Chapter 386 of the text Blu-ray

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The Institute of Optoelectronics of the New Academy of Sciences is a relatively mysterious unit, and the technologies developed here in the past are relatively sensitive. For example, laser guidance modules and fast CCD chips, before the establishment of the fab, the output of ST will only be able to meet the internal needs of the military system. Iraq's $7 billion project alone has gobbled up 80 percent of the city's production capacity.

As a core technology provider for the military industrial system to earn foreign exchange, the Institute of Optoelectronics will certainly not appear in the field of vision of ordinary people.

The Shengjing Military Region has specially allocated a newly built five-story building in the headquarters of the 40 th Army to Xinke Company to escort the production of optoelectronic chips.

At the entrance of the Optoelectronics Research Institute, there is a fully staffed guard squad in charge. Even if they are cadres of the 40th Army, it is forbidden to approach them when they are idle.

Of course, these security settings are completely non-existent for Bai Shi and Hu Wenhai, directors of the Institute of Optoelectronics.

A Rolls-Royce silver elf galloped in from the gate of the headquarters of the 40th Army, and the guards on both sides hurriedly raised their hands and saluted, watching Dean Bai, who was full of excitement on the driver's seat, drive the car almost into flight.

In less than a moment, the car had arrived in front of the building of the Institute of Optoelectronics. The sound of the tires rubbing against the ground caused by Shiraishi stepping on the brakes can be heard clearly by almost the entire military compound.

Wang Ye, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was so frightened by Baishi's driving speed that he broke out in a cold sweat, but he couldn't stand Hu Wenhai, who was sitting in the back seat, urging him again and again. Before the car could stop, Hu Wenhai had already jumped out of the car, which made Wang Ye, who had put his heart back in place a little, so frightened that his heart almost jumped out of his throat again.

"Uncle Bai, let's go!"

Hu Wenhai didn't have the patience to wait for Baishi to turn off the car, in fact, Baishi didn't pull the key off the igniter at all, and subconsciously pulled the handbrake and got out of the car.

Almost like a race, the two pushed open the door of the Institute of Optoelectronics and rushed into the building.

"Where is the location of the real yàn room?"

"Turn left on the second floor!"

Shiraishi shouted and rushed up the stairs directly across from the hall on the first floor.

The sound of footsteps sounded in the building, causing many people in the office on the first floor to poke their heads out. In the past, there were not many people in the institute who even walked and spoke softly, and there were not many people with such a rough style.

Of course, as the director of the research institute, Shiraishi's actions will not be criticized.

The second floor of the institute is a large solid room, and the non-load-bearing walls of the entire floor have been opened. A single piece of floor-to-ceiling glass at the entrance to the stairwell leaves only a hermetically sealed aluminium door.

Shiraishi took his ID card from his neck, swiped it on the card reader, and then entered the password again, which opened the door.

Inside the door was a changing room, Hu Wenhai took a set of dustproof clothing and put it on, and then entered the clean room on the second floor through the dust removal channel.

"Where?" Hu Wenhai's urn-like voice came out of the mask, asking Baishi next to him.

"Mr. Hu came with me. Shiraishi took the lead and walked towards the inside of the room.

The two walked a short distance when they saw a piece of equipment that had been dismantled. Judging by the logo on its open cabinet, it is a vapor deposition equipment made by Applied Materials, which is commonly known as a CVD device.

It's just that this CVD device has obviously undergone a lot of transformation now. The complete cabinet was opened in many places, and many places in the originally complete enclosure were obviously pipes that were added later. In the external pipeline, there are many instruments that were added later. The original high-tech beauty of the CVD equipment, after such a "disfigurement", now seems to be a sacred object of the Flying Pasta God Cult.

"Succeeded?" Hu Wenhai did not dislike the roughness and scatteredness of this equipment at all, but instead exuded excitement in his eyes, and looked at Bai Shi and asked in disbelief.

