Chapter 267 Start Lithography!

With the capabilities of Ning Chen and Xingchen Technology, it is naturally impossible to complete this work.

Fortunately, Ningchen has accumulated enough resources over the years, and Ningchen itself has a very strong influence. It is not difficult to contact these other universities, scientific research institutions, and companies to cooperate with Xingchen Technology.

"The biggest problem now is the processing of quantum chips."

Because the quantum chip process technology required for quantum leap is very high, the previous domestic lithography machines are no longer capable of this job.

Ning Chen also does not want to use foreign lithography machines to process quantum chips. On the one hand, this involves restrictions on use procedures. On the other hand, Ning Chen also hopes that this quantum computer can continue to use nationally produced technology.

Fortunately, because of the establishment of photolithography factories, it has become possible for domestic equipment to produce high-precision chips.

"I don't know how the construction of our photolithography factory is going now. Let's go and have a look at it when we get a chance." Ning Chen thought.

Since it was already very late today, Ning Chen decided to wait until the next morning to contact Warwick.

The next morning, Ning Chen woke up early as usual and felt very energetic and energetic.

"Sure enough, using the focus state does not require a long rest to recover like using the excitement mode. You can even return to normal working status after just a normal rest."

After confirming this, Ning Chen felt more confident.

In the morning, Ning Chen got in touch with Warwick and asked about the construction progress of the Huawei photolithography factory.

Because Xingchen Technology was not directly involved in the construction of the photolithography factory and only held part of the ownership, Ning Chen did not know much about the construction progress of the photolithography factory.

After communicating with the relevant personnel of the Warwick lithography factory, Ning Chen obtained relatively optimistic results.

Although lithography factories have not yet entered the application stage so far, according to experimental test results, lithography factories can indeed obtain light sources of various specifications.

As long as the follow-up work can continue smoothly, the application of photolithography factories will be a matter of time.

Next, Ning Chen expressed his desire to go to the photolithography factory to have a look.

Warwick naturally welcomes Ning Chen's arrival. After all, Ning Chen is the designer of the lithography factory and one of the owners of the lithography factory.

A few days later, Ning Chen took a flight from Shengzhou to Shenzhen and went to the Warwick headquarters.

Because of the price of land, the location of the photolithography factory is definitely not in the center of Shenzhen City, but in a relatively remote location dozens of kilometers away from the Warwick headquarters.

Ning Chen arrived at the headquarters of Warwick Company first. Duan Yuan was already ready downstairs in the company, waiting for Ning Chen's arrival.

"Teacher Ning, you are here!"

"Mr. Duan, long time no see!"

Seeing Ning Chen again, Duan Yuan seemed to be more polite and respectful to Ning Chen.

I remember the first time I met Ning Chen. Although Ning Chen was already very famous, at that time Ning Chen was just a teacher who had just stayed in school. The company was also in its infancy, just a little-known small company. That’s all.

At that time, Duan Yuan was still hesitating whether to really go to Shengzhou to see Ning Chen, and almost missed this good opportunity.

Now, Ning Chen has built Xingchen Technology into a first-tier technology company in China. He has just won the Fields Medal, the highest award in the world of mathematics, filling Xia Guo's gap in this award.

In comparison, Duan Yuan is just a department manager in Warwick. Even if he only compares his achievements in the business world, Duan Yuan cannot be compared with Ning Chen.

Ning Chen first visited Warwick's headquarters under the leadership of Duan Yuan and learned about some of Warwick's recent situations.

"Teacher Ning, let me take you to the photolithography factory now."

"Okay, then I'll trouble Mr. Duan."

Compared to Warwick Company, Ning Chen is naturally more concerned about the situation of the photolithography factory. Since the construction of the photolithography factory began, Ning Chen has not yet gone to the site to carefully understand the situation of the photolithography factory.

After nearly an hour's drive, Ning Chen, Duan Yuan and others finally arrived at the photolithography factory.

Ning Chen was also a little amazed when he saw the magnificent scene in front of him.

The entire photolithography factory covers a very large area. Standing on the flat ground, Ning Chen couldn't even see the entire photolithography factory at a glance.

Even though this was all Ning Chen's design, when he actually saw the completed photolithography factory, Ning Chen was still shocked by the scene.

"Teacher Ning, would you like me to introduce you to the various locations of the photolithography factory?" Duan Yuan said with a smile.

"No need, Mr. Duan, let me introduce it to you." Ning Chen responded with a smile.

Although this is Ning Chen's first time to come to the photolithography factory, Ning Chen is still very familiar with this place. After all, it was designed by Ning Chen himself. Ning Chen understands the use of every position in detail.

Boosters, high-energy transport lines, low-energy transport lines, storage rings, linear accelerators...

As Ning Chen walked around, important parts of the photolithography factory appeared in front of Ning Chen's eyes one after another.

"Teacher Ning, now our lithography master machine can obtain various beams of different specifications after layers of light source screening. The most precise beam can even reach 1nm."

Such precision is simply unachievable even with the most advanced photolithography machines in the world today.

Judging from the obtained beam accuracy, domestic photolithography factories have indeed achieved transcendence in corners.

However, after all, domestic photolithography factories are still in the experimental stage and have not yet entered the application stage.

Being able to obtain a beam with 1nm precision does not mean that a chip with a 1nm process technology can be produced immediately.

After carefully checking the quality of various light sources obtained from the lithography master machine, Ning Chen already had some new ideas in mind.

"Mr. Duan, can you take me to see Mr. Ren?"

"Do you want to see Mr. Ren... I'll contact you first."

"It's okay, there's no rush."

Ning Chen knew that it would not be easy for him to meet Mr. Ren, especially for such a sudden meeting.

But what Ning Chen didn't expect was that Mr. Ren quickly replied to Duan Yuan, saying that he would meet with Ning Chen immediately.

