Sail across the sea

Chapter 407 Aren't you afraid of causing delays?

Gao Fan returned to his room, opened a drawer, and sure enough, saw three letters inside. Two of them were express mail envelopes, suggesting that the senders were in a hurry.

In fact, Gao Fan had returned to Cangtang three weeks prior, but had not received a letter then. In other words, the sender had sent Gao Fan three letters in just over two weeks.

The handwriting on the three envelopes was exactly the same; it belonged to Xu Yun, the only academic high-achiever Gao Fan knew at the University of Science and Technology of China.

Back at the Maple Forest Research Institute, Xu Yun heard that Gao Fan was Huang Chunyan's classmate, so he went to great lengths to curry favor with him. Now, no one knows how far his relationship with Class Monitor Huang has progressed. Xu Dan probably knows about this, but Gao Fan forgot to ask her.

Gao Fan sat down, opened Xu Yun's letters, and frowned after reading only one.

After reading the second and third letters, Gao Fan couldn't sit still any longer. He left the room and said to Gao Yiping, "Dad, give me your office key. I need to call my friend at the Chinese Academy of Sciences."

Gao Yiping's office phone can make long-distance calls. Whenever Gao Fan needs to make a long-distance call, he goes to Gao Yiping's office to make it; otherwise, he has to go to the telecommunications bureau to fill out a form and wait in line.

Strictly speaking, this kind of thing is considered profiting at the expense of the public, but it's quite common these days. Most workplace phones can't make long-distance calls, but employees often chat on the phone with local relatives and friends for one or two hours at a time, and who would say anything about that?

Gao Yiping took out a bunch of keys and gave them to Gao Fan. Gao Fan took the keys, went out, pushed his bicycle, and headed straight for the fertilizer company.

The fertilizer company wasn't far from Gao's house. Gao Fan locked his car downstairs in the office building, went upstairs to the general manager's office, picked up the phone, and dialed the long-distance number.

After several transfers, the call finally reached the physics department laboratory at the University of Science and Technology of China. Just as Gao Fan had guessed, Xu Yun was conducting an experiment in the lab. He was a year ahead of Gao Fan and was currently on the eve of graduation, usually spending all his time in the lab.

"Hey, who is it!"

On the other end of the phone, Xu Yun was shouting.

"I am Gao Fan."

Gao Fan raised his voice a little. There was no other way; the call quality for long-distance calls across provinces was really poor.

"Ah! You've come to Nanquan? Where are you now? I'll come find you."

Xu Yun's tone held a hint of delight. Nanquan was the capital of Lutian Province, and the location of the University of Science and Technology of China. In Xu Yun's mind, the fact that Gao Fan was calling him meant he had already arrived in the area; what respectable person would make a long-distance call?

"What are you thinking? I'm in Ruizhang," Gao Fan scolded. "Honestly, it's a matter of life and death, why didn't you call me? Writing a letter wouldn't have been a waste of time." Xu Yun on the other end of the line visibly paused. From Nanquan to Ruizhang, a long-distance call costs 6 cents a minute. Half an hour of talking would wipe out a month's living expenses. You ask why I didn't call?
“Actually, this matter isn’t that urgent.” Xu Yun paused for two seconds before saying hesitantly, “Chief Engineer Yun and Director Bi are still negotiating with the Japanese. I estimate that an agreement may not be reached anytime soon.”

The Chief Engineer Yun that Xu Yun mentioned is Yun Zhongming, the chief engineer of Zone 7 at the Fenglin Research Institute. Director Bi is Bi Liansheng, the director of Laboratory 08 in Zone 7. Xu Yun was a research assistant in Laboratory 08 back then, and the research topic of Laboratory 08 at that time was the photoresist used in the manufacture of integrated circuits.

While helping out at the Fenglin Research Institute, Gao Fan learned that Laboratory 08 was developing G-line photoresist suitable for 436-nanometer light sources, which was the mainstream light source used in lithography machines internationally at the time.

At that time, foreign countries were already exploring the use of 365-nanometer i-line light sources and 248-nanometer KrF light sources, and the corresponding photoresists were also under development.

Because China lags behind developed Western countries in lithography technology, it has not even fully mastered G-line lithography machines, so it naturally has no time to consider i-line and KrF light sources.

At that time, Gao Fan introduced the research ideas of i-line photoresist and KrF photoresist to Xu Yun, and encouraged Xu Yun to suggest that the 08 Laboratory develop these two photoresists in advance when the time is right, so as to seize the initiative in this field.

Xu Yun felt that Gao Fan's opinion had merit, so he raised this suggestion at the laboratory's regular meeting. Following Gao Fan's line of reasoning, he said that he had obtained some internal information through secret channels and, based on the analysis of the information, proposed some technical ideas for developing these two photoresists.

The basic framework of Xu Yun's idea was provided by Gao Fan, but he added many technical details himself. Gao Fan was worried that his cheat device would be discovered, so he deliberately left some gaps when revealing the technical secrets, and Xu Yun, with his solid technical skills, filled in those gaps.

The University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) was a classified institution at the time and possessed some internal information. Xu Yun claimed that he obtained his information through secret channels, so the Fenglin Research Institute could not investigate further.

Classified units protect their own secrets from others, but if someone is eager to reveal their secrets, the classified unit will not refuse. The Fenglin Research Institute often collaborates with other classified units on scientific research; this kind of situation, where each unit possesses its own secrets, is all too common.

Bi Liansheng, the head of the research lab, analyzed the technical ideas proposed by Xu Yun and felt that they made some sense. In addition, he knew that he would definitely be working on these two types of photoresists in the future, so it would be good to do some preliminary research in advance. Therefore, he allocated manpower to conduct experiments and tests.

As it turned out, Xu Yun's approach was entirely correct. The researchers, approaching their work with a preliminary research mindset, directly developed i-lines and KrF photoresists with exceptionally high performance.

This happened last October, after Xu Yun had already returned to school. Bi Liansheng called him specifically to say that the research had yielded results, and the institute had applied for an award from the Science and Technology Commission. If the award was won, the institute would issue a certificate to the school, which could also be counted as Xu Yun's achievement.

Xu Yun was quite excited to receive this news and wrote a letter to Gao Fan to report it, expressing his deep regret that Gao Fan could not be listed as an author on the research. Gao Fan's request to Xu Yun was that his name not be revealed, which Xu Yun assumed was related to confidentiality regulations.

Photoresist is a technology with both military and civilian applications. After developing i-line and KrF photoresist, Fenglin Research Institute published a brief message in a relatively inconspicuous academic journal, listing several performance data.

As a result, last month, two special representatives from the renowned Japanese company Moriya Applied Chemicals Co., Ltd. visited the Maple Forest Research Institute and expressed their hope to conduct in-depth cooperation with the institute in the field of photoresist.

(End of this chapter)