"It worked!" Shiraishi nodded heavily.

Hu Wenhai raised his head from the device and searched around: "Is there a finished product?"

Shiraishi turned and pulled out a round mirror-emitting wafer from a bracket. As the light streaked across its mirror, some gray halos of colorful light continued to refract out.

Turning the wafer in one direction, on the back of it is a rather thin transparent layer that faintly emits a rather inconspicuous blue light. It can be seen that the front layer of the mirror is "transitioning" from this transparent layer.

"How's the growth?"

"It's perfect!" Shiraishi laughed: "We adopted the two-stage growth method proposed by Mr. Hu, improved the growth method of Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano, replaced aluminum nitride with low-temperature gallium nitride as a buffer layer, and continued to grow gallium nitride at a high temperature of 1030 degrees above low-temperature gallium nitride, thus solving the problem of unstable quality of gallium nitride crystals caused by lattice mismatch." ”

"What about the cost?" Hu Wenhai then asked.

"Because of the greatly improved yield rate, the cost has been reduced by more than 40% compared to the current production method of the Japanese. ”

"Good! good!"

Hu Wenhai rubbed his hands and excitedly shouted three good words in a row. He took the chip from Shiraishi's hand and looked at it carefully.

Of course, in fact, the resolution of the human eye cannot tell whether it is good or bad. But just the colorful streamer that flashed from the mirror, Hu Wenhai already felt a little overjoyed.

As if to ask Hu Wenhai for credit, Shiraishi said with relish: "Our magnesium-doped gallium nitride uses nitrogen and hydrogen as protective gases in the process of deposition of Guò CVD. In fact, the low-resistance p-type gallium nitride semiconductor is even better than the semiconductor performance obtained by the Japanese with aluminum nitride as a buffer layer. According to my measurements, our p-type gallium nitride resistivity is 0.2 Ω.cm, and the hole concentration is 3×10 to the 18th power/cubic centimeter. ”

"Compared with the Japanese resistivity of 12Ω.cm and hole concentration of 10 to the 17th power / cubic centimeter, the cost reduction is not enough! With this gallium nitride epitaxial wafer, the performance and cost of blue LEDs will be reduced to an incredible level!"

That's right, the wafer about 2 inches in size that Hu Wenhai is holding now is the core technology of blue LED chips - gallium nitride epitaxial wafers.

Unlike other semiconductor chips, the core technology for the production of LED chips is not IC design and lithography machines, but crystal growth technology. The principle of LED chip lighting is very simple, that is, the process of the current in the semiconductor from the P end to the N end, the free electrons at the P end combine in the holes of the N-terminus, and photons will be emitted out at the combination of the P terminal and the N-terminus. And this PN structure of the semiconductor is only the most commonly used part of semiconductor design.

There is no need for too small lithography linewidths, and there is no need for complex circuit design. In later generations, many LED chip manufacturers in China had their equipment replaced by eight-hand eliminated lithography machines from domestic wafer factories. As you can imagine, the technical difficulties are not insurmountable. With GaN epitaxial wafers, it's only a matter of time before lithography, packaging, and further downstream industries develop.

And how big the market for LED lighting is, needless to say, everyone knows. The LED light source market is enough to support the opening of ten new technology wafer factory-level LED chip production bases in China. With this foundation, China's semiconductor industry does not have to worry about the lack of momentum for growth.

And what is even more wonderful is that the capital and technical requirements for LED chip production are not so high, and the domestic capital and technical efforts can be fully digested. There is no need to crowd out foreign capital, but it can earn a large amount of foreign exchange, which will inevitably cause an upsurge of domestic investment in the semiconductor industry.

Taking advantage of this shareholder wind, as Hu Wenhai said to Zhang Zhongmou, he is not worried that someone will compete with him for the market. On the contrary, he is only worried that there are too few people to make the market work.

