Chapter 394: Enemy with the World
The emergence of innovative products in the semiconductor industry
《ASML is the first to develop EUV lithography machine》
《Chip process technology may be improved tenfold》
《Chip technology has reached its physical limit》
When topics like "magic" and "alien creatures" were still hot topics, ASML's EUV lithography machine immediately became a global hot topic thanks to the capital behind it.
Normally, the updates and iterations of a product will have traces to follow, or there will be technical reserves.
For example, it is clear that the EUV lithography machine is a new track and has little to do with the previous DUV lithography machine. However, in the parallel world, this machine was not introduced until the chip reached the 7nm bottleneck, which is the limit of the DUV lithography machine.
But here, because of the pressure brought by Umbrella's DUV lithography machine, there are also prospects for artificial intelligence and quantum computing + supercomputing models.
To regain the cutting-edge profits and for a better future.
When the current top chip process technology was still 14nm, ASML brought out their EUV lithography machine.
And because of Umbrella's influence on the lens field, there is also a sense of competition brought about by other technologies.
The EUV lithography machine that ASML brought out in advance this time has even better technical parameters than originally planned!
TSMC, Four Star, Intel and other wafer factories have already received the goods and started assembly and debugging!
Obviously, ASML's EUV lithography machine was not just produced. It was officially announced only after the supply had already started and they had to work overtime to complete the assembly.
The purpose is to achieve the goal in one step and to reduce the reaction time for competitors!
The EUV lithography machine is much larger than the DUV, weighing 180 tons. Even its transportation requires a special vehicle, and it is also quite troublesome to assemble.
If the staff of these cooperating wafer factories have not been trained in advance, it is quite normal for the installation and debugging to take more than half a year if starting from scratch.
Now, under the pressure from Umbrella, both ASML and major wafer factories have exerted their greatest potential and are working overtime to coordinate with each other.
With the hype fueled by various capitals and the new sanctions against Umbrella, many people finally came to their senses.
This time, I'm afraid the target is Umbrella!
“What a big deal!”
"I thought World Corporation was treated unfairly before, but compared to what happened to Umbrella, it's really scary!"
"The World Corporation was only affected incidentally. The main target is Umbrella. The benefits they bring are simply too great."
"ASML is so insidious. They kept it secret and only came out when the final decision was made."
“…”
As the discussion on the Internet fermented and reached its peak, ASML also held a live broadcast program.
There are also many semiconductor engineers from TSMC, Four Star, Intel, etc., as well as professionals from some chip design plants, packaging plants, etc.
Standing outside a factory, everyone had a smile on their face.
In front of the live camera, an ASML engineer took the lead in introducing
"I'm afraid many people didn't expect that we would abandon the mature DUV technology and develop EUV lithography machines from scratch."
As they talked, they walked around the factory.
"Perhaps from the very beginning, no one was optimistic about EUV lithography, because although in theory it can achieve ten times the resolution of DUV lithography, it is too difficult, too difficult, there are too many bottlenecks to break through, the demand for technology is extremely high, and there are countless difficulties to overcome."
As he spoke, he opened the bracelet, forming a three-dimensional holographic projection and briefly introduced
"Everyone knows that the essence of a photolithography machine is exposure. For a DUV photolithography machine, we can also find the corresponding lenses to allow deep ultraviolet light to pass through. In particular, the new lenses produced by Umbrella's technology later strengthened this point. Umbrella's own photolithography machine took advantage of this point to overtake us, surpassing our efficiency without using the immersion method!"
ASML did not belittle Umbrella, and it could even be said that it was bragging about it.
Because only by showing the strength of Umbrella can they prove that they are stronger!
This was a strong opponent, but they still lost, lost in front of us!
"But this is not possible for EUV lithography machines. The 13.5nm wavelength extreme ultraviolet light we use has a very strong ionization ability. There is no lens that can allow such a high-energy beam to pass through with such precision, so the only option is reflection!"
As he spoke, the holographic image also changed and the general principle was explained.
It is to continuously use the reflection of some lenses to complete the convergence of extreme ultraviolet rays.
