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Chapter 266 The dispute over the manufacturing process route (Part 1)

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    The lithography machine is the core production equipment in the wafer production line, and its development process has gone through several generations.

    If we take large-scale commercial applications as the standard line, generally speaking, the 1960s was the era of contact lithography machines and proximity lithography machines. In the 1970s, the mainstream of lithography equipment was updated to projection lithography machines.  In the 1980s, it was updated to stepper lithography machines. In the 1990s, it was updated to stepper scanning lithography machines. At the beginning of the new century, immersion lithography machines became popular.

    After the 21st century, thanks to the idea of ??adding water on top of the photoresist by Chinese scientist Dr. Lin Benjian, ASML suddenly got a great trick and used an intrusive lithography machine to knock Japanese lithography machine manufacturers into dust from the cloud.  In a few years, it has monopolized 70% of the global photolithography machine market.

    Since the nature of light is a wave, in the microphysical world, the shorter the wavelength, the higher the accuracy of light. In other words, the shorter the wavelength of light, the thinner the lines carved on the wafer.

    Early Moore¡¯s Law predicted that the density of integrated circuits would double every year. It was not until 1975 that Moore¡¯s Law was changed to every eighteen months as everyone knows in the future.

    According to the Rayleigh formula: d=k1*(¦Ë/na), where d represents the exposure size or the minimum size of photolithography, such as 5.0 microns, 3.0 microns, etc., and even directly refers to the technical standard of the wafer production line, k1  Represents the comprehensive factors that interfere with reducing the photolithography size, such as photoresist, such as the supply voltage of the workshop environment, etc.

    Na represents the numerical aperture of the lens. The academic description of this thing is relatively complicated. Simply put, the larger the na value, the more light is transmitted and the higher the resolution.

    Anyone who has been working for nine years knows that ¦Ë represents the wavelength of light. In the formula, the lower the wavelength, the higher the accuracy of the lithography machine.

    Therefore, the prerequisite for realizing Moore's Law is to reduce the values ??of k1 and ¦Ë and increase the value of na.

    Compared with lens grinding, which is a laborious and slow-acting patient task, shortening the wavelength of light has become the most direct and priority way to improve the accuracy of the lithography machine.

    Early lithography machines were pretty useless. They were basically modified from movie cameras. The exposure light sources were also quite strange, ranging from the infrared end of the spectrum to the near-ultraviolet section.

    "However, as Moore's Law takes effect, the light source rapidly moves from the infrared end to the ultraviolet end, and the lens quickly exceeds the accuracy required by movie lenses, making it increasingly difficult to process professionally.

    By the 1980s, the mainstream light source of lithography machines began to use high-pressure mercury lamps with a wavelength of 365nm. The industry called this thing ~ i-line.

    In the early 1990s, after the accuracy of lithography machines fell below 1.0 microns, the 356nm wavelength provided by the high-pressure mercury lamp became too large. Therefore, the krf laser became the mainstream light source for lithography machines, and the 248 nm wavelength it produced  The light source is enough to push the line width of the wafer production line into the nanometer era.

    In the mid-1990s, as the line width of wafer production lines was further reduced, the 193nm wavelength DUV laser began to emerge. DUV laser is also the famous arf excimer laser and is used in a variety of cross-industry engineering applications, including myopia treatment surgery.  This kind of laser, related laser generators and optical lenses and other technologies are relatively mature.

    In the electronics industry, fortunately, the joy of reducing research and development costs due to the extremely wide range of applications of 193nm light sources has not been enjoyed for a few days. The shortened journey of lithography light sources has been directly stuck at 193nm and cannot make progress.

    From the mid-1990s until Liang Yuan's stowaway, the light source of the lithography machine had been maintained at 193nm for nearly two decades. It can be said that until the moment someone stowaway, all mainstream mobile phones, computers, tablets, and supercomputers in the world  The main chips of computers, graphics cards, and routers are still photolithographed with 193nm light source. The 193nm light source has become the first unchanging cornerstone in the ultra-rapid development of the human information age.

    Since the maturity of Moore's Law or Moore's Prophecy in 1975, the global semiconductor industry has been running along the technological road given by Dr. Moore for more than 20 years. It was not until the end of the 20th century that it hit an iron wall that could not be broken through.  193nm, the light source of lithography machines has been stuck at this wavelength for a full twenty years. Intel was criticized as a toothpaste factory at the turn of the century, which was just a first-line reaction in the consumer field when lithography machine technology stopped progressing.

    Since the mid-1990s, scientists and the electronics industry have proposed various solutions beyond 193nm, including 157nm laser, electron beam projection (epl), ion projection (ipl), EUV (13.5nm) and x-ray.  After its development, several major technology camps were formed at the turn of the century.

    157nm f2: Every major lithography company is studying it, but Toyo Nikon is the first to launch a product that meets commercial standards.

    157nm light will be absorbed by the lenses used in existing mainstream 193nm machines, and the photoresist must be re-developed, so it is extremely difficult to transform the production line. It is almost like starting from scratch, and the 157nm light source has only less than 25% improvement in the wavelength of 193nm.  , the R&D input-output ratio is really too low.

    ???????????????????????????:?It's unfortunate that Nikon, which benefited from its national spirit of craftsmanship and stubborn pursuit of wavelength shortening, is really great. It was the first to solve the light source wavelength problem that has plagued the world for more than ten years.

    But it is a pity that at that time, the Chinese scientist Dr. Lin Benjian's idea of ??adding water to the photoresist had already turned the wavelength of the 193 light source directly into 137nm through refraction. In the future, the line width of the 193 light source was directly pushed to less than ten nanometers, directly putting Nikon into a huge investment.  The technology developed by the company was sent back to his hometown without any suspense.

