Great Power Technology

Chapter 67 We Need Lenses
March 8, 8 am.

After the final acceptance, the on-site staff confirmed that the Miyagi No. 1 temporary road can be put into use.

Without celebrating or cutting the ribbon, hundreds of heavy-duty vehicles that had already arrived in this small county via the provincial highway roared onto the road and headed for their final destination.

Masayama Hydropower Station in Miyagi Prefecture.

There, they will spend half a month building an advanced wafer processing plant through modular construction.

The people in charge of road construction had already driven their vehicles into the wasteland outside the roadbed. Everyone watched these huge monsters with a height of several meters or even more than ten meters meandering forward, and their hearts were filled with shock and emotion.

"What the hell are you going to do with such a big machine?"

"It looks like it was used to build a bridge. Have you seen that prefabricated panel? It should be the bridge deck, right?"

"What nonsense, how can it be as thin as the prefabricated slab on the bridge deck? This should be a modular house. It is estimated that a factory will be built quickly on the mountain, but I don't know what it is used for."

"Hey, didn't you say that a gold mine was found on the mountain over the reservoir? Could it be true?"

"It would be great if it was true. If there is a gold mine, then my county will really get rich along with it."

In the crowd, a member of the intelligence team smiled and listened to the discussion, and did not step forward to stop it.

These people worked day and night for two days, and finally completed with amazing efficiency what no other country in the world could accomplish. Whether it was their will or their dedication regardless of their future, he was deeply impressed. Feel admiration.

And at this moment, after their task was completed, facing this shocking scene, their discussion was only out of simple yearning and joy, and there was really no need to remind them to keep it secret.

It's just that everyone present probably didn't know that although the road they paved didn't lead to a gold mine, it led to a future that was more precious than a gold mine.

joint command.

Chen Hao has received the news that the Miyagi Temporary Highway has passed the acceptance test and started to use it. Heavy machinery has entered the site, and the follow-up construction work will be carried out step by step according to the established strategy. The strategy of "starting with road construction" proposed by Ye Zhou has been proved It is vaild.

But now, according to Ye Zhou, they were facing another problem.

The material of the top-level lens required by the lithography machine cannot be produced in China.

According to Ye Zhou's drawings, the lithography machine needs 24 lenses with an EUV absorption rate lower than 5%. The core of these lenses is special glass, and the production process of special glass that can meet the requirements is all in the hands of foreign companies.

Ye Zhou's manufacturing documents mentioned this aspect of the process, but it is not a simple matter to complete the production and manufacturing in a short period of time.

From material ratio, to production, to grinding, to inspection, every step requires long-term experience accumulation.

The most typical example is that when a lens is ground by a craftsman with 20 years of experience and a newcomer with 2 years of experience, the error will even reach more than 60%.

This is not something that can be solved by pure documentation, but must depend on time.

At the meeting, Ye Zhou raised this question.

"The lens is a key part of the lithography machine. It has been so long since I got the drawing, why have I not prepared it, and it is only now that the lens is found to be unqualified?"

An old man in the meeting room raised his hand, and then answered:

"The current domestic glass manufacturing process is indeed lagging behind, especially for this kind of high-precision lens. Not only can we not produce it, but it is even difficult to detect it."

"Actually, after the start of the chip project, we immediately started looking for suitable lenses in China, and initially identified several manufacturers and collected samples."

"However, because the detection technology is not advanced enough, we only found out that the samples provided by these manufacturers were unqualified after we received the report yesterday."

"But in any case, we still have time. The production of lithography machines has not yet entered the final stage, and other components are still in production. In 10 days, we will definitely find qualified lenses."

After listening to the old man's words, Ye Zhou sighed.

This is indeed a realistic problem. The backwardness of materials and technology has restricted the development of many domestic technologies. To change this situation, he cannot do it with just a few words.

"So, it is impossible to rebuild the factory and put it into production now, and the time is too late. Can you get the Du lens from overseas channels?"

"This road is already going, but I guess it will take some time and it will be difficult."

If there is difficulty, it means that at least there is still a chance.

After discussing a few topics, Ye Zhou walked outside the door in a little disappointment to spread his word. After a few minutes, Chen Hao followed in his footsteps and came out.

"Why, do you feel frustrated?"

Chen Hao asked.

"Well, when the road was repaired, everyone already felt that victory was in sight, but now that something like this happened, no one would feel indifferent."

Chen Hao nodded, and continued to comfort him:

"The process of exploration is like this. We start from scratch. Every step is a thorny road. There are more than one problem, but it will continue to emerge, but we can think of a solution for every problem."

"For example, about the lens. I just read the document and found a very interesting thing. Do you know what it is?"

After hearing Chen Hao's words, Ye Zhou asked with some doubts:

"What is it?"

"I found that the lens you listed in the document actually contains a lot of rare earth elements, right?"

"That's right. Originally, the manufacture of high-end lenses relies on the rare earth industry. Isn't this an interesting thing, isn't it common sense?"

Chen Hao shook his head and continued:
"It's common sense for you, but it's not for me or most people who don't know much about this industry. Let's conclude that a lithography machine needs a lens, and the lens must have rare earths, right?"

"Yup!"

Ye Zhou couldn't understand what Chen Hao meant.

What's the point of selling it at this time?
Seeing the anxious expression on Ye Zhou's face, Chen Hao smiled and said:
"You see, this is a problem of poor information. We didn't know that domestic lenses could not meet the requirements, so we wasted time; I didn't know that lenses were related to rare earths, so I couldn't think of a solution just now."

"But now, I already know how to solve this problem."

"And I can tell you that as long as there is a problem related to rare earths, even if there is only a trivial connection, we can solve 100% of them."

Ye Zhou was stunned.

That's a bit too much to say.

He does know the monopoly position of the domestic rare earth industry in the world, but this does not mean that they can control the downstream industry, especially the lens industry, which already belongs to the downstream industry.

There are rare earths, but you can't make lenses, so what's the use?

Chen Hao seemed to have seen through Ye Zhou's thoughts long ago. He took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it and took a deep breath. After exhaling the smoke, he asked:
"Do you know the night march plan?"

(End of this chapter)