Another major bottleneck of extreme ultraviolet lithography technology is undoubtedly photoresist.

At present, the supply of semiconductor materials is very concentrated, and photoresist technology is the material with the highest concentration in the world and the highest barrier, with a total of 95% of the market share occupied by Japan and North America.

Samsung Electronics Semiconductors are certainly bullish, but they are also very powerful, but in fact, it depends on the face of the Japanese.

An engineer in charge of photoresist technology said methodically: "In 248nm and 193nm lithography, the mainstream has been using organic chemical amplification photoresist CAR, a photopolymer used to make pattern molding, for more than 20 years. ”

Under the extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, the photonic machine CAR photoresist produces photoacid, and then the CAR photoresist undergoes a photoacid-catalyzed reaction in the process after exposure, and then produces a photolithography pattern.

That's how it works.

The engineer continued: "CAR photoresist was used in extreme ultraviolet lithography technology, but because the energy of the light source was greatly increased, the previous practical results showed that different and complex results would occur, which would affect the yield of the chip. ”

Luo Sheng nodded and said: "When it comes to the EUV technology node, this is not only our problem, competitors will also encounter similar problems, or we have to develop new ideas, I think other semiconductor equipment and material manufacturers in the industry will try their best to do various ways, or propose new photoresist technology solutions, so that extreme ultraviolet lithography technology can be used continuously, so as to extend the life of Moore's law." ”

Just now, the engineer said again: "In terms of new ideas, our project team has several teams trying to develop new EUV photoresists in various directions, such as liquid metal oxide photoresists, as well as dry photoresists. ”

Luo Sheng thought for a while and said in a deep voice: "We can't do it ourselves, the new EUV photoresist technology is best to compete with a hundred schools of thought, and use the Gu cultivation strategy to raise an ASML in the field of photoresist." ”

Hearing this, Li Chunsheng immediately said: "That will have to pay several times the cost." ”

Luo Sheng spread his hands and said: "So much has been invested in semiconductors, and there is no way back except to die hard." ”

Speaking of this, he immediately looked at Li Chunsheng and asked, "By the way, what are the domestic suppliers of semiconductor photoresist?" ”

Li Chunsheng: "There are several, but their existing technology and market share are not a little worse than the international top level, relatively speaking, several well-known photoresist manufacturers are Kehua, Jingrui, Nanda Optoelectronics, Rongda Photosensitive, Shencheng Xinyang. In the area of photoresist research, the Cote d'Azur laboratory has followed several manufacturers to have technical exchanges. ”

Luo Sheng nodded and didn't say anything, then looked at the person in charge of the photoresist project just now and asked, "What are the specific progress in terms of new ideas?" ”

"The project team is carrying out demonstration research on the topic of negative photoresist, whose molecular size is one-fifth of that of CAR organic photoresist, and the focus is that the light absorption rate can reach four to five times that of CAR, and the supercomputing verification results show that the circuit diagram can be formed more precisely and accurately."

Luo Sheng checked it from the internal database, nodded to himself: "Dry photoresist technology can be focused on, this new EUV dry photoresist technology, replacing the traditional CAR photoresist for the evolution of semiconductor technology, may be a huge breakthrough point." ”

The advantage of this new technology is that it improves the acuity and resolution of EUV lithography and can reduce the amount of photoresist used by five to ten times, resulting in significant cost savings.

The cost of chips born under new technology nodes is very high, especially in the early stage.

At present, the industry is dominated by organic chemical amplification photoresist CAR and inorganic photoresist n-CAR, which are using liquid photoresist technology, and the research of new EUV photoresist technology is not only the Côte d'Azur laboratory, but also overseas manufacturers are actively promoting the development of new technologies, after all, extreme ultraviolet lithography technology is a major trend, which is a fact that will not change.

However, only the new EUV photoresist technology of the Côte d'Azur laboratory is based on dry precipitation, which is considered an original technology.

At present, the mainstream photoresist technology is CAR, that is, the liquid photoresist is spun coated onto the wafer with the coating machine equipment, and then removed after exposure with solvent.

This new technology of the Cita Azur laboratory is different from the traditional liquid photoresist coating method, which instead carries out a chemical reaction in the cavity, allowing the dry photoresist to be manufactured in chemical vapor deposition or atomic layer deposition, and then removed by etching.

This has the advantage of increasing the sensitivity, resolution, and resolution of the extreme UV lithography exposure.

What's more important is that the cost of process wafers can be improved, and these advantages are reflected in more advanced processes.

Luo Sheng closed the data panel, put the working computer aside, and said: "As long as the dry photoresist technology is done, we can form two camps with the Japanese equipment and material production, and we can break through the existing semiconductor technology rules, which is very critical, and the entire industry will also bring far-reaching changes." There's not much more to say, we've put so much into it that there's no second way to choose but to win. ”

Everyone present nodded silently, and they were also full of fighting spirit, and the current breakthrough gave the team great confidence.

It is true that there is no second way to choose except victory, and I believe that victory will be achieved.

At the end of the temporary meeting, Luo Sheng personally allocated an additional 450 million yuan to the photoresist project team of the Cote d'Azur experiment to speed up the research and development progress and multi-line parallelism.

Leaving the Côte d'Azur laboratory, Luo Sheng called Yao Jianhong to his office half an hour later.

"It's time for the purple star lithography machine to come out, once it is officially exposed, not only the domestic integrated circuit field will set off monstrous waves, the global integrated circuit industry will set off violent shocks, the industry pattern has entered a reshuffle situation, and the situation in the industry is inevitable."