However, it is still not easy to implement the technology of blue LED, but the core technology has changed from design and lithography to wafer production. LED chip epitaxial wafers, also known as GaN wafers, are layers of GaN crystals that grow on top of a layer of sapphire. Such a thin layer of gallium nitride crystals, only 50nm, has plagued mankind for more than 30 years.

As long as ST firmly holds on to the supply of GaN epitaxial wafers, it will be able to reap a steady stream of profits from this market.

The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics was shared by Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji Nakamura for the invention of blue LEDs.

Among them, Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano won the award for obtaining high-quality GaN crystals for the first time, while Shuji Nakamura's achievement reduced the performance and cost of GaN to an acceptable level.

Although Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano have achieved high-quality GaN in the real room, the technology for Shuji Nakamura to improve the growth performance of GaN was not developed until 1992.

The key to Shuji Nakamura's improvement of gallium nitride growth technology lies in two points. The first is to use a two-stage method to grow gallium nitride, and use a low-temperature gallium nitride layer grown at 550 degrees to replace the aluminum nitride crystal layer as a buffer layer, which solves the problem of lattice mismatch. The second is that in the chemical deposition process of generating gallium nitride, the shielding gas of nitrogen and hydrogen is blown into the vertical direction of the main gas stream, which is later known as the dual-gas MOCVD technology.

With these two improvements, Shuji Nakamura completely transformed blue LED from a scientific toy into a great invention that changed human life.

The difficulty in the manufacture of LED gallium nitride epitaxial wafers is the development of dual-flow MOCVD. But thanks to today's honeymoon period between China and the United States, the CVD equipment that is not sold by the Americans can also enter China under the cover of Hu Wenhai's wafer factory project.

The low design requirements, low lithography process and clever solution ideas of LED lighting chips are simply tailor-made projects for Xinke fabs.

This was originally Hu Wenhai's plan to go for the equipment elimination after a few years, when the aging of the equipment in the Xinke wafer factory could not keep up with the mainstream level. Who would have thought that Shiraishi's optoelectronic research institute would come up with results so quickly. Of course, there are reasons for the high-quality CVD equipment sold by Applied Materials in the United States, but more importantly, Hu Wenhai underestimated the domestic technology research and development capabilities at this time.

The difficulty of the two-stage method, the two key technologies of gallium nitride epitaxial wafers, lies in the idea of material selection and temperature control. However, Mr. Hu directly told Baishi the specific number, of course, it was a try.

The other is the requirement to transform the CVD into a dual-airflow MOCVD, which may be a bit more difficult, but in the final analysis, it is just a matter of engineering transformation, not some difficult technical research and development.

The mature design of industrial products can't be taken out, but the real room level can still be taken out. Even if there are any difficulties, under the condition that industrial mass production is not required, it is possible to do some local work.

So Hu Wenhai expected that it would take two or three years to produce results, but the results had already been produced here before the wafer factory was built.

But in the end, this is a good thing after all, Hu Wenhai's "too fast" troubles are also a sweet burden.

Hu Wenhai lay in the real room and carefully checked the gallium nitride epitaxial wafer in his hand, and the various numbers were indeed as Shiraishi said, which can be said to be a comprehensive crushing of the performance of the Japanese GaN epitaxial wafer.

With gallium nitride epitaxial wafers, the production of LED lighting chips can be said to be no difficulty.

After staying in the real yàn room all morning, Hu Wenhai and Bai Shi's stomachs were about to shake, and then they walked out of the real yàn room.

"Uncle Bai, now your optoelectronic research institute is going to be in the limelight. Such an important technological breakthrough, you just say, what reward do you want?"

Bai Shi thought for a while, and said with a smile: "I have almost made enough money, but I am almost named......

"Oh?" Hu Wenhai was slightly stunned, he had neglected the academic community in the past two years, although he had made a lot of achievements, he had never paid attention to brushing his face in the academic world.

He nodded and said: "Uncle Bai has this idea, so it's easy to do, with the results of blue LEDs, let's apply for the National Technological Invention Award, right?"

