September 20th.

Half past eight in the morning.

Baoshan Industrial Zone, the fourth R&D factory of Xinghai Technology, has entered a group of special "guests".

Most of these "guests" have solemn faces, rapid steps, and slightly shaky hands, indicating that their hearts are not at peace.

Among these people, Zhang Weijing, chairman of Zhongxin International, followed by Qiu Cifeng, executive president, Liang Mengnan, general manager, and Yang Ming, R&D director...... The management of Zhongxin International can be said to have come collectively.

"Mr. Zhang, you are here, you are rude, and you are not at the door to greet you."

Chen Jin, who was in the factory, thought that Zhang Weijing would come over after 9 o'clock, but he didn't expect it to be half an hour ahead of schedule and had to apologize.

Zhang Weijing waved his hand, didn't care, shook hands with him, approached him, and asked very solemnly: "Mr. Chen, what you said about 'technology', your company...... Is it really a success? ”

There was still some disbelief on his face, so dream technology, could it really become a reality?

"It's almost ready to use."

Chen Jin smiled and nodded: "The second TC9000 that we bought for 500 million yuan in Xinghai, although the computing speed is still not enough, there is still no big problem in dealing with more complex production scenarios." ”

"No problem?"

Zhang Weijing's eyes widened: "Chip manufacturing is not as simple as 'relatively complex', but 'extremely complex'!" Can your 'virtual factory' really simulate such a complex production scenario? ”

He still didn't believe it.

In the industrial world, there are two things that are crowns in the crown.

One of them is an aero engine, and the other is a chip!

In particular, the manufacturing process of chips is very complex, and a production line involves more than 50 industries and 2000-5000 processes.

In the case of foundries, the "sand" needs to be purified into silicon, then cut into wafers, and then processed into wafers. The wafer processing plant consists of two processes, the front process is divided into several modules: lithography, thin film, etching, cleaning, and injection; The back-end process is mainly packaging - interconnection, wire bonding, and sealing. Among them, lithography is the link between manufacturing and design.

Many of these processes are carried out in independent factories, and the equipment used also needs to be manufactured in specialized equipment factories; The materials used include hundreds of specialty gases, liquids, and targets, all of which require a specialized chemical industry. In addition, the production of integrated circuits is carried out in ultra-clean rooms, so systems such as exhaust air and air purification are also required.

Take the most advanced 14nm chip manufacturing process that Zhongxin International can master as an example: it is necessary to integrate billions of transistors and control units on a wafer with a surface area of only 2-3 square centimeters...... The total number of processes exceeded 2,000.

If the size of the transistor is made smaller, the process of production will increase.

Now Xinghai Technology's virtual factory technology tells him: as long as the assembly line equipment, technical parameters, and process flow in the real world are all input into the supercomputer in the form of data, and a "virtual factory" is built, which can simulate the situation in reality and simulate the manufacture of chips.

In the "virtual factory", more than 2,000 processes from wafer cutting to packaging and testing are all gone through to process virtual "chips".

Zhang Weijing didn't know if it was a simulated animation or a "virtual factory" that was really infinitely close to reality, but as soon as he heard this concept, his eyes widened and he immediately realized the great significance of it.

It will bring about a revolution in the industrial field!

Such a fantastic technology in the hands of a young company that has only been established for two years?

Chen Jin shook his head and said: "Mr. Zhang, supercomputers can even simulate nuclear explosions, why can't they simulate industrial production?" If you don't believe me, you can take a look at our 'virtual factory' and try it yourself to see if you can simulate the manufacturing of chips in this way. ”

"Good! To see is to believe! ”

Zhang Weijing nodded, and then asked Liang Mengnan, the general manager of Zhongxin International, and Yang Ming, the R&D director, to sit in front of the computer screen and operate the virtual factory in the computer.

Liang Mengnan and Yang Ming have been exploring in the field of chips for many years, and they are the two generals of Zhongxin International, without these two generals, the chip manufacturing process of Zhongxin International is probably still hovering around 28nm, and it is impossible to enter the 14nm era so quickly.

"Hiss~"

Liang Mengnan, who was holding the mouse in his hand to adjust the viewing angle, suddenly took a breath.

It's so realistic.

The virtual factory on the computer screen looks almost the same as the real factory, and the picture quality is so realistic that it breathtaking.

Moving the perspective, entering the factory interior, the equipment on the assembly line is clear at a glance.

Lithography machine, plasma etching machine, ion implanter, wafer dicing machine......

All kinds of equipment are restored in a one-to-one ratio.

If you zoom in closer, you can even enter the inside of the lithography machine, see the light beam inside the lithography machine, and expose the complex circuit structure on the photosensitive material.

"It's so realistic." Standing behind the chair, Zhang Weijing took a breath and sighed, a little excitement rose in his heart.

"Lao Meng, adjust the parameters of the ion implanter a little, and then observe the yield of the product." Yang Ming, technical director, said.

"How much?"

"Adjust for sixth decimal place, parts per million."

"Okay." Liang Mengnan entered the parameter setting interface and changed the parameters slightly.

After waiting for more than two hours.

The virtual factory showed a new chip yield, which was reduced from 95% at the beginning to 0.1%.

"It's exactly the same as what we've encountered in reality."

Yang Ming, who had been in charge of the operation of the production line, took a deep breath.

Wow~

Everyone present was amazed.

"A few more sets of experiments!"

Zhang Weijing said that he was actually on the verge of yelling, but he still pressed the back of the chair hard, restrained the excitement in his heart, and wanted to confirm this shocking fact first!

Chen Jin, who was standing aside and watching them discuss how to adjust the parameters, held his hands and smiled.

Virtual factory technology, this is the first technology that Xinghai Technology Co., Ltd. has come up with after the Wow Wow robot and intelligent learning machine, which can be called "black technology".

It is also based on the "intelligent learning program", which is a more intelligent and powerful "intelligent simulation program", and has a certain degree of independent learning ability.

Based on the combination of "intelligent simulation program" and a supercomputer of 80 million times, the "virtual factory" has a simulation degree of 99.99%, and the error with reality is less than 1/10,000.

However, due to the fact that Zhongxin International provides a large number of real parameters and data to correct the errors of each process link, the actual error rate of this virtual chip factory does not exceed 1 in 100 million.

And the more real data is provided, the smaller the error will be in the virtual factory.

The existence of this virtual chip factory will have an extremely significant impact on Zhongxin International's chip manufacturing capabilities.

It will even subvert the existing pattern of the global chip industry, indicating that in the field of chip manufacturing, an inconspicuous little miscellaneous fish is about to swell into a giant shark.