Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 371 Superconducting Chips
Robots are much more efficient at laying photovoltaic panels than humans.

Because of the spacesuits worn, when watching the human astronauts laying the equipment in the live broadcast room, whether from a first-person or third-person perspective, you always feel that their movements are very awkward, and you have the illusion that their bodies are out of control.

But robots are much smoother, especially robots that have just been transported from Earth. New things are always the most enjoyable to use.

Simply put, viewers in the live stream enjoy it; it's