I Found A Planet

The manufacturing difficulty of lithography machine mainly lies in three key equipments: light source, double workpiece table, and lithography machine lens.

In terms of light source, there is no doubt that country Z is the strongest in the world. This conclusion can be drawn from the fact that country Z is clearly ahead of country M in laser weapons.

A small light source of a lithography machine can't trouble the researchers of country Z at all.

It is not easy to use a double workpiece table. It is said that the dual workpiece table product based on the magnetic levitation planar motor developed by ASML has a motion control accuracy of 2 nanometers for the mask table, which greatly improves the accuracy and efficiency of chip processing.

Such an advanced double-workpiece platform, foreign experts once said arrogantly: "There is no second institution in the world that can make it."

However, in less than five years, a research team from Jinghua University in Country Z developed a dual-workpiece table with a motion accuracy of about 2 nanometers, which successfully passed the acceptance of the whole machine.

The key technical indicators have reached the technical level of the international similar lithography machine double workpiece table.

The double workpiece platform was also conquered by the Z people.

The last is the lithography lens. In recent years, the field of optical lenses in country Z has made rapid progress. There is even an optical satellite manufactured by a civilian satellite company with a resolution of 1 meter and 0.5 meters. The aircraft carrier, warship, and vehicle on the ground can be seen at a glance. You can even shoot planes taking off and rocket launches with astonishing clarity.

The performance of civilian optical satellites is already so exaggerated, and military use is of course even more terrible.

This reflects the progress of country Z in the field of optical lenses.

Naturally, the lens of the lithography machine is not a problem for the scientific researchers in country Z.

Therefore, the three core equipment used to manufacture lithography machines, the light source, the double-workpiece table, and the lithography machine lens, have all been mastered by Country Z.

This is why ASML has released the sales of lithography machines in country Z... The severe blockade in the field of lithography machines will only lead to breakthroughs in country Z at a faster speed.

The rabbit is cornered and will kill you.

However, the lithography machines in country Z have not caught up with the most advanced foreign countries. On the one hand, the market share is firmly controlled; secondly, following the same technical route will inevitably infringe on ASML’s intellectual property rights, triggering patent lawsuits.

Coupled with the ban on the sale of some key equipment.

The development of domestic lithography machines has always been tepid.

Even so, in order to bypass foreign patent barriers, the Institute of Optoelectronics of the Z Academy of Sciences has developed a new lithography machine——

Super-resolution nanolithography machine.

This lithography machine adopts a completely different technical route from traditional lithography equipment. Using a near-ultraviolet light source with a wavelength of 365 nm, the highest line width resolution of a single exposure can reach 22 nm. Combined with multiple exposure technology, it can be used to manufacture 10~ 9 nanometer chips.

And this lithography equipment uses longer wavelength and more common ultraviolet light, which can complete lithography in ordinary environments, which means that domestic lithography machines use low-cost light sources to achieve higher resolution lithography .

The manufacturing cost is only a fraction, or even a tenth, of ASML's lithography machine.

Breakthroughs at the level of technical principles are equivalent to opening a tunnel when others are digging mountains to build roads.

However, although the super-resolution nanolithography machine is good, it also has a serious defect.

That is the exposure time is too long.

Especially in the field of chips, the EUV lithography machine can complete the task within 15 seconds of exposure, and the super-resolution lithography machine takes more than ten days.

A more vivid analogy is that traditional lithography machines take a picture directly, while super-resolution lithography takes a pen and slowly draws a picture...the efficiency difference is huge.

...

Shanghai Microelectronics Company.

Chen Jin, who came to this company for research, saw the 22nm super-resolution lithography machine in front of him, and listened to the introduction of the company's boss Zhang Yuming.

"You said that such a good device cannot be used in the manufacture of chips, why not?"

Chen Jin frowned, this is such a pity.

"It's not impossible, but it's too slow! We have thought of various ways to improve its exposure efficiency, but it still takes five days to expose a photolithography, and the efficiency is tens of thousands of times that of traditional photolithography, which completely offsets the Our cost advantage is only suitable for some small-scale markets, such as military chips, optical devices, high-precision gratings, photonic crystal arrays, etc., and we have sold dozens of super-resolution lithography machines in these areas."

"But large-scale chip manufacturing can only develop traditional lithography honestly."

Zhang Yuming shook his head and said.

At present, Shangwei Electronics' 10nm lithography machine adopts the 193nm light source immersion lithography route, but the manufacturing cost is too high, there is no market competitiveness, and it faces ASML's patent barriers, so it has not been introduced to the market.

In terms of EUV lithography, Shangwei has cooperated with many domestic institutions and achieved certain breakthroughs, but it also faces patent problems.

A lot of high-tech equipment, it's not that the Z people can't break the monopoly, but the patent barrier is there.

"Do you have a way to speed up its exposure efficiency and catch up with traditional lithography machines?"

Chen Jin asked, he thinks that the route of super-resolution lithography can really go on and be applied to large-scale chip manufacturing.

"There is a way! But it is too difficult to realize. With the existing technology, it is almost impossible to realize."

"Tell me about your method first."

"Increase the number of 'pens' and make the lithography lens smaller! In the finger-sized lithography lens, integrate 10,000 micro-lenses, and let these micro-lenses participate in the work at the same time to complete the lithography of integrated circuits."

Zhang Yuming shook his head, seeing that Chen Jin listened seriously, he had no choice but to continue: "The internal structure of the chip is not complicated, each die has the same structure, each transistor is also the same, 10,000 tiny lenses, Completing the same work simultaneously can greatly speed up the efficiency of super-resolution lithography."

"Even if such a lithography lens can be made, we can integrate ten or one hundred sets of lithography lenses in one super-resolution lithography equipment, and perform lithography on a wafer with a diameter of more than 100 inches. , 1 million micro-lenses work at the same time, and the overall lithography efficiency can far exceed that of traditional lithography machines!"

"But...it's too difficult. With the current industrial manufacturing capacity, it will take at least 20 years to produce such a lithography lens."

The problem is that twenty years later, with the improvement of industrial technology, the cost of traditional lithography machines has also dropped, and super-resolution lithography still does not have a clear competitive advantage... Although this road has a bright future, it is doomed to fail. Bright Road.

"So, it's mostly a matter of the lithography lens, right?"

Chen Jin said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Yes, the main difficulty is the camera."

"It's easy to handle, the lens is easy to handle... Xinghai Technology has a way to provide the lens you mentioned." Chen Jin said.

Zhang Yuming was nodding his head.

Suddenly stuck.

He turned his head and looked at Chen Jin with a look of astonishment!

He asked blankly, "Mr. Chen, what did you say?"