Technological power starts with upgrading lenses.

Chapter 182 The savior is here!

School of Microelectronics, Jiangsu University, Lin'an.

"Pour in hexamethyldisilazane..."

"The dehydration of the silicon wafer is completed, the viscosity-increasing treatment is completed, and the rotation coating begins."

"..."

This is an experimental process that they have conducted countless times. Except for the operator's process report from time to time, the experiment is silent.

Dozens of R&D personnel stood at their posts quietly, occasionally looking up at the operation of the equipment and the old man standing in the middle of the console.

"The glue coating inspection is completed, and no bubbles are found. Start the pre-exposure baking... After the pre-baking is completed, the lithography machine is ready for exposure..."

As the experiment progressed in an orderly manner, it finally came to the exposure stage.

Every time he entered the exposure session, those short ten seconds made Wu Lihong feel like a century...

During the exposure process, the measuring instruments installed on the workpiece table were also collecting crazy data at the same time.

"The exposure is over and we are entering the post-baking process. The exposure data is being analyzed..."

"The total gas production during the exposure process..." The researcher who reported the results paused, and then read out the value in a trembling tone, "289 cubic nanometers!"

Wow——!

Upon hearing this result, the entire laboratory suddenly became quiet, followed by bursts of exclamations.

"It turns out to be a problem with the side bond of the photoacid generator BR!"

"Academician Wu is awesome!"

"..."

Although the specific data for post-baking has not yet been released, the gas production data alone can be regarded as an unprecedented and major breakthrough!

A 12-inch silicon wafer covered with photoresist produced only 289 cubic nanometers of gas during the exposure process.

With such a small gas production volume, the exposed edge of the photoresist must be very smooth and flat.

This means higher definition and lower manufacturing processes.

It can be said that they have completely solved the most difficult gas production problem of photoresist!

After Wu Lihong heard this data, a relieved smile appeared on his face, but this made his face more wrinkled...

After about ten minutes, the exposed silicon wafer has been post-baked, and the photoresist in the exposed part has been dissolved and removed, and then a hard film baking is performed to strengthen the circuit protection film formed by the photoresist.

Next, is the most important circuit image clarity analysis in their experimental session.

The final analysis results were just as they expected. After reducing the gas production by 98%, the circuit protective film they obtained had a very smooth and flat surface without any collapse or deformation!

"The film thickness is normal and the overlay accuracy is normal!"

After hearing this result, everyone looked at Wu Lihong excitedly.

In fact, after the experiment has reached this point, it is basically certain that their EUV photoresist has reached the 13.5nm process standard.

Because all their efforts at Suzhou Microelectronics are spent on developing photoresist, there is not much research into compression processes such as multiple exposures, so 13.5 nanometers is only the minimum process technology of their institute.

The specific minimum process of this photoresist needs to be further verified by Shanghai Silicon Industry or Leon Micro, especially Shanghai Silicon Industry, which was the first to obtain EUV lithography machines. After several months of exploration and debugging, , they have pushed the process technology to 5nm.

However, for the sake of safety, Wu Lihong suppressed his excitement and said to everyone: "Immediately prepare for the etching experiment verification, confirm that the final link is OK, and then send it to Shanghai Silicon Industry."

"understand!"

After the researchers heard this, they immediately became busy again.

According to their previous experimental process, the experiment basically failed at this point. This time, they were not ready to enter the etching process at all.

But in the face of this unexpected and huge surprise, no one complained about "working overtime" at all, and everyone started to prepare for the experiment again.

Two hours later, the final results were finally released. The photoresist they developed successfully withstood the baptism of high-energy particles in dry etching and successfully completed the task of protecting the silicon wafer substrate. The chip yield rate was as high as 98%!

Under the leadership of Academician Wu Lihong, microelectronics researchers at Jiangsu University have finally successfully developed a top-grade domestic EUV photoresist that is capable of the 13.5nm process!

And this 13.5nm process is only the current preliminary experimental conclusion.

Judging from the overlay accuracy they obtained this time, this photoresist actually has a high probability of being capable of manufacturing 5nm process chips!

Wu Lihong was also very calm and did not choose to report the experimental results immediately. Instead, he asked the researchers to prepare a new batch of photoresist according to the last formula.

Then he repeated the experiment ten times, and after confirming that the error of each result was within the acceptable range, he took the photoresist and the team's main technicians to Shanghai and flew to Shanghai Silicon Industry Group.

At this time, Chen Yunming, the group president of Shanghai Silicon Industry, happened to be discussing the chip foundry issue of Huawei P6 with Mr. Yu and Mr. He from Warwick.

The main point of discussion between the two parties is the issue of output and cost.

Based on the principle of giving priority to large quantities, Warwick wants to directly order 9000 million Kirin s.

But in Shanghai's silicon industry, there is actually only one Qinguang No. 1.

Based on Qinguang-180’s silicon wafer throughput of 500 wafers per hour and the fact that each wafer manufactured can cut 216 chips, a lithography machine should have a daily production capacity of million chips.

But in fact, the throughput of the lithography machine does not represent the manufacturing speed of the wafer, but requires multiple exposures and etchings based on the design of different chips.

Taking Kirin 9000 as an example, it requires a full 19 photolithography-etching cycles to complete the entire wafer manufacturing process.

In other words, theoretically only 11 coins can be made every day.

This is based on 24-hour non-stop rest and maintenance of the equipment, as well as 100% yield.

Therefore, the actual production capacity is 8 pieces per day on average, which is already very good.

An order for 20 million chips will take almost eight months to complete, and that is if all production capacity is squeezed to Warwick.

What's more, under such high-load operation, they don't know if their photoresist inventory can sustain it...

"...We also have to consider costs and time to develop the 3nm process technology. I hope you can also consider our difficulties."

Chen Yunming really couldn't stand the tough talk from the two bosses, and finally made a decision,

"How about this? I'll give you two plans, one is 150 yuan for 300 million pieces, and the other is 200 yuan for 600 million pieces. 600 million is the limit, which is already interesting enough."

"Uh……"

Mr. Yu immediately made a calculation in his mind.

According to Taiwan Electromechanical's 5nm process, the price per wafer is US$13400, which is approximately equivalent to the foundry fee of each 5nm process chip, which is 187 yuan.

However, TSMC’s foundry is calculated on a wafer basis, and the scrap products are all paid for by you. However, what Chen Yunming just quoted was a chip price, which is equivalent to removing the scrap products, so the foundry fee of 150-200 yuan is not worth it here. In special times, it is indeed quite kind.

"But Mr. Chen, there is no reason why the more you buy, the more expensive it is..."

"Isn't this a special situation? If there is no movement of domestic photoresist before the photoresist in stock is used up, then we have no use for the photolithography machine. We can only save some money first..."

"Actually, there is another way, that is, you guys go to Dr. Kang to lend us some photoresist. That guy is a very smart guy. He asked us to help him collect photoresist long ago. Now Dahan Core's photolithography machine They collected more than us!"

Every time he thought about this, Chen Yunming regretted not listening to Kang Chi and stocking up on more photoresist in advance.

Mainly, who would have thought that he could develop an EUV lithography machine so quickly...

While Mr. Yu was still thinking about how long six million coins would last, Chen Yunming received a surprise call from Wu Lihong.

"Academician Wu? Wait...what did you say? Test the photoresist? Just downstairs?!"

"..."

After Chen Yunming put down the phone, it took him a while to calm down, and then he quickly called Dong Jianyuan and asked him to pick up Wu Lihong.

After dealing with this, he turned to look at the two bosses of Warwick and said with excitement: "Our savior is here!"

(End of this chapter)