Chapter 593： [New technology pain point-photoresist]

The azure coast laboratory, clean room of purple star lithography machine.

Early this morning, Luo Sheng came here when he received the news. At this time, in this clean room of more than 20,000 square meters, dozens of engineers and Luo Sheng were wearing working dust-free uniforms inside. A piece of wafer is repeatedly observed and appreciated. The art in this size is the masterpiece of Zixing lithography machine.

An engineer standing beside him said with excitement: "The conversion efficiency of the light source is consistent and the correct control is achieved. The team conquered the 250-watt light source, and the customer can achieve a throughput of 155 wafers per hour. In the laboratory, the light source power of more than 300 watts can be achieved, and the final test of the Zixing equipment can be officially shipped. "

Several top chip manufacturers around the world have always insisted that 250 watts of light source power is necessary to achieve throughput of 155 wafers per hour, and ASML and light source technology provider Cymer have not yet achieved this The light source power target, this company was acquired by ASML two years ago, but the progress is limited, which is why ASML is not going well in development, although they have already made an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine one step in advance.

Luo Sheng handed the tape in his hand to the engineer next to him and said with a smile: "Well done, we can now have the confidence to say the most important lithography machine for semiconductor manufacturing equipment. We are ahead of the world. Domestic semiconductor manufacturers It ’s the end of the situation where I have to ask the ASML to buy the banknotes and see the other party ’s mood. "

The people present were very excited when they heard this. When Luo Sheng ’s voice just fell behind, they could n’t stop the excitement in their hearts and applauded for the milestone breakthrough of the domestic semiconductor business, as well as for their own business. .

More than 2,000 days and nights of fighting are not for anything else, just for a breath.

With the cooperation of tens of thousands of engineers, researchers, and hundreds of manufacturers, we focused on the firepower to continuously launch a firepower impact towards a point, and Luo Sheng was only in the research and development of extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment in the more than 2,000 earth sunshine cycles. It has invested more than 100 billion US dollars, which is five times as much as ASML's investment in the research and development of extreme ultraviolet lithography machines.

But there is no doubt that all this is worth it.

Li Chunsheng, director of the Zixing lithography machine project, was transferred: “Compared with the industry ’s 2012 25-watt light source, a 250-watt light source represents a tenfold improvement. ASML ’s engineers were very brief when they briefed EUV production economics Helplessly said: 250 watt light source power will always be the goal for next year, haha. "

Domestic semiconductors have always been inferior to foreigners, and the confidence of domestic relevant practitioners has been hit for a long time. This breakthrough is not only a tangible achievement breakthrough, but also great confidence for those who are interested in the domestic semiconductor business. .

Belief sounds a bit mysterious, especially in technology, but sometimes it is really important. This is a morale issue.

Zixing lithography machine succeeded before ASML's NXE. Although the other party will solve this problem sooner or later, and will not wait too long, it is definitely a landmark event in the field of semiconductor equipment.

Because this will break the pattern of the global semiconductor industry chain, it will also push the entire industry into a new era.

Luo Sheng looked at the technicians present. He could see that it was difficult for everyone to calm down at the moment, saying: "Someone outside has always said that our technology development cannot be successful, and our talents are not as good as foreigners. It really took For a long time, a lot of manpower, material and financial investment, but we finally reached the end, and walked to a place that everyone outside thought was impossible. "

It is worth mentioning that, in addition to reaching the milestone of light source power, there has been a substantial improvement in performance of Zixing lithography machine tools, and the progress of the industry in the construction of purple star lithography machine infrastructure has also received good news, including light Cover, mask cover and photoresist etc.

There are some pig teammates in the team, but most of them are reliable.

The breakthrough of extreme ultraviolet lithography technology means that Moore's Law's life is extended again, but this is not what two companies can accomplish. For the domestic integrated circuit business, foreigners don't take you to the highest end, only for you Play them and play the rest.

Therefore, the domestic semiconductor industry chain created by Luo Sheng can only be carried out little by little by itself. The capital alone pays five times as much as foreign competitors, and also requires materials, equipment, knowing, etc. in the entire semiconductor industry chain. All major subdivisions work together, just like a team game to solve a technical problem, in order to move smoothly towards the destination.

Difficulties in this can not be summed up in a few words. During the period, the running-in of the team, the disputes with the upstream and downstream manufacturers, the technical differences, etc. are all problems that must be resolved.

In the process, there are pig teammates like Pengxing Precision who cheated on money. This is Luo Sheng ’s most angry. It does n’t matter if he cheated on his money. He has money, but it is the most helpless to delay the development progress because of this matter of.

