The media always likes to summarize boring technological breakthroughs through various symbolic key nodes, and the immersion method is the key node that is often mentioned in the development of chip technology in later generations.

Before that, ASML, which was still a catch-up in the industry, successfully achieved a technological overtake with the help of an immersion lithography machine, and has never been surpassed by other manufacturers since then.

Back in 2003, ASML did not consider the immersion route, but continued to adhere to the previous research and development of dry lithography machines.

The same point as later generations is that with Ameriken Capital leading, ASML, TSMC and Intel, the three manufacturers have joined together to promote the research and development of lithography machines.

On the flight back to China, Zhou Xin gave in-depth thought to this issue.

The immersion lithography machine is just a simple sentence from a technical point of view, but there is actually a lot of technical research and development work to be done in the middle of the landing, not that it is as simple as adding a layer of liquid in the middle.

From dry lithography to immersion lithography is a U-turn in the technical route, and Xinxin can become the pioneer of this technical route.

Be a pioneer, after making achievements, you will indeed be able to learn your advanced experience from your peers, and after the technical route of the immersion lithography machine is confirmed, everyone will go in this direction.

The technical advantages of the new chip lithography machine cannot be maintained for too long, but the advantage of the first mover is also obvious, that is, it can have some key patents in the middle of the immersion lithography machine.

To master key patents, one is to rely on key patents to charge, and the other is to clamp overseas attempts to kick Chinese enterprises out of the chip industry chain in the future.

The more irreplaceable key patents that Huaguo enterprises grasp in the upstream and downstream of the advanced chip manufacturing process, the greater the initiative in the future.

Sooner or later, this membrane will be lifted, and it is better to use it yourself to the advantage of holding it in your hand than waiting for others to reveal it.

After Zhou Xin thought about it, he found Lin Benjian in the entire office area of Zhangjiang High-tech Park, which belongs to Xinxin.

Xinxin, or Zhouxin, the core of the global chip industry is placed in Shenhai, so Shenhai's inclination towards Zhangjiang in various resources can be said to be very obvious.

In that era, there were indicators for hukou, even if large central enterprises wanted to settle in Shenhai, there were also index restrictions, and new employees needed to join the company for many years before they could be ranked, but the annual indicators of Xinxin could be said to be unlimited, even if grassroots employees could wait for two years at most.

Shenhai's settlement will not be opened until 2021, and 985 masters or Shenhai's local 985 bachelor's degree can directly settle in Shenhai, which is to lower the threshold to a level lower than Yanjing.

For Chinese people, hukou is associated with many factors such as pension, medical care, education, etc., and Shenhai Neng has given Xinxin this strong support in this regard, not to mention the support in the fields of land, water and electricity, and finance.

To be honest, local banks and financial companies in Shenhai are very eager to lend to Xinxin Technology, but the problem is that there is not much demand for Xinxin Technology.

As for the land, it is precisely because Xinxin is in Zhangjiang that the housing prices in the Zhangjiang area are almost the same every year, and they go up a step every year. Local governments are now relying on land revenue.

Not to mention the jobs created by the upstream and downstream industrial chain driven by Xinxin in Zhangjiang, so Zhangjiang directly approved a whole piece of land to Xinxin, which is equivalent to building its own industrial park within the scope of Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park.

At present, this industrial park is not only used by Xinxin itself, but also leases part of the idle area to other chip companies.

"Uncle Lin, I think the immersion method will be a feasible technical route, compared with the current dry lithography machine, the exposure area and the lens of the lithography machine can be filled with water, and the wavelength of the light source can be shortened by refraction."

After three years of working together, Zhou Xin and Lin Benjian have established a sufficient foundation of trust, so he can tell each other directly about technical secrets like this.

On the one hand, the foundation of trust is on the one hand, and on the other hand, the interests of both parties are highly bound through Xinxin Semiconductor, Zhou Xin not only gave Lin Benjian shares of Xinxin Lithography Machine, but also considered that it is difficult for Xinxin Lithography Machine to create benefits in the short term, and even because of Ameriken's suppression of long-term benefits, so in addition to Xinxin Lithography Machine shares, he also gave the other party the option of Xinxin Technology chip foundry.

