My Galaxy Technology

Chips have been a long-standing pain for Chinese people and are difficult to solve.

Of course, this solution is only for high-end chips. The nanometer process is in the range of 3-20 nanometers. Above 20 nanometers, it has basically been overcome, and the problem is not too big.

Only in the range of 3-20 nanometers, every time it is reduced by one level, the difficulty of the required photolithography machines and processes becomes an order of magnitude higher, and it is even said that it is as difficult as climbing to the sky.

I don’t know how many foreign technology experts have asserted that even if they are given domestic drawings, they cannot be manufactured domestically.

Because this kind of thing is just like the atomic bomb. The design principle is very simple, but it is extremely difficult to actually do it. It cannot solve the problems of raw materials, equipment, technology, etc. at all. To a certain extent, the chip is more difficult than the atomic bomb. The atomic bomb only needs to be able to explode. The size is not too important, but the smaller the chip, the better. It is all going to the electronic level.

However, whether it is equipment, raw materials, auxiliary materials, etc., there are great shortcomings or even blanks in China.

Under such circumstances, making a high-end chip is indeed like walking on the road of Shu, and it is as difficult as climbing to the sky.

After decades of continuous investment in chip design, Zhongzheng Company can now be said to be unique in the world, enough to compete with the world's top Eagle Sauce.

However, once the manufacturer has a card, the chips designed by Zhongzheng Company have no use at all, and they cannot find a place to produce them. This forces Zhongzheng Company to do it on its own and discuss solutions with many domestic manufacturers.

As far as the news that Zhou Feiyu himself saw, there were reports from time to time that Zhongzheng Company had made this breakthrough or made that innovation.

Well, the chip design was also played by Zhongzheng Company.

Plans such as heterogeneity and overlapping were first announced at a press conference and were widely criticized by many trolls. However, soon after, Guoguo followed suit. The trolls immediately stated that Guoguo was a real technology company. Only then can we truly make good chips. Zhou Feiyu said: You guys are really fucking talented people. Without thirty or forty years of cerebral thrombosis, you wouldn’t be able to come up with such double-standard rhetoric.

...We noticed that the FY-02 polyimide material developed by Mr. Zhou has very excellent performance, far exceeding the products produced by Tianfeng Chemical and Wangzhe Materials abroad. So we thought, with Mr. Zhou's ingenuity , is it possible to do research and development in the direction of photosensitive polyimide? At present, although the test samples of our overlapping chips are successful, the yield rate is extremely low and the circuit accuracy cannot be reached. In addition to equipment accuracy, photoresist is also A very important reason...

In the subsequent meeting, Yu Longguang and Zhou Feiyu talked about some situations at Zhongzheng Company and about photoresist.

Yu Longguang must not disclose the internal secrets of Zhongzheng Company. He only talks about some details that he can tell, or some details that he has not announced to the outside world.

At this time, except for the people from Zhongzheng Company and Zhou Feiyu, everyone else in the conference room was cleared out.

According to Yu Longguang, for the sake of confidentiality, please understand Zhou Feiyu.

Photosensitive polyimide material?

Zhou Feiyu's heart moved, and some relevant knowledge about ultra-thin and special-performance films in intermediate film technology immediately came to mind.

Among them, some photosensitive polyimide materials that can be used for photoresists are indeed mentioned.

Photoresist, as the name suggests, is a glue used for photolithography.

The so-called photolithography literally means to engrave with light.

Of course, natural light and various extreme ultraviolet rays cannot directly engrave things like a knife. Only ultra-high-energy lasers can be used for direct engraving.

Photolithography in the field of chips uses certain glues that are very sensitive to light and evenly spreads them on the wafer. Then a thin film is attached to the surface of the glue. This thin film is designed into the required circuit pattern. Light passes through the circuit pattern and hits the surface of the glue. The glue reacts because it is sensitive to light, revealing a circuit pattern that is the same as or opposite to the circuit pattern. Those places that are not illuminated by the light are naturally covered by the glue. With.

The wafer is then immersed in a specially prepared solution.

In this way, the wafer is protected and unchanged in the area covered by the glue. In those places where there is no glue, the special solution corrodes the wafer.

Traces of corrosion are naturally the same as or opposite to the circuit diagram.

The wafer is taken out of the special solution and rinsed with pure water, leaving the required circuit pattern on it.

Therefore, it is not so much photolithography as it is etching, etching and engraving, but this kind of etching and etching is N levels higher in accuracy than the commonly known etching and engraving. A relatively noble name is lithography.

The general principle is this, but it is easier said than done.

A small chip and integrated circuit are like a small world, and the precision inside is measured in nanometers.

Only the photoresist used for auxiliary production has a thickness limit calculated in nanometers.

For example, for chip manufacturing with a 20-nanometer process, the photoresist thickness required cannot exceed 100 nanometers. For more advanced 3-10 nanometer process chips, the photoresist thickness required can be imagined.

Zhou Feiyu thought secretly for a while and knew that Feiyang New Materials' current equipment and process capabilities were not yet up to this technology, and it would take a period of development and expansion.

For the convenience of disclosure, which company is Zhongzheng currently cooperating with for research and development?

Zhou Feiyu didn't say anything, but asked instead.

Zhongzheng Company is currently cooperating with Huake New Materials Company in Jinling. It is expected to complete the testing of Arf line photoresist this month and enter the trial production stage next month.

Yu Longguang didn't hide anything now and spoke directly.

Of course, after saying that, he did not forget to tell Zhou Feiyu to pay attention to confidentiality.

understood.

Zhou Feiyu nodded, knowing that Zhongzheng Company was trying every possible means to return to the mobile phone chip industry, so much so that after seeing his material research and development capabilities, Yu Longguang came over to chat with him.

However, Yu Longguang said that he would complete the Arf line photoresist test this month and enter trial production next month. He was a bit unconvinced. How could such a fast and smooth test be possible?

Yu Longguang felt a little disappointed when he saw that his reaction was not very big. Then he sighed and said: The photoresist field is technically difficult, the market capacity is small, and the verification cycle is long. Indeed, many people, companies or groups are unwilling to do this. Invest. If Mr. Zhou doesn’t have this idea, we can understand.”

Indeed, the field of photoresist is difficult, has no future, and is difficult.

There are only a few players. Even if you produce photoresist, you can’t verify whether it is good or bad because there are only a few chip manufacturers and photolithography machine manufacturers. There are only a few companies that will neither change suppliers easily nor verify a new material casually.

The monopoly and stubbornness of the industry, as well as the high difficulty of technology, have blocked people's interest in investing.

Mr. Yu, your provocation method...

After listening to his words, Zhou Feiyu chuckled.