I really just want to be a scholar

Not many people know the encrypted email address of "Mr. Q", and there are only a few people who will contact him through this email address in the near future. Except for his senior brother Xu Qingyan, Luo Jian, the chief engineer of the EDA team, sends out the latest optimization progress of EDA and some difficult problems encountered every three months. Qin Ke will give pointers when he sees it.

In addition, there is Cai Mingzhi, the deputy chief engineer of the "Chip Materials" team.

The sender of today's email is Cai Mingzhi.

Because Xu Qingyan is in charge of all aspects, it is difficult to have the time and energy to follow up the technical work of a certain research group. However, He Yisheng, the chief engineer of the "Chip Materials" team, is currently still in hospital, and the daily technical work of "Chip Materials" falls to Cai Mingzhi, the deputy chief engineer.

Cai Mingzhi is a typical deputy character, a bit indecisive in doing things, but strong execution ability.

At the beginning, "Mr. Q" overturned the technical direction of carbon nanotube field-effect transistors that the team had spent countless efforts and painstaking research on. Although he was very entangled in his heart, he still firmly led the team to implement the new direction of research and development of new chip materials proposed by "Mr. Q" in his work.

Qin Ke quite recognized this Cai Gong.

This time Mr. Cai sent not only a routine work report, but also raised a problem that had nothing to do with technology. He wanted to ask Mr. Q if he could solve it.

Cai Gong wrote in the email: "You also know that the synthesis research of nanomaterials is inseparable from high-end experimental equipment, but at present our team's material measurement and control equipment, angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy, electron energy loss spectroscopy, molecular beam epitaxy growth, and scanning tunneling microscopy cannot meet the requirements of your experimental plan. As far as we know, there are only laboratories in China that meet our experimental conditions for such high-end material research. The only domestic laboratories are the 'Ultra-cold Atom Quantum Laboratory' in Nanjing University and the 'Lime Quantum Computing Laboratory' in Beijing. Director Xu and I have repeatedly asked this The requests from the two laboratories to rent equipment were declined politely. Mr. Q, can you think of a way?"

Qin Ke couldn't laugh or cry. If he didn't know that Cai Gong didn't know the real identity of "Mr. Q", he would have wondered if this guy deliberately sent emails to "blackmail" himself.

Qin Ke is not familiar with the "Ultra-Cold Atom Quantum Laboratory" at Nantah University, but he and Ning Qingyun opened the "Lime Quantum Computing Laboratory".

As for the "Lime Quantum Computing Laboratory" rejecting Cai Mingzhi's request to rent equipment, it is perfectly normal. The "30mK Ultra-low Temperature and Strong Magnetic Field Scanning Tunneling Microscope System" is a precious equipment brought back from Deguo with great difficulty by Qin Ke.

Moreover, the "Lime Quantum Computing Laboratory" has very strict confidentiality regulations, and it is impossible to allow equipment to be borrowed, or allow outsiders to enter the laboratory to borrow equipment for experiments.

The "Ultracold Atom Quantum Laboratory" of Nantah University is estimated to be similar.

Qin Ke rubbed his forehead, Cai Gong's "chip material" team and his own "quantum topological superconducting material" team had some conflicts at this time, and it was really not easy to resolve.

This isn't the first device-related conundrum that the Materials for a Chip team has encountered.

Although the systematic S-level knowledge "A New Type of Carbon Crystal Composite Nanomaterial Production Process Suitable for 1nm Chips" records a very detailed material synthesis and production process, having "drawings" does not mean that it can be easily produced. Especially this kind of "carbon crystal composite nanomaterial" that surpasses the current era requires very high precision requirements for experimental equipment.

Don't look at the "Qingbei Integrated Circuit and Chip Joint R&D Innovation Center" as a relatively advanced national key chip research laboratory in China. In fact, most of its experimental equipment was moved from Qingmu University and Beiyan University, and a small part was purchased from domestic chip fabs.

Originally, domestic chip R&D equipment is far behind that of foreign countries. How can these old models and obsolete products meet the research and development needs of "carbon crystal composite nanomaterials"?
Therefore, Qin Ke's biggest headache is not how to "reasonably" research "carbon crystal composite nanomaterials", but how to use the current experimental equipment to find ways to slowly produce "carbon crystal composite nanomaterials" through experiments.

