Great Country Academician

There was silence at the product launch.

Everyone stared at the small carbon-based chip on the stage in a daze and shock.

Of course, after the shock, there was a noisy discussion.

The 28-nanometer process technology integrates 10 million carbon-based transistors per square millimeter, and its performance is comparable to that of Intel's Xeon series E5-1600 processor, which can match the level of Intel's Core I series 7th generation.

In the eyes of most people at the scene, even if the performance of carbon-based transistors in the semiconductor field is better than that of silicon-based transistors, it is impossible to achieve this level.

You know, the seventh generation of Intel Core I series uses a 14-nanometer process.

Although the gap between the 28-nanometer and 14-nanometer processes is only doubled, when it comes to chip production technology, the improvement is more than a little bit.

Because 28-nanometer chips are the watershed of mid-to-high-end manufacturing, chips with 28-nanometer processes and below are mature and are mid-to-low-end chips.

Mainly used in industrial layers such as the Internet of Things, power management, display drivers, and sensors.

The 14-nanometer process chip is a high-end chip with an advanced process, mainly used in mobile phones, memory chips, computers and other consumer layers.

The chips made by mature manufacturing technology can be comparable to those made by advanced processes. It is hard not to doubt whether it is true.

After all, if this is put in the field of silicon-based chips, it is absolutely impossible.

There is a huge difference between the 28-nanometer process and the 14-nanometer process.

On the report platform, looking at the noisy crowd below the stage and listening to the faint sounds coming from time to time, Fu Zhijie's nervous expression on his face unconsciously relaxed, and a confident look appeared on his face.

It's right to be unbelievable!

If he hadn't personally participated in the research and development of the Xiongxin series of carbon-based chips, even he himself might find it hard to believe that carbon-based chips can achieve such a level.

Just like when he first saw the finished product, he still remembers that feeling.

After scanning the crowd below the stage, Fu Zhijie smiled and continued to host the product launch conference.

"I believe everyone has seen our Xiongxin series products, which have performance far exceeding that of silicon-based chips of the same level."

"Of course, the advantages of carbon-based chips are not only in computing performance!"

"It provides us with computing power far exceeding that of silicon-based chips, and at the same time brings us more outstanding physical properties!"

"Whether it is made of carbon nanotubes, it is lighter and thinner than traditional silicon-based chips, and can provide effective solutions for various small electronic devices."

"It also has stronger heat resistance, radiation resistance and higher electron migration rate, so it can better resist external environmental disturbances and provide more stable and reliable operating performance."

"And the most critical thermal conductivity!"

At this point, Fu Zhijie paused slightly, and his eyes swept across the faces of executives of major semiconductor manufacturers sitting in the front row of the stage.

"It's well known!"

"Compared to silicon materials, carbon materials have better thermal conductivity."

"The thermal conductivity of single crystal silicon materials used in silicon-based chips is about 148 W/(m·K) at room temperature."

"And the thermal conductivity of carbon nanotube materials used in carbon-based chips is as high as 3000W/mK!"

"Excellent thermal conductivity means that whether it is mobile phones, computers, or servers and other electronic products using carbon-based chips, they will no longer need heavy auxiliary heat sinks!"

"This also means that whether it is mobile phones, computers, or tablets, there is more room in design."

"Take the mobile phones we are using now. If carbon-based chips are used, then its thickness can continue to decrease, and the reduction is at least in millimeters!"

When hearing this sentence, almost everyone present showed a look of surprise on their faces.

Modern chips generate a lot of heat when running, such as mobile phones.

Playing games, watching videos or transmitting a lot of data for a long time will keep the mobile phone in a high-load state for a long time, generating a lot of heat.

If this heat accumulates inside the chip and is not conducted out, the excessive temperature will cause the chip performance to decline, and even cause crashes, blue screens and other faults.

In addition, high temperature will accelerate the aging of electronic components and shorten the service life of the device.

In some extreme cases, overheating may even cause mobile phone fires, explosions and other safety accidents.

In addition, there are computers, especially portable laptops.

If you pursue high performance, you will inevitably increase the performance of the chip, and the performance of the chip will increase the heat dissipated during operation.

Generally speaking, in order to solve the problem of chip heat dissipation, various manufacturers provide a variety of methods.

For example, install a heat conductive sheet under the processor, or add thermal conductive gel, or directly use a heat conductive pipe to conduct heat out through water cooling or air cooling, etc.

Correspondingly, no matter which heat dissipation method is used, it will directly affect the size of the device itself.

Especially in electronic products such as mobile phones, which are not large in themselves, even adding a graphene heat conductive sheet will increase the thickness.

Have you seen how many ways major manufacturers have thought of to reduce the thickness of mobile phones since the development of mobile phones?

Optimizing the internal layout and design and reducing unnecessary space occupation are routine operations.

Some mobile phone manufacturers have even reduced the thickness of the battery, reduced the battery life, and killed 800 enemies and lost 1,000 of their own in order to reduce the thickness of 0.01 mm.

This kind of thing sounds ridiculous, but it is actually very common.

Especially in the early days, when the stacking capacity of mobile phones and the battery cell technology of batteries did not improve much, if you want a thin and light mobile phone, you often directly reduce the battery capacity to obtain extra body space.

This makes it easier to compress the body volume, and the most famous of them is the former "one-day use".

But what if the chip material itself has high heat dissipation?

You know, the thermal conductivity of carbon nanomaterials is hundreds of times better than that of silicon-based materials.

Isn't the reason why graphene materials are used as heat sinks for high-end mobile phones because of their very high thermal conductivity?

Carbon nanotubes, which have similar physical properties to graphene, also have thermal conductivity that is not much worse.

What this means for chips is self-evident.