In fact, when he learned that Ning Chen was coming to Warwick, Mr. Ren was already prepared to meet Ning Chen.

After all, Ning Chen is an important partner of Warwick. Without Ning Chen, Warwick would never be able to reach such heights.

For this reason, Mr. Ren also deliberately suspended some of the work at hand and returned to his office.

"Teacher Ning, I'm sorry, I was dealing with some work just now, so I asked Mr. Duan to help entertain you."

"It's okay, Mr. Ren. I came here unexpectedly this time. I hope I won't disturb Mr. Ren's work."

After the two were polite to each other, they talked about some recent events.

"Mr. Ning, congratulations on winning this year's Fields Medal. During the award ceremony, our entire Warwick company was watching the live broadcast of the awards. Everyone was happy for your win."

This was indeed the case at the time. Except for the employees who could not leave their jobs, everyone was indeed paying attention to Ning Chen's process of winning the Fields Medal.

This matter is not the glory of Ning Chen alone, but also the glory of the entire Xia Kingdom.

After talking about the Fields Medal, Ning Chen brought up the topic of Warwick mobile phones.

"Mr. Ren, the sales of Warwick mobile phones have been really good recently. Our Warwick store in Steel City has always been filled with customers. Warwick Mate7 always requires an appointment to be purchased."

Hearing Ning Chen mention this matter, Mr. Ren felt a little embarrassed.

"This is indeed a problem of our supply capacity. Now we are working hard to increase the production speed of the supply chain and strive to solve the problem of insufficient supply as much as possible. In addition, our chip reserves are relatively limited, although within two or three years it will be There is no problem, but after using up this batch of chips, we will really start using our own chips."

Although those foreign companies have lifted their previous suspension of supply, this will not change Huawei's idea of ​​continuing to use self-developed technology.

At this time, Ning Chen talked about his ideas about quantum computers.

"Mr. Ren, recently our Xingchen Technology has been studying the design and processing technology of quantum chips. We hope to use the equipment of the photolithography factory to manufacture quantum chips with a 14nm process technology."

This manufacturing process can be said to be several levels higher than that of the Galaxy Quantum Computer.

This also allows quantum leaps to achieve more powerful capabilities with smaller power consumption.

After hearing Ning Chen's thoughts, Mr. Ren also felt very satisfied.

"If Mr. Ning can take the lead in verifying the application capabilities of the photolithography factory, we at Warwick will naturally welcome it. The photolithography factory is a joint factory between Warwick Company and Xingchen Technology. As long as it is normal research work, we at Warwick Company will fully support it. of."

Although the nature of Warwick Company is relatively special, after all, Warwick Company is still a private enterprise, and various procedures are relatively simple.

After reaching an agreement with Mr. Ren, Ning Chen prepared to implement the chip photolithography experiment.

With the help of the focused state, Ning Chen already understood the photolithography steps of the entire chip.

After seeing the situation of the photolithography factory, Ning Chen also knew that the current photolithography factory is fully equipped with application capabilities.

Before conducting the experiment, Ning Chen and Warwick's chip research team exchanged information about chip lithography.

"Our core step in this experiment is the alignment exposure technology of chip lithography. Now we have the ability to obtain high-precision beams, but there are many other problems that we still need to solve one by one."

Just the steps of chip photolithography include surface cleaning and drying, priming, spin coating of photoresist, soft baking, alignment exposure, post-baking, highlighting, etc.

Some of these process steps may not seem complicated, but if you want to complete chip lithography perfectly, each step needs to be taken very seriously to ensure the quality of the chip processing process.

After completing these steps, etching and other processes are required to finally obtain the finished chip.

…

In the following time, Ning Chen worked with Warwick's chip research team to conduct research on chip manufacturing.

Ning Chen is involved in all work contents throughout the process. Even if it is just a relatively basic work content such as wafer cleaning, Ning Chen will still participate very seriously and strive to avoid any problems in the whole process.

After a series of operating steps, we finally reached the most critical step of chip lithography.

Chip photolithography alignment exposure technology.

This step has very high requirements for operating accuracy. Generally, the alignment accuracy is required to be one-seventh to one-tenth of the thinnest line width.

Ning Chen carefully observed the operations of the processing personnel and the quality of the finished products, and analyzed the experimental phenomena.

In fact, the entire processing process was very standardized, but the quality of the final product was not satisfactory to Ning Chen.

After all, the entire photolithography process uses fully self-developed technology. Looking at any company in the world, it is impossible to complete all these tasks perfectly.

Warwick is almost relying on the power of a company to challenge this almost impossible task.

After completing the first batch of experimental processing, Ning Chen analyzed the quality of the products with everyone.

"On the whole, the quality of the chips we got is still in line with our expectations. But with this chip quality, there is still a certain gap between the immediate implementation of applications."

No one denied this result. With such chip quality, they would definitely not dare to put such a chip on a Warwick mobile phone.

At this time, the atmosphere in the factory floor seemed a bit dull.

In fact, the entire Huawei chip R&D team has always been under a lot of pressure.

Once they are unable to completely solve the chip problem within two to three years, Warwick may really face the problem of no core availability.

For them, this research is a no-go study.

However, Ning Chen was not as desperate as others. Although Ning Chen could not solve these problems immediately, he at least had a general idea.

"In fact, we can adjust and optimize from the two perspectives of exposure energy and focal length. Our current experimental conditions are most likely not the best experimental conditions, and there will still be a long way to go before the optimal experimental conditions. distance."

Although in previous simulations, these were the best conditions considered by Ning Chen and others, in actual experiments, small errors will occur in the conditions of each step.

After multiple consecutive steps, these errors will continue to accumulate, and the final accumulated error value cannot be ignored at all.