    This incident can definitely be recorded in the history of the development of the human electronics industry. It is not an exaggeration to say that Dr. Hayashi Benjian single-handedly directly sunk the Japanese electronics industry. You must know that Nikon's development of 157nm light source is not a problem of the light source, but its supporting facilities.  The lenses, photoresists, chemicals, workshop circuits, etc. are almost all brand new, which is almost equivalent to replacing the entire wafer production line or the foundation of the electronics industry.

    Thanks to Toyo's strong electronic supporting industry strength, around the 157nm light source, Toyo's electronics industry chain has involved countless large and small companies. As a result, they have all been undermined. Before Liang Yuan's smuggling, after the Toyo Plaza agreement, Toyo Economics  The reason why it has been missing for 20 years is definitely due to Dr. Lin Benjian.

    In addition to the 157 light source that died of frustration, 13.5nm EUV ll is also the light source that is most likely to be put into large-scale commercial applications among the upper limits of human technology before Liang Yuan's stowaway. This camp includes Intel, AMD, Motorola, the U.S. Department of Energy,  asml, Infineon, miron, etc.

    1nm proximity  Started in the late 1980s, it was produced using the proximity exposure method. It was originally planned to be used as a supplementary technology after the 157 light source. In the new century, although it is not as unlucky as Nikon, the product has matured, but the United States and Japan are also working in this direction.  Billions of dollars have been invested in it, but it has already cooled down before it even came out. I don¡¯t know whether it¡¯s a blessing or a misfortune.

    0.004nm ebdw or epl: Lucent ~ Bell Labs, IBM, Canon, Nikon, ASML was invited to join and then the first to withdraw. The scientific name of this camp is electron beam direct writing technology, which is the most ridiculous among all lithography technology camps.  The most romantic one is also the physical limit of photolithography technology, and it is Fang Weilin¡¯s main purpose.

    After being defeated by ASML, Nikon once bet on electron beam direct writing technology and tried its best. Unfortunately, the difficulty of developing this thing is comparable to the controllable nuclear fusion in the electronics industry. Until the moment when Liang Yuan stowaway, no one heard about Nikon, which has been in the trap for ten years.  Make some big news.

    Generally speaking, the frontiers of science and technology are dominated by universities, which are mostly engaged in basic technology research and development. Basic technologies are often more than ten or even hundreds of years ahead of industrial applications, such as Einstein¡¯s mass-energy equations and theory of relativity. The frontiers of industry are dominated by universities.  Targeted laboratories and various corporate research institutes are mainly used. Laboratory technology is basically the mainstream technology in the future industry, often five to ten years ahead of the existing technology in the industry. For example, Nokia Labs developed the technology in the laboratory in 2000.  A personal electronic terminal similar to the Apple mobile phone was developed, but unfortunately it was shot away by Nokia executives.

    Similarly, in the early 1990s, cutting-edge laboratories of major companies engaged in research and development in the electronics industry had discovered that after the 193nm wavelength, the development of light sources suddenly fell into a great dilemma. Existing materials did not support shorter wavelength light sources at all.  The possibility of large-scale application can only rely on the discovery of new materials or the low-yield 153nm wavelength light source to continue to shorten the wavelength, and update most of the existing equipment in the electronics industry.

    Since the chip industry is a high-tech industry, the frontier and the production line are very closely connected. The R&D difficulties in the laboratory were quickly transmitted to the industry. As a result, although the 193nm light source has not yet become popular, there are already faint signs of the future camp.  .

    As the only microelectronics group in the Republic that can touch the forefront of the industry, Hong Kong Base Electrical and Electronics Group naturally has constant internal disputes about the future technology route. Some of them are siding with 193nm and decide to only look at what is in front of them. Others are siding with 153nm, which is 25% higher than 193nm.  It's also an improvement, right? Compared with extreme ultraviolet light reflective EUV lithography, the difficulty of developing 153nm equipment is really reduced by an order of magnitude. It seems to be a good solution for overtaking in corners.

    There are also some daring and radical R&D personnel who directly support EUV. The most radical one is that they are optimistic that electron beam direct writing technology will be the best choice for breaking through the 193nm light source in the future.

    There is a widely circulated truth in the future Internet era. Only hanging wires can be used for multiple-choice questions. Local tycoons have always wanted everything. Hong Kong-based power collection is the hanging wires in the global electronics industry. How can we invest in all four camps?  In terms of R&D funding, it would be a blessing to be able to stick to one camp and not be left too far behind.

    Funds are limited, and I personally believe that facing the looming 193nm threshold, my own direction is the right one. Without Liang Yuan¡¯s intervention, Hong Kong-based power collection has alreadyThere was a quarrel, and the electron beam direct writing plan was the first plan to be killed by the top management of Hong Kong-based power collection.

    Due to the characteristics of electron beams, electron beam direct writing technology can be four or five generations ahead of exposure technology in terms of accuracy. That is to say, in an era when the mainstream technology of wafer production lines is 1.0 micron, electron beam direct writing technology can reduce the process line width.  Direct advancement to 0.13 microns.

    Why was such an awesome technology killed immediately by the executives of Hong Kong Base Power Collection?

    Generally speaking, in the early 1990s, the number of wafers processed by mainstream technology lithography machines per hour was about 150 to 200, while the number of wafers processed by electron beam direct writing technology was about three to five per hour.  The most annoying thing is that as the complexity of chips in the future increases rapidly, Hong Kong Base Electric predicts that the processing capacity of electron beam direct writing technology will drop from three to five wafers per hour to three to five chips per hour.  Degree.
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