This is a treatment that TSMC will never be able to offer.

After listening to this, Lin Benjian said: "I was also going to tell you my thoughts, I was planning to write a few papers with my colleagues from Xinxin Lithography Machine and send them to you, to persuade you to choose immersion, okay, you call it immersion, in fact, we plan to call it wet lithography machine." ”

Yes, Lin Benjian also intends to take an immersion technical route on the lithography machine of the 130nm process technology of the new core lithography machine.

Zhou Xin was not particularly surprised after hearing this, as a top expert in the field of optics, it was not strange that Lin Benjian could think of the wet method, Zhou Xin asked another question: "Why do you want my consent?"

When we communicated about the need to make lithography machines before, didn't we just say that I would not interfere in the operation of the new core lithography machine, and the operation would be handed over to you? ”

Lin Benjian nodded: "We did communicate like this before, but now the situation is different, to take the route of wet lithography machine is to be the enemy of the world."

We needed to convince the suppliers of the various components of the lithography machine, especially ZEISS, to work with us to do the pre-study of the wet lithography machine.

Compared to a dry lithography machine, we need to change the lens group, and the previous lens combination may not be able to meet our needs.

There is also a lot of technical work involved, for example, after the water is put in, the air may produce bubbles, and the water must be very uniform, but in fact there will be light on the water, and the light on the water will produce a temperature difference, and the temperature difference will cause the water to be uneven. Water inhomogeneity can further affect imaging.

There is a lot of technical work to be done in the middle, the volume of the new core lithography machine is too small, and the industry has invested more than one billion dollars in R&D in the field of dry lithography machine in the past.

I'm not sure if a wet lithography machine will actually do what we expect.

This is the fate of gambling on the new core lithography machine. Lin Benjian's eyes showed a seriousness that he had never seen before.

In this way, this technical route has won the bet, holding a large number of technical patents, even if it is stuck through the Wassenaar agreement, you can sell patents to other lithography machine companies, and then continue to research and development on this technical route, accumulate technical advantages, and build your own patent wall.

Second, when other companies turn to the same line, ASML, Canon, and Nikon will not form a monopoly so quickly, and Xinxin lithography can buy some technology.

After listening to this, Zhou Xin remembered that Lin Benjian insisted on taking the immersion lithography machine route when he was working at TSMC in the original time and space, and he didn't hear that Lin Benjian had experienced such a fierce inner struggle at that time.

Zhou Xin thought about it again, and felt that it was because he was working for TSMC before, and no matter how he did it, he would get the same, so he would naturally have academic persistence, his gambling would be stronger, and his losses would be limited.

Now the new core lithography machine also has his share, once the technical route is wrong, the lost time can never be returned, and the loss is his own.

Zhou Xin was thinking, Lin Benjian saw that the other party did not speak, and continued: "Actually, I have always been very hesitant, because everyone is taking this road for dry lithography machines, and companies in the same industry are all developing dry lithography machines.

No one has ever considered wet lithography because wet lithography is a very unpopular technical route, and two researchers from the Lincoln Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sweetex and Rothschild, have done similar research, and they have tried various liquids, but they are not suitable. ”

Zhou Xin interrupted: "If you want to use water, the refractive index of water is the most suitable, only water can." ”

Lin Benjian applauded: "It's worthy of Newman, he is so keen on everything, yes, we also found that water is the most suitable."

Because water is a large amount of liquid used in the production of semiconductors, there is no question of acceptance.

And we measured the refractive index of water when we were doing pre-research, 1.46, this refractive index is very suitable, and now the wavelength of 193 nanometers can become 132 nanometers after being refracted by water, directly skipping 157 nanometers, avoiding this difficulty, which is really a wonderful arrangement of God. ”

Why is 157 nm difficult, because when the wavelength is 193 nm, the aperture of the lithography machine lens has been 0.93, and the limit of this technology is the 90 nm process, and if you want to go further, the light source must be shorter.

The light with a wavelength of 157 nanometers found in the industry has many problems, low transmittance, and only a few available media, such as single-crystal calcium difluoride, the problem of this material to make a lens is that it is difficult to make perfect crystals of 20-30 cm in size.