Luo Sheng touched each other's fingers and said, paused for a moment and said: "The breakthrough of lithography equipment is naturally an unprecedented victory, but for the entire semiconductor industry chain, we still haven't opened up the high-end area, and 60% of the technical links are still controlled by others, but the product line of the Cote d'Azur cannot be broken, in short, we still need foreign chip supply for a period of time." ”

Now it is impossible to effectively describe spending money like flowing water, and the income of the Côte d'Azur cannot collapse like a cliff.

ACC game consoles, Azure smartphones, ieP tablets, and another upcoming side business PC business all need to create a steady stream of revenue to ensure profits to maintain the stability of the company's hematopoietic cycle.

Yao Jianhong lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then looked at Luo Sheng and said, "What do you mean......"

Luo Sheng looked at him: "Our actual situation now is that there are still 60% of the technical links that are stuck, and it may take another three or five years to make a complete breakthrough, which is an objective fact, and the breakthrough in technological research still has a certain degree of chance, not that I have invested how much money I have invested in, and how much I have invested will definitely have output." ”

Yao Jianhong nodded, but did not answer, but continued to listen.

Luo Sheng added: "False and real, true and false, the breakthrough of the purple star lithography machine is a fact, which is our biggest bargaining chip, which can bluff foreigners." ”

Speaking of this, Luo Sheng couldn't help but smile pleasantly, Yao Jianhong thought for a while, savored Luo Sheng's words, and suddenly became enlightened after a while.

"Mr. Luo, what do you mean is that it is not only the technical breakthrough of the extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, but the major key technical links of the entire semiconductor industry chain have been broken through, or the breakthrough is only a matter of time, in fact, not all breakthroughs, but because even the extreme ultraviolet lithography machine has been completed, this will give outsiders a false impression, and other technical links have basically been opened, so as to gain the leading power of negotiation."

Luo Sheng smiled and said nothing, but nodded in approval.

Looking at this problem from the perspective of competitors, since the technical ban no longer has much effect on Luo Sheng, it doesn't make much sense to continue the ban.

In fact, there is an element of gambling in this, and the bet is that those international semiconductor manufacturers believe that Luo Sheng's domestic semiconductor whole industry chain plan has successfully broken through the technological blockade.

However, what seems to be an element of gambling actually has an internal logic to follow.

Those international manufacturers also have to eat, and seeing that the market share is about to be lost, the original unbreakable covenant will inevitably crack due to the divergence of interests.

Even the extreme ultraviolet lithography machine has been made, and it is slightly ahead of ASML, which is an objective fact, and for those semiconductor manufacturers in the world, the results they have seen, the shock brought to them by this impact is unparalleled.

This is Luo Sheng's opportunity, and it is also an opportunity for the domestic semiconductor supply chain.

In addition, over the years, Luo Sheng has been emphasizing in public that it is necessary to be in line with international standards, actively open up and integrate into the world, and to walk on two legs, not only independent research and development, but also to continue to buy foreign high-end chips, and maintain uninterrupted exchanges with the world.

Therefore, even if the purple star lithography machine comes out and the domestic semiconductor industry chain is opened, it will continue to cooperate with foreign chip manufacturers.

This is all clear in the past, so now the Cote d'Azur has exposed the purple star lithography machine, and then exaggerated to say that it has opened up the key technical links of the domestic semiconductor industry chain, but I will continue to cooperate with foreign manufacturers, as long as you sell the chip to me, I will buy it.

International competitors will also believe that what he says is true.

Because the market is big enough, and Luo Sheng said before that some money can be earned by himself, but if he doesn't make it, he will leave it to others to earn.

True and false, false and real, those international manufacturers will involuntarily connect this series of problems for comprehensive analysis, and the result is that their technical advantages are indeed gone, and if they don't put down their arrogant heads, they will have no money to make.

Think about the scale of the annual import amount of the chip industry in the Greater China market exceeding 300 billion US dollars, which used to be necessary to import, but now the Chinese themselves can solve it.

This is disastrous news for some overseas ICT companies, especially some semiconductor companies in Silicon Valley, if they do not have the Greater China market, they will starve to death, and a large number of semiconductor manufacturers will definitely go bankrupt and go bankrupt.

So they don't dare to gamble because they can't afford to lose.

Because of this, Luo Sheng dares to bet, and he is 100% sure that he will win, since he can win with 100% certainty, it can't be called gambling, but it should be said to be strategizing.

Luo Sheng said to Yao Jianhong: "Lao Zhang, you send someone to shoot a promotional video for the Purple Star Lithography machine, and show some technical nodes and achievements that break through the monopoly blockade in a dignified manner, and shoot it beautifully, but the core technicians are all mosaic, and some core technologies are also mosaic, and then hype that the Purple Star Lithography Machine is the trump card of a trump card in the Jedi reversal, it is not an exaggeration to say that this has a decisive factor in the next negotiations, don't mess up." ”

"Leave it to me."

Yao Jianhong nodded heavily, and for a moment, he couldn't help but pat his thigh, and said viciously: "Now labor and management can slap the table in front of the other party at the negotiation table, they dare not be angry, I dare to slap the table and leave, the other party does not dare, I slap the table and leave, the other party has to beg me, the offense and defense are easy to shape." ”

With technology in one hand and a $300 billion market in Greater China in the other, this confidence is unprecedented.

Luo Sheng couldn't help but laugh dumbly when he saw Yao Jianhong's reaction, and understood his inner emotions very well, more than ten years ago, he resigned from Silicon Valley, gave up the high salary there and took the initiative to come to the Cote d'Azur to find a job, that is, he saw that there was a technology company in China that really wanted to show its strength in the field of integrated circuits, and the company had just started not long ago.

For the Côte d'Azur, this breath has been held for eleven years, and for Yao Jianhong personally, he has been holding this breath for more than 20 years.

……

Chinese Net