183. Chapter 182 The Savior is Here!
Chapter 182 The Savior is Here!
Lin’an, School of Microelectronics, Suzhou University.
”Introduce hexamethyldisilazane…”
”The silicon wafer is dehydrated and the viscosity treatment is completed. Start the spin coating.”
”…”
This is the experimental process they have conducted countless times. Except for the operator’s occasional process report, the experiment is silent.
Dozens of R&D personnel quietly stick to their posts, occasionally looking up at the operation of the equipment and the old man standing in the middle of the control console.
”The coating test is completed, no bubbles are found, and the exposure pre-baking begins… The pre-baking is completed, and the lithography machine is ready for exposure…”
As the experiment progresses in an orderly manner, it finally reaches the exposure stage.
Every time he entered the exposure phase, the short ten seconds made Wu Lihong feel like a century…
During the exposure process, the measuring instrument installed on the workpiece table was also frantically collecting data.
”Exposure is over, entering the post-baking phase, and the exposure data is being analyzed…”
”The total gas production during the exposure process…” The researcher who reported the results paused, and then read out the value in a trembling tone, “289 cubic nanometers!”
Wow! Hearing this result, the whole laboratory suddenly became quiet, followed by bursts of exclamations.
”It turned out to be a problem with the BR-side bond of the photoacid generator!”
”Academician Wu is awesome!”
”…”
Although the specific data of the post-baking has not yet been released, the data of gas production alone can be regarded as an unprecedented major breakthrough! A 12-inch silicon wafer coated with photoresist produced only 289 cubic nanometers of gas during the exposure process. With such a small amount of gas produced, the exposed edge of the photoresist must be very smooth and flat.
This means higher clarity and lower process.
It can be said that they have completely solved the most difficult gas production problem of photoresist!
After hearing this data, Wu Lihong couldn’t help but smile with relief, but this made his face more wrinkled…
After about ten minutes, the exposed silicon wafer had completed post-baking, and the photoresist of the exposed part was dissolved and removed, and then a hard film baking was performed to strengthen the circuit protection film formed by the photoresist.
Next, it is the most important circuit image clarity analysis in this experimental link.
The final analysis results were exactly as they expected. After reducing the gas production by 98%, the circuit protection film they obtained had a very smooth surface without any collapse or deformation!
”The film thickness is normal, and the overlay accuracy is normal!”
Hearing this result, everyone looked at Wu Lihong excitedly.
In fact, at this point in the experiment, it is basically certain that their EUV photoresist has reached the 13.5-nanometer process standard.
Because all their energy in Su Province Microelectronics has been used to develop photoresists, they have not done much research on compressed processes such as multiple exposures, so 13.5 nanometers is only the minimum process of their research institute.
And the specific minimum process of this photoresist needs to be further verified by Shencheng Silicon Industry or Lianwei, especially Shencheng Silicon Industry, which was the first to get the EUV lithography machine. After several months of exploration and debugging, they have pushed the process to 5nm.
However, for the sake of safety, Wu Lihong suppressed his excitement and said to everyone: “Prepare for etching experiment verification immediately, and confirm that there is no problem in the final link before sending it to Shencheng Silicon Industry.”
”Understood!”
After hearing this, the researchers immediately started to get busy again.
Originally, according to their previous experimental process, the experiment basically failed at this step, and this time they were not prepared to enter the etching stage at all.
But in the face of this unexpected and huge surprise, everyone did not complain about “temporary overtime”, and they all started to prepare for the experiment again.
Two hours later, the final result was finally released. The photoresist they developed successfully withstood the baptism of high-energy particles in dry etching, and successfully completed the task of protecting the silicon wafer substrate, with a chip yield rate of up to 98%!
Under the leadership of Academician Wu Lihong, microelectronics researchers at Suzhou University finally succeededA domestic top-level EUV photoresist capable of 13.5nm process has been developed! And this 13.5nm process is only the preliminary experimental conclusion at present.
From the overlay accuracy they obtained this time, this photoresist is actually quite likely to be capable of manufacturing 5nm process chips! Wu Lihong was also very patient. He did not choose to report the experimental results immediately, but asked the researchers to re-dispense a batch of photoresists according to the last formula.
Then he repeated the experiment ten times, and after confirming that the error of each result was within an acceptable range, he took the photoresist and the main technical personnel of the team to Shanghai and came to Shencheng Silicon Industry Group.
At this time, Chen Yunming, the group president of Shencheng Silicon Industry, happened to be discussing the chip foundry of Huawei P6 with Mr. Yu and Mr. He of Huawei.
The key points discussed by both parties were the issues of output and cost.
Huawei wants to directly order 20 million Kirin 9000s based on the principle of large quantity and preferential treatment.
But now, Shencheng Silicon Industry actually only has one Qinguang No. 1.
According to the throughput of 180 wafers per hour of Qinguang No. 1, and the fact that each wafer can cut 500 chips, the daily production capacity of a lithography machine should be 2.16 million.
But in fact, the throughput of the lithography machine does not represent the manufacturing speed of the wafer, but it needs to be exposed and etched multiple times according to the design of different chips.
Take Kirin 9000 as an example. It needs to go through 19 lithography-etching cycles to complete the entire wafer manufacturing process. That is to say, theoretically only 110,000 pieces can be made every day.
This is based on the fact that the equipment is rested and maintained 24 hours a day without stopping, and the yield rate is 100%.
Therefore, the actual production capacity is 80,000 pieces per day on average, which is already very good.
It will take about eight months to complete the order of 20 million chips, even if all the production capacity is squeezed out to Huawei.
Besides, under such high-load operation, they don’t know if their photoresist inventory can hold up…
”…We also have to consider the cost, and it will take time to develop the 3nm process technology. I hope you can also consider our difficulties.”
Chen Yunming really couldn’t stand the two CEOs’ soft and hard grinding, and finally made a decision,
”How about this, I will give you two options, one is 150 yuan for 3 million chips, and the other is 200 yuan for 6 million chips. 6 million is the limit, which is already very generous.”
”Uh…”
General Manager Yu immediately calculated in his mind.
According to the price of 13,400 US dollars per wafer of 5nm process of Taiji Electronics, it is approximately equal to the foundry fee of each 5nm process chip, which is 187 yuan.
But TSMC’s foundry is calculated by wafer, and the waste is charged to you, and Chen Yunming just quoted the price of a chip, which is equivalent to removing the waste, so the foundry fee of 150-200 yuan is indeed quite generous in this special period.
”But Mr. Chen, how can the more you buy, the more expensive it is…”
”This is a special situation. If there is no movement of domestic photoresist before the inventory of photoresist is consumed, then we have no use for the photolithography machine, so we can only save money first…”
”In fact, there is another way, that is, you go to Dr. Kang to borrow some photoresist for us. That guy is very smart and asked us to help him stock up photoresist early. Now Dahan Xinye has more photolithography machines than us!”
Every time he thought of this, Chen Yunming regretted not listening to Kang Chi and stocking up more photoresist in advance.
Mainly, who would have thought that he could come up with an EUV lithography machine so quickly…
Just when Mr. Yu was still thinking about how long the six million pieces could last, Chen Yunming suddenly received a call from Wu Lihong.
”Academician Wu? Wait… What did you say? Testing photoresist? Just downstairs?!”
”…”
After putting down the phone, Chen Yunming took a long time to recover, and then quickly called Dong Jianyuan to ask him to go downstairs to pick up Wu Lihong.
After dealing with these, he turned to look at the two CEOs of Huawei and said excitedly: “Our savior is here!”
(End of this chapter)