Material Empire

Qin Hai spent so much effort to acquire Nice Company and dismantle it back to China, of course, not only to produce a few IGBT chips to meet Zhou Linlei's needs. so much money. The fundamental purpose of his acquisition of Nice Company is to take a fancy to the huge IGBT market and plan to take a share of it. To do this, obtaining the equipment and patents of Nice Company is just the beginning, and there are more things to do later.

The first problem he has to solve is to develop a new generation of IGBT technology based on the original patent of Nice Company, and to compete with several existing foreign manufacturers. The patent system of Nice Company is different from that of Siemens, Toshiba and other big manufacturers, and it is suppressed by the technology of these big manufacturers, which is the reason why Nice Company is in business difficulties. However, Qin Hai knew that Nice’s patents were actually unique. Among them, ideas related to transparent current collectors, electric field suspension, and carrier storage later became the direction of IGBT technological breakthroughs. The company's technical staff has not yet realized the value of these technologies.

Qin Hai had some exchanges with the engineers of Nice Company in the UK and learned some of their ideas. After returning to China, he mixed these ideas with the content in his mind about the development direction of the next-generation IGBT technology and presented them to the company. Professors from the Semiconductor Center, School of Physics, Capital University made a special report. He actually has a little understanding of these semiconductor manufacturing process issues, but those ideas that are nearly 10 years ahead of the times, for the professors of the Semiconductor Center, simply provide a guiding light.

China's semiconductor manufacturing technology lags behind that of the West by more than ten years, but the gap in theoretical research is not so large. The professors have been immersed in this field for many years, and they can immediately understand some of the concepts Qin Hai said, and achieve the effect of inferring other cases from one instance. All of a sudden, various solutions for improving IGBTs emerged one after another. Just waiting for these batches of equipment to be in place, the actual production verification can be carried out.

Solving the problems of product design is not enough. Production equipment is also an important bottleneck, even more important than design. Qin Hai recruited Yue Kun, a mechanical expert, and asked him to take the lead in presiding over the cottage work on imported equipment. To say it is a copycat, of course, is not to carry out simple imitation testing and copying, but to develop its own equipment on the basis of thoroughly understanding the principles of foreign equipment and combining new semiconductor processing theories.

Qingfeng Machinery Group, a subsidiary of Daqin Group, was formed by merging several machinery companies in Beixi City on the basis of the original Qingfeng Agricultural Machinery Factory. In recent years, Qingfeng Machinery Group has imported a large amount of precision processing equipment from abroad, and has formed a strong equipment manufacturing capacity. At first, Qingfeng Machinery Group's main product was thermal spraying machine, and later added many other material processing equipment, including semiconductor manufacturing equipment such as ion implanter designed and developed by the School of Physics of Beijing University. This time, Qin Hai arranged for Yue Kun to fully copy foreign semiconductor machinery, and Qingfeng Machinery Group was Yue Kun's strong backing.

It is a large-scale project to independently develop IGBT technology on the basis of almost a blank sheet of paper, to form the capability of mass production, and to achieve localization of equipment. However, neither Tang Rongmin nor Yue Kun had any complaints or worries about undertaking these tasks, but were full of fighting spirit and passion. In their view, if they can do such a career in their lifetime, they will not hesitate to live a few years less for it.

Since the equipment was smuggled back from under the noses of the European Union using extraordinary means, it is not suitable for publicity in a short period of time. Qin Hai found a relatively remote place on the outskirts of Pujiang City as the site of a semiconductor factory, and pulling on the tiger skin of early Ming Dynasty, he dispatched a guard platoon from the local military to station around the factory to protect the people in the factory. secret. For this matter, Ji Mingchu fully supports it, because Zhou Linlei introduced to him that IGBT is a strategic product and has a large number of applications in the military field. The mass production of high-power IGBT chips is definitely beneficial to the improvement of military technology. of.

Qin Hai left after seeing the unloading of the equipment. Tang Rongmin and Yue Kun were in charge of the affairs here, so he didn't need to worry too much. He hurried back to Anhe because there was good news from the School of Materials:

Graphene research chaired by Nie Sen has made a breakthrough.