Hu Wenhai is sure of this, after all, it is a Nobel-level technology, and there is no reason why he can't even win the domestic technological invention award.

Bai Shi's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he nodded: "If I can win the National Technological Invention Award, my life will be worth it!"

"Okay!" Hu Wenhai said briskly: "This period of time should be the time to apply for the national award, right?

Hu Wenhai was talking, and finally took off his dustproof clothes and walked out of the room.

As soon as he came out of the door, he saw Wang Ye, who was already as anxious as an ant in a hot pot, running over from the stairs.

"Mr. Hu, your phone number. ”

Wang Ye handed over the eldest brother, if it wasn't for the important matter, few people would call him.

"Where did you call? What is it?" Hu Wenhai did not rush to answer the phone, but asked.

"Director Song of the Science and Technology Commission called in person, and the tone was not very good!"

Hu Wenhai was stunned for a moment, and glanced at Baishi, some things in this world are really so coincidental. Cao Cao is the most can't help but chatter, isn't this Cao Cao coming?

"Are you sure it's Director Song of the Science and Technology Commission?" Hu Wenhai pondered in his heart, couldn't there be telecom fraud so early?

"It's confirmed. "What Wang Ye said was categorical.

Hu Wenhai had no choice but to take the phone in his hand and clear his throat: "I'm Hu Wenhai." ”

"It's Comrade Xiao Hu of Xinke Company!" On the phone, Director Song's voice couldn't hear any emotion: "Hello, I am Song Jian, director of the Science and Technology Commission." ”

"Hello Director Song, I happened to have something I wanted to find you, but I didn't expect to receive a call from you. I don't know what you called me?"

"Oh?" On the phone, Director Song snorted and said, "It seems that Hu always knows what he has done? Aren't you adding chaos to the work of the Science and Technology Commission? Is there anything that can't be communicated well, what are you going to do with this kind of surprise attack? You comrade ......?"

Hu Wenhai was stunned by Director Song's criticism, and hurriedly said, "Director Song, did you have any misunderstanding? I haven't said anything yet!"

"Hmph-" Director Song scolded, seemed to be a little better, and said, "Okay, if you have anything to say, I'll listen to your explanation first!"

Hu Wenhai is inexplicable, but thinking about it, it seems that Director Song of the Science and Technology Commission has a very good evaluation in the future, maybe there is some misunderstanding?

He glanced at Bai Shi and said cautiously: "Director Song, that's the case. Our new science and technology academy of ST has recently had a result. The important core technology of blue LED, the growth problem of gallium nitride crystals, has been overcome. The gallium nitride developed and produced by the Institute of Optoelectronics of the New Academy of Sciences has 24 times the resistance performance and 30 times the hole performance of the Japanese. Regarding this achievement, we would like to apply for a National Technological Invention Award......"

Before Hu Wenhai finished speaking, there was a sudden loud bang on the phone, and then there was a busy sound.

Bai Shi looked at Hu Wenhai expectantly, but he didn't expect to be greeted by his blank eyes.

"This Director Song, is it late for menopause?"

Hu Wenhai and Bai Shi looked at each other, not knowing what was going on.

Nearly ten minutes later, Hu Wenhai's big brother rang again. Wang Ye took it, and then looked at Hu Wenhai with a confused expression: "Mr. Hu, Director Song's call, can you still answer it?"

Hu Wenhai touched his nose and took it hard. There is no way, the size of the Science and Technology Commission is also the competent authority of China's scientific and technological circles. Director Song of the Science and Technology Commission will concurrently serve as a state councilor next year, and Hu Wenhai is no matter how confident he is, he doesn't think he can compare with the leaders of the vice national level.

"Hello Director Song, I'm Hu Wenhai. ”

Hu Wenhai's voice is a lot more "obedient" this time.

