Super Copy of Great Power Technology

In order to reduce the difficulty of production, Qiao Ruida took out a relatively simple third-generation memory chip mask using the 7nm process and installed it into an EUV lithography machine for production testing. This kind of memory chip does not require overlay engraving or secondary exposure during processing. The structure is also very simple, making it the best test sample. The first batch of 100 12-inch silicon wafers were put on the conveyor belt, cleaned, dried, vapor-deposited base film, spin-coated photoresist, aligned and exposed, baked, developed... Step after step, the time is unknown. It passed before I knew it.

Materials are put in on the first day, and the processed wafers come off the production line at noon on the second day. Then Qiao Ruida and others personally put the 100 wafers with beautiful colorful patterns into special sealed boxes, and then took them to the chip testing workshop next door for comprehensive inspection.

Half an hour later, Qiao Ruida asked the tester with a concerned look: "How is it? Is the chip pass rate high?"

This little girl, a chip tester who had just graduated from college, was surrounded by dozens of company executives in white coats, and she felt quite at a loss. Fortunately, the chip detection process is fully automated, and there are not many steps that require her participation. The little girl checked the statistics on the computer screen and reported to Qiao Ruidahui: "So far, a total of 32 wafers and 6400 chips have been tested, and all of them have failed."

After hearing the test results, everyone shook their heads and sighed, including Qiao Ruida, Academician Wang, Zhou Wanda and others. From installing the equipment, debugging the equipment, to the current trial production, everyone has been busy on this chip production line for more than half a month. So much money and so much energy were invested, but in the end, the result was a complete annihilation. , it’s really hard to accept.

"No, such advanced equipment is only used to produce the simplest memory chips. How could it fail? Is it possible that the mask version itself is defective?"

"Who said memory chips are simple? I have seen the drawings provided by Mr. Qiao. The memory chip being tested and produced now is a third-generation DDR memory with independent intellectual property rights. This is the first of its kind in China."

"The technology of this memory chip is very advanced, I admit it, but its structure is indeed very simple. It is not much simpler than those mobile phone SOC, computer CPU, GPU and so on. Our production line is also set up very reasonably, and the raw materials There is no problem with the production process. It makes no sense that after production and testing, there is not even a single qualified chip!"

"Perhaps the workers are not familiar with the new production line and made mistakes during the operation. After all, they used to operate the 28nm production line using DUV lithography machines. There is still some gap between this 7nm chip production line using EUV lithography machines. big."

"That makes sense. Improper operation may indeed affect the final chip yield. The entire chip production process has hundreds of steps. If there is a problem at any node, it will affect the final yield."

"In my opinion, it is not surprising that the chip pass rate is zero. After all, this is a brand new chip production line, new equipment, new processes, plus a group of operators who have just completed training. So many unfavorable factors are added together. , isn’t it normal for all the chips produced to be wiped out?”

"That's right. It doesn't matter if the production test fails this time. As long as we can find out where the problem is and correct it in subsequent tests."

While everyone was talking about it, the little chip tester girl exclaimed, attracting everyone's attention, "Ah, a qualified chip was finally detected!"

"Really? Let me take a look. Wafer No. 47, chip No. 145, passed the test! This is great. We finally have a qualified chip." "This at least proves that the cover provided by Mr. Qiao There is no problem with the membrane and we can produce qualified memory chips."

"Hurry up and cut out the qualified chip and conduct packaging testing. I have not seen DDR7 memory produced using the 3nm process. I believe it will have excellent performance in terms of power consumption, heat generation and overclocking performance."

With this good start, dozens of qualified chips were successively detected on subsequent wafers. A group of engineers cut out these qualified chips, packaged them, and processed them into several 8G-sized DDR3 memory sticks. Qiao Ruida installed these memory sticks on several computers of different brands and configurations and conducted detailed tests. The test results show that these memory products produced by Rockchip have good compatibility, very low heat generation, and excellent overclocking performance. Even at the ultra-high frequency of 2133MHZ, they are very stable.

Qiao Ruida printed out the memory test report and gave one copy to each of Academician Wang, Professor Zhou and others. "This is the test report. Everyone, let's take a look."

"Judging from this report, the performance of our memory product is very good. If it is mass-produced and introduced to the market, it will definitely become the favorite of overclocking players."

"Independent intellectual property rights, independent production, domestic DDR3 memory, can we fill the gap in the country?"

"Of course, but using such an advanced EUV lithography machine to produce memory chips is still a bit overkill. With the current pitifully low pass rate, I am afraid that we will not even be able to make back the production cost, and we will lose as much as we produce. "

"We have just tested production, and it is normal for the chip yield rate to be low. As the equipment is adjusted more and more, the process becomes more mature, and the workers become more proficient, the yield rate will always improve."

"In fact, this memory chip is very well designed. Even if it is produced on those 28NM production lines, the performance of the final finished chip will not be too bad."

"Our Rockchip wafer factory has installed more than a dozen chip production lines at one time, and the production capacity is very huge. I was still worried about where to find a job before, but now that Mr. Qiao has come up with this memory chip, I am completely worried about it. I'm worried. The demand for memory chips on the market is really too great now. They are used in computers, mobile phones, set-top boxes, and cars. Even if all the production capacity of our Rockchip wafer factory is used If you come here to produce memory chips, you won’t have to worry about selling them.”

"That's not the case. Don't forget that Reda Technology Company also provided us with a production order for mobile phone SOC chips. That's a full five million pieces, which is enough for us to produce for a long time."

"This production line using EUV lithography machines is really advanced. The processing accuracy starts at 7nm. Many EDA software cannot achieve this accuracy. I am afraid that this production line will not be able to receive many external customers for a long time in the future. Order." (End of Chapter)