In the process of chip material research in the past two or three months, similar problems of experimental equipment not up to standard have been encountered several times.

It is impossible to purchase from abroad. Even if you want to bite the bullet and pay several times the price to buy a second-hand equipment, it is an impossible task. Even if a foreign company or laboratory is willing to sell it, it will not be shipped back. Especially for such high-end experimental equipment, professional companies are required to be responsible for the transportation, otherwise a collision may become scrap iron—so it is impossible to purchase it by unconventional methods.

Qin Ke had called Uncle Yang Chengke several times, and asked a bigwig like Uncle Yang to come forward to borrow some experimental equipment from some major chip manufacturers and other national key research institutes under the pretext of "urgently following the power".

Fortunately, this time, it was his own "Lime Quantum Computing Laboratory".

The problem is that the "Lime Quantum Computing Laboratory" is also in full swing in the research and development of "Lime Superconducting No. 30 Material". If the "[-]mK ultra-low temperature and strong magnetic field scanning tunneling microscope system" is lent, this project will have to be suspended for two or three years... the price is too high.

One is a new chip material that can enable Xia Guo to easily suppress the international mainstream 14nm silicon-based chips or even future 5nm and 2nm silicon-based chips with 1nm chips.

After reading the list of high-end equipment requirements sent by Cai Mingzhi, Qin Ke frowned. In addition to high-precision optical observation instruments such as scanning electron microscopes, there was also a lack of more than a dozen equipment such as non-destructive testing instruments for nanomaterials. Cai Gong said that some of the equipment had not even been heard of by any domestic laboratory.

After pacing back and forth in the study for a while, Qin Ke slapped his forehead, why did he have a headache, he asked Uncle Yang if he needed anything.

How can Cai Mingzhi's source of news be as good as Uncle Yang?
Qin Ke took out a special mobile phone that Wei Feng gave him—it is said that it is a satellite phone, and it uses a special encrypted line, so it cannot be monitored—and then called Uncle Yang to inform him about it.

Uncle Yang nodded happily and said, "Don't worry, I'll figure it out. I probably know where to find these devices." He pondered for a while, and then said, "Qin Ke, how long do you think it will take to develop 'carbon crystal composite nanomaterials'? Are you sure within three years?"

"The key depends on the experimental equipment. If there is enough experimental equipment, it will be fast. If there is no other way, the progress will be much slower." Qin Ke knew the elegant meaning and asked curiously: "Uncle Yang, has someone slandered you in front of you?"

"Opening your mouth is 'slander', you boy." Uncle Yang laughed and cursed, and said: "Research on 'carbon crystal composite nanomaterials' is only known to your brother Xu's 'chip materials' team, and outsiders don't know about it. Who would engage in slander? The situation is like this. A chip material research laboratory at Nantah University recently submitted a funding application with the latest research progress on carbon-based chip materials. To be honest, the report submitted by them is obviously very attractive. No one on our side knows except me." Carbon crystal composite nanomaterials', so they all tend to support this 'carbon-based chip material' in terms of scientific research funding next year."

As soon as Qin Ke heard it, he understood that the cake was so big, and everyone wanted to get more research funds. Naturally, the competition in this area was fierce. After all, if one family got more money, the other would naturally get less money.

Brother Xu Qingyan's "Qingbei Integrated Circuit and Chip Joint R&D Innovation Center" is by no means the only national-level chip R&D center in China. Nantah University is very famous in this area, and the results achieved are not far behind Qingmu and Yan.

Now, in order to keep the secret of "Mr. Q", especially to avoid unnecessary trouble and attention from leaking the design idea of ​​"carbon crystal composite nanomaterials", the "chip material" team is still working on the "carbon nanotube field effect transistor technology direction".

On such a major financial matter, Uncle Yang couldn't say anything.

"Uncle Yang, I'm a little curious about what kind of blueprint is drawn in the report of NTU on 'carbon-based chip materials'?"

It would be inappropriate for Qin Ke to ask such questions from the standpoint of "Qingbei Integrated Circuit and Chip Joint R&D and Innovation Center". However, his status is aloof. Now, as "Mr. Q", he is only purely guiding the "Chip Materials" team, neither internally nor externally, and he has no economic interests.

