I am the only one who practices magic: I practice magic in the city

Chapter 568 Troubleshooting Relies on Rebooting (5400 words)

Huge fresh air ducts whirred as they delivered absolutely clean air into the factory.

A researcher dressed in a full cleanroom suit pointed to the equipment that resembled a windowless iron house and explained it to Fang Yu, who was also dressed in a cleanroom suit.

Through the transparent visor of the cleanroom suit, Dr. Zhang's round face could be seen.

"Zhouwei Electronics' ICP-RIE plasma etching machine just arrived last week and is currently being assembled. The Compact-300 thin film deposition system will probably take about another week."

Dr. Zhang has a round head and a round face, but he's not fat, just round. He doesn't look very old, but his eye bags are very severe, which is obviously due to not sleeping well for a long time.

"This area mainly covers the front-end processes, which require a very high level of cleanliness. The etching machine, wafer AOI, and probe station are all located in this area, and the cleanliness level is below Class 10."

Dr. Zhang led the two of them along the corridor, pointing out the equipment on both sides as he went.

Ning Yu turned her head curiously to look. A lithography machine? An etching machine? What are those?
I didn't see any machines, just rows of gray, iron-house-like things.

"The Orbotech automated optical inspection machine has been basically debugged."

"This batch of goods was a bargain. Orbotech is probably in talks to be acquired, and they're going all out to increase revenue and valuation. Once the money is in hand, they're willing to sell anything."

Dr. Zhang scoffed, his tone quite disdainful.

"Sixty percent of the production equipment can now be replaced by domestic alternatives, but key equipment cannot be produced domestically."

"It's not just DUV and EUV lithography machines; CMP chemical mechanical polishing, wafer packaging, MEMS packaging/sensor alignment, MTF measurement... all of these can only be bought secondhand at high prices."

As they walked through the two rows of equipment areas, another door with a red isolation sign appeared ahead.

Dr. Zhang took off his name tag hanging around his neck, swiped it against the sensor, and then leaned slightly forward in front of the iris scanner.

"Permissions confirmed." A human voice announced, and the door opened automatically with a "whoosh."

Seeing that the passageway inside the door was long and filled with holes for various nozzles on the walls and ceiling, Ning Yu couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

Didn't we just spray it once? Are you going to spray it again?

Before entering the upstream process workshop, Dr. Zhang led the two, who were dressed in cleanroom suits, through an air shower. The loud airflow in the air shower made Ning Yu feel suffocated.

Even though she was wearing a cleanroom suit and her breathing wasn't affected, Ning Yu still felt a little nervous because of the strong airflow that made the suit flutter.

"DUV requires a higher level of cleanliness, so a secondary air shower is necessary."

Dr. Zhang gave a brief explanation, then locked the inner door. The nozzles on the four walls immediately began to swing and spray high-speed ion winds, which whistled and washed over the three people's cleanroom suits, carrying away any residual micro-dust.

The difference this time was that the airflow was louder, more intense, and lasted longer than when it entered the upstream process workshop, spraying for more than half a minute.

Ning Yu might have some claustrophobia, and subconsciously reached out and pinched Fang Yu's cleanroom suit.

Fang Yu glanced at her sideways, then suddenly reached out and patted her on the back in a comforting manner.

Ning Yu's body trembled involuntarily, and she subconsciously looked at Fang Yu, who was completely wrapped in a cleanroom suit.

Through the double-layered mask, Ning Yu seemed to see Fang Yu, who was also completely covered up, smile at her.

Ning Yu's body trembled, and a strange emotion welled up from the bottom of her heart.

This feeling is very peculiar, itchy, strange, like a kitten scratching at your heart, occasionally extending its claws to gently hook you before quickly retracting.

The kitten was very mischievous, deliberately refusing to let her catch it, leaving only waves of tingling and warmth spreading through her heart, throat, and ear tips.

She felt her breathing become shallow and rapid through the double-layered mask, as if afraid of startling something fragile.

She wanted to raise her hand to press her chest, but was afraid he would see it; she wanted to look away, but it was as if she was glued to those eyes through the mask, unable to look away no matter what.

This was the first time in her life she had felt this way.

Even when she was forced to experience the feelings of Liu Feifei and Fang Yu fighting each other, she had never felt this way before.

"Du~~~"

The nozzles around the room suddenly stopped spraying, the loud wind noise stopped instantly, and a beeping sound came from inside the air shower room. The indicator light on the inner door also changed from red to green.

"Chi~"

The inner door of the air shower room opened automatically.

Ning Yu quickly withdrew her hand from Fang Yu's cleanroom suit, her face instantly turning red.

