This production line can produce 12-inch wafers, which are 30 centimeters in diameter. Wanan's computers now use eight-inch chips, nearly twice the size.
In this era, doubling the size of the chip means that the computer is smaller, which means the technology is higher. But thirty years later, the result is exactly the opposite. The larger the wafer, the higher the technology content.
The reason is very simple. The functions of the chips in the 1980s were really not very good. Wan'an Company's WPS word processing system is considered to be the most powerful word processing program in the world, but its functions are even "junk" in Liu Lang's eyes.
Not really, even the performance of computer chips seven or eight years later will be better than
It is infinitely superior, not to mention the chips of the Internet era. At that time, the size of components on the chip was measured in nanometers. Thirty years later, the smallest components of the mobile phone chips designed by Apple reached several nanometers.
If the size is smaller, quantum effects will occur.
Therefore, the number of electronic components on the chip in this era is about the same, ranging from one to two thousand to seven to eight hundred. On this basis, everyone is pursuing who can put these components on a smaller wafer.
Thirty years later, the size of components has entered the nanometer level, and the pursuit is who can burn more components, so wafers will become larger and larger, and larger chips are the top technologies.
reflect.
It was also the first time for Liu Lang to see the internal structure of a wafer production line. There were many pieces of equipment that he didn't understand.
Wang Haijun has studied this production line for many years. Although he has never seen these complicated equipment, after comparing the manuals and searching countless information, his understanding of the equipment is already the best in the country.
Semiconductor chip production is mainly divided into three major links: design, manufacturing and packaging and testing. Chip design mainly carries out logic design and rule formulation based on the design purpose of the chip. The current job of Wanhe team is chip design.
Chip manufacturing also includes making masks based on design drawings for use in subsequent manufacturing steps. Chengxian is mainly responsible for this work.
The Jiangnan factory's production line is mainly for manufacturing. In one sentence, this process is to transfer the chip circuit diagram from the design mask to the silicon wafer and realize the predetermined chip function.
How is this process implemented? It includes several processes, including photolithography, etching, film deposition, chemical mechanical polishing and other steps.
"Liu Lang, look, this piece of equipment has the highest technological content in this production line!"
Wang Haijun pointed to a sealed instrument and said.
"Is this the engraving machine?"
Zhou Ming said slowly from the side.
"Engraving machine? By the way, Professor Zhou, that's what we call it in China. Abroad it should be called a photolithography machine!"
Wang Haijun replied.
"Lithography machine?"
Liu Lang moved slightly. He knew about this instrument from his wife Hong Yu. This photolithography machine can be called one of the most sophisticated instruments invented in human history. Thirty years later, it will be the most sophisticated instrument in the world.
The only factory that can manufacture high-end photolithography machines is a company in the Netherlands. They only produce a dozen units each year, and each unit sells for more than 100 million U.S. dollars. Nikon in the island country also manufactures these machines.
This kind of instrument is just less accurate than the Dutch company, but even so, the photolithography machine it produces has been ordered by several chip giants in the world several years in advance. China wants to buy the most advanced machine.
You have to wait until other companies have purchased the lithography machine before you can get it. This time lag is how Western developed countries suppress China, lest you lose the most advanced technology.
How powerful is a lithography machine?
Hong Yu once introduced to Liu Lang the performance of the most advanced photolithography machine at that time like a "nymphomaniac"!
For example, the light energy of the photolithography machine is extremely destructive. All parts and materials in the process challenge the limits of human technology. Even the interference of air molecules will affect the light, so the production process must be in a vacuum environment, and the temperature and humidity
Changes in pressure and pressure will also affect focus, so the temperature change inside the machine must be controlled within five thousandths of a degree. It requires appropriate cooling methods, accurate temperature sensors, and more importantly, extremely precise lenses and lenses.
light source.
It is useless to have top-notch lenses and light sources without ultimate mechanical precision. There are two synchronously moving workpiece stages in the lithography machine, one for carrying the film and the other for carrying the film. The two must be synchronized at all times, and the error between the two must be less than 2 nanometers.
The acceleration of a workbench from static to dynamic is about the same as that of a missile launch. Moreover, the mechanical movements are so precise that the error is only one trillionth of a second.
Liu Lang still remembered that Hong Yu gave an example at that time. This synchronicity is equivalent to two large planes moving hand in hand from takeoff to landing. A knife sticks out from one plane and engraves on the rice grains of the other plane.
, it cannot be carved into pieces yet.
Is the photolithography machine awesome? Of course it is, even a layman like Liu Lang thinks how can humans build such an instrument?
But human beings were created, and they will continue to develop in the future, until the birth of quantum computers...
However, Hong Yu is talking about the lithography machine thirty years from now. The lithography machine in front of everyone now cannot be compared with his "grandchildren". The process of this lithography machine is only four microns, but in the future it will be ten microns.
A few nanometers, the difference between the two is hundreds of times, and the difference between the two must be described mechanically. If the current lithography machine is compared to the engine of a domestic walking tractor, then the future lithography machine will be the engine of the space shuttle.
"This should be an engraving machine that can reach the 4-micron level. The technology is really advanced, much better than our country!"
Zhou Ming looked at it intently and sighed.
Zhou Ming participated in satellite development more than 20 years ago and is very familiar with the country's semiconductor development.
The photolithography machine coats the silicon wafer with photosensitive adhesive, covers it with circuit film designed for integrated circuits and exposes it, clears the photosensitive part, and exposes the silicon wafer for processing and final shaping. In simple terms, it uses light to "carve"
, because electronic components are all at the level of more than a dozen nanometers. Where in the world is there such a small "engraving knife" that can carve these components on the wafer?
However, despite the fact that photolithography machines are so high-end, China is one of the first countries to develop such instruments.
In the late 1950s, the photolithography machine had been invented in the United States and subsequently used in practice. In the early 1960s, with the return of a large number of foreign semiconductor experts, the country also listed semiconductor technology as a national
Key development subjects.
At that time, the country was full of talents in the field of semiconductors. Famous scientists such as Huang Kun, Xie Xide, and Zhou Ming were all professionals who had returned from abroad. They led the country to start researching lithography technology. At that time, they developed
Germanium alloy transistors and magnetic film memories.
In the early 1960s, the United States proposed the oxide semiconductor effect crystal and developed a dense circuit board with a thousand components. This was the world's first twenty-inch integrated circuit.
At the same time, China continued to use the ancient traditional photography microscope for reduced exposure. It used artificial photolithography technology, which is a method of adding coordinate values, spraying black coated paper and adding a scalpel. The accuracy can reach a few tenths of a millimeter. For those of that era,
It is also sufficient for integrated circuits.
By the mid-1960s, China finally produced the first batch of contact lithography machines, and this technology was already among the best in the world.
In the 1970s, due to the booming development of the large-scale integrated circuit industry, American lithography technology finally ushered in a big explosion and entered the eight-micron process era. Key process equipment technologies such as projection lithography machines were developed, and in
In the mid-1970s, the world's first 12-inch integrated circuit production line was established, which is the four-micron process technology in front of everyone.