"Hello Dr. Chen, you have now set up a company on your own, how about it, our Fanhan Group is still keeping its promises, right? You have been focusing on the research and development of CVD equipment in the past few years, and I wonder if the next generation of CVD equipment has been finalized? ”

Zhou Shuo finished the meeting in the large conference room and sent Tu Anbei and a group of scientists away, and Shannuo also retired with knowledge. However, he has not been idle much, and he still has to be busy if he wants to cause some trouble for the Americans in the domestic market. No, Dr. Chen Aihua was soon summoned by him.

Chen Aihua's reputation in China is not too well-known, and the research direction he is engaged in has not attracted so much attention. Compared with Ma Yougong of Panhan Optics, which is also the core equipment of the wafer factory, the importance of vapor deposition equipment is not much worse.

It's just that lithography machine technology and chip manufacturing process are closely related, and the chip manufacturing process directly determines the performance of the chip, which makes people think that only the lithography machine is the most important in the wafer factory.

But without CVD, or vapor deposition equipment, there would never be a circuit in the chip, and there would be no diodes that form integrated circuits.

There are at least three companies in the world's lithography machine market, Nikon, Canon and ASML have their own markets.

However, in the other core equipment of the fab, Applied Materials of the United States can be said to be the leader in the field of semiconductor production equipment.

It is only after entering the new century that the emergence of a Chinese enterprise has challenged this situation.

This is the Zhongcheng Optoelectronic Equipment Company established by Dr. Chen Aihua after the independence of Fanhan Group.

After the completion of the CVD equipment used in the 0.25 micron chip production line at the Pan Han Research Institute. Dr. Chen Aihua received a "huge amount" of investment from Six Ears Investment Fund. He used the investment to establish Zhongcheng Optoelectronic Equipment Co., Ltd., which continues to develop the next generation of CVD equipment.

Now. It is widely predicted that in 2001, the process technology of chips will develop to the 0.13 micron level. And actually. Fanhan Optics has indeed entered the countdown to update the process technology.

A state-of-the-art fab with a direct investment of RMB 30 billion has completed infrastructure projects in Fengtian City, the provincial capital of Bohai Province. As soon as the new generation of production line systems is integrated, production can start immediately. Advanced chip production technology will be the most powerful tool for Panhan Group to promote its mobile phone industry.

At present, the vast majority of mobile phones on the market are thick and clumsy. Its LCD panel is often only one or two inches long. The ringtone is generally used and spin technology, this is not that mobile phone manufacturers do not know how to use MP3 decoding technology, in fact, MP3 decoding whether soft or hard decoding, there is no problem in technology.

However, the soft solution occupies the computing resources of the mobile phone processor. What should I do if I need to add the corresponding chipset to the motherboard?

It was only after the mobile phone had enough computing power that MP3 ringtones gradually became popular.

With a chip manufacturing process technology that surpasses that of other mobile phone manufacturers, Panhan Group can naturally add more functional modules as it likes.

Photography, video function, mini-game function, these contents all require the mobile phone to have a strong heart. And the more modules that need to be matched, the more chipsets to be configured on the motherboard, and the more unstable the whole system will be.

Therefore, the basic frequency chip is made to the processor, which can greatly reduce the complexity of the mobile phone motherboard.

Around the heart of this qiē plan. It is the next generation of 0.13 micron chip production process. In terms of lithography machines, in recent years, Panhan Optics can be said to have completely inherited Nikon's legacy, after digestion and absorption, coupled with a huge amount of capital investment. It is already possible to ensure that the new generation of lithography machines will roll off the production line on time.

The only possible shortcoming of the whole production line is the CVD equipment that Dr. Chen Aihua is in charge of.

Chen Aihua and Deng Zhonghan are both technical experts who returned from the United States and threw themselves into the arms of Pan Han Group. But it's different from Deng Zhonghan's youth. Aihua Chen has been with Applied Materials for a long time in the United States, and his position at Applied Materials before leaving the company was also very important.

This pair for him to engage in related industries after returning to China. Caused quite a bit of trouble. In the past few years, although Chen Aihua has established Zhongcheng Optoelectronics Company. However, there are not many opportunities to appear in the society, and the company is mainly engaged in research work, and the business is almost exclusively carried out for the Pan Han Group.

In this case, Applied Materials of the United States did not get any news, and it was temporarily passed.

Mr. Zhou is also an expert in integrated circuit technology, and should know that with the progress of the manufacturing process, the silica insulation layer, which was originally only a few atomic layers thick, will become thinner and leak more current. This puts forward new requirements for the performance of CVD equipment, and our research and development has encountered great problems......"