He didn't notice, did he? He didn't notice, did he?

The cleanroom suit was so tight that nothing could be seen, so they probably didn't notice.

The moisture Ning Yu exhaled condensed into a thin mist on her mask, but it was quickly drawn away by the automatic air supply system at the top of the cleanroom suit mask.

"Mr. Fang, gentlemen, this is the exposure room, which is what people nowadays often call the lithography room."

Dr. Zhang pushed open the door, and Liu Feifei involuntarily squinted her eyes.

The brightness here is much lower than in the previous process area, and the lighting color has changed from bright white light to dim yellow light.

Upon closer inspection, it appears that the walls and ceiling are also painted with a matte yellow finish, as if yellow has isolated the colors of the entire world.

The metal house inside the lithography room, which occupies a full 40 to 50 square meters, is also yellow, while the corners of the walls and the base of the metal house are made of pure black matte metal plates.

At the top of the yellow metal building, a tower-shaped LED light column is lit up with a red light, while the yellow light strips on the column are also flashing intermittently.

"Photoresist is sensitive to blue light, so yellow sodium lamps must be used for lighting here to avoid accidental exposure."

Dr. Zhang offered an explanation, then sighed as he looked at the two giant pieces of equipment in front of him, both of which were flashing red lights.

"This 1400F DUV line is a second-hand piece of equipment obtained from Intel. Theoretically, the process technology can only reach 40 nanometers, but in practice it can only reach about 60 nanometers."

"Moreover, the dual workpiece stage and KrF light source system also have problems. The Americans are simply insane. They dare to sell two crippled production lines at such a high price!"

"We plan to first try to figure out if we can fix it ourselves. If we can't, we may need to replace the parts, and we'll have to find a special channel to let ASML's engineers take a look privately."

Dr. Zhang was filled with righteous indignation. When he mentioned the Americans, his facial features were all scrunched up, his eyebrows stood on end, and he gritted his teeth, clearly showing his deep hatred.

Ning Yu was curious but also a little embarrassed. She was glad that she had worn a mask when she came in and then put on a cleanroom suit so that Dr. Zhang wouldn't recognize her.

She is also a Malaysian citizen.

Why does this person hate the United States so much?
Ning Yu found it a bit strange.

She knew that many people in the Great Zhou Dynasty would gloat over the misfortunes of the Mai Kingdom, but it was rare to see someone hate it so intensely, as if they hated the Japanese.

What does this person do? I didn't understand a word he was saying...

Upon hearing this, Fang Yu asked Dr. Zhang to point out the damaged areas on the two DUVs, and then touched them with apparent curiosity.

Dr. Zhang wanted to say that these two pieces of equipment were too sophisticated to be touched casually, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he realized that this was the boss.

These things were bought by others, so feel free to touch them if you want.

Fortunately, Fang Yu didn't touch her for long before letting go.

"I don't think this thing is broken. It looks pretty normal. Let's test it again."

Even though Dr. Zhang was wearing a cleanroom suit, you could still see the veins bulging on his forehead through the mask.

What do you think?

If this thing is broken, it's broken; if it's not broken, it's not broken. What good is it anyway?

I thought Liu Feifei was deeply in love with me, but do I think that's useful?
Can't you see the warning light is on?
If it weren't for the fact that you saved me, I would have jumped up and punched you in the knee!
"Mr. Fang, restarting a DUV takes at least ten hours and costs hundreds of thousands of yuan, we can be certain of that..."

Dr. Zhang racked his brains and offered dry, persuasive advice.

Dr. Zhang's statement wasn't entirely an excuse. ASML's DUV requires a complete gas replacement for each cold start. The gas mixture for the excimer laser source, containing neon, argon, and fluorine, is very expensive, costing at least several thousand maces.

Moreover, the lifespan of a DUV laser cavity is counted in pulses, and each power-on/off cycle reduces the lifespan.

Most importantly, lithography machines are a bit unpredictable. It's possible that before shutting down, there was only a problem with the dual workpiece stage and the light source system, but after restarting, new problems might pop up from somewhere else.

"It's just a loss of a little rare gas, not a big problem. And there's no need for a cold start. We just need to reset the module in the HMI and run the qualification of the affected subsystem. It will be over in 20 or 30 minutes, and there won't be any major loss."

Fang Yu reached out and tapped the yellow exterior of the DUV in front of him.

Dr. Zhang was stunned by Fang Yu's words.

Do you understand lithography machines?
If you understand, why say "I think"?
"This...this...is..."

