Siheyuan: The Era of Struggle

Chapter 234: Misunderstandings in Design Thinking (Subscription Request)
The lithography machine information compiled by Yang Ning based on later knowledge was quickly distributed to various research groups.

Seeing these materials, all the experts involved in the project were overjoyed.

In the past, we had very little reference material for such important scientific research projects. Except for the missile project, which had two physical objects sent by Big Brother for reference, we had to rely on our own exploration for both the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb.

Although it seems that these projects have been successful and the speed is not slow, they are all based on the bug of Yang Ning.

But this time, just by listening to Yang Ning's story, we can tell that the lithography machine project not only involves many fields, but also has very high requirements for precision, and it is impossible for Yang Ning to understand all these fields.

Now that they have this information, they have at least a direction for their next research.

After all, Yang Ning had no intention of developing those primitive lithography machines at the beginning because he knew the future development speed of computer technology.

It is very easy to develop a primitive lithography machine, but it will soon become outdated.

Given our current economic situation, we simply cannot afford such a large sunk cost.

Therefore, Yang Ning has very high requirements for the lithography machine being researched in combination with our current industrial technology level.

The processing accuracy cannot reach the nanometer level in sixty years, but it should be no problem for senior workers to at least reach the micrometer level.

If we can process integrated circuits at the micron level, then there will be no critical technical threshold for us to develop computers with computing speeds of over 100 million times per second in the future.

As the project leader, Yang Ning now not only needs to coordinate the entire lithography machine research project, but also serves as the leader of the mechanical research group.

That’s not all. He also needs to process the information sent to the data processing institute in a timely manner every day.

After all, even with the establishment of a computing center, he still needs to process the information personally. It goes without saying that the confidentiality level is extremely high, and the amount of computing required can be imagined.

If Yang Ning's own computing speed had not far exceeded the research needs of this era, and he also possessed the logical thinking ability that humans possess, allowing him to quickly complete these data calculations and design improvements, he would probably be so busy that he would not be able to take care of so many tasks.

"Vice President, your processing precision requirement is too high. It requires micron-level processing, and it must be achieved on the basis of automation. As far as the world is concerned, I am afraid that no country can achieve such processing requirements on the basis of automation."

"Yes, this is already a technical requirement for senior workers. If we rely on our current industrial equipment and manual control by senior workers, this requirement can be barely met. However, if we want to achieve this requirement under the premise of automation, it may be difficult to achieve with the current level of industrial technology."

Originally, Yang Ning thought that with the information he provided, the research on the lithography machine would be able to overcome difficulties quickly even if they were encountered.

However, he did not expect that problems would arise not long after the project started, and they were caused by the mechanical team he himself led.

But if you think about it, you can understand that if you want to achieve micron-level processing accuracy now, it all requires level 7 and level 8 workers to do it personally.

But how many skilled workers of this level do we have now? And which skilled worker of this level is not a treasure?
However, once the research on integrated circuits is completed, the demand will be enormous.

Given our current situation, Yang Ning estimates that we will need millions of them every year to meet our own needs.

If we rely solely on manual labor, even if the senior workers are worked to death, it would be impossible to produce so many in a year.

Therefore, Yang Ning required from the beginning that the lithography machine must have a control system. Only under the premise of automation can qualified integrated circuits be mass-produced. "With our current technological level, what is the highest processing accuracy that can be achieved under the premise of automation?"

Yang Ning asked as he looked at the preliminary design plan discussed by other mechanical group experts during this period.

"Considering the size of the whole machine, the highest accuracy can only reach the millimeter level under the premise of automation. Moreover, according to our preliminary budget, the highest processing accuracy can only reach about five millimeters."

Professor Dong, deputy head of the mechanical group, is also an old acquaintance of Yang Ning. As Yang Ning's teacher, he did not hide anything and spoke frankly.

Yang Ning looked at the preliminary design plan they had discussed and finally understood the problem.

In their impression, if they want to process such a small silicon wafer, the equipment should be as small as possible.

Of course, their design idea was not wrong. The high-precision lithography machines used by Western countries in later generations also adopted this idea.

However, the requirements Yang Ning had given before were based on our industrial technology level without considering the size of the equipment.

Yang Ning's idea was the idea of a chip production assembly line that we later adopted out of necessity in order to break through the Western technological blockade.

As we all know, under the same performance requirements, the larger the size of the equipment, the lower the requirements for production technology.

According to Yang Ning's estimation, with only one such production line, the number of integrated circuits produced each year would far exceed our current needs.

After all, without producing mobile phones, personal computers and various smart home appliances, how many integrated circuits can be consumed in scientific research, education and the military field alone?

Therefore, at the beginning of the design, Yang Ning did not consider the cost of these equipment, but only required the highest processing precision possible.

But in the view of others, once the lithography machine is successfully developed, it is necessary to consider the issue of promotion, so the design concept is that the lower the production cost, the better.

Moreover, most of these experts have studied abroad in the West. According to traditional Western concepts, the more advanced the equipment is, the smaller it should be, the better.

And they don't know the production capacity of an integrated circuit production line, so they designed it this way.

After figuring out the reason, Yang Ning put down the information in his hand, looked at Professor Dong and asked, "Why do we need to consider the size of the equipment?"

Yang Ning then explained: "Under the premise of automation, a production line can produce millions or even tens of millions of integrated circuits a year. This production capacity has far exceeded our current needs, so our production line is both experimental and final."

"That is to say, in the short term, we will only manufacture one integrated circuit production line. Naturally, the higher the precision, the better. We don't need to consider the cost of this production line."

After Yang Ning said this, everyone present understood. According to his meaning, they just needed to make it as much as they could. There was no need to consider the promotion issue anyway. Only one unit of this integrated circuit production equipment would be made, so what was so rare about it?

As long as the equipment does not need to consider cost and volume issues, the accuracy can be improved.

(End of this chapter)