Gallium and germanium, both belong to the small production.

But vital material.

In some ways, they are as important as uranium, the raw material for nuclear bombs.

The semiconductor industry can't do without them.

And it is similar to uranium, which is very low in content.

Gallium and germanium, both of which have few separate deposits.

All are associated minerals of various types.

It can only be used when refining tin, aluminum and other minerals.

Exists as a by-product.

"We don't have enough raw materials."

Su Xiao held the folder in his hand and said with a worried expression.

The first furnace of gallium oxide production went smoothly.

A total of 12 tonnes of reliable, high-purity GaN monocrystals were produced.

The scrap rate for the first production is a bit high.

It reached nearly forty percent.

However, compared with the inverted mold method, which uses metal iridium as a crucible and requires millions of inputs at one furnace.

Metal vapor deposition continues to offer an unbeatable price-performance ratio.

"At present, almost all the gallium raw materials that can be bought on the market have been bought out by us."

"In the trading market, the price of gallium has risen almost snowballing in the past two days."

After Su Xiao finished speaking, he looked at Zhang Xingyang helplessly.

"If there are no more raw materials, we have to stop production."

The demand for gallium in the research institute is so huge that all the spot in the market has been bought.

This made the price of gallium rise to a high of $2,500 a kilogram.

Compared to the price a few months ago, it has doubled!

"Since there are no raw materials, let's open the furnace less."

Zhang Xingyang didn't react.

This was expected by him.

They are now producing too fast, at the current rate of raw material production.

Even if the domestic production of crude gallium and refined gallium will increase by four or five times.

They can all eat it.

"We will soon be able to produce our own gallium feedstock."

"During this time, you are just thinking about the application of gallium oxide semiconductors."

Zhang Xingyang said after thinking about it.

There are actually many applications of gallium oxide.

But this time, both at home and abroad.

The research on the application of gallium oxide semiconductors is not very in-depth.

The reason is simple.

Prior to this, the yield of gallium oxide wafers was low.

It's not just expensive metal iridium crucibles.

Moreover, the purity of the gallium oxide produced is not necessarily high.

It is easy to be doped with some impurities.

The purity requirements of gallium oxide wafers that can be made into chips and power devices are higher than those of 999 gold.

There are not a large number of gallium oxide wafers for everyone to use.

It's hard to have a wide variety of applications.

A technology that wants to be applied on a large scale.

A large amount of output is essential.

"We're already working on it and have some ideas, but we don't know if we can get results."

Su Xiao nodded and said.

Although the scrap rate of gallium oxide wafers in the previous furnace reached 40%.

But even the remaining sixty percent is enough for them to squander.

You know, before that, their wafer production was often calculated in grams.

It can produce several thousand grams at a time.

It's already an exhilarating thing.

The current output is enough for the research institute to squander several years.

——

"Old Sun, why are you here?"

After sending Su Xiao away, Zhang Xingyang, who was immersed in the optimization of the metal vapor deposition method.

Somewhat surprised, he looked at the man at the door.

Sun Hongtao smiled kindly and said, "I heard that you have just done a big thing, I will come over to take a look." ”

Zhang Xingyang waved his hand: "It's not a big deal, it's just a small thing." ”

If someone else said this, Sun Hongtao must have thought that he was pretending to be big in front of him.

But when Zhang Xingyang said this, he was not surprised at all.

After all, over the years, he has seen countless miracles created by Zhang Xingyang.

"That's why you kid dare to say that." After Sun Lao sat down, he said:

"I heard that you have made great achievements in the fourth generation of semiconductors?

Zhang Xingyang gave a thumbs up: "Old Sun's news is really well-informed. ”

"Mainly in chip manufacturing, a little progress has been made."

When Elder Sun heard this, he sat up straight, ready to listen.

"The previous gallium oxide wafer manufacturing method was highly efficient and cost-effective."

"We found an ingenious way to make GaN wafers more efficient and reduce costs by a large margin."

Speaking of this, Zhang Xingyang said as if he had thought of something:

"If we use the latest gallium oxide semiconductors for the production of power generation satellites after that."

"The cost can be cut in half again."

"And it's ten times more powerful."

