Hu Zhengming in 1999 couldn't understand why Zhou Xin wanted to make a lithography machine, in his opinion, this thing has a very high technical content, but the income is not so high.

Lithography machines are very important for China in the future, which is related to whether their advanced process chips can be successfully manufactured and whether they can obtain enough computing power in the AI era.

1999 is considered the golden age of economic globalization, probably the beginning of the golden age, and no country will want to do all the upstream and downstream of the semiconductor supply chain by itself.

Now the president of ASML may not expect that they will be able to monopolize the field of lithography machines in the future, and he can't understand that ASML will actually put China's billions of dollars in the market in the future.

There is money on the ground, and Ameriken won't let you bend down to pick it up.

Not to mention semiconductors, but for more complex industrial products, the upstream and downstream supply chains are all over the world, whether it is Boeing or Airbus aircraft, their supply chains come from hundreds of countries around the world.

There are too many semiconductor supply chains, how many products of first-line manufacturers come from imports, and what is the process of domestic substitution, which cannot be summarized by any brokerage research report.

Ameriken wants to kick Huaguo out of the global supply chain, which is a crazy thing, and Huaguo wants to make the semiconductor industry chain all localized, which is also crazy.

"If you don't do something because it's difficult, then what's the point of life?

When Angry Birds sold 100,000 units, I knew my life was going into easy mode.

When Riot Games sold 40% of its value to Bill Gates for $500 million, my life went into full autonomy mode.

By the time I sold Quora to Time Warner for $70 billion, I had lost the meaning of my life.

Professor, I need to find something difficult to do right now, to find meaning in my life.

In my opinion, the lithography machine is a very interesting direction, and now to do it, to buy early technology from Nikon, this thing is still a head.

The later you do it, the harder it will be. ”

Hu Zhengming roughly knew what Zhou Xin wanted to do, and many Huaguo engineers had similar ideas.

According to his own statement, even if Shida Semiconductor is not sold to TSMC by investors, he will return to China sooner or later to start a business.

In later generations, a large number of Chinese engineers went to work in China, and money was a very minor factor, and helping China build the semiconductor industry was a more important factor.

Before the hot money poured into the semiconductor field, Huaguo's engineers were treated no more than they were bent open.

Hu Zhengming thought for a while and then said: "I suggest that you can talk to Ben Jian from the real purpose, Ben Jian's teacher during his doctoral period was Yang Zhenning's younger brother, Yang Zhenping.

He should have had the idea of coming to China to work, but when he was young, there was no scientific research environment in China at that time.

By the time he retired from IBM and started his own business, Huaguo was still in a state of ruin.

To put it simply, integrated circuits are relatively high-end manufacturing industries, and there is no environment for integrated circuit companies to survive in Huaguo before.

Now that I have the environment, I am old again. ”

Lin Benjian was 57 years old at this time, and he had passed the golden age of scientific research, and no one thought that Lin Benjian, who was nearly sixty years old, would be able to achieve a crucial scientific research breakthrough in the field of lithography machines in the next few years.

Zhou Xin: "Professor, don't worry, in terms of treatment, the conditions I prescribe will definitely be enough to satisfy Senior Lin."

I'm very satisfied that you can help me match, as for whether I can convince the other party, this can only be left to fate. ”

According to Zhou Xin's understanding, Lin Benjian is a devout Christian and prays before making important decisions.

Whether you can convince the other party or not really depends on luck.

Speaking of the company established by Lin Benjian, most Chinese websites believe that the company he established is called Lingchuang Technology, in fact, this company is called Linnovation, which is Lin innovation, Lin Innovation Technology.

"Professor, this is a paper I wrote during this time, a paper on the field of analog IC.

You've shown me a lot of papers in related fields, and this time I've designed an analog-to-digital converter for direct sequence spread spectrum communication.

You can take a look first, I'll be here today, and we'll be able to communicate at any time if we have any questions. ”

"Hello Limber, I've been hearing Professor Hu mention you, and this time you came to California, I want to invite you to dinner.

At the same time, I would like to consult you if you have any questions. ”

Mr. Zhou invited Mr. Lim, a Chinese-born Chinese born in Ho Chi Minh City, to dinner at a famous Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco.

Lin Benjian was very puzzled by Zhou Xin's appointment to eat with him, because he had no intersection with the other party.

Lin Benjian is no stranger to Zhou Xin, when Zhou Xin first came to America, when Lin Benjian came to San Francisco for a meeting, he heard Hu Zhengming mention that he recruited a student from Yenching University.

Later, I heard this name from the media, Bill Gates's stake in Riot Games, and the name Newman Zhou appeared again.

There should be very few people who have the same name as Ameriken, but Lin Benjian didn't ask Hu Zhengming at that time.

Later, Quora came out, so that Lin Benjian was sure that Newman was Zhou Xin, and he was also envious of his friend for recruiting such a powerful student.

