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Published at 24th of March 2023 06:14:32 AM


Chapter 172: EUV lithography machine?

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Chapter 172 EUV lithography machine?

Because I have previous experience in improving the eight-inch wafers used in 90nm chips, it is up to me to improve the quality and yield of the wafers. "

Hearing Lin Xuan's words, many people at the scene nodded in approval.

Indeed, the biggest difference between an eight-inch wafer and a six-inch wafer is the processing link.

In the same time period, you can save a lot of money when using eight-inch wafers to produce chips.

If you don’t care about the cost, the six-inch wafer can indeed be used, and Lin Xuan said that it will improve the quality of the wafer, which is even better.

"So our next task is a series of manufacturing issues after wafer cutting"

As Lin Xuan's words fell to the ground, the people at the scene nodded again to express their understanding.

Then they all looked at Lin Xuan curiously, wanting to see how Lin Xuan would arrange tasks for them.

But at this time, Lin Xuan didn't arrange the task immediately. After all, Lin Xuan didn't know many people at the scene, so how could he arrange the task?

So I need Lin Xuan to talk about the current difficulties encountered?

They need to develop what equipment, and then they can arrange mission research tasks according to their wishes and what they are good at.

"There are many machines for the production of chips, but some of the machines are currently using 150nm equipment at Hantang Technology, and this kind of equipment can barely be used after modification."

"Because of limited funds, our scientific research tasks are placed on core equipment that can never be purchased, such as photolithography machines, etching machines, high-energy ion implanters, ..."

After a pause, Lin Xuan continued softly:

"The most difficult ones are lithography machines and etching machines, thin film deposition equipment, and high-energy ion implantation machines."

"Thin film deposition equipment, the island country is in the leading position in the world, and we must also overcome the chemical materials used in thin film deposition equipment.

Etching machines are also in the same situation, and the most difficult thing at present is the lithography machine. "

But at this time someone said:

“The lithography machine is actually not too difficult. In the final analysis, the lithography machine is just a problem of equipment accuracy, lens and scanning exposure system. We have no big problem with the light source.

We have the world's leading laser crystal KBBF in Daxia, and Daxia is also a world leader in the laser field. "

It was one of the young graduate students who spoke.

Although many technologies in Great Xia have always been backward in the eyes of the world, they are actually not weak in some special fields, especially the military field.

In fact, Daxia has already done research on lasers, and has its own unique achievements, that is, the KBBF crystals used in lasers!

This KBBF crystal is not simple. After Daxia invented it, it can be said that it immediately stood at the forefront of the world's laser field.

After stopping the sale of KBBF crystals in 2009, Medigo’s laser research was forced to stop for fifteen years!

It was not until fifteen years later that they developed a new laser crystal to replace Daxia's KBBF crystal, and restarted large-scale research on lasers.

So Daxia's laser technology is actually not weak, and it is at the world's leading level both now and in future generations.

Among them, the sales of Daxia's laser products have also reached 50% of the global market for a long time. It can be said that this is a rare situation of technological leadership!

"No, KBBF laser crystals can't make lithography machines, the lasers of KBBF crystals are too powerful, and the laser (EUV) emitted by them is too sharp.



If you are not careful, the entire chip will be damaged and cannot be used. Unless our control precision and alignment imaging system can reach an astonishing level, we will definitely not be able to use extreme ultraviolet light. "

Currently, lithography machines on the market use ultraviolet light sources, which are divided into ultraviolet light (EV), deep ultraviolet light (DUV), and extreme ultraviolet light (EUV).

The wavelength of the light source is shorter as it reaches the back, and the lithography knife is sharper, and the requirements for precision control are higher.

So there is currently no lithography machine in the world that uses extreme ultraviolet light (EUV) as a light source to make a lithography machine.

After all, with the current process technology of tens of nanometers, such a high-precision lithography machine is not needed. At present, most lithography machines still use ultraviolet light (EV).

Only the most cutting-edge 45nm process technology uses the deep ultraviolet light source before EUV, which is also a DUV lithography machine.

As for the next-step EUV lithography machine, there is no such thing at present. The reason why there is no such is because there is currently no demand for this.

Of course, the real reason is that the cost of developing such an EUV lithography machine is too high, no less than designing and developing from scratch, so there is no such EUV lithography machine on the market at present.

"That's right, lithography machines are not easy to manufacture. You may be in other fields, so you take it for granted. The lens alone can kill us."

At this time, a doctor in the front row of the crowd also said that it is not easy to build a lithography machine.

In his opinion, the most difficult part of the lithography machine is the lens part.

The mirror error required by the lithography machine is very small, and the mirror error cannot be greater than 0.05 microns.

