Siheyuan: The Era of Core Generation

Chapter 228 Fourth Generation Photolithography Machine
What should the fourth-generation lithography machine look like?Should have those parameters?These things are already installed in Zhao Ye's mind at this time.

First of all, the lithography machine, as the name suggests, must have light.

Just a laser, but the laser that can be used in industrial production is only a few wavebands.At present, Zhao Ye still uses the same high-pressure mercury lamp as he did 20 years ago.

It's just that this kind of lamp has been updated several times, and the laser wavelength provided has now reached 436nm.The wavelength of the light source directly affects the manufacturing process of the chip process.

Simply understand, this wavelength is like the width of a chisel. You want to use a chisel with a width of one centimeter to engrave a line with a width of half a centimeter.It's almost impossible.

Almost is used here, of course there are special cases.For example, Zhao Ye and the others have developed immersive technology.One millimeter of pure water is injected into the surface of the wafer, and the wavelength of the laser is changed by using the refraction of light by water.

This technology is still the top secret of the domestic lithography machine industry. All the people who come into contact with and know this technology, to put it bluntly, are living under the supervision of the secrecy department, but they don’t know or pretend not to know. .

The reason for saying this is that Zhao Ye wants to improve the manufacturing process, and the first step is to solve the problem of the light source.

The high-pressure mercury lamp can still improve for several waves. This technology has not yet reached its limit.

Zhao Ye would not spit out chewing gum that didn't taste clean.So the first task is to overcome the limit of high-pressure mercury lamps.The 436nm and 365nm wavelength lasers are at the level of industrial production.

With a lithography light source with a wavelength of 436nm, Zhao Ye can upgrade Lihua's current process technology to 800-1200nm.The manufacturing process of Lihua's high-end chips has entered the nanometer level in an all-round way.

His second wave is to advance the process to 350-500nm.Correspondingly, a shorter wavelength, that is, a 365nm light source is used.

And exactly 436nm and 365nm are the two spectral lines with the highest energy and the shortest wavelength in the high-pressure mercury lamp.In this way, not only can industrial production be carried out more efficiently, but also the performance of the chip can be greatly improved.

Zhao Ye plans to use these two waves of high-end chips to directly impact the current chip market.As long as the timing of the two waves is well grasped, Zhao Ye is confident that at least half of the lithography machine manufacturers in the market will fall.

The task of perfecting and developing a mature high-pressure mercury lamp has fallen to Professor Quan, who has been focusing on laser lamps in recent years.Zhao Ye did not "stingy" this time, and gave everyone the solutions that should be given.Now there is no need to keep it. His latest plan is to abandon the route of mercury lamps and develop a new light source system.

The new light source system group fell on Xin Ran's head without any accident.This little girl, who is only 24 years old this year, is currently preparing to get married.For this reason, Zhao Ye personally approached Professor Ci and asked him to do his grandson's work.In the next one to two years, he is not going to give Xinran the chance to get out of the laboratory.

"Happily, and everyone, next, your new project is to develop an excimer laser, and use this excimer laser to obtain high-power deep ultraviolet light that can be used for lithography. At present, your task is to Make this kind of laser. After making it, we will select the wavelength that we can use." After speaking, Zhao Ye began to distribute materials to his students.

Looking at the information on the document, even Xin Ran felt her scalp tingling.This kind of technical requirement is too high. At present, it seems to be the same as alien technology.

Xin Ran was only shocked for a moment, then quickly calmed down and listened carefully to Zhao Ye's explanation of technical difficulties and detailed ideas.

During Zhao Ye's explanation, Xin Ran waited for the researcher, and was shocked to find that Zhao Ye, the mentor, had set the process precision below 350nm.This means that the wavelength of the light source they want to develop cannot exceed 300nm.The fact is just like this, the goal given by Zhao Ye is the requirement of two wave bands, 248nm and 193nm.

This requirement has reached the technical level of his previous life at the end of the 90s and the beginning of the new century.It is conceivable that in the early 80s, when the theoretical basis in all aspects was not complete, what kind of difficulties this project team would face.

But this didn't discourage the researchers, because they didn't know exactly what it meant.All they know is that their mentor has returned to the front line, and they can happily climb the technical peak again.

This group of people had more confidence in Zhao Ye than Zhao Ye had in System's father.

The light source is only the first step, and of course the most important one.Without this foundation, you don't even think about other things.

