"Lin Benjian, I remember him as a Vietnamese, nothing particularly strange. Wait, could it be that the immersion lithography machine he proposed has already been successfully developed!" As an industry expert, Ni Guangnan was very familiar with people in the field. Although Lin Benjian was just a minor figure, Ni Guangnan knew his background.
To be honest, Lin Benjian was an unrecognized talent. His early career path was no different from that of a normal scientist, except that he was always unlucky. He worked for many companies, but they all eventually fired him. Finally, he joined TSMC. However, TSMC didn't think much of him because he was promoting a technology called immersion lithography imaging. He claimed this technology, when applied to lithography machines, could change the development of lithography machines.
But he didn't receive any support from lithography machine companies, not even TSMC. He was always very frustrated at TSMC. If Huang He hadn't specifically pointed him out, Ni Guangnan wouldn't have even noticed such an unremarkable person on the visitor list.
"That's right!" Huang He nodded. "I estimate that TSMC has completed its technical validation and confirmed that Lin Benjian's immersion lithography imaging technology is a feasible technique. That's why they approached ASML for collaboration."
"And ASML must have agreed to cooperate with them, so they need to invest all their technical resources into the manufacturing and R&D of new lithography machines. This would definitely lead to a reduction in some lithography machine orders. The 200-micron lithography machines we are purchasing are relatively cheaper, so it's natural for ASML to cut our orders!"
"So that's how it is!" Ni Guangnan nodded thoughtfully and said, "If that's the case, then everything makes sense, but..."
Ni Guangnan looked at Huang He with disbelief. "Xiao Huang, how do you know about this? How can you be so sure that this immersion lithography imaging technology will succeed?"
"I have special intelligence sources!" Huang He obviously couldn't say that he got this information from various chip-related self-media articles from the future. He could only attribute it to special intelligence sources.
As long as Huang He didn't explain, no one would know what his intelligence source was, and it would be impossible to verify. On the contrary, many people would probably start suspecting him, which was a normal operation.
"Is this intelligence accurate?" Ni Guangnan asked.
"Ten percent certainty!" Huang He said. "Academician Ni, this technology itself is not that difficult. It's just an idea. We can completely verify it in our own laboratory. The specific concept is to use the refractive effect of light to achieve finer imaging!"
Huang He shared the technical concepts he had seen in public accounts with Ni Guangnan. Although these concepts were limited, they were the most critical parts of the entire technology. Especially in the eyes of top experts like Ni Guangnan, it was equivalent to a great pill that opened up the Ren and Du meridians.
Ni Guangnan immediately shut himself in the laboratory. Three days later, he left the laboratory, and with bloodshot eyes, he nodded at Huang He and said, "You were right, this technology is indeed real!"
Then he collapsed. The entire base was thrown into a panic. Under Huang He's orders, medication was used to make Ni Guangnan sleep for a whole day to recover his energy and stamina, and only then did Ni Guangnan recover somewhat.
"Teacher, you can't keep doing this. You're consuming your own life!" When Huang He saw Ni Guangnan again, he said sternly.
"Sorry, I'll try not to do this in the future. This time is just too important!" Ni Guangnan only said this, and then quickly jumped to the technical topic, saying excitedly, "This technology has been verified in the laboratory, and it is indeed real. Although only a simple line has been achieved in the laboratory, it is undoubtedly a 48-nanometer line. The lithography bottleneck that has limited the entire industry for ten years now has hope of being broken!"
After saying this, Ni Guangnan looked at Huang He with displeasure. "Why didn't you tell me such important information earlier? You must have known about it long ago. If you had told me about the feasibility of this immersion lithography imaging technology earlier, I would have concentrated the entire research center's strength to tackle it, and we would have gained the first-mover advantage on the path of lithography machine innovation. Do you understand the magnitude of your mistake?"
"Teacher, don't fool yourself. I actually knew this information three months ago, but what's the difference between three months ago and now? If you had started tackling immersion lithography machines three months ago, how long would it have taken you to produce a usable product?"
"This..." Ni Guangnan was speechless. After a while, he said, "Within 10 years!"
"And that's the most optimistic estimate! But for ASML, they probably only need a year to produce a finished product," Huang He sighed. "We have too much debt in lithography machine technology. Immersion lithography machines are built on the foundation of traditional dry lithography machines."
"Immersion lithography machines require dry lithography machines. Almost all the technologies, we have none of them. We have to tackle them from scratch."
"This is not all. Even if we solve the technology, the manufacturing of a lithography machine is not just about technology. A lithography machine has tens of thousands of parts, and 50% of them are high-precision parts that cannot be manufactured domestically and can only be produced abroad. Especially the optical equipment, just one lens can make it impossible for domestic manufacturers to break through for ten years."