Even without considering the low power consumption of carbon-based chips themselves, their extremely excellent thermal conductivity is enough for them to spontaneously dissipate heat.

This is a killer for chip applications!

When the product launch conference reached this point, the audience could not stop the commotion.

Both semiconductor manufacturers and related mobile phone and computer manufacturers were discussing it.

Looking at the almost boiling venue, Fu Zhijie standing on the stage smiled slightly, and then added fuel to this hot product launch conference.

"Here, we must thank our partners, whether it is Huawei HiSilicon, SMIC, or the scientific research teams of Shuimu, Peking University and other universities, all of which provide unparalleled help in the development of carbon-based chips at this moment."

"As everyone expected, the impact of carbon-based chips on the entire electronics industry will be subversive!"

"Compared with silicon-based chips of the same level, carbon-based chips have significantly improved in terms of computing performance, power consumption, reliability, security, stability and other aspects."

"This means that in the future, when our smartphones, PCs, large servers and other devices handle complex tasks, the response speed and multi-tasking capabilities will be improved It has been greatly improved, providing users with an unprecedented smooth experience. "

"Compared with the inherent shortcomings of single-crystal silicon materials, chips made of carbon nanotube materials have a wider space. "

"If a silicon-based chip is like a paper painting, and the computing circuit is laid flat on the paper, then a carbon-based chip is more like a high-rise building built with building blocks. "

"This is a three-dimensional transformation from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, which also means that it has more possibilities for constructing and designing circuit diagrams, and it also means that it has the possibility of realizing functions several times that of silicon-based chips!"

Accompanying his introduction, the screen on the stage behind him also simultaneously released the internal detailed structure diagrams of carbon-based chips and silicon-based chips.

Although this is only a microscopic pattern drawn by a computer, it restores the difference between the two most realistically.

When the comparison picture on the big screen at the press conference was released, almost everyone present, whether it was Intel's president Pat Gelsinger or Apple's president and vice president Tim Miller, showed a surprised expression on their faces without exception.

And there were waves of commotion at the scene.

It can be said that except for government officials, all the people who can attend today's product launch conference are engineers, executives or scholars in the semiconductor field.

However, such a group of people standing at the pyramid of the semiconductor field are now staring at the podium like elementary school students in class.

Using a large number of carbon nanotubes to build a macro chip like building blocks is indeed the advantage of carbon-based chips in theory.

But judging from the current research on carbon-based chips by various countries and related research institutions, it is impossible to do this.

At present, the best and most mature way to realize carbon-based chips is to use ultra-high semiconductor purity, sequential, high-density and large-area uniform single-walled carbon nanotube arrays, and then arrange them in sequence, just like silicon-based chips for superimposed lithography.

This is the most ideal and mature method for carbon-based chip research in more than ten years.

It is also the simplest method in theory.

But even with this simplest method, the high-density and large-area arrangement of carbon nanotubes in carbon-based chips is still a difficult problem to solve.

As early as 2019, the team of Professor Peng Lianmao of Peking University, who prepared high-purity and high-density carbon nanotube array materials required for large-scale carbon-based integrated circuits and used this material to first realize carbon nanotube integrated circuits with performance exceeding silicon-based integrated circuits, is still troubled by this problem.

In order to solve this problem, they are even working on establishing a dedicated industrial-grade R\u0026D line.

Because under the existing experimental conditions of the school, the integration of the most complex carbon nanotube chips that can be produced is only a few thousand or at most hundreds of thousands of transistors, and the size is still micron-level.

Originally, whether it was Intel, Apple, or executives and engineers from Qualcomm, AMD and other companies, who attended this product launch conference, subconsciously believed that the carbon-based chips prepared by Xinghai Research Institute were completed using the most basic layering technology.

Now, the three-dimensional carbon nanotube array technology suddenly emerged, which made everyone confused.

Even Intel's president Pat Gelsinger couldn't help swallowing his saliva and muttered to himself.

"How is this possible!?"

"This is impossible! I don't believe it."

Involuntarily venting the shock in his heart, Gelsinger, with shock written on his face, stared at the comparison picture on the big screen dully, and suddenly shuddered and came back to his senses, and the expression on his face quickly changed from shock to ugly.

If this is true, it will be a 'real' disaster for Intel and even for the entire silicon-based semiconductor industry.

Although the structure and manufacturing process make the silicon-based chip have three-dimensional characteristics inside, the key devices in the chip are usually located on the front of the chip, that is, one surface of the cube.

Technologies like FinFet and GAA are based on this surface, and the device is processed three-dimensionally, which successfully improves the performance of the device in a low size range.

The so-called 3D stacking usually involves stacking multiple chips in parallel, which can be understood as placing the surfaces containing the device in parallel.

After all, if all six faces of the cube are processed, that is, some surfaces containing devices are placed vertically or at a certain angle, there will be a series of problems such as uneven performance, difficult process, poor reliability, and high cost.

But in terms of performance, different faces of the crystal cube will have different surface states due to the crystal structure and crystal manufacturing process, which will cause the same device to have different performance on different surfaces.

This means that three-dimensional carbon-based chips will far exceed two-dimensional silicon-based chips in terms of circuit design, performance, or functionality.

For silicon-based chips, this is undoubtedly a real dimensionality reduction strike!

It is true in every aspect.

The breathing sound in the mouth gradually became heavy, and the pupil that lost focus spread unconsciously like a drop of ink dropped into clear water.

His eyes fell on the big screen at the press conference. Although he could not see the detailed images clearly because of distraction, Pat Gelsinger could still feel the pressure it brought.

No wonder China was so confident that it dared to release the goal of subverting the entire "silicon-based semiconductor market" at this press conference.

It turned out that

the reason for everything was here