"Comrade Xiaohu!" Director Song's voice was full of exhaustion, and he let out a long breath and said: "Do you have any opinions on the work of our Science and Technology Commission? If you have any opinions, we can communicate well, don't be so intense!"

"Uh, Director Song. Hu Wenhai pondered for a moment and said cautiously: "I really don't know what situation you are talking about. If so, could you please give us a little bit of a question?"

"In the selection of the three awards this year, the Chemistry Society sent your water lithium battery achievements, don't you know that you want to award the National Science Award?"

Hu Wenhai was stunned for a moment, and said with a wry smile: "If I say I don't know, do you believe it?"

"The Ministry of Railways and the Navy sent the electric transmission project and applied for the National Technological Invention Award, do you know?"

Hu Wenhai's face was cloudy, and he said with a weak heart: "I want to say that I really don't know, I don't believe it myself......"

"China Shipbuilding Corporation has applied for the National Technological Progress Award for the Shipbuilding Law of the Giant General Section, haven't you heard of this?"

Hu Wenhai was already drenched in cold sweat at this point, and he couldn't cry or laugh: "Director Song, you can tell me everything else!"

"The military industrial system reported a UAV system project, and the Institute of Computing of the Chinese Academy of Sciences asked whether the Chinese's technological inventions abroad could be awarded, and if so, they would report the drawer server. ”

"Hu Wenhai, Hu Wenhai, your comrade is going to win all the three awards this year, and then you are fighting in the ring by yourself? And your gallium nitride crystal, are you serious?"

"Really, really!" Hu Wenhai patted his chest and promised: "Our product performance is really so good!"

"Okay, these are the six awards!" Director Song almost burst out on the phone: "You are sincere in trying to solve problems for our Science and Technology Commission!"

"Director Song, that's not the case-" Hu Wenhai himself felt that his words were not convincing: "Except for the gallium nitride project, I really don't know about the award application of other projects!"

On the phone, Director Song was silent for a long time, and finally heard him say in a somewhat tired voice: "Then what is the official seal of your new technology company on these materials? Aren't you the president of new technology? What else do you not know about the company?"

Hu Wenhai scratched his head, and couldn't figure out what was going on, so he had to say: "Director Song, give me some time, and I'll reply to you when I find out!"

"Okay, then I'll wait for your news!" Director Song snapped and hung up the phone.

Hu Wenhai hung up the phone, threw the eldest brother back to Wang Ye, and walked downstairs without looking back.

"Brother Wang, go back to the company!" Hu Wenhai gritted his teeth and said.

At a speed no slower than when he came, Hu Wenhai's Rolls-Royce Silver Elf rushed back to the company.

"Get me Qin Kai!"

It didn't take long for Qin Kai to hurry back to Hu Wenhai's office with a look on his face.

"Brother Qin, what's going on? Someone used the company's seal to apply for the three awards of the Science and Technology Commission? Why didn't I know about this?" Hu Wenhai frowned, looking quite unkind.

When Qin Kai heard Hu Wenhai's words, his expression was indescribably weird, and he nodded.

"Yes, the company did stamp the materials for the application for the three awards. ”

"Who's so daring!"

Hu Wenhai suddenly became angry, slapped the table and glared: "When was the company able to do such a big thing without my knowledge! The Chemical Society, the Ministry of Railways, the Navy, the China Shipbuilding Corporation, the Military Industry Department, and the Computing Institute mobilized so many connections, but as a result, I didn't know anything! This is a rebellion! Secretary Qin, as the president's secretary, how dare you know and not report it?"

"This, Mr. Hu ......"

Qin Kai said with some embarrassment: "It's not that I don't know about it, I really don't dare to report it!"

Hu Wenhai was happy with joy: "There is still someone in the company who can stop you from reporting such an important matter to me, okay, okay, I want to see who has so much energy! This company is still not surnamed Hu!"

"Mr. Hu, the person who stopped me from suing you is-"

Before Qin Kai finished speaking, he heard someone outside the door say.

"It's me!"