Super Copy of Great Power Technology

Chapter 74 Making a mask

"Teacher, this is the USB flash drive that Qiao Ruida brought. The chip design is saved in it. I just took a look at it. The chip structure is very complete, the design ideas are very mature, and there are several newly developed IP cores, which are very novel and also Very thoughtful." At this time, Zhou Wanda took out the USB flash drive Qiao Ruida brought and handed it to Academician Wang.

"Oh, you also have the ability to independently design IP cores. Not bad, I'm more optimistic about you." Hearing this, Academician Wang's eyes brightened. He took the USB flash drive, plugged it into the computer, and couldn't wait to check it out.

Academician Wang is busy with work and tight on time. It is impossible for him to carefully review each module like Zhou Wanda did.He just took a look at the chip architecture and focused on the four newly designed IP cores.Then he opened a chip simulation software developed within the laboratory, imported Qiao Ruida's chip design drawings, and conducted a simulation test.Ten minutes later, the test ended. Academician Wang reviewed the test report and gave comments.

"This chip is well designed, with relatively complete functions and very low power consumption. It is very suitable for use in small MP3 players. However, it is not without its flaws. During the simulation test, a hardware timing conflict occurred. If you use this design diagram If you go to tape-out, the produced chip may be fine for daily use, but it will crash or restart under certain specific operations.”

This is the powerful role of large-scale chip simulation software. It can fully simulate the chip operation process before tape-out, discover defects in the design drawings as much as possible, and improve the probability of tape-out success.Among the series of chip design-related software that Qiao Ruida originally purchased, there were also two simulation testing software.It's just that those two softwares are just general versions for the public, with limited functions, and they did not find this hidden and deep timing conflict.This large-scale chip simulation software based on supercomputer design used by Academician Wang is not at the same level at all.

Next, Academician Wang relied on his rich experience in integrated circuit design to quickly find the cause of the timing conflict. After discussing with Qiao Ruida, some hardware codes were changed.Then Academician Wang called two laboratory administrators and signed a chip tape-out test contract with Qiao Ruida. Then he arranged for staff to start making masks based on the chip design drawings.Qiao Ruida also contacted the financial department of Ruida Technology as soon as possible and paid the tape-out fee in full.With the revenue level of Ruida Technology, RMB 600 million would not even be used for half a day's turnover.

Thanks to her dual status as a student and client of the institute, Qiao Ruida was allowed to enter the laboratory and watched the entire mask production process.This was Qiao Ruida's first exposure to photolithography machines, etching machines, and other integrated circuit processing equipment.Although the processing accuracy of the photolithography machine used for photomask production is much lower than that of the ARF photolithography machine used for chip production, it also opened his eyes.

This opportunity was very rare, so during the visit, Qiao Ruida opened her golden finger and took pictures of all the equipment in the laboratory.If one day, Reda Technology enters the field of chip design or chip production and establishes its own laboratory, it can completely copy this set of equipment and use it to make masks.

Using a 90nm photolithography machine to produce 45nm process chips requires the use of multiple exposure techniques and at least two masks.Therefore, the entire mask production process was extremely long, lasting a full seven hours before it was completed.Qiao Ruida followed until the end and saw the finished mask, then left the laboratory and drove back to the Yanyuan campus.

On the way, Qiao Ruida chose a small restaurant and had a belated dinner.When I returned to dormitory 309, it was already past ten o'clock in the evening, and I was about to turn off the lights and go to bed.At this time, the other three friends in the dormitory were forming a group to download the dungeon. They were shouting and making noise, which was particularly lively.

"The BOSS has called his name. The Fourth Brother quickly ran out of the crowd to detoxify."

"Okay, I'm out now. BOOS has 25 health left. Is this the third stage?"

"It's still a little short. The guide says there are group attack skills in the third stage, but I haven't seen it yet."

"It's over, let's get down, Qixiu, quickly use the heart drum string to pull Tiance up."

"I remember that Qixiu's Heart Drum String was used just now, and what was resurrected was a treatment."

"Then there's nothing we can do. The strategy has failed. Everyone should quickly withdraw and get out of the battle."

"Hey, where did that scent come from? It's so late at night, who's poisoning me?" "Boss, you're back, what did you bring? It smells so good?"

The three of them were so immersed in playing games just now that they didn't hear the sound of Qiao Ruida entering the door. It wasn't until they failed to conquer the BOSS that they realized there was an extra person in the dormitory.Qiao Ruida handed the bag in her hand to Cai Zhiye and said, "When I come back, I'll go have dinner and bring you some kebabs. Eat them while they're hot. You're welcome."

"You're welcome, you're welcome. I'm sure you're welcome to eat the food that the boss brings. Let me see if it's mutton skewers or pork skewers."

"Boss, it's just timely. We've been busy playing games. We haven't had dinner yet, so we're hungry right now."

"They are all mutton skewers, and there are two skewers of lamb kidneys. These are good things. Don't grab them from me, you guys."

"I said, little fat man, you don't even have a girlfriend, how can you eat mutton kidneys?"

Seeing the delicious mutton skewers, the three brothers stopped playing the game, threw away the mouse, got together, and started sharing the spoils one by one.During this period, they also had a few arguments over the distribution of two bunches of lamb kidneys.After eating and drinking, they went to look at the game interface. The dungeon development team they joined had been disbanded for a long time.There was no more games to play, so they had to turn off the computer and go to the bathroom to wash up.

After the lights were turned off, the four brothers in the dormitory lay on their own beds, and the daily sleep talk began again.

"Boss, you didn't go to class today. The programming teacher has decided to focus on the exam."

"Isn't it just VC programming? I can get full marks with my eyes closed. It's completely meaningless to me to highlight the key points."

"Boss, you are still awesome. By the way, boss, you went to the Daxing campus today, right? Have you finished the chip tape-out test?"

"Of course it's no problem if I take action personally. The contract has been signed. Thanks to the information provided by the fourth child, I saved several million."

"Hey, didn't you say that 90nm chip tape-out only costs 100 million yuan at a time? How can you save millions?"

"The chip production line in our college is 90nm, yes, but it can use repeated exposure to produce 45nm chips, but the yield rate is extremely low, only single digits."

(End of this chapter)