more than a year for the two parties to cooperate, that is, in 2004, ASML made the first prototype.

Lin Benjian then persuaded TSMC to use this solution and completed product production, allowing TSMC to catch up with the giant Intel, which was far ahead in the chip process technology.

The successful mass production of TSMC has proved the process possibility of immersion technology, and immersion technology is a small improvement with great effect, and the product maturity is very high. Then Intel, IBM and other companies decided to follow up and buy ASML's lithography machine.

Although Nikon also announced the completion of its 157nm product prototype, but because the entire technology is not very mature, the yield rate cannot be guaranteed, and no one is willing to buy its products.

Later, it was found that the market trend was wrong, and Nikon was forced to waste the previous research and development results and began to make immersion lithography machines.

But at this time, Nikon has already lagged behind the market. As the saying goes, one step behind and one step behind, Nikon has been left behind by ASML.

ASML and TSMC also took this opportunity to develop rapidly, and finally both became industry giants.

Later, ASML continued to grow and entered the field of EUV optical technology.

Lin Benjian has become famous in the semiconductor industry because of the application of immersion technology, and has also received high praise and honors.

But at this time, Lin Benjian has not reached this point. He is only famous for his bold and novel ideas at this time, and his status in TSMC is not that high.

So at this stage, it is still possible to persuade Lin Benjian, who is very important in the semiconductor industry in the future, to quit TSMC.

On the plane to Mingzhu, Lin Xiaochao asked Zhang Jing, "Zhang Bo, Dr. Lin is Mingzhu after two days?"

"Yes, I originally invited him to come here today, but he can't leave for the time being, so it can only be two days." Zhang Jing replied.

Lin Xiao nodded, "In two days, we should have almost finished talking with Mingzhu. When he comes over, the situation of the whole project will be clearer."

"It seems that Mr. Lin is more concerned about Dr. Lin." Zhang Jing said with a smile.

Lin Xiao didn't tell the other party his original intention, but he also found a good reason.

"We are now a chip manufacturing plant, and we are lagging behind those big chip factories at the beginning, so we should find more people who are brave enough to catch up. Zhang Bo is such a person, and Dr. Lin is also such a person."

After hearing this, Zhang Jing smiled and said, "Working with a young man like Mr. Lin, I feel full of vigor and energy."

The two talked all the way, and when they came to Mingzhu, a short while after the plane landed, Lin Xiao received a call from Xu Zhiming.

On the phone, Xu Zhiming told Lin Xiao that a VIP passage had been arranged, and asked Lin Xiao to come out from the entrance of the VIP passage, and he was waiting there.

Lin Xiao came to the VIP passage with Zhang Jing, and sure enough, he saw Xu Zhiming waiting there.

"Zhang Bo, this is Director Xu, Mayor Li Honghai's secretary."

Lin Xiao first introduced Xu Zhiming to Zhang Jing, and then said to Xu Zhiming:
"Xu Chu, this is Dr. Zhang Jing, my new project partner."

Xu Zhiming stretched out his hand to Zhang Jing and said, "Zhang Bo, hello, welcome to Mingzhu!"

"Director Xu, hello, I'm sorry!" Hearing Lin Xiao introduce Xu Zhiming as the secretary of Mingzhu Mayor Li Honghai, Zhang Jing was surprised while holding hands with Xu Zhiming.

It seemed that Lin Xiao did have weight in Li Honghai's heart, and arranged for his secretary to pick him up, which ordinary people could not enjoy.

After realizing this, Zhang Jing became more optimistic about the prospect of the project in Mingzhu. At least the policies proposed by Lin Xiao should be able to get relatively strong support.

(End of this chapter)