I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

"No, the entire chip factory will not be moved up immediately."

Pan Yongnan immediately realized that Lin Ju had a misunderstanding and quickly explained:

“The process from wafers to finished chips is extremely complex, and it is not easy to consolidate them into one factory. It is neither realistic nor technically mature to move them into space.

But in general, the more important parts of chip manufacturing can be considered to be wafers, photolithography, etching, and packaging; my main focus is on etching. "

Lin Ju immediately understood that these processes were not unfamiliar to him, and what Pan Yongnan said was not complicated:

The first is the basic semiconductor of the chip, which is purified and made into cylinders. After grinding, polishing, and slicing, it becomes a wafer. Then, a photolithography machine is used to draw the required circuit pattern on it. After etching, it goes through some processes. Then cut it off and package it to become a chip.

During photolithography, there is a thin film on the surface of the wafer. Etching is to etch away the thin film other than the pattern drawn by the photolithography machine to form a circuit. It is an important technology second only to photolithography.

In terms of etching, China has developed quite well and can basically cope with the world's most advanced processes.

Pan Yongnan was relieved to see that Lin Ju could understand, at least he was not a complete amateur.

"What I want to improve is the etching process. On Earth, we need to etch before we can plate metal due to gravity. But if we are in space, we can use thinner super thin films and form enough depth by photolithography alone. slot, directly eliminating the etching process.

In fact, the Academy of Sciences has been exploring how to use microgravity in chip manufacturing since last year, but our area has made the fastest progress. For example:

Chips were initially two-dimensional and had only one layer. Later, they developed three-dimensional structures, three-dimensional manufacturing, and three-dimensional packaging. However, there are limits to this on earth. In space, we can theoretically stack them infinitely and depict the true meaning at will. three-dimensional circuit;

This can not only greatly improve performance while maintaining the same chip size, but also play a huge role in improving the yield rate. The ultimate goal of the Academy of Sciences is to improve the cost-effectiveness of space chip manufacturing by more than 100%, and then consider building a substantial Space chip factory. "

The technical advantages Pan Yongnan mentioned earlier were not bad. Lin Ju was immediately moved when he heard that the improvement was more than 100%.

Such a big breakthrough when silicon-based semiconductor technology has reached its limit can only be described as shocking, and there is definitely investment potential.

However, he immediately thought of a question: A project with such a promising prospect should be approved by the National Space Administration through normal channels, so why bother to build a line with United Mining?

At this time, Pan Yongnan's originally confident face finally showed a bit of embarrassment, and he began to explain the process of manufacturing chips in space.

It turns out that although the equipment required for the first few tests was not large in size, when production was actually determined, the entire semiconductor factory still had to be moved to space. Even if a large number of processes were simplified, it was not a small project.

There is also the issue of raw materials. Chip manufacturing requires a lot of chemical raw materials and waste. Small chips do not mean small consumption, but they are extremely large.

A chip production line with an annual output of 1 million 12-inch wafers consumes no less raw materials and water than a steel plant with an output of 1 million tons. Of course, such a large demand for raw materials cannot be transported up from the earth, and the surrounding areas The only place that can supply these cheaply is the moon.

Now the best way is to prepare the most basic chemical raw materials on the moon to complete the preliminary preparation of wafers, and then send them to space for circuit characterization and packaging.

Cut chips are much easier to transport. In fact, the chips at this time are more appropriately called wafers. They still need to be soldered to the PCB board or re-packaged before they can be used. This process can be done back on Earth.

Even if a chip weighs 1 gram, 5 million chips only weigh 5 tons. Just let the aerospace aircraft in low-Earth orbit carry out the mission, and the transportation cost will be very low.

Calculated based on one shipment per week for a year, that is 260 million chips, which is completely sufficient to handle high-end production capacity.

Therefore, the most important part of the entire process is the preliminary construction phase, which requires huge investments on the moon to establish a complete set of facilities from extracting raw materials to manufacturing high-purity silicon rods, as well as an equally large-scale supporting chemical raw material factory.

Whether we should do this for chips alone is debatable.

But the current situation is that United Mining plans to build infrastructure on the moon for ore smelting. Even if it simplifies many procedures, it still requires considerable supporting factories and infrastructure. On these basis, it seems far away to build a chip factory "incidentally" Far less exaggerated.

The compatibility of chemical plants is extremely high. They can basically produce the raw materials required by various industries. The smelters can also provide steel. Three acids and two alkali, steel, and electricity are the foundation of industry. With this foundation, it is no longer a matter of starting from scratch. .

But this still requires a huge investment scale, and the Steel Union production base of United Mining needs to consider providing support for chip production in the early stage. It is really not feasible to do this without particularly strong confidence in building a space chip factory. easy.

No matter how good the prospects are, it is impossible for the Aviation Development Commission to do so much preparation for mass production from the beginning.

Fine……

Lin Ju admired in his heart that Pan Yongnan really found the right person. For others, this might be a risky and huge investment, but he didn't think so.

A steel and rare metal smelting base and a possible high-tech chip factory are extremely in line with Xinyuan's strategy of going into space.

After Pan Yongnan said this, he was nervously waiting for a reply. In fact, he just had the attitude of giving it a try, so it was not surprising that he was rejected.

"Can."

Lin Ju's crisp answer almost made him think he had heard wrong, and then he saw the former continue:

"Xinyuan can invest in this plan to accelerate the chip project, but I also have a small request."

He turned his gaze to Wang Minjiang who was listening and blinked, and the latter quickly understood the meaning.

Wang Minjiang: "Professor Pan, your current research is still on silicon-based chips, right? We are developing silicon carbide chips that natively support ternary. Please also include this direction in your research. Huanghe Semiconductor will cooperate as much as possible."

Pan Yongnan looked at Lin Ju, who acquiesced, and agreed without hesitation.

"Of course this is possible, but I'm afraid it will involve some of your company's technical secrets, and the application time of silicon carbide semiconductors is not short, but the advanced process has just begun, and the progress may not be that fast."

"It doesn't matter, we can afford to wait and are willing to pay."

Lin Ju pointed at Wang Minjiang resolutely:

"Huanghe Semiconductor invests with us, at least 100 billion."