As mentioned above, the so-called graphene is simply a thin film material composed of a single layer of graphite atoms. Because its thickness is only as large as one atom, it is also called a two-dimensional material. The concept of graphene is very clear, but it is not so simple to actually manufacture it. The British scientists who first invented graphene used the tear tape method, which used a special tape to uncover graphite layer by layer, and finally reached the level of only one layer of atoms. This method is feasible as a laboratory preparation, but it is far from enough for industrial preparation, and other methods must be developed.

The idea of ​​developing graphene was proposed by Qin Hai to Nie Sen. While proposing this idea, he also introduced some effective methods of preparing graphene to Nie Sen. These methods include solid-phase method, liquid-phase method, and gas-phase method. Each category includes several sub-categories, such as redox method in liquid-phase method, organic synthesis method, and chemical vapor deposition in gas-phase method. method, arc discharge method, etc.

Nie Sen was originally an expert in nanomaterials and has rich experience in the preparation of nanoscale materials. After receiving Qin Hai's principled guidance, he led his team to carry out arduous research. Qin Hai told Wang Xiaochen to fully guarantee the expenses of Nie Sen's team. Even so, the money they spent made Wang Xiaochen tremble with fear. Fortunately, the hard work paid off. After more than two years of hard work, Nie Sen finally lived up to his mission and completed the research on two industrial preparation methods, and achieved complete success in the small test.

Previously, in order to avoid being seized by powerful Western manufacturers, Nie Sen had kept silent on the existence of graphene and did not make this important research result public. It was not until the industrial preparation method had been confirmed that he submitted a key paper to the journal Science by email, announcing the birth of this miraculous material to the world. At the same time as the thesis was sent out, the legal department of Daqin Group submitted the patent application for the graphene production process to the patent agencies of the United States, the European Union, Japan and China. Founded.

Zhou Linlei was notified by Qin Hai, so he couldn't even wait for the flight ticket, so he took a navy military plane and arrived in Hongze immediately.

Boss Qin, what are you talking about, is there any sign of the lubricating material on the catapult? Zhou Linlei strode into the meeting room of the School of Materials, and asked Qin Hai impatiently before he was seated. Qin Hai did not mention the concept of graphene during the long-distance call, but only said that he had developed a lubricating material that can be used in steam catapults of aircraft carriers, and asked him to come and appraise it.

Seeing Zhou Linlei's eager face, Qin Hai smiled slightly, picked up a small piece of plastic film-like thing from the table, handed it to Zhou Linlei's hand, and said, Zhou Gong, don't worry, just sit down and have a look. Let’s talk about this.”

Zhou Linlei sat down, took the piece of film, looked at it carefully, twisted it with his hands, and found something strange. The thickness of the film seems to be only a fraction of that of ordinary plastic bags, and Zhou Linlei was even worried that it could be punctured with a little force. But when he actually did this, he felt that its toughness was extraordinary, far from being comparable to real plastic films. What surprised him even more was that when he rubbed the film, he discovered that it was not one layer at all, but dozens of layers, and the layers could slide freely without any gaps.

What kind of substance is this? Zhou Linlei asked in surprise. He had already realized the extraordinary properties of this material. As Qin Hai said, this material is very suitable as a sealing and lubricating material for steam catapults, because it is Thin and tough, able to withstand repeated friction without abrasion.

Qin Haidao: This is a single-layer graphite film. We named it graphene. Zhou Gong is very clear about the wear-resistant properties of graphite. We should be able to meet Zhou Gong's needs if we have achieved this level. ?”

This still needs to be tested. Zhou Linlei said with a cautious attitude. After all, he added: However, if this material is graphite, based on my experience, it should be able to meet our needs. .”

We have done a comprehensive test on its mechanical and thermal properties. Here is the test report. Zhou Gong can refer to it. Qin Hai handed a stack of documents to Zhou Linlei and said.

Zhou Linlei was not in a hurry to read the relevant data, but asked in surprise: You developed this kind of thing just to use it as a lubricant?

Of course not. Qin Hai laughed loudly, I'm not afraid that you'll get angry, as a lubricant material, it's just the least important use of graphene. This material has excellent electrical properties, and Professor Nie's laboratory is still working on it. It has been tested, and we have proposed no less than 100 uses so far, each of which is much more valuable than lubricating materials.

Let me tell you. Zhou Linlei didn't feel that Qin Hai's statement was disrespectful to him at all. As a senior scientist, he could fully imagine that the advent of a new type of two-dimensional electrical material would have a huge impact in this field. What a storm.