After assigning tasks to the light source group, Zhao Ye's next goal was the lens group.

At this time, the lens used by Zhao Ye and the others was a product of an optical instrument research institute in Sichuan Province.On the lithography machine they use, there are dozens of these lens groups, large and small, and the total weight is definitely more than a thousand catties.

Even so, Zhao Ye still made higher demands.The lens itself also consumes energy. If it can improve the light transmittance of the lens, ensure the smoothness of the lens grinding, and reduce the loss of specific wavelength lasers, it will be the biggest difficulty facing researchers and technicians.

For the lens group, not only researchers with good knowledge are needed, but also technical workers with good skills.

For example, grinding lenses is basically manual at present.According to Zhao Ye's current requirements, for a lens with a diameter of [-] centimeters, the error range of flatness is no higher than [-] microns.

For this requirement, any machine is basically useless, and can only rely on the hands of the workers to feel and polish it little by little.In this field, basically no machine can replace human hands.Moreover, this is the case now, and it will still be the case in 40 years.

In terms of refinement, machines have been unable to surpass humans.

For this reason, Zhao Ye specifically applied to his superiors to merge this research institute into the Lihua Group.The personnel of this research institute will not be transferred to the capital, that will only destroy the research institute.

What he has to do is to ensure the funding of this institute in the days to come, and take care of the lives of these artisans living deep in the mountains.

What they need is quietness, plainness, and prosperity can only make their hearts become impetuous, which in turn affects their hands.

Cruel as it may be, there are sacrifices in any profession.What Zhao Ye can do is to make this sacrifice more worthwhile.

As for the photoresist, Zhao Ye just told them the research goals of the light source group and asked them to develop the corresponding photoresist respectively.For this, Zhao Ye is actually the most sure.Arranging a special project team is also to train the team.He can't always come by himself!

After everything was arranged properly, Zhao Ye had only one other difficulty, which was automatic control.

The current lithography machine has basically broken away from the scope of manual operation.both in terms of efficiency and precision.Manual operations can no longer adapt to new requirements.

This part, for Zhao Ye, was the most difficult part.

At the moment, Jing Yiji, who once rejected him, is useless.For ten years, they have barely made any progress.The things produced are still old-fashioned, and no technological progress can be seen.

Shen Ji is better, but just better.Because there are many military tasks, some technological progress is still maintained to some extent.But in terms of automation control, it has not been upgraded for many years.Now they just want to pick up this piece, and it is a bit laborious to have a few pages, because not only the emergence of technology, but also the generation of talents.

At present, if Zhao Ye wants to engage in technology research and development in this area, he has only two options.One is Zhennan's Automation Research Institute, and the other is Xierji, which was established a few years ago.

At present, automation wins in technology research and development capabilities, while Xierji wins in technicians and front-line experience.Zhao Ye is an adult, so his choice is to have both.

The friendship between these two units and Zhao Ye is not shallow, so as soon as Zhao Ye's request for help was sent out, both of them dispatched their top forces to support.

In fact, Zhao Ye already had a good idea of ​​what this lithography machine should look like as a whole. He even sorted out the technical difficulties and solutions by relying on the system.

In his virtual laboratory, these are not difficult things, the real difficulty is how to turn these things into real things.Become a real production equipment.

In a brand new test workshop, the teams sent by the two companies are concentrated here.The first thing they have to do is to build a reliable platform for their design.

In the past, or in Zhao Ye's previous life, design and production could be placed in almost different places.

For example, for a piece of equipment, the designer can sit in the office building, conceive and calculate as much as he likes on a computer or drawings.Then realize the capabilities in the design requirements little by little, and solve various difficulties in practical applications.

But in Zhao Ye's place, this doesn't work.

The reason is simple, you can draw the drawings like this, but the factory may not be able to produce them.What Zhao Ye and the others are doing now has almost surpassed the current world mainstream production and processing capabilities.In China, there is not even a decent precision machine tool, and no matter how good your design is, it may not be possible to realize it.

So what to do?First in theory, complete a basic design idea, and prove that this method can meet the functional requirements.Then, according to this design idea, determine the required equipment.What can be bought is bought, and what cannot be bought is made.This is not over yet. Before these things, we need to build an experimental platform to prove whether the theory of each sub-project can be formed and whether it is correct.

This is still only the machining aspect, and a series of problems such as measurement, control system, various sensors, etc., have to be gnawed by them alone.

(End of this chapter)