It has only been a year since he came to Ameriken, and in terms of achievements, Zhou Xin is about to become synonymous with Chinese in Ameriken.

Because it is now September, all Yan college students who are new to study at Ameriken will be asked by their classmates if they know Zhou Xin.

It was Hu Zhengming's blessing to recruit students like Zhou Xin, and Lin Benjian never thought that he could have any intersection with Zhou Xin.

It's just that he didn't expect that this time he came to San Francisco to attend the optical conference, and Hu Zhengming would help Zhou Xin ask him to have a meal together.

No matter what he thought, Lin Benjian could only think that the other party did have academic problems and wanted to consult him face-to-face.

Lin Benjian said politely: "Newman, Zhengming is mainly doing research in the field of semiconductor components, of course, including EDA circuit design and analog ICs.

I think you are his student, and I have read the papers you published before, which are actually also in the direction of semiconductor components, and I mainly do the overlapping direction of optics and semiconductors.

I may not be able to answer the questions you ask. ”

In terms of academic status and age, Lin Benjian is higher than Zhou Xin, and in terms of social status, Zhou Xin is undoubtedly much higher. When you don't know what to call each other, it's always right to call them by their first name.

Zhou Xin: "I know your research direction, you have been working at IBM before, doing ultraviolet lithography research. He left IBM to start his own business and engaged in research in the field of lithography machines.

I've been interested in lithography machines lately, so I'd like to talk to my seniors. ”

Lin Benjian does not speak Chinese very well, so the two communicate in English.

"At present, the mainstream light source of lithography machine is KrF, but you have always thought that ArF is the future development direction.

In fact, no one in the industry has adopted ArF, whether it is Nikon or Canon, and they have been investing in R&D on KrF.

I wonder why you are so bullish on ArF, senior. ”

ArF and KrF are deep ultraviolet light sources used in lithography technology, and all of them are currently used by mainstream manufacturers.

ASML and TSMC cooperated, under the leadership of Lin Benjian, and began to invest in ArF on a large scale at the earliest, which is also one of the key factors for ASML to achieve technology monopoly in the future.

As we all know, lithography machines are key equipment in the semiconductor manufacturing process to transfer design patterns to wafers.

But how the specific lithography machine works, many people are not so clear. To put it simply, the surface of the wafer is coated with a layer of photosensitive photoresist that undergoes a chemical reaction under ultraviolet light and then changes its solubility.

The domestic lithography machine is stuck in the neck, and the photoresist is also stuck in the neck.

A photomask is then used, a transparent carrier with a subtle pattern on it that represents the different components and interconnects in the integrated circuit. The photomask is placed between the light source of the lithography machine and the silicon wafer.

The light source (KrF or ArF) in the lithography machine is irradiated on the photomask.

The light passes through the open area of the pattern, and the blocked part corresponds to the pattern.

The light then passes through a projection optical system that scales and focuses the pattern onto the photoresist-coated surface on the silicon wafer.

After exposure, the light-sensitive material in the photoresist undergoes a chemical change.

In a positive photoresist, the exposed area becomes more soluble; In a negative photoresist, the exposed area becomes less soluble.

The silicon wafer is immersed in a developer to dissolve the chemically altered areas of the photoresist. In this way, the pattern on the photomask is accurately transferred to the photoresist on the surface of the silicon wafer.

Once the photoresist pattern is formed, the complete chip is built layer by layer through etching, doping, or metal deposition steps.

There is no online encyclopedia, no, there is already a Quora encyclopedia, in short, being able to accurately say ArF and KrF proves that Zhou Xin still has a relatively in-depth study in the field of lithography machines.

After all, many practitioners in the field of lithography machines do not know that there is also the technical route of ArF.

"The wavelength of ArF is 193nm, while the wavelength of the KrF light source is 248nm, and the shorter wavelength helps to achieve higher resolution and finer patterns," said Hayashi. ”

Zhou Xin asked: "But when ArF deals with smaller process nodes, there will be more linear fluctuations and irregularities.

Although ArF has a shorter wavelength, it is more uncontrollable.

This is a big no-no for industrial production. This is the most important reason why Nikon and ASML are reluctant to continue to invest in R&D costs in this direction after trying ArF. ”

As soon as Zhou Xin's voice fell, Lin Benjian's face changed greatly, Zhou Xin knew ArF and KrF, which he could understand.

Because these are the contents published in open journals, anyone who is interested in lithography machines has the opportunity to read about them.

However, Zhou Xin can accurately say the reason for not investing in the direction of ArF, even if it is a practitioner, there is no way to know the content.

There is a lot of popular science content in this chapter, but there is no way, if you don't explain how the lithography machine works, everyone will be confused.

The popular science content is a total of 400 words, which is only 2 starting coins, so it's okay to calculate.

(End of chapter)