Technological Supremacy Chapter 83: Top photoresist
Luo Jia drove to SMIC. On a cold day, Tang Boyun's secretary was already waiting.
After the guard went through the formalities, Luo Jia and Zhang Dongning arrived at Mr. Tang's office with ease.
Tang Boyun and Luo Jia are already old friends. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Luo Jia went straight to the topic and asked Zhang Dongning to take out samples and explain the technical indicators.
Tang Boyun relaxed at first, listening quietly and nodding slightly at the same time.
However, after he had listened to everything, he showed a look of extreme shock, and his wrists couldn't help shaking.
"You mean, you made photoresist for semiconductor factories!?" Tang Boyun's eyes lit up, he stood up, and asked hoarsely.
According to the quality of photoresist, it is divided into six grades.
SMIC is second only to TSMC, GlobalFoundries, and UMC, and is the fourth largest semiconductor foundry in the world.
The so-called foundry means that SMIC itself does not have its own semiconductor brand, but Huawei HiSilicon, Spreadtrum, these semiconductor design companies, after completing the chip design, SMIC manufactures them for them.
Super semiconductor giants such as Samsung and Intel, of course, also have huge factories, but they mainly manufacture products for themselves, and there is not much time for others to process them.
Especially Intel, they have almost no foundry business, Samsung at least manufactures Snapdragon series mobile phone processors for Qualcomm, and Intel's factory, just manufacturing CPUs by itself, has almost occupied its production capacity.
In short, in the field of semiconductor foundry, there is a super enterprise, that is TSMC.
AMD's CPU, Nvidia's display chip, and Huawei's Kirin processor are all in charge of TSMC.
Under TSMC, GlobalFoundries used to be the semiconductor manufacturing department of AMD, and its strength is powerful. Together with UMC and SMIC, it is called the top three.
It can be seen that SMIC is by no means playing a soy sauce role in the semiconductor field. They are one of the top three in the semiconductor foundry field. .
Can the photoresist used by such a top semiconductor factory in the world be ordinary?
Absolutely not!
They need to use the most expensive top-quality photoresist that ranks fifth and sixth in quality!
As for other existences such as display panel factories, third or fourth grade photoresists are sufficient.
Luo Jia actually said that the photoresist they manufactured can meet the extremely stringent fifth and sixth level standards!
This shocked Tang Boyun so much that he couldn't believe his ears.
"Say that again?"
"Can we use it?"
"We have many lines under our banner, which one can be used?" Tang Boyun asked excitedly.
Luo Jia smiled and said in an extremely positive tone, "From your 120NM line with the lowest technical level to the 14NM line that has just been put into production, everything can be used!"
All works! ?
Tang Boyun's heartbeat accelerated crazily. Although the slogan of industrial replacement has been chanted for many years, semiconductors are the king of the technology industry after all. It is too difficult to march in this direction.
So far, almost all of the machines, consumables, and wafers used by SMIC are imported. It's not that they don't want to replace them, but that they really can't be replaced.
Zhongwei is an enterprise fully supported by the national team and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. They have worked hard, but they have only won the etching machine, and in terms of technical level, they have only caught up with the world's first-class. There is no lead, let alone reach the top of the world.
As the most used consumable in the semiconductor industry, Xingchen Technology has produced the fifth and sixth grades of photoresist. Can Tang Boyun not be excited? He is almost bursting with excitement.
"Do you know what this means!?" Tang Boyun said excitedly.
Luo Jia said lightly, "From the silicon wafer to the chip, it needs to go through thirteen processes, namely wet cleaning, photolithography, ion implantation, photoetching, wet etching, plasma treatment, heat treatment, rapid thermal annealing and oxidation. , chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition, molecular beam epitaxy, electroplating, surface treatment, packaging testing, polishing.”
"In the three most important process steps of photolithography, etching, and implantation, photoresist needs to be used repeatedly."
"And we, for you, solved the small problems about consumables in the three major links."
Tang Boyun nodded again and again, the way he looked at Luo Jia was obviously different.
This young man is an expert!
Obviously, Luo Jia has done a lot of study and research in semiconductors, the world's top technology field.
"Small problem, you actually said that photoresist is just a small problem." Tang Boyun shook his head, "Believe me, photoresist is by no means a small problem, but a serious problem that has plagued us for many years! Photoresists are all imported from abroad at high prices, and once they are stuck by others, the production line built with an investment of hundreds of billions must be shut down!"
Luo Jia smiled, "Boss Tang, wait a minute, I know the price of imported products is high, but I didn't say that our photoresist must be cheaper than imported ones."
Tang Boyun was stunned for a moment, and then laughed, "It doesn't need to be cheap! As long as the performance is the same and the price is the same, you will definitely use the photoresist of your Star Technology!"
"Let's go, let's go to the laboratory!"
...
Tang Boyun decided to personally preside over the performance test of the photoresist. The engineers of SMIC went crazy when they learned that a domestic manufacturer had produced grade 5 and grade 6 photoresist.
They only heard that there are a few companies that can manufacture three-level photoresist, five-level and six-level photoresist for display production lines, which are completely monopolized by Neon and the United States, TOK, JSR, Sumitomo, Shin-Etsu, DuPont , SMIC has always imported goods from these companies.
"Which factory's product?"
"I heard that it is a subsidiary of Xingchen Technology. The factory is not far away, just in Qidong."
"Star Technology? The Star Technology that engages in energy wave wireless charging?"
"That's them."
"Reliable! Although I haven't seen a sample yet, who knows about Star Technology, they have always been very reliable!"
"Stop talking so much~IndoMTL.com~ Hurry up and go, I heard that Mr. Tang is very excited, and he is going to host the test in person."
An uproar quickly erupted within SMIC. Engineers began to gather at the experimental center. They put on dustproof clothing and entered the laboratory to conduct the most stringent quality test on the photoresist of Star Technology.
Luo Jia and Zhang Dongning couldn't get in, so they had to watch outside through the glass.
From time to time, someone brought them tea and snacks, and many people Luo Jia didn't know at all came over to chat with him, and patted him on the shoulder before leaving to show their approval.
The test starts in the morning and continues until the evening.
Luo Jia saw that the engineers in the experimental center, who were wearing full dustproof suits, seemed very excited.
It was completely dark, and Tang Boyun came out of the laboratory with his technicians, with an excited expression on his face, "It's unbelievable, it's completely unbelievable, the data we measured is even better than the performance of Shin-Etsu Chemical's top products." Be great!"
Boom~
The surroundings were ebullient, and the staff who had been waiting for a long time embraced and congratulated each other, seeming happier than Luo Jia and Zhang Dongning.
What SMIC is most afraid of is the news about the trade embargo. The international situation is not good, and they may be stuck by others at any time. It is not uncommon for them to encounter things like overseas manufacturers sitting on the ground and raising prices. .
"Let's go eat something together." Tang Boyun cordially invited, "Someone has already prepared it. After we have eaten, we will go live overnight!"
Luo Jia was taken aback. Going online for actual combat is not a trivial matter. It means that the samples brought by Luo Jia are directly applied to those incredibly expensive semiconductor production lines. loss.