The biggest difference between the semiconductor industry and other industries is that they need to break through the major subdivisions. You drop a chain here. There is no problem in other links. But in order to wait for you to put down your steps, you can only stare at this period. The barrel effect is This area is enlarged.

Obviously, this is of course an angry curse for other link manufacturers.

"Chun Sheng, you inform the heads of the technical departments, and a small meeting will be held in ten minutes." Luo Sheng explained and left the clean room of the Zixing lithography machine.

"Okay." Li Chunsheng.

...

Less than ten minutes later, in a lounge inside the Cote d’ Azur Laboratory, Li Chunsheng notified the heads of the major technical departments to put down their work and came here.

At this moment, more than 20 people are sitting in the lounge, standing, or leaning against the wall and so on.

Luo Sheng looked at everyone at the moment, looking radiant and happy, after all, today is indeed a time to celebrate, the outside world does not know that the domestic integrated circuit business has achieved a milestone breakthrough, but they are on the front line Of scientific researchers already know it.

Everyone can't wait to report this exciting news to the whole country.

"Everyone, in the past six years, my financial investment in the domestic semiconductor business has exceeded 3 trillion yuan, of which the investment in research and development of lithography equipment has exceeded more than 660 billion yuan. This is the" tuition fee " It ’s also about using electricity to generate electricity. At all costs, I ’ve been reasoned out, and I wo n’t get a second 3 trillion in it. ”

Luo Sheng's remarks caused a lot of laughter. The domestic integrated circuit business has been quietly moving forward for the past six years. Naturally, it is the credit of the entire team, but everyone also knows that this milestone breakthrough can not be achieved without Luo Sheng. .

Without his courageous moves, without his financial support and key technology support, and his strong cohesiveness to bring together the top talents in the entire industry, it is absolutely impossible for the domestic integrated circuit business to achieve today's achievements.

Who is the biggest contributor to the round, it must be Luo Sheng, and no one disagrees.

Luo Sheng received: "So, it is on the agenda to formally enter commercialization through the Zixing lithography machine, but the people present are all engaged in technology, and other teams will come to commercialization. We still want to do it today. Talking about technical issues, the breakthrough of the extreme ultraviolet lithography machine does not mean that the high-end manufacturing of the domestic integrated circuit business has been completely autonomous. I am not afraid to tell you that we have only achieved the 40% target so far, and 60% of the target is still To be overcome. "

As soon as these words came out, everyone was poured out of cold water from the atmosphere of joy and calmed down.

Yes, the reason why the semiconductor business is difficult is that it is difficult here. It seems that there are never-ending barriers ahead, and the core link has not yet achieved all domestic autonomy.

For example, the wafer purification technology of chips has not yet reached the point of high precision at present. This link is monopolized by Shin-Etsu Chemical in Japan, and Shin-Etsu Chemical is used for high-end chip wafers all over the world. If he does not give With your high-purity wafers, the entire industry is still in a state of lie.

In other words, Luo Sheng's 3 trillion yuan investment still cannot achieve the autonomy of the entire domestic high-end chip industry. As long as the other party has stuck you for a year and a half, the money may be lost.

There are other key links too.

The road to autonomy of the domestic industry chain of domestic semiconductors has a long way to go.

Luo Sheng said: "The current industry news is that next year, TSMC and Samsung have successfully introduced EUV technology into 10 nanometers and started mass production. In the field of high-end chip manufacturing, we are now in the top echelon and the light source is done. However, some technologies and materials are still a huge challenge ~ www.novelhall.com ~ is to enter a new chapter of Moore's Law, the process below 9 nanometers needs to reduce costs and higher resolution extreme ultraviolet photoresist technology. "

Photoresist, this is the next technical pain point.

Everyone also guessed what Luo Sheng was going to talk about. Today's semiconductor technology has been extended to 10 nanometer processes, but the realization of specific patterns has become more and more difficult, and multiple exposures have also brought rise in production costs.

Luo Sheng continued: "After the introduction of extreme ultraviolet lithography technology, its role is the key lithography layer of the latest logic process. Before the chip manufacturer was introduced, extreme ultraviolet was equipped with a lithography machine, light source, and photoresist. And a photomask. "

Everyone nodded silently. The criticality of the previous extreme ultraviolet lithography technology is mostly in the light source, because insufficient power of the light source will affect the production efficiency of the chip.

After the light source problem is solved, the new challenge is the limitation of photoresist technology.

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