Even if I have heard before that the fourth generation of semiconductors is more powerful than the third generation of semiconductors.

Sun Hongtao was still shocked by this crushing number.

The price is halved and the power is increased tenfold.

This is equivalent to a twenty-fold increase on the original basis!

"Is there such a big gap between the two?"

Sun Hongtao said with some disbelief.

Zhang Xingyang nodded: "The gap is indeed obvious, and the gap between this is like the gap between the big brother of the past and today's touch screen mobile phones." ”

The development of the mobile phone industry in this world is faster than in previous lives.

In the past two years, there have been a lot of touchscreen phones and fake smartphones.

It could be just a year or two away from the smartphone era.

Zhang Xingyang's analogy is easy to understand.

"I heard you don't have enough raw materials for gallium ore?"

Sun Lao turned his head and talked about the problems that the research institute was encountering now.

Zhang Xingyang sighed: "We have bought too much recently, and many manufacturers of gallium are waiting." ”

"They think there should be room for prices to rise."

Zhang Xingyang doesn't blame them.

With this crazy upward momentum, anyone who comes thinks it will continue to rise.

"But it won't be long before our gallium mine can be mined."

"At that time, we won't have too many raw material problems."

When Sun Hongtao heard this, he said: "Mining and refining, you have no problem." ”

"If there's anything you can't solve, just come to me."

The gallium deposits owned by the Institute are unique in the world.

It is an associated mine of a very large coal mine.

Generally speaking, gallium ore is not associated with coal mines.

But nature is just that, sometimes.

800,000 tons of gallium ore is associated with hundreds of millions of tons of black gold coal mines.

"The problem is not very big, and we are almost close to building a whole industrial line from the source to the product."

Zhang Xingyang rubbed his fingers and said:

"What we're most worried about now is that the product output is too large to be eaten in the market."

"The current production of power generation satellites is limited, even if the factory is running all day, it can only produce four power generation satellites a month."

"It can only consume about two tons of gallium oxide semiconductors a month."

"However, we were able to burn a furnace of gallium oxide in two days, and the output is currently 12 tons."

"That is, one furnace is enough for the satellite manufacturing plant, and it will take half a year."

"Even if you count the consumption at the ground receiving end, it will take four months to consume it."

Zhang Xingyang sighed: "It feels like a hundred aircraft carriers can be produced, but it only turns out that there are only manpower that can operate three aircraft carriers." ”

When there is no aircraft carrier, you want an aircraft carrier.

When there were aircraft carriers, it turned out that there were too many aircraft carriers.

I don't have so many people to drive it.

Zhang Xingyang is currently facing a similar state.

When there is no gallium oxide, gallium oxide is wanted.

When I had gallium oxide, I found that there was too much gallium oxide.

I can't spend it at all!

"In addition to power generation satellites, is there any other way to apply them in China?" Sun Hongtao asked with some curiosity.

"Not at the moment, maybe in the future."

Zhang Xingyang thought about the flying sword and drone carrier they built some time ago and said.

"We've developed some small things at the moment, but I don't know if the military is interested."

Sun Hongtao: "What little thing, tell me about it?" ”

"To put it simply, it is to create a drone aerial charging device."

Zhang Xingyang briefly summarized:

"It can maintain the endurance of the drone."

Sun Hongtao frowned after hearing this.

This thing made him feel weird.

"Does this work on the battlefield?"

"It's a little useful, but it mainly depends on the environment."

Zhang Xingyang has some of his own understanding of the Air Force strategy.

"If it's used to seize air supremacy, then I'm afraid it won't be of much use."

"However, if it is used to carry out ground attack missions after seizing air supremacy, it is still somewhat useful."

Sun Hongtao said: "Okay, what about the civilian side? ”

"Didn't you develop any use?"

"Gallium oxide is superior in many ways to gallium arsenide and gallium nitride, which we currently use."

"For example, computing chips and logic chips."

"But we're still working on this, and it will probably take a year or two to produce results."

They have just solved the problem of raw materials at the moment.

It will probably take years for it to be adopted on a large scale.

"However, in the future, the amount of gallium oxide we use is estimated to be very large."

