Siheyuan: Game of Red Dust

Chapter 90: Lithography Machine Completed

Li Weidong's following days were relatively peaceful and nothing happened.

Li Weidong stayed at the research institute to work every day, and lived a happy life with Zhou Xiaolin at night. Occasionally, he went out to talk about life with Chen Xueru and Xu Huizhen at night. On weekends, he practiced boxing with Professor Zhang Haiyang and a group of little brats. Time passed day by day until the last part of the lithography machine was processed.

Li Weidong led the excited technical staff of the institute to start assembling the lithography machine. After three days of assembly, the lithography machine was finally assembled.

This means that the first true photolithography machine in the flower industry has finally been created thanks to the unremitting efforts of the research institute's staff. However, whether it is truly successful still needs to be tested by manufacturing chips.

The function of a photolithography machine is very simple. It uses light to project onto photoresist and produce a detailed circuit diagram on a semiconductor chip.

In order to meet the semiconductor chip needs of the lithography machine experiment in a timely manner, Li Weidong arranged personnel to make masks for the semiconductor chips in a timely manner during the process of assembling the lithography machine.

A mask is a special photoresist that is used to transfer the designed circuit pattern to the surface of a silicon wafer.

Mask manufacturing is an important step in the chip manufacturing process. The pattern on the mask determines the structure and function of the chip circuit.

The most important thing about the mask is to design the circuit pattern of the chip. This step is not assisted by computers now. It is all done by hand, stroke by stroke, manually designing the chip circuit pattern and generating the corresponding mask pattern.

Under everyone's expectations, Li Weidong personally started producing the first chip on the lithography machine.

The mask was installed into the photolithography machine, and then Li Weidong took out the prepared chip substrate.

This substrate is made by cutting silicon wafers. Li Weidong carefully placed the substrate into a special cleaner and cleaned the surface to ensure the accuracy and precision of subsequent processing steps.

Subsequently, the substrate enters the coating equipment, and the photolithography machine automatically coats photoresist on the surface of the substrate.

This is done by rotating and walking to ensure that the selection and coating process of the photoresist will not have a negative impact on the quality of the final chip.

From cleaning the substrate to coating photoresist, there are special equipment that are connected to the lithography machine.

Soon, the photoresist-coated substrates began to enter the exposure chamber of the photolithography machine. Li Weidong operated the control system of the photolithography machine, projecting laser beams onto the photoresist, thereby creating the desired patterns and structures on its surface.

Because the lithography machine itself only has some integrated circuits, Li Weidong also needs to manually control the focus and position of the light beam to project the light onto the correct position on the substrate.

After several pieces have been exposed, the photoresist needs to be developed to remove the unexposed areas.

At this point, all that can be done is wait. The substrate is transferred to a developer and immersed in the photoresist, which dissolves the unexposed parts, leaving behind the desired chip pattern and structure.

This process doesn't take too long. When Li Weidong takes out the substrate after soaking, he makes sure that the chip's pattern and structure are intact.

At this moment, not only Li Weidong was extremely excited, but everyone present couldn't help but hold their breath during this crucial step.

Li Weidong carefully cleaned the semiconductor chip and removed the developer and other contaminants.

Of course, the cleaning process is definitely not just wiping with a rag, but there is a special cleaning room.

The chip is directly immersed in a special cleaning solution, and then the surface of the semiconductor chip is cleaned by high-pressure gas jet and rotation to ensure that the surface of the semiconductor chip is clean and dust-free.

When the semiconductor chip was cleaned, Li Weidong, wearing clean gloves, gently held the tiny chip in his hands. The entire manufacturing process went smoothly, but there was still one final step: testing the chip to see if it was usable. Only a passing test would confirm that the lithography machine was functioning properly and could produce semiconductor chips.

Chips are an inevitable result of the development of transistors, because people urgently need a transistor component that can integrate various electronic components and is very small in size to replace the bulky and energy-intensive electron tube components.

Digitalization can be achieved by integrating ordinary electronic components onto circuit boards. However, large numbers of integrated circuits are not only bulky but also extremely hot and energy-intensive. A chip is also an integrated circuit, but it combines circuits originally the size of a box onto a tiny chip.

The emergence of chips has also enabled the flower growers, who have been chasing after Blue Star's computer technology, to overtake it in all aspects.

Therefore, at this moment, everyone is looking forward to the test results of your chip.

The chip was placed on a special circuit for testing, and the test results came out in an instant. There was no problem at all with the chip and it passed the test smoothly.

For a moment, everyone cheered excitedly, and some even hugged each other. More people rushed to Li Weidong, lifted him up, and threw him into the sky together.

In less than a month, they completed the manufacturing of complete production equipment for lithography machines and chips, and successfully produced the first chip.

The cheers lasted for more than ten minutes. When everyone calmed down, Li Weidong said:
"Now we will start chip production and continue to produce chips using our lithography machines. Once all the materials we have prepared are produced, we will calculate the yield rate."

The key to the quality of a lithography machine lies in its yield rate.

Of course, there are many factors that affect chip yield, not just the lithography machine itself.

Yield is a comprehensive indicator that is affected by many factors, including material quality, manufacturing process, equipment stability, quality control and design optimization.

Li Weidong is confident that there will be no problems with the equipment stability and manufacturing process of this lithography machine.

However, the specific yield rate still needs to be tested to know.

The main task of the entire institute will be to continue to manufacture more chips here to test the yield of the lithography machine.

After the yield rate of the lithography machine comes out, it is necessary to report the results to the superiors, and then start the next step of the plan. The computer project should also be launched.

When it came to making the chips, Li Weidong did not do it himself. Instead, he asked the technicians of the institute to operate the photolithography machine to make the chips. Li Weidong provided guidance from the side and worked until eight o'clock in the evening before all the prepared materials were used up. He also tested that the yield of the photolithography machine was between 95% and 98%.

Li Weidong announced loudly: "I officially declare that the first lithography machine experiment of the Flower Planting Company was a success."

The more than 200 people at the scene cheered and applauded.

"Okay, everyone has been busy all day, so let's go back and rest early. I estimate that leaders from the Ministry of Industry and the Military will come to inspect tomorrow. Everyone must get a good rest and let the superiors see the spirit of our institute. Disband!" After Li Weidong finished speaking, he waved to the crowd to signal them to disperse.

Everyone left the institute in an orderly manner with excitement and returned to the dormitory to rest.

Li Weidong checked the equipment and confirmed there were no safety hazards before returning to the dormitory. There, he spoke to Zhou Xiaolin about the institute's situation and asked her to inform Yang Ruoxi and Wang Xinyi that higher-ups might be coming to inspect the facility tomorrow. Zhou Xiaolin nodded, understanding.

Then Li Weidong picked up Zhou Xiaolin and walked towards the bed.

(End of this chapter)