There is also an example of oxygen in the air absorbing 157 nanometers of light, and the entire path through which the light passes must only be nitrogen, which causes a lot of inconvenience, increases the cost of manufacturing, and is fatal if too much nitrogen is accidentally leaked.

There are many, many problems to be overcome with 157 nanometers of light, and Lin Benjian found that he did not need to change the light source through the wet method, and as a Christian, he felt more and more that this was God's arrangement.

It is precisely because he thinks that this is God's arrangement that he wants to gamble.

Of course, hearing Zhou Xin almost subconsciously say water, Lin Benjian felt in his heart that a genius deserves to be a genius, with a beast-like intuition.

Zhou Xin said: "I don't think there is a problem, I will support you, have you disclosed this technical route to the outside world?" ”

Lin Benjian shook his head: "Not yet, I'm not sure that this technical route can be viable, and we have to register some key technical patents, and after registration, we may need to publish some articles to win the support of Zeiss when we try to do it." ”

Zhou Xin asked: "Can we keep a low profile as much as possible, whether it is Zeiss or other manufacturers, can we solve it through money?"

To put it bluntly, we offer a price, they provide services, for example, they cooperate with us to manufacture components that meet our requirements, we offer a higher price, and the new core is lacking in everything else, but there is no shortage of money. ”

The reason why TSMC will join forces with ASML is because Philips is one of the shareholders of TSMC, and ASML was originally a division of Philips.

"We can convince Zeiss that Zeiss only recognizes money, and as long as the price we offer is high enough, they can do whatever effect we want," Lin said. ”

Zhou Xin thought to himself, it's better to be this kind of manufacturer who only recognizes money, because I am poor and only have money left.

"Well, because we're behind other Nikon Canons in terms of process technology, and we have to be as low-key as possible to make a breakthrough.

We definitely can't let them know because there are so many partners involved, but we don't do any publicity until there are phased results. ”

Zhou Xin set the tone, and Lin Benjian nodded: "It's just the revelation of sporadic news, and it is impossible for them to change the technical route."

You must know that Nikon has invested $700 million in R&D on dry lithography machines, and if they change their technical route, it will be equivalent to $700 million in waste, and shareholders will not let Nikon's R&D department and executives go.

Even if Nikon knew that wet lithography was the future, they would have gone down the dry lithography route until they failed. ”

This is the characteristic of neon companies, including the later TEPCO, which did not admit until there was a real nuclear leak, and it belonged to not hitting the southern wall and not looking back.

Zhou Xin said: "There is also ASML. ”

Lin Benjian said: "They are now cooperating with TSMC in depth, which is larger than us in terms of volume, but the size is limited.

They have a technical advantage, and I believe that we can surpass them after our breakthrough in wet lithography machines.

ASML also chooses a dry lithography machine, or all lithography companies take a technical route of dry lithography machine, and no one chooses a wet lithography machine.

Although the 157 nm wavelength light source has various problems, it is a continuation of the technical route that has been in the past, and it is still different from the wet lithography machine.

Although from the pre-research and my personal intuition, I think that the technical difficulties of the wet lithography machine can be overcome.

But what the reality is, I don't know.

On the contrary, you agree with me, and add a word about water as a medium, which makes me much more confident. ”

In a sense, it is equivalent to being the enemy of the world, and after Lin Benjian made up his mind to get a wet lithography machine in the original time and space, Nikon, a friendly businessman, even approached the president of TSMC to try to stop them.

Of course, Zhou Xin will stick to this technical route, and the benefit of opening the eye lies in this, you will never make a wrong strategic plan.

But there is also a problem, that is, after taking this technical route, it is impossible to buy technology from Nikon in the short term.

Zhou Xin said: "My intuition tells me that the wet lithography machine is definitely feasible, Uncle Lin, you probably expect that we will now start to devote all our resources to the research and development of the technical route of wet process."

If I lack funds, how long will it take to complete the research and development of samples if I raise funds in my own name? ”

To be honest, the in-depth cooperation between ASML and TSMC, as the majority shareholder behind the two companies, Philips plays a crucial role.

Now without Lin Benjian, lithography machine technology will still develop, but the route of technology development is different.

(End of chapter)