"Zhongcheng Optoelectronics can't come up with the next generation of CVD equipment on time?"

Of course, Zhou Shuo also knew that what Chen Aihua said was true, and this problem had occurred in the development of CPUs in history. Later, Intel's solution to this problem was to simply continue to upgrade the technology in 2005, directly using the 65nm process, and changing the technical direction of CVD to avoid the problem of leakage current.

"This, I'm afraid I can only disappoint Mr. Zhou." Chen Aihua lowered his head a little ashamedly, and he did feel a little sorry for Zhou Shuo's trust.

He knew that his CVD equipment would not be completed on time, and the deployment of the entire new production line would be affected. But technology research and development is like this, and it will not change because of people's subjective will.

It is impossible for Chen Aihua to lie, and bring the unfinished products to the Pan Han Group, if it is found out, this is a more serious incident than the inability to supply.

"It was my mistake to not remind Dr. Chen in time." Zhou Shuo also regretted it a little in his heart, this was something that had happened in history, why did he ignore it?

"Where, this is my work is not in place, I did not estimate the difficulty of the technology in advance, how can it be said that it is the responsibility of Mr. Zhou!"

Chen Aihua hurriedly waved his hand and sighed: "I am willing to compensate for the losses caused to Fanhan Group." In Zhongcheng Optoelectronics, my personal shares account for 51%, and I can take out 31% of the shares to transfer to Fanhan Group for free, Mr. Zhou, what do you think? ”

Zhou Shuo lowered his head and thought about it, what is the most valuable thing about Zhongcheng Optoelectronics? It's not tens of millions of dollars of equipment, it's not the site, the building, or anything else, it's Chen Aihua's brain.

To put it mildly, his brain is worth $100 million. If you don't believe it, you can go to Applied Materials in the United States and ask if you are willing to spend $100 million to buy Chen Aihua's brain back?

If Qian Xuesen can withstand five divisions, then Chen Aihua can at least reach one tank regiment - it has to be the kind used by Zhu Ri and the Shenyang Military Region.

Zhou Shuo waved his hand, glanced at Chen Aihua deeply, and then said: "It's good that Dr. Chen has this heart, but after all, it has not yet reached the date specified in the contract, so there may not be no variables." ”

"Hehe, Mr. Zhou has confidence in me. It's a pity that my family knows about my own family, and I'm afraid I won't be able to get qualified CVD equipment before the contract expires. ”

"Not necessarily." Zhou Shuo smiled mysteriously, and then said, "Has Dr. Chen heard of strain silicon?" ”

"Strain silicon?"

Chen Aihua frowned deeply, this is the speed of modern scientific and technological progress, even if it is a genius in one field, it is impossible to know the entire research direction. You can only choose a seemingly possible path in countless directions, and the one who succeeds in the end is the big bull in this field.

In terms of semiconductor materials, although Chen Aihua is already a big bull, the term strain silicon should also be thought about.

"I remember, I'm talking about a technology that elongates silicon atoms, right? When the silicon atoms are elongated, the number of silicon atoms per unit length is reduced, which in turn increases the velocity of electrons. ”

"That's right, it's strained silicon technology. I've calculated that if I can increase the distortion of the transistor by 15%, the leakage problem can be improved by 25%, and the response speed of the transistor will be increased by 30%! ”

"But the current strain silicon technology can only increase the distortion of the transistor by 5%......"

Zhou Shuo smiled confidently: "That's because the material you use is in the wrong direction, if Dr. Chen believes me, you can try the pressure strain method of silicon germanium material, maybe there will be unexpected effects?" ”

In later generations, strain silicon technology has long been the basic technology of chip manufacturing, and chips with a process below 65nm must have strain silicon to make them, otherwise heat dissipation and power consumption are simply unbearable. Later, in order to improve the leakage problem, in addition to using strain silicon technology, Intel even completely innovated the material of the transistor gate dielectric, and the investment in this area was quite huge.

Zhou Shuo believes that he has come up with the mature strain silicon technology so early, and the chips produced can even be higher than Intel. If it is paired with copper interconnection technology, I am afraid that the chip technology of a mobile phone is higher than that of Intel's computer CPU. In 2001, the ARM10 level processor was produced, with a frequency of 300MHz, which must be a well-deserved king, right?

"Silicon germanium material?" Chen Aihua nodded subconsciously, Zhou Shuo's technical intuition had already been confirmed countless times. Although he is not a professional R&D person, who dares to despise the direction he has chosen?

Anyway, it's just a strain silicon research, and the technology of silicon germanium materials is not too difficult, so let's give it a try.

Chen Aihua thought worriedly. (To be continued......)