Dr. Zhang's mind was a complete mess; he stammered for a long time, not knowing what to say.

"Recheck the problem and see if you can resolve it. If not, we'll figure something out." Fang Yu crossed his arms, his tone relaxed but undeniably authoritative. "...Alright then." Dr. Zhang was forced to compromise and called over two technicians to assist him.

The three of them first logged in with engineer privileges on the HMI terminal, and a series of system menus with gray background and white text popped up on the screen.

Dr. Zhang reached into the subsystem control group of the maintenance interface and found the workpiece stage control and light source module with a red light on.

"Let's do a self-inspection of the workpiece stage first."

After a series of operations, Dr. Zhang clicked the confirmation button in the dialog box. Immediately afterwards, he heard a few crisp "click" sounds from inside the device as the electromagnetic lock switched.

The vacuum pump beneath the dual workpiece stage begins to pump air, accompanied by a low hissing sound, and the entire platform slowly descends to the maintenance position.

Ning Yu watched in awe as the large piece of equipment moved, its movements filled with the beauty of top-notch mechanical engineering, feeling as if it were a Transformer.

A few seconds later, the interferometer and temperature control system on the workpiece stage began to reinitialize in sequence, and the progress bar on the HMI slowly moved forward.

The red dot of the high-precision laser interferometer scans back and forth on the table, and the feedback curve on the right side of the screen jitters in real time before stabilizing.

The whole process lasted only three or four minutes. The screen flashed, and the original fault message instantly changed to "Stage OK," and the warning status disappeared instantly.

Disappeared?
Dr. Zhang was startled and rubbed his eyes in disbelief.

The two researchers were also astonished. They had been tinkering with this machine for a long time, but only one of the dual workpiece stages was still usable. How could it have suddenly been restored?

Troubleshooting with a restart?
This is impossible!

After receiving this machine, I reset the submodule so many times, but it never passed the self-test.

How was it restored?
Are you kidding me?
Dr. Zhang took a deep breath: "Let's take another look at the light source system."

The two researchers busily controlled the light source and began executing the reset procedure for the light source system.

The laser generator in the distance first emitted a low hum, then switched to a high-frequency pulse sound, like someone pounding metal.

Immediately afterwards, a hissing sound of gas injection emanated from the laser cavity. The mixed special gas was introduced sequentially through the gas path regulating valve, and the sensor readings on the screen began to jump rapidly.

The beam is directed to the optical power sensor and stability monitor, and the curve on the HMI gradually converges from the initial fluctuations to a smooth straight line.

Ten minutes later, a line of large green text popped up in the center of the screen:

Laser Source: PASS.

PASS! ?
Dr. Zhang thought he was seeing things and raised his hand to rub his eyes in disbelief, only to find that he was wearing a fully enclosed mask and couldn't rub them at all.

How is this going! ?
Wait a minute, I just talked about the malfunction for so long, and even mentioned that parts needed to be replaced. Won't the boss think I'm trying to rip him off?

Dr. Zhang broke out in a cold sweat.

"Not bad, not bad." Fang Yu clapped his hands, his voice tinged with a smile. "The problem with the workbench just now was probably due to slight aging of the light source and ground subsidence. It's not easy for even a new machine to pass the self-test on the first try. Dr. Zhang truly lives up to his reputation."

"No... this has nothing to do with me, I mean..." Dr. Zhang grimaced behind his mask, unsure of what to say.

"Sigh! If only a domestically produced lithography machine could be developed someday, then we wouldn't have to suffer this humiliation in front of the Dutch and Americans."

All the words I wanted to say eventually boiled down to a sigh.

Hearing Dr. Zhang's sigh, Fang Yu patted him on the shoulder meaningfully: "There will be bread, there will be DUV, and there will be EUV."

Dr. Zhang's chest heaved, and it took him a while to calm down. He gave a bitter smile and said, "It's too difficult. The lithography machine is just one link in the chain. The core technologies of the six major raw material industries upstream of the chip industry and the twelve key pieces of equipment in the front and back ends are almost all in the hands of others."

Fang Yu smiled slightly.

Six major raw materials and twelve key pieces of equipment?
Are you referring to Shin-Etsu Chemical and SUMCO's wafers, JSR's photoresists, Kanto Chemical's reagents, Goro Air Liquide's electronic specialty gases, JX Nippon Mining Metals' target materials, Cabot Microelectronics' CMP polishing materials...?

I've already achieved AGI and am moving towards ASI, so why should I worry about these technologies?
If it could be obtained through the internet, it would have been obtained long ago.

The key preparation processes and formulas that are not available online were all filmed by myself in Japan and the United States.