Using an image metaphor for the range of this error, if the mirror surface error is compared to Tianya Haijiao Island, then the flatness error of the entire Tianya Haijiao Island cannot be greater than ten millimeters!

The most frightening thing is that there is not only one such lens, because the lens actually has imaging errors, which have a very serious impact on the lithography production process.

Because of a slight deviation, the entire chip will be damaged. After all, it is tens of nanometers in size. If the light hits the wrong place, it will definitely short-circuit when it is finally manufactured into a finished product!

So in order to solve the imaging error, the lithography machine needs a lot of lenses to solve the problem of imaging error.



This is why many expensive video cameras or camera lenses are so long.

The reason is actually the same as the problem faced by the lithography machine. In order to solve the problem of imaging error, there are a lot of lenses in the camera lens!

These lenses are high-precision lenses, and the precision requirements for each other are very high, so there will be a phenomenon that a lens will be more expensive than a camera.

And among other things, there are actually five to six lenses in the lens module of the mobile phone of later generations!

And lithography machines are naturally more demanding than cameras and mobile phone lenses, so the current lithography machines are getting deeper and deeper into tens of nanometers.

The requirements are getting higher and higher, and the number of lenses is also increasing. The current lithography machine lenses have reached 16 to 20 lenses.

What people don’t know at this time is that the number of EUV lithography machine lenses that can produce chips of a few nanometers has reached 29 in later generations!

This is also the reason why Lin Xuan is willing to spend 100 million yuan to acquire the shabby Phoenix Company.

Because the requirements for these lenses are too strict, for those eighth-level workers who specialize in mirror polishing, Lin Xuan is willing to spend 100 million to buy them!

"Let's let Mr. Lin Xuan decide what to do."

In the front row of the crowd, Academician Wang looked at the doctors and graduate students who were faintly starting to quarrel, and he spoke slowly.

Following Academician Wang's words, the scene fell into silence in an instant.

Then people turned their attention to Lin Xuan. Under the gaze of thousands of pairs of eyes, Lin Xuan also said slowly:

"As for the lithography machine, my decision is to directly abandon the deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machine and directly develop the extreme deep ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machine!

Moreover, not many companies have entered the field of EUV lithography machines, and there are not many patents in this field, which is convenient for us to design freely and greatly reduces the difficulty of design. "

Hearing Lin Xuan's decision, some doctors at the scene shook their heads and disagreed with skipping the EUV lithography machine and directly developing the EUV lithography machine.

"Mr. Lin, although we have an advantage in light source because of the KBBF crystal.

But mirror flat and imaging positioning system are a problem, and the performance requirements of the parts of the lithography machine are very high, and the precision is also very high. Can we manufacture this level of requirements?

I'm not talking about design, but do we have the material and processing precision? "

Following the words of the questioning doctor, the scene fell into absolute silence.

Indeed, the reason why foreign countries are more advanced than us is that they have a rich workforce.

In addition to having a huge team of eighth-level and ninth-level workers, the precision of their machines is also amazing!

Lithography machine is a thing that involves all fields, it involves all fields of optics, machinery, materials, chemistry, etc., and is called the flower of industry.

Many things, if Daxia wants to design, he can design it, but he can design it but can't process it!

Although there are eighth-level and ninth-level workers, how many things can eighth-level workers and ninth-level workers make?

At this time, looking at the people who fell into silence, Secretary He also spoke in a timely manner:

"Don't worry about the processing accuracy, because we have made great changes compared to the difficult period of "two once and one star"!

Although the machining accuracy of our machines is not good, I have a huge team of workers in Daxia! "

Speaking of this, Secretary He said with a smile:

"This time, the higher-ups are also ruthless in order to overcome the 45-nanometer process technology. A certain old man even specifically said that he will fully support whatever he wants, whether it is the army or the civilians, he must fully cooperate.

So whether it is a state-owned factory or a military factory, as long as you can design it and you pay the commission fee, then I will help you get through the link, even if you stack it by hand, you must pile up your parts!

In addition, there is no need to worry about material issues. This time, the higher-ups are also ruthless, so that I can advance the semiconductor process technology to 45 nanometers.

As long as Hantang Technology gives money, some hard-earned strategic materials will be cruelly opened up for you to use, so you don’t have to worry about the material problem.

As long as we have what we have, we will give it to you immediately. If we don’t have it, we will try our best to get it to you! "

Hearing Secretary Chen's speech, the scene fell into absolute silence!

Everyone's eyes showed horror, and they didn't expect the higher authorities to pay so much attention to it!

Thanks to the post-90s Dashu

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(end of this chapter)




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