A total of more than a dozen reflections are required to achieve the final exposure requirements!
"This requires extremely high precision for the reflective lenses, and we would like to thank Carl Zeiss for their efforts in this regard."
After saying this, he made a gesture of invitation to the engineer from Carl Zeiss next to him.
The engineer from Carl Zeiss also stepped forward and said politely:
"We also used Umbrella's technical coating, but of course, in terms of accuracy, we are still a little confident..."
Afterwards, ASML representatives introduced their EUV light source.
"As mentioned before, extreme ultraviolet light needs to be reflected more than a dozen times to achieve our effect. Because of the ionization consumption of extreme ultraviolet light, each reflection will lose about 30% of the energy. In the end, we can only effectively use about 2% of the light. Therefore, we need the light source to have sufficient and stable output power. In order to overcome this problem, Cymer has spent a full ten years to overcome it. However, Cymer was acquired by our company three years ago..."
As he spoke, he continued to play the holographic image, which even revealed the principle, which was to use high-energy lasers to continuously bombard liquid metal droplets. The difficulty and accuracy were enough to make people's scalps numb when looking at the data he provided.
It is not difficult to manufacture it, but to keep it stable and durable, and to have a light source with sufficient output power, it is necessary to ensure that each collision is extremely precise and the frequency is high enough.
The dripping metal droplets are constantly bombarded, and the slightest mistake in any aspect can make a complete difference.
Later, with the continuous introduction, the audience also understood how this monster of a machine was put together.
The beautiful lighting technology, the neon light source conversion equipment, the Gallic valves, the Prussian lenses, and the Swedish bearings all require extreme precision and are indispensable. Even the installation must be extremely delicate to avoid the slightest vibration of the surrounding environment.
Even the vehicles used to transport the lithography machines are TSMC’s patented technology!
At this point in the live broadcast, many viewers could see clearly what the problem was.
EUV lithography machine is by no means a matter of one or two technologies, but rather a gathering of all the world's most advanced technologies.
These top giants gathered together to suppress Umbrella Corporation.
Or just rely on the technological gap to crush everyone in one go!
This in itself is also a way of showing off muscles!
Today, the mainstream chip process is only 14nm.
However, the theoretical limit of EUV lithography machines is that they can reach the limit of silicon-based chips, which can reach 1nm!
If the tunneling problem can be solved, it can be even lower!
Yes, this is not in line with business rules and profits.
There is no slow iteration to harvest.
But there was no way. Umbrella was too strong, their DUV lithography machine had too good performance, and the chip was in a black box state and could not be understood at all.
In this situation, you can only use your best strength to defeat them directly.
Although the chip aspect has been overdrawn to the limit, it can be made up in quantum computing + supercomputing and artificial intelligence!
No matter how powerful Umbrella's artificial intelligence is, it still needs to rely on hardware!
Now, ASML is playing its cards right here.
We have the most powerful technologies in the world.
"This is our EUV lithography machine. Although it has just been installed and debugged in major wafer fabs, how to improve the process to the limit depends on the means of major wafer fabs. But our tools have been completed after all, and we have the conditions to constantly try and error and learn from experience, so we can keep moving forward and keep moving forward...
"Umbrella is very strong, so strong that it is breathtaking. The holographic technology I am showing you now, the enhanced coating on our lenses, the structure of artificial intelligence, etc., all lay a strong foundation for Umbrella.
"But, we are stronger..."
The camera then zoomed out to include ASML and many companies involved in EUV component design, the three major EDA manufacturers, chip design manufacturers, and all representatives from the original wafer manufacturers.
It demonstrated their great confidence and strength.
The reason for this live broadcast is to announce it to everyone.
They possess the world's most advanced technology.
The accumulation of this kind of technology is not something you can catch up with in a short period of time!
You may be able to break through a bottleneck in the short term, but you cannot break through all bottlenecks!
While you are catching up, we will also continue to move forward, always staying ahead, and building many barriers to block your way, so that we can always keep the gap!
Let us always occupy the biggest profit!
You are against the world...