For example, JSR, the largest supplier of photoresist, rarely applies for patents for its core photoresist formulations and preparation routes.

The core content is sealed in an internal database, and the internal system employs extremely strict access control, recipe splitting, and core step shielding. Each employee only has access to a small amount of information about their own process.

The key mixing techniques are mastered by only two experienced craftsmen.

The final preparation of the photoresist before it leaves the factory is done in a completely enclosed, dark room without any monitoring equipment, by these two master craftsmen who are essentially enslaved by contract.

Not only JSR, but TOK, another giant in photoresist, maintains even stricter secrecy.

These technologies, since they are not on the internet at all, are unavailable to Yuzu.

But this was naturally no challenge for Fang Yu.

In just two days, he installed the "Mirror Flower Water Moon" recording device in all the small dark rooms of these companies, and broadcast the live 24 hours a day through the "Mirror Flower Water Moon" playback terminal located in Room 5, 500 meters underground of Yuzi Technology.

Then, a dozen or so 3D ray-tracing cameras here convert the images of the water mirror technique into video data.

Compared to 2D flat images, the holographic projection of "Mirror Flower Water Moon" is almost like moving the opponent's secret workshop completely to this server room 500 meters underground.

Not just JSR, but also TOK, Shin-Etsu, DuPont... every formula and every reaction curve is automatically archived in Yuzu Technology's server.

Fang Yu was certainly not foolish enough to disclose these technologies to domestic manufacturers for free; that would only cause trouble for himself and bring him no benefit.

What he wants is to learn.

The goal is to enable the Orange Big Model to thoroughly understand, dissect, and reconstruct those closed technologies, evolving into a more efficient and adaptable technical path within the algorithm architecture.

Commonly known as washing technology.

After refining the technology, we then combine it with each client's process structure and resource constraints to provide customized consulting services to Yuzu Technology's core enterprise users.

The fees vary depending on the size of the client and the industry they belong to.

Some clients charge hundreds of millions of dollars in annual consulting service fees alone.

Actually, this wasn't Fang Yu's original idea; he basically followed the same path as Yingji Electronics.

Yingji provides customized process interface consulting to some equipment manufacturers, and the fee for a single consultation is no less than that of Yuzi Technology's annual fee.

Of course, not all customers can become core enterprise users of Yuzi Technology. This customer list is screened and will not be made public.

The selection criteria were unknown even to employees within Yuzi Technology; it was entirely a self-judgment made by AI based on big data.

This system has been running for three or four months, and to date, most of the chip companies among Yuzu Technology's core customers have been empowered by AI.

At least five companies have launched different EUV-related projects.

Upstream industries such as specialty gases, sputtering targets, and CMP have sprung up like mushrooms after rain.

Given the speed at which this group of people in Da Zhou are so ambitious, it could take anywhere from two years to seven or eight months for some parts of the upstream chip industry to completely enter a Warring States period.

Once these upstream industries are established, EUV or even more advanced lithography machines will naturally follow.

The progress and explosive growth of an industry is subject to a singularity. Before this point, there may be years or even decades of slow development or no development at all, where energy is simply being accumulated.

But once the singularity appears, the related industries will undergo a qualitative change, like the Big Bang, with the accumulated energy undergoing a qualitative change, exploding and scattering into countless stars.

Yuzu Technology is that singularity.
-
"This Dr. Zhang is so interesting. His head is so round, and his eyes are so round too. He can even turn both eyes to the sides at the same time, hahahahahaha."

Ning Yu sat in the car, grinning from ear to ear.

When Dr. Zhang saw her after she came out of the cleanroom and took off her disposable cleanroom suit, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

Although Ning Yu was already used to this kind of gaze, for some reason, she found it particularly pleasing today.

Fang Yu glanced at Ning Yu and felt that after looking at the tooth marks for a while, they didn't seem so strange anymore.

Ning Yu embodies Liu Feifei's innocence, never concealing her flaws when she laughs. I remember when she first debuted, Master Jin said she was too concerned about her appearance and dared not laugh, probably because the two consciousnesses had not yet completely separated at that time.

"By the way, why does he hate Americans so much?"

Ning Yu smoothed her hair behind her ear and looked at Fang Yu, who was driving.

Fang Yu casually said, "If you were detained and tortured for more than a year on the grounds of stealing technology just because you developed a chip technology that was more advanced than that of the US company, you would hate it too."

Ning Yu was taken aback upon hearing this.

"Didn't you just say that his eyeballs could split to the sides? Do you know how that was made?"

"They were hit by the Americans."

(End of this chapter)