Zhang Xingyang said seriously:

"So I think it's necessary for us to have controls on the export of gallium."

Sun Hongtao was a little surprised.

He thought that Zhang Xingyang would want to increase the export of gallium.

Even the export of gallium oxide wafers.

You must know that the price of gallium oxide wafers today is comparable to gold.

And they're producing so much today.

Exporting is the ability to earn a lot of foreign exchange.

"Isn't it good to make money exporting?" Sun Hongtao said in an uncertain tone.

Zhang Xingyang said: "This kind of money is still not good. ”

"You know, what we're making is a high-purity gallium oxide wafer."

"And at present, everyone has developed the most gallium oxide...

Zhang Xingyang paused, and then said, "It's military equipment." ”

"Whether it's an active phased array radar, or a variety of avionics systems, or even electronic warfare systems."

"At present, everyone uses gallium nitride, and its performance is much worse than gallium oxide."

"If we export gallium oxide in large quantities, then it is equivalent to increasing the military strength of the enemy."

Sun Hongtao was slightly relieved after hearing this.

Of course he understands that.

It's just that he is afraid that Zhang Xingyang will not understand.

"Are we going to ban the export of gallium oxide?"

Zhang Xingyang said with a rare serious expression:

"Actually, I think it's not just about banning the export of gallium oxide wafers, but also about banning the export of gallium nitride.

Even gallium arsenide would be better to ban exports.

All gallium products are not exported, that is the best. ”

Gallium is a raw material with high added value.

In the past, more than half of the dozens of tons of crude gallium in China every year were exported.

To a large extent, it is due to the fact that the domestic related industries are not developed.

To put it simply, there is not so much gallium production consumed in China.

However, with the successful development of the third generation of gallium oxide semiconductors.

This has changed a lot.

Zhang Xingyang and their successful research and development of the fourth generation of semiconductors have made China an importer of gallium in the foreseeable future.

"In fact, we also knew about these before, but the related industries in China are not very good, so we will let them be exported."

Sun Hongtao was silent for a while and said:

"We have just joined the WTO, and it is not a good thing to ban it rashly."

This is also a point that Sun Hongtao has to consider.

In order to be able to do business well in the international market, China has agreed to a lot of conditions.

Among them, there are many transactions related to imports and exports.

Why can China ban the export of gallium and germanium in later generations?

A lot of it is because the environment is different.

And it has been sanctioned by others.

"In that case."

Zhang Xingyang touched his finger:

"I have an idea."

"We can take a reactive approach instead of actively banning exports."

Sun Hongtao motioned for him to continue.

"For example, our research institute can push up the price of gallium in the domestic market so that they don't want to export abroad."

This method cannot be used by ordinary people.

Because pushing up the price means they have to lose money.

But Zhang Xingyang doesn't care very much.

The high-purity gallium oxide wafers they smelt have more than ten times the profit.

Either way, they're all earning.

It's just the difference between earning more and earning less.

And this may induce domestic manufacturers to pay attention to the production of gallium.

It's a good thing.

"So that even if someone says it, we can explain it with the reason that their price is too high and foreign customers don't want to buy it."

"These are raw materials, what if someone wants high-purity gallium oxide?"

Sun Hongtao then asked.

"The high-purity gallium oxide wafers are basically in our hands, and it is not up to us to decide whether we want to sell them or not."

Zhang Xingyang said with a smile.

Except for research institutes, no one has the technology and strength to produce high-purity gallium oxide wafers on a large scale.

If others want to buy it, they can't buy it.

After all, doing business is voluntary.

If the research institute doesn't want to sell, do others still want to buy and sell?

If anyone does that.

That Zhang Xingyang has to admire his courage.

Do you think that the research institute is allowed to be pinched and flattened?

I still feel that the missiles of the research institute are not powerful enough, and the stealth bomber does not have a long enough range.

"We will get them to ban the export of all gallium-related products as soon as possible."

Sun Hongtao said after listening.

"Germanium is also banned."

"I have a hunch that you will soon have to make some articles on germanium!"

Zhang Xingyang couldn't help but give a thumbs up: "Old Sun, you are so accurate!" ”

(End of chapter)