Chapter 366 Beyond Level 1 Cleanliness!
The young man named Xiao Li became flustered upon hearing this and hurriedly took out a portable air detection instrument from his backpack.
With a few "beeping" sounds, the air detection instrument started to work, and the pipe on the top of the instrument began to absorb and filter the air in the environment.
The working principle of this type of air detection instrument is to inhale a fixed volume of air within a certain period of time and determine the cleanliness of the entire working environment by the number of particles detected.
Just not long after the instrument was turned on, the young man named Xiao Li's expression changed .
"Director, the environmental cleanliness level has exceeded Level 1!" Xiao Li swallowed, his voice trembling a little.
If it is only level 1 cleanliness, it would be fine, because such environmental standards can be seen in the sterile operating rooms of many hospitals and semiconductor factories.
What is Class 1 cleanliness?
That is, in 1 cubic meter of space, there are no more than 10 particles with a diameter of 0.1 microns floating!
According to current international standards, the cleanliness level is divided into 9 levels. The number and diameter of particles in each level gradually decrease, and Level 1 cleanliness is the highest set of standards in the entire industry.
This level of cleanliness has reached the point of being almost sterile and dust-free.
However, according to the LCD screen , not even a single particle was detected in the air of this underground fortification.
Even the top chip manufacturers abroad cannot achieve such terrible air quality.
Because wherever there are people entering and exiting, it is easy to bring in suspended particulate matter, from water molecules brought out by breathing from the mouth and nose to dust, and then to bacteria and fungi attached to the human body surface, etc.
In order to solve the problem of man-made particle transmission, major chip manufacturers will set up several layers of cleaning checkpoints at the entrances and exits of their factories.
From electrostatic dust removal to a full set of protective clothing, every worker who has access to the lithography machine is fully armed and wrapped up like an astronaut going to outer space. The purpose is to prevent contamination of the working environment of the lithography machine.
However, this set of protective measures that were as strong as an insurmountable chasm became like a decoration in Chen Jue's hands. He created a more advanced clean environment with a wave of his hand.
Because the electric light emitted from his fingertips not only absorbed and removed the dust and suspended matter in the air, but even the water molecules, bacteria, and viruses that were invisible to the naked eye were instantly pierced by the strong electric field and turned into atomic form and sucked into the walls and the ground.
With the powerful [Matter Interference] skill, as long as Chen Jue is willing, all the matter in this underground fortification can be crushed into atoms, not to mention these particles with diameters of microns.
“Can’t even detect a single particle?”
"Even the core laboratory of AMSL cannot achieve this level of cleanliness!" The researchers from the Institute of Optoelectronics discussed among themselves.
Such a huge and exaggerated change naturally shocked Lin Weiguo and others. They stared at the long string of zeros on the testing instrument for a long time without saying a word.
Coupled with the full-surround epoxy anti-static coating that Chen Hao had just rubbed on by hand, this originally backward and dusty underground fortification was transformed into the world's top clean room in the blink of an eye.
Such ability can no longer be explained by common sense and has completely exceeded the scope of understanding of existing science and technology.
…
After solving the environmental problems in the production of lithography machines, Chen Jue felt the scorching gazes from Lin Weiguo and others.
Without much explanation, he walked forward and opened several huge material containers in front of him, which were densely packed with all kinds of raw materials for manufacturing lithography machines.
From specially made high-voltage transmission cables to extremely precise laser lenses, there are also several 3D printing machines used to manufacture lithography machine parts.
After receiving the notice from the higher authorities, the Institute of Optoelectronics took out almost all the good stuff they had. Many of the materials were of laboratory confidentiality level, and any one of them was enough to apply for patent protection in the market.
Of course, it is not easy to manufacture a lithography machine with atomic-level precision.
You should know that even the current ASML company only has a lithography accuracy of 2.5 nanometers. The atomic-level accuracy is equivalent to a 25-fold improvement on the basis of ASML's existing accuracy.
According to Moore's Law in the integrated circuit industry, it would take at least 18 to 24 months to double the precision of the semiconductor industry.
To improve the accuracy by 25 times on the original basis, it would take half a century for a company like ASML to develop it.