Naturally, Yang Chengke would not hide anything from Qin Ke who he trusted the most. He immediately picked up the report on his desk and said:

"They are researching 'graphene-carbon nanotube special-shaped structure technology'. Simply put, graphene is used as the main raw material to form carbon nanotubes, which are distributed and arranged to form a unique T-shaped special-shaped crystal integrated circuit technology. According to them, the conductivity is increased by 53% compared with traditional silicon-based chips, and energy consumption is reduced by 30%. It also has the biggest advantage that it does not require high process technology for lithography machines. Carbon-based chips prepared with 90nm technology have performance equivalent to 28nm silicon-based chips; The base chip is equivalent to a 28nm silicon-based chip."

Qin Ke nodded slightly. Judging from the literal report, the carbon-based chip produced by the 28nm lithography machine can achieve the effect of the silicon-based chip produced by the world's mainstream advanced lithography machine. Even if it is placed internationally, it is quite advanced.

Especially at present, although Xia Guo has conquered the FinFET technology of the 14nm process and guaranteed high-quality product output, in terms of lithography machines, Xia Guo has a large number of 28nm process lithography machines, and 14nm process lithography machines are still in short supply. At present, the main direction of domestic chip manufacturers is still the 28nm process.

It can be said that the report and prospect of Nantah University are very suitable for the current situation of Xiaguo and are very attractive.

In fact, using carbon nanotubes as a breakthrough, the research and development of carbon-based chips is also a relatively popular direction in the world.Because the carrier mobility of carbon-based chips is higher, it is more suitable for high-speed computing, and has the advantages of better thermal conductivity and lighter weight.Another advantage of carbon-based chips is that they can be prepared by chemical methods, and the production cost is lower than that of silicon-based chips.

There are [-] related research teams in the world, and the "Technical Direction of Carbon Nanotube Field Effect Transistor" that the "Chip Materials Team" has been studying for a long time belongs to one of the branches.It's just that the two or three top chip manufacturers abroad have made significant progress so far.

Of course, in Qin Ke's eyes, carbon-based chips are not the best choice in the non-quantum era, and chips made of "carbon crystal composite nanomaterials" are the best solution.The same 28nm "carbon crystal composite nanomaterial" chip can easily hang a 2nm silicon-based chip, comparable to the rumored 1nm silicon-based chip.Carbon-based chips have no cost-effectiveness in front of "carbon crystal composite nanomaterial" chips.

However, Qin Ke was still curious about the level of chip material technology in China, so he asked, "Then how long did they say it will take to develop a 28nm carbon-based chip?"

Uncle Yang frowned: "The report is beautifully written. According to them, they have basically mastered the key technical principles of the research. It is possible to develop a carbon-based chip prepared by a 90nm process in the laboratory within three years, and break through the carbon-based chip technology prepared by a 28nm process within five years. They are relatively high-profile in the media, and they have technical exchanges and cooperation with foreign countries. Anyway, I think it is a bit unreliable. Their actual scientific research results are only a few papers published in domestic core journals, and some seemingly weird carbon nanotube materials. But many people were moved by the blueprint they drew, and next year's funding is likely to be more inclined to them."

"Qingbei Integrated Circuit and Chip Joint R&D Innovation Center" is not like Qin Ke's quantum computing laboratory, which is backed by the financially rich Lime Technology, so it doesn't have to worry about research funding.If the scientific research funding is greatly reduced, the "Qingbei Integrated Circuit and Chip Joint R&D and Innovation Center" will be stretched immediately. "Gold-swallowing beasts" like the "Chip Materials" team will not only borrow high-end precision experimental equipment and carry out frequent experiments. Whether they can maintain ordinary experimental research will become a problem.

Qin Ke thought for a while and asked, "Uncle Yang, can I come to your office and have a look at these reports and the carbon nanotube material?"

"what do you mean?"

"Your judgment just made me a little curious." Qin Ke's eyes flickered, and he said in a concentrated voice: "I also want to take a serious look at the level of the so-called top chip materials in China. If these reports and research results are true, I think we can focus on supporting domestic chip research. My Lime Technology can provide half of the research funds for the 'chip materials' team on Senior Brother Xu's side. But if there are problems with these reports and research results, there is no need to waste precious research funds, don't you think?"