At this time, Boss Jia didn't seem to care about VCD because he was already entangled by Ni Guangnan.

"Boss, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We must take the asml!" Ni Guangnan kept repeating in Boss Jia's ears, and the hearing made Boss Jia's ears calluses.

Just yesterday, Asml announced a world-renowned news that has attracted worldwide attention in the semiconductor industry, that is, Asml launched the FPA2500, a 193nm wavelength scanning exposure machine, with an optical lithography resolution of 70nm, an invincible achievement that has attracted worldwide attention.

asml is the world's top lithography machine manufacturer and produces the world's best lithography machine.

A lithography machine is the most important device for making an electronic chip, no doubt about it.

As we all know, a computer chip is simply a giant integrated circuit, with hundreds of thousands, millions or even tens of millions of microtransistors placed on this integrated circuit.

The size of a computer chip is only about 1/4 of the palm of your hand. If you want to integrate tens of millions of microtransistors on such a small computer chip, so that you have powerful computing power, then every transistor is so small that it is unimaginable.

How to integrate these microcrystals into such a small chip has become the highest technology in computer chip manufacturing!

Now all chips are made of high crystal silicon, so the first step in making a chip is to purify quartz into pure silicon, then make a silicon crystal rod, and finally slice it to make the wafer needed for the chip.

The second step is to apply a layer of film on the wafer. The wafer coating can resist oxidation and temperature resistance, and this layer of film is the template for tens of millions of microtransistors in the future.

Step 3 is the time for the lithography machine to show its strengths. Through the lithography machine, the wafer photolithography is developed and etched.

The film that was applied on the wafer before was particularly sensitive to ultraviolet light in nature. Whenever it was encountered, it would become soft immediately and then it could be washed away by simple cleaning.

The function of the lithography machine is equivalent to pre-setting a pattern of various microtransistor arrangements, and each line in it is directly blocked, and then when such ultraviolet light shines on the wafer.

The films irradiated with ultraviolet light will be directly softened and dissolved, and can be washed away directly with special solvents.

The part that has not been illuminated by ultraviolet light can still maintain the existence of that part of the film, allowing it to continue to adhere to the surface of the wafer.

This is somewhat similar to the principle of a seal. Once you put the seal on the surface of the object, a detailed pattern will appear on the paper.

The fourth step is to add impurities, implant ions into the wafer, generate corresponding p and n-type semiconductors, perform various special treatments on positions that are not blocked by the film, and then produce microtransistors with different functions.

Finally, it was detected and packaged, and then a chip with powerful computing power was born.

The principle of a lithography machine, simply put, is to make the circuits and functional areas required for chip production. The light emitted by the lithography machine is exposed to the sheet coated with photoresist through a photosensitive mask with a pattern. The properties of the photoresist will change after seeing light, so that the pattern on the photosensitive mask will be copied onto the sheet, so that the sheet can have the function of an electronic circuit diagram. This is the role of lithography.

If you don’t understand the above paragraph, it doesn’t matter, there is a simpler explanation for easy understanding below.

Simply put, the computing power of a chip depends on how many microtransistors there are on the wafer of the chip. The more microtransistors there are, the stronger the computing power of the chip.

For example, the chips of supercomputers in various countries contain an amazing number of microtransistors. For example, in 2018, one of the strongest supercomputers in the United States had a total of 73.728 trillion transistors on its chip. Of course, this is composed of 9,216 CPUs in parallel, and it is not that so many transistors are engraved on the same chip.

Generally speaking, by 2020, the CPUs of home computers contained more than 1 billion microtransistors, and in 1993, this number was also above the tens of millions. In 30 years, the number of microtransistors increased by more than 100 times.

But the size of a CPU is so large, only 1/4 of the area of ​​the palm, so the volume and size of each microtransistor will inevitably be extremely small. In 2020, the standard for this size is 5 nanometers. In 1993, the standard for this size was 140 nanometers.

The function of a lithography machine is to engrave nano-level microtransistors on a small wafer. Of course, the specific process is not as simple as engraving. If you want to understand it in detail, you can look at the explanation above. If you are not interested, just skip it. Anyway, you can understand it like this.

Therefore, for a lithography machine, the ultimate optical resolution it can be printed is so small, and the ability of this lithography machine is so powerful.

As mentioned earlier, in 1994, the highest size of a lithography machine is a lithography machine with an optical resolution of 140 nanometers.

But now, amsl has launched the latest model, a super lithography machine with optical resolution of 70nm.

Now, the opportunity to buy this super lithography machine has come. At this time, amsl openly sells two such super lithography machines to the outside world, and they are only two in the first half of 1994. If you can buy these two super lithography machines, it is equivalent to having the world's most leading chip manufacturing capabilities. Even Adm and Inter do not have such chip manufacturing capabilities.

So Ni Guangnan pestered Boss Jia and asked Boss Jia to buy these two machines... If you can't buy two, you have to buy at least one.

"My teacher, are you crazy? Why are you buying that thing now? Even if we buy this machine back and have the best chip manufacturing capabilities in the world, we do not have the corresponding CPU design capabilities. If we buy this machine back, we can only eat dust. What's the use of this?"

"Hasn't I bought a 200-nanometer lithography machine for the laboratory? That cost me $40 million. Can't you use that one first?" Boss Jia said with a depressed look on his face.

"Boss, I bought it but didn't use it. I used it to dismantle it and used it to eat technology!" Ni Guangnan said seriously.

"I..." Boss Jia was speechless when he heard the word "disassembly". He had bought a lithography machine for the laboratory before, and now the lithography machine has become parts and is distributed in different laboratories.

This lithography machine worth 40 million US dollars did not even make a penny for Boss Jia, and was dismembered.

"Boss, that machine is only at ordinary level in the world, and the technology used is very backward. Our scientific research team has eaten all the technology inside, so we still need the most advanced 70-nanometer lithography machine to give us the technology!" Ni Guangnan said.

"What! You have learned the 200-nanometer technology thoroughly?" Boss Jia looked at Ni Guangnan in shock. It took only 8 months for the machine to be bought, but he has learned it thoroughly now?

"It's almost the same. Our team has compiled a data data of millions of words. Do you want to take a look? Your physics is good now, and these things should be understandable!" Ni Guangnan said with a smile.

"Don't, I don't have time to watch..." Boss Jia shook his head quickly, and then asked, "Can you produce that 200nm lithography machine?"

"Give me another year!" Ni Guangnandao "Although I have learned the technology of the lithography machine, there are still many difficulties in the production process. In another year, I can overcome these difficulties and produce our own 200-nanometer lithography machine!"

"Similarly, if you can get a 70nm lithography machine this time, give me 2...3...4, and at most 4 years, I will guarantee that I can defeat the 70nm lithography machine!" Ni Guangnan said confidently.

"Four years!" Boss Jia muttered. According to Boss Jia's memory, this development history of lithography machines is particularly famous.

Since the production process of lithography machines entered 70nm, it has become extremely difficult to break through this number limit. From 1993 to 2002, for a full 10 years, the production process of lithography machines has been fixed to the level of 70nm and cannot be further improved.

It was not until 2002 that a new production process was proposed that lithography machines began to develop rapidly again, and finally evolved to a 5-nanometer accuracy.

In other words, if Ni Guangnan really could handle the lithography machine technology in four years as he said, then in 1998, China's lithography machine production process would be able to catch up with the world's level, reach a 70-nanometer production process, and then remain flush for at least 4 years in the next year, and have the world's top level.
Chapter completed!