The technological gap here can no longer be simply measured by time. If you want to overtake on a curve, only someone with a cheat like Chen Jue can do it!
…
Looking at the mountain of materials in front of him, Chen Jue first touched his chin and fell into a brief contemplation. Then he retrieved several lithography machine design drawings sent by the Institute of Optoelectronics from his smart watch.
You know, the operating principle of the photolithography machine is nothing more than irradiating a light source with a shorter wavelength onto a wafer coated with photoresist to form tiny transistor circuits.
The most core component of the lithography machine is the laser light source. The shorter the wavelength of the laser light source, the higher the precision of the final chip.
As for the most advanced laser lenses on the market, it is not the well-known ASML company, but two companies in the world: Nikon and Canon.
We have to mention here that at the end of the last century, Huawei was so powerful in the semiconductor industry that it was known as the Semiconductor Empire, and once occupied 80% of the world's share in the memory and chip fields.
At that time, in the field of lithography machine manufacturing, how could ASML from Windmill Country have anything to do with it? This company was completely invisible and could not even be ranked in the semiconductor field!
The entire semiconductor industry is supported by Nikon and Canon. It is no exaggeration to say that they are two giants competing for the "father".
But as they argued, this "Dad" finally came.
This "Dad" is none other than the Eagle Country across the ocean!
When the Eagle Country saw that Nikon and Canon were fighting over the field of photolithography machines, it came up and tried to reconcile them: "Stop fighting, Dad is here."
Then he used a set of ancestral boxing techniques, Eagle-style punches, to attack, directly issuing anti-dumping fines to the two companies and requiring them to open up their core patented technologies, and also issuing a 100% tariff fine to the entire semiconductor industry.
This set of well-received combined punches directly destroyed half of China's chip industry.
After entering the 21st century, with the upgrading of semiconductor manufacturing technology, major manufacturers have increasingly higher requirements for the precision of lithography machines.
Nikon and Canon, which were left half dead after being hit by the Eagle-style punch, have been stuck at the 193-nanometer precision and unable to make any progress due to insufficient technical reserves and a lack of courage to innovate.
Because the lithography machines manufactured by Nikon and Canon are traditional dry lithography machines, they are restricted by Moore's Law and the only way to improve lithography accuracy is to continue polishing the laser lenses.
But when it comes to precision machining, the level of progress becomes slower and slower as time goes by.
This went on for several years until TSMC came up with a clever solution: it used water droplets to refract the laser at the moment it was emitted, thus shortening the wavelength of the laser.
When the engineers from Nikon and Canon first heard about this plan, they all thought it was bullshit.
After all, the lithography machine is a very sophisticated instrument. After water is poured into it, no one can guarantee whether the lithography machine can continue to operate, so this solution was not adopted.
Coincidentally, when ASML company in Windmill Country heard about this plan, it was overjoyed and gathered a group of engineers to tinker with what later became the famous immersion lithography machine.
Of course, the United States also provided core technology to ASML and convened national laboratories in several countries to participate in the research and development of immersion lithography machines, which led to the birth of extreme ultraviolet light, commonly known as EUA light lithography machines.
What Chen Juexian is struggling with right now is: "Should I use a traditional dry lithography machine or a tricky immersion lithography machine?"
Fortunately, this dilemma only lasted half a minute. After browsing the design plan provided by Optoelectronics, Chen Jue muttered, "A bird in the hand is worth a hundred in the bush!"
"The principle of using dry type is simpler and it is more difficult to copy."
After saying that, Chen Jue spread out his five fingers. The golden electric light that emerged from his fingertips was like a chain, covering several large supply boxes in front of him at once.
With the high-power input of plasma energy and the ability of [matter interference], the originally cold cables, lenses, metals, rubber and other materials seemed to come alive, like pieces of Lego bricks, and began to piece together a pure white rectangular lithography machine according to Chen Jue's ideas.
The prototype of the lithography machine was based on the design of the Institute of Optoelectronics, but to be on the safe side, Chen Jue strengthened the stability of the internal power supply system.
At the core laser component of the lithography machine, an ultra-micro laser lens so small that it is difficult to see even with an ordinary electron microscope is being constructed bit by bit under the interference of golden energy.