"And all these high-precision equipment and parts are prohibited from being exported to our country. We simply cannot purchase them, while ASML can directly source them from Europe. Therefore, companies like ASML only need one year to complete all technical breakthroughs and even produce finished products."
"But for us, it might not be possible even in 10 years!"
"So even if I had told you this information earlier, and you led the team to research and tackle it, I would probably see the finished product 10 years later. By then, our competitors would have already launched more advanced lithography machines, and we would still be far behind our competitors!" Huang He said.
"That's true, but so what?" Ni Guangnan snorted. "I know all that you've said, but 'Without accumulating small steps, one cannot travel a thousand miles; without gathering small streams, one cannot form a river.' Lithography machine technology itself needs to be accumulated step by step. As long as you want to reach the international advanced level in chip technology, you need to accumulate technology bit by bit."
"Our current level of lithography machines is nearly 30 years behind the world's advanced level. But if we start researching immersion lithography machines now, even if the first finished product is only available in 10 years, doesn't that mean we have reduced the gap from 30 years to 10 years? Isn't this a great success?"
"..." Huang He remained silent. Ni Guangnan gritted his teeth and said, "Xiao Huang, I know it's difficult for you. You are an entrepreneur, not a great philanthropist. You need to manage your business, and businesses need profits. It might cost you billions of dollars to research immersion lithography machines for 10 years, and there will be no return on these funds within 10 years. Even if finished products are produced in the future, they will be far behind other manufacturers and will have no commercial competitiveness. This is a huge money-losing deal!"
"So, Xiao Huang, I'm not going to preach to you. I'm going to Beijing tomorrow. I'll find someone to help you get some assistance. This money should not be borne by you alone. I will do my best to help you get support, but I also hope you will consider our country's technological industry and grit your teeth to contribute. At our level, money is no longer a strong temptation. Don't you want to be remembered in history and leave your and Jiangnan Group's achievements in the history books of the Chinese nation?"
"Teacher, it's a pity you're not a lobbyist!" Hearing Ni Guangnan say this, Huang He couldn't stay silent any longer and had to speak. "But please don't go to Beijing. The country has already given us a lot of assistance. We haven't achieved anything yet, and we want to ask for more. That's not right!"
"The country needs money everywhere now, and economic development is the top priority. We cannot cause trouble for the country!" Huang He lamented.
This level of awareness is indeed high.
"Then what do you suggest?" Ni Guangnan said. "Or should I sell my house in Beijing to raise some money for you?"
"You're trying to cut off my head and kill my spirit!" Huang He was almost in tears. "Regarding the money, I can actually afford it, but I don't want to spend so much money and more than ten years, only to still be ten years behind others. I still have several decades, but how many decades do you have, teacher?"
"My idea is that if we are going to surpass, we must surpass our opponents and directly achieve world-leading levels. Otherwise, this surpass will be meaningless, and we will still be bottlenecked by our opponents!" Huang He said.
"But this is not something you can achieve just by saying you want to surpass. It requires accumulation!" Ni Guangnan said.
"Then let's not accumulate on this track. Let's switch to a new track!" Huang He said decisively. "On the current lithography machine track, we will never be able to surpass our opponents for at least 30 years. Therefore, we can only switch to a new track, where everyone is at the same starting line, or even better, we can get a head start and thus achieve a complete surpassing."
"New track... What do you mean?" Ni Guangnan began to pace in the room. "To switch to a new track means either completely abandoning the idea of lithography machines for chip manufacturing and adopting a brand new chip manufacturing equipment. But this is very difficult. For over 50 years, no one in the world has come up with such a new technology, and not even the concept of the technology has emerged. This is extremely unrealistic."
"So you plan to abandon silicon-based chips? Are you planning to manufacture carbon-based chips using graphene as a base?" Ni Guangnan suddenly looked up at Huang He, and then noticed a smile on Huang He's lips.
"No, that's even more unrealistic. Although graphene itself is very magical and has the potential to be manufactured into carbon-based chips, we haven't even touched the threshold yet. This thing will likely require more than 30 years of R&D time."
"Huang He, what exactly are you planning? How do you intend to switch tracks?" Ni Guangnan couldn't help but ask.
"Teacher, why are you fixated on chips? Can't we just abandon chips?" Huang He retorted.
"Abandon chips? Computers without chips... Could it be quantum computers? No, that's not right either. Quantum computers are on the right track, but quantum computers only have advantages in superimposed state calculations. In other aspects, they are inferior to current computers." Ni Guangnan muttered. He really couldn't figure out what Huang He meant by abandoning chips.