Lead
The rapid development of China's science and technology is not only supported by the country's policies, but also inseparable from the unremitting exploration of scientific researchers, especially in semiconductor chip manufacturing, China has many new breakthroughs in equipment, technology, materials, design, etc., and lithography machine as the most expensive and core equipment in the process equipment, for a long time we have been very dependent on foreign imported lithography machines.
Lithography technology is an indispensable step in the semiconductor chip production line, and its accuracy determines the process accuracy of the chip, and the traditional ultraviolet lithography technology has encountered a bottleneck when the semiconductor process is upgraded to 10nm and below, which also brings great trouble to the global semiconductor process.
However, in the current situation of the international semiconductor industry encountering trade turmoil, Chinese researchers have discovered a new process technology, which has pushed semiconductor chip technology to a new level.
So what is this new type of miniaturization technology?
Why is it revolutionizing traditional lithography?
And why has China made a major breakthrough in the field of new miniaturization technology?
What impact will this new technology have on the global semiconductor industry?
Conventional lithography techniques.
At present, the international semiconductor industry has raised the process to the 5nm level in the research and development of semiconductor processes, and under the 5nm circuit and component spacing, the size of the transistor can reach 2.3nm, which means that more than 100 atoms can be arranged in a row.
At the same time, the 5nm process can achieve a single-sided transistor with a linewidth of only 10nm, which means the distance between the insulator layers.
In such a miniaturized process, the wavelength of ultraviolet lithography has exceeded 10 times the line width, which will greatly affect the accuracy of the semiconductor process, so it is necessary to find a new generation of lithography technology.
The ultraviolet lithography technology, which was invented in the 50s of the last century, can improve the fineness of the drawing to tens of angstroms, and has become the main technology of semiconductor miniaturization.
Ultraviolet lithography technology converts a pattern through a lithography machine into a mask, and then projects the pattern onto a silicon wafer with ultraviolet light through the mask, and then engraves the pattern to the surface of the silicon wafer through photochemical reactions, so as to carry out the chip manufacturing process.
UV lithography machines use photons as the energy for pattern engraving, so their resolution and accuracy are extremely high, so they can produce very small circuit patterns in the process.
However, with the gradual improvement of semiconductor technology, there are also some problems with ultraviolet lithography:
The first is that the resolution of UV lithography depends entirely on the wavelength of the photon, which means that the resolution of lithography technology cannot be improved to a certain extent.
The second is that the wavelength of ultraviolet light is already larger than the miniature process of semiconductors, which means that ultraviolet light can no longer complete the process of semiconductors of 10nm and below.
Third, the infrared light and ultraviolet light of the ultraviolet lithography process, these two wavelength bands of light are very demanding on the lithography machine technology, and then the time for the beamsplitter and the mirror will also be very long, so in the complex process situation, it is often easy to make operational errors, resulting in the uniformity of the lithography technology and the reduction of the yield of the product.
Fourth, the lithography transmittance of the ultraviolet lithography machine decreases, and the line width becomes wider and wider, and the solution is to improve the resolution and lithography transmittance.
However, the solution is in a dilemma, so the traditional UV lithography technology can no longer meet our high requirements for the process, which also greatly reduces the process quality and yield, and potentially restricts the development speed of the industry.
Therefore, in this context, since the 90s of the last century, a lot of new materials and new processes have been developed and explored internationally, but it is difficult to find materials with good matching ultraviolet transmittance for new materials.
The nanolithography technology is to replace ultraviolet lithography by using nano-level particle lithography technology, and the nano-level particle lithography is to achieve the 10nm process by controlling the wavelength to meet the requirements of the process, and at the same time using the optical response characteristics of the metal to reduce the fluctuation of light.
However, the biggest problem plaguing nanolithography technology is the difficulty and cost of production, and many countries in the world have given up the research and application of this technology.
But China has found a new technological path in this field of semiconductor miniaturization.
New discoveries in China.
In the past ten years of scientific research, researchers have discovered the etching performance of a new type of cladding material, the two-dimensional material substrate is also called graphene, in addition to having excellent properties such as lightweight, high strength, high thermal conductivity, porousness, etching, its etching performance is good, and the original etching methods can achieve etching.
Graphene is a graphite oxide graphene material, which is an amorphous material, which can change its properties from thermal conductivity to anti-lithography type material by photoetching, so as to achieve light transmittance, and achieve nano-level line width through the etching of graphene's transparent film, which will greatly reduce the cost of materials and processes.
Two-dimensional material is a very promising material, because of its thin atomic layer, light transmittance is very strong, and has extremely high flexibility and strength, so the two-dimensional material to make the mask, there will be no refraction and dust during the projection, so as to greatly improve the accuracy of the projection, at the same time, you can also make a transparent lithography template, the light is projected from the mirror, which can not only save energy, but also effectively reduce the artifacts caused by mapping.
Graphene has a wide range of applications, and it can be widely used in biomedical, organic photoelectric, sensors and other micro-nano processing fields, and has very good development prospects.
The excellent performance and good etching performance of 2D materials have attracted the attention of many innovative research and development fields in the high-end semiconductor industry, which also provides important support for the popularization and application of 2D materials.
However, reducing time and cost is a top priority, so some researchers have thought of using near-infrared laser for the process, through the characteristics of near-infrared laser, very narrow linewidth can be achieved, so that the process of 10nm and below can be achieved.
In addition to this, there is another technology that can also be the key to the revolution in lithography technology, and that is artificial intelligence technology.
In the semiconductor industry, artificial intelligence technology will be implemented in many aspects, artificial intelligence technology can be used to optimize lithography patterns, improve the fidelity and highlight of the graphics, and at the same time, artificial intelligence technology can be used to assist in the adjustment of masks and dark fields, and optimize the adjustment of reflectors, so as to improve the semiconductor process.
China is leading the world in semiconductor technology innovation.
At present, in the development of global semiconductor technology and industry, China has made breakthroughs in the fields of new materials, new processes, and intelligent manufacturing, which has also laid a solid foundation for China's independent research and development of semiconductor equipment and processes.
Among the key equipment for semiconductors in the world, China already has more than 20 enterprises and research institutions, which can provide a variety of choices on semiconductor process, lithography machines, washing machines, etching machines and other equipment.
In terms of semiconductor intelligent manufacturing, there are also many domestic enterprises that have industrialized semiconductor intelligent manufacturing systems, which not only respond to market demand, but also carry out technological innovation in robotics and artificial intelligence, and also promote the upgrading and updating of industrial ecology.
In addition, China is also very active in the independence and improvement of the semiconductor industry chain, including the research and development and promotion of semiconductor processes and equipment, and attracting outstanding talents at home and abroad to join the research and development and innovation of semiconductor technology.
In terms of semiconductor technology innovation, China's technological level is also constantly catching up, which will effectively promote the development of global semiconductor technology and accelerate the innovation speed and industrialization process of global semiconductor technology.
At the same time, in the process, China will continue to strengthen international scientific and technological cooperation, promote global scientific and technological cooperation and exchanges, jointly respond to global challenges, and make positive contributions to the development of the global economy and scientific and technological progress.
epilogue
With the continuous development of semiconductor chip manufacturing technology, the innovation of lithography technology will promote the semiconductor industry to enter a new stage of development and provide a broader space for technological innovation.
China's exploration and breakthrough in the field of semiconductors is expected to accelerate the pace of global semiconductor technology innovation, and will also promote global scientific and technological cooperation and exchanges.
In this process, cooperation and sharing will be the key to driving the development of the industry, and China's role in this process is very important, so it is necessary to continuously strengthen international cooperation to jointly address global challenges.