"The Great Chip" - Reading Notes Chapter 4 Chip Manufacturing

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"The Great Chip" - Reading Notes Chapter 4 Chip Manufacturing [Copy link]

The chip manufacturing industry can be said to be a very complex and delicate job in the manufacturing industry. From silicon wafers to chips, many processes need to be experienced. Among these processes, I am more surprised by photolithography. In my opinion, photolithography technology is like alien technology. Apply photoresist evenly on the wafer, and then the light source of the photolithography machine emits deep ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet light through the mask to reduce the circuit structure pattern on the mask and focus it on the photoresist layer. Shape the photoresist through photolithography. It feels like the green oil layer in the homemade PCB board. I remember that when I made the PCB board myself, I first applied green oil evenly on the board, and then covered the green oil that I didn’t want to leave with something, and then irradiated it with ultraviolet light. The irradiated green oil layer solidified, and the unirradiated was washed away with a cleaning agent, leaving the desired green oil solder mask. It feels a bit similar. The etching behind the chip can remove unnecessary materials from the silicon surface, leaving only a 3D circuit diagram, which feels very magical. The subsequent ion implantation and other steps are mixed, and it feels that the requirements for the instrument are very high. No wonder it is said that lithography machines are very difficult to make. I have never understood why the Netherlands, a small European country with a windmill, can make lithography machines. The book introduces some historical reasons. From the book, it can be seen that the history of lithography machines is not long. The first commercial lithography machine launched by Nikon in Japan in 1980 is only more than 40 years ago, and its designers are probably still alive. From the perspective of time, it is not impossible for China to build advanced process lithography machines within 20 years. The book says that iAMSL is willing to use the immersion lithography technology of Chinese scientists to achieve overtaking on the curve, and ASML can only develop rapidly with the help of the United States. It feels that the United States at that time still had a certain courage to support a small European country, although it was just a puppet, and it could unite several countries to do research together. From the current international environment, it feels that countries are now wary of each other and are unwilling to open their hearts to cooperate. We often say that there is a community with a shared future for mankind. I hope everyone can put aside prejudice and work together.

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It’s not that China is incapable of manufacturing. First, there are blockades on certain technologies abroad, and second, there is the idea that it is better to buy than to make.