127. Chapter 126 Improvement Plan
Chapter 126 Improvement Plan
Plans aside, the equipment that needs to be dismantled still needs to be dismantled.
However, Kang Chi does not need to dismantle it in pieces, he only needs to separate a few modules.
Anyway, no one can recognize what this thing is after the shell is removed.
Due to the heavy workload, Kang Chi could only stay in Dongyang for another week. At the same time, while taking a break from dismantling, he also took the time to look at the EUV design drawings of Chang Chunguang Institute and almost understood all the drawings.
In the EUV light source of the lithography machine, there are two relatively mature and reliable solutions, namely the DPP and LPP solutions.
The principles of these two solutions are actually similar, that is, extreme ultraviolet light can be released during the process of converting tin into plasma. The only difference is that DPP is activated by electroshock tin, and LPP is activated by laser secondary strike to tin liquid.
According to China’s usual style, they will try everything.
So the two schemes are currently being developed by Changchun Optical Institute and Shanghai Optical Institute respectively.
Among them, Shanghai Optical Institute’s LPP scheme is actually the fastest. It is said that the power has reached 188W and the conversion efficiency is 3.7%, which is basically ready for practical use.
However, the pulsed high-power carbon dioxide laser required in the LPP scheme has not yet been conquered. Currently, only M country and island countries can produce it. Like EUV lithography machines, they cannot be bought even if you have money.
So although ASML’s EUV lithography machine uses this scheme, which can be regarded as a direction for China, the challenges are even greater due to patent barriers and sales bans.
On the other hand, the DPP scheme can avoid patent barriers and has greater prospects, because it directly converts electrical energy into plasma energy, the light source structure is simple, and it is relatively easy to increase the power as the technology matures.
If the accelerator of the synchrotron radiation light source can be miniaturized, then the DPP scheme will also have greater application prospects.
This is also the main reason why Kang Chi chose the DPP solution of Changchun Guang Institute.
After thoroughly studying the drawings of Changchun Guang Institute and analyzing the difficulties and technical defects they are currently facing, Kang Chi spent a few days to improve the design of this solution, and then handed the hard drive to Chen Hai, asking him to arrange for someone to send it to Changchun.
When He Yong received the hard drive and learned that Kang Chi had completed the improved design of the solution, he couldn’t help but take out his mobile phone and confirm the date.
”It’s only been ten days, are you sure he has understood the drawings?”
Lai Qinglei, who was responsible for delivering the drawings, shook his head: “Sorry, I’m just a deliveryman, I don’t know anything about the technical level, but I don’t think Dr. Kang should make such a low-level joke.”
”Really?” He Yong sneered, “Why do I feel that he always likes to joke.”
After taking the hard drive, He Yong couldn’t help but return to the office immediately, curiously opened the drawings inside, wanting to see if Kang Chi’s so-called improved plan was true or false.
Opening the first overall structure diagram, He Yong saw at a glance that it was very different from their original design.
So, he really improved the design? And it took him only ten days from digesting the drawings to completing the improved design? !
Let alone whether the improved plan is feasible, the efficiency alone makes He Yong feel a little unbelievable.
After a brief surprise, He Yong enlarged the design drawing and carefully analyzed the changes inside, and his brows gradually began to frown.
”Magnetic field confinement?”
Looking at the twisted lines wrapped around the two electrodes, He Yong always felt that he seemed to have seen a similar design structure somewhere…
He Yong, who didn’t see anything special, tried to find the detailed decomposition diagram of this twisted shape based on Kang Chi’s annotations on the overall structure diagram.
Then he suddenly widened his eyes.
He finally knew where he was and had seen a similar structure.
This is…
A star simulator! This structure is too much like the magnetic field ring of the stellarator, an important technical route for controlled nuclear fusion! Are you kidding? !
We are making EUV light sources, not nuclear fusion! Even if you design a stellarator, can we make it? !
When He Yong saw this picture for the first time, he thought it was too outrageous.
But after taking a closer look, he soon found that although it looked like a stellarator, it was actually quite different from a stellarator.
The design of the stellarator isA perfect closed-loop magnetic field, while this one is obviously an open loop, and the structure is relatively simple.
He Yong looked at the technical description of this picture again, and soon understood the specific principle of Kang Chi’s improvement plan.
In the DPP-EUV solution, the biggest problem is that when ionizing tin, a large amount of tin debris will be generated. These debris are extremely hot and can easily corrode and contaminate electrodes and equipment.
Especially the reflector that collects light. Once damaged, the efficiency of collecting light will drop sharply.
So Kang Chi used a magnetic confinement principle similar to that of a stellarator to create an invisible “wind” to blow away the tin debris generated during the ionization process along the designed magnetic field route.
The idea is good, but is it possible? Let’s not talk about whether this strong magnetic field can be created. Even if it is created, will such a strong magnetic field interfere with other parts of the equipment?
In addition to the improvement point of cleaning debris in the magnetic field, He Yong also discovered another more crazy improvement of Kang Chi.
Tin should have been applied to the electrode,
But Kang Chi directly added a nozzle in the middle of the electrode, heated the tin to 2260 degrees, and sprayed it out as gas! The principle is actually a bit like a fuel engine, the fuel injector sprays oil, and then the spark plug ignites, The only difference is that one is combustion expansion work, and the other is ionization light.
One advantage of doing this is that it can solve the light source stability of repeated discharge, and it is easy to increase the light source power.
But the premise of all this is whether the magnetic field design like the stellarator is feasible.
If this magnetic field design is not feasible, the whole device will be destroyed once the tin gas is sprayed.
Thinking of this, He Yong immediately held a technical seminar and announced Kang Chi’s improvement plan directly at the meeting.
After seeing Kang Chi’s plan and listening to He Yong’s explanation, the entire conference room suddenly fell into silence for a long time.
Everyone was shocked by this bold and crazy plan.
He Yong also gave them enough time to digest this information.
After three minutes, someone finally asked, “Will this… work?”
”I don’t know either.” He Yong glanced at everyone, ”In theory, this is indeed a direction, but whether it can be realized specifically, we must first simulate and verify this design theory… Lao Liao, you are good at magnetic fields, so the magnetic field analysis will be left to you.”
Liao Yuan, who was called, nodded: “Give me two days.”
He Yong then turned his attention to another old man in his fifties: “Lao Xu, come here and study the design carefully to see how confident you are that it can be made.”
Then He Yong gave up his position.
Lao Xu studied the drawings on the computer for about half an hour, and finally nodded and said, “It shouldn’t be a big problem.”
”Although this looks like a stellarator, its requirements are actually not that harsh. Stellarators need to control nuclear fusion, which not only requires a very large magnetic force, but also cannot have the slightest deviation. But this only needs to roughly control the direction of the magnetic field, the equipment accuracy requirements are lower, and the volume is not large.”
He Yong was relieved after hearing this.
Next, we will wait for the results of the design theory simulation verification.
(End of this chapter)