Chapter 400: Wafer Slicing Machine

"Lao Wang, in the development of chips, Moore's Law is an iron law. As long as we have sufficient research and development capabilities, we will continue to advance along this law." Qin Guan said: "It was just my negligence, but I I think it is not particularly difficult for us to achieve a 1 micron process?"
Qin Guan mentioned Moore's Law, which was the inference of the semiconductor engineers of Eagle Country in 65 years. It is simple but widely circulated. In short, with the development of time, the number of integrated transistors on the chip will increase. , And the price will get cheaper.
This law is valid in the Western world, but it is not necessarily true in Han, because Han has a weak industrial base and does not have enough engineers.
"You said it nicely." Wang Lao said: "Do you know the manufacturing process of our chips? Do you know that we need to use lithography machines? This kind of equipment, our current highest level, can only reach 10 microns."
10 microns is already the highest level of its own, which is far behind foreign countries. However, Mr. Wang has no choice. He is studying chips, not photolithography machines.
"I can modify the lithography machine to achieve 1 micron accuracy." Qin Guan said: "Although you definitely don't believe it now, I think you can let me try."
Is this person really capable? Wang Lao was curious in his heart, if this person is nonsense, Lao Zhu would not be so ignorant, right? Bring such a person over, if what the other person says is true, I don't believe it.
This has exceeded his expectations.
"If there are old equipment in the 1109 factory, you can try it." Zhu Lao said at this moment.
Factory 1109 was established in the hands of Mr. Wang, near the Semiconductor Research Institute. At the same time, after the research and development of the key projects currently on hand by Mr. Zhu was completed, he became the factory manager of Factory 1109 again, responsible for The design is transformed into a product, dealing with the production line all day long.
Hearing Zhu Lao's words, Wang Lao thought for a while: "We have a slicer that is no longer usable. If you are really capable, please fix that slicer for me."
Mr. Wang won't waste time. After saying this at the door, he went back and went on to study the design of the chip!
People of the Han Academy of Sciences, cow!
Lao Song and Lao Tu didn’t catch up at all. They knew that Lao Wang was too busy. In fact, they had a lot of things on their hands, but they knew that Qin Guan was better and could follow Qin Guan. , Is good, but Wang Lao doesn't know.
In Wang's eyes, Qin Guan now seems to be a guy who can only speak big words.
"Qin Guan, don't be angry, Lao Wang has this temper, and he is also busy." Zhu Lao said: "He has undertaken a national key scientific research project. There is really too much to do."
"It's okay." Qin Guan said: "Chu, take me to the 1109 factory. Didn't he say that there is a slicer? I fixed it for him."
Now, Mr. Wang thinks that Qin Guan is a liar. When the slicer is repaired, Mr. Wang will definitely come to find himself. Of course, he has no grudges, so he can talk to him about the development of domestic chips!
Slicer? I saw this thing when I was wandering around in the machine tool cemetery just now. After a while, I will wait for myself to show my skills.
"Let's go, let's go to the 1109 factory." Qin Guan said, anyway, there is no meeting above, so I wandered around here first.
Qin Guan also knows the slicer, um, have you ever eaten lamb? When the mutton is cooked, the mutton slices are eaten, and the mutton slices are cut by a slicer, and the large pieces of meat are cut into pieces.
In chip manufacturing, this is also a similar step.
The original source of chips is sand. It is a good, very cheap sand. The scientific name is silicon dioxide. Silicon is the most important semiconductor material and is one of the most suitable materials for modern large-scale integrated circuits.
It is not easy to turn silicon dioxide into silicon, especially the purity required is quite high. This is the purification of silicon.
In this process, the raw material silicon will be melted and put into a huge quartz furnace. At this time, a seed crystal is put into the furnace so that silicon crystals grow around the seed crystal until a nearly perfect single crystal silicon is formed.
Finally, the silicon raw material is taken out from the high-temperature container by rotating and stretching, and a cylindrical silicon ingot is produced.
The diameter of a general silicon ingot is mostly 200 mm.
This silicon ingot, just like the steel ingot, is the initial manufacturing material. The next step is to cut the silicon ingot into slices, called wafers. This wafer is actually used for chip manufacturing.
At the same time, the thinner the slice, the less materials used, and naturally more chips can be produced. At the same time, the slices must be mirror-finished to ensure that the surface is absolutely smooth, and then check for distortion or other problems.
Therefore, the slicer is also an important part of chip manufacturing, which is much more technically difficult than cutting lamb slices.
Compared with the treatment encountered at the Han Academy of Sciences, it was a huge difference. When the group came to the 1109 factory, they were immediately warmly welcomed by the chief engineer's office director Ma.
"I heard that some of you are coming. We are very welcome. Now, please put on your clothes, and after walking through the filter room, you can go to the factory to have a look." Director Ma was quite enthusiastic.
This is a high-tech factory. The factory must be absolutely clean. Several people must put on full-body work clothes, even their heads are tightly wrapped, and then they are sucked in a vacuuming room. Within a few minutes, he walked into the factory.
"We now mainly produce integrated circuits. The chips used in our 150 computers are produced in our factory." Director Ma also put on the same clothes and introduced to several people as he walked.
It is also possible to produce computers in China, but compared with foreign ones, it is many times behind. The gap in this kind of technology has been felt by several people present. The projects at hand urgently need advanced domestic chips.
"The previous one is the slicer that we have repaired many times and cannot be repaired." Director Ma said.
Hearing that someone came to repair the slicer for himself, Director Ma was of course happy. They did not repair it many times. Now, there is only one slicer in the factory. If that one breaks down, the factory will be paralyzed.
However, these people don't look alike.
In the case of external blockade, Han can only rely on its own strength. The slicer in front of us is made by Han itself.
"Our slicer can cut silicon ingots into 3mm slices." Director Ma said: "The cost of this slice is quite high."
3 mm? Qin Guan shook his head: "Well, you can go to other places to visit first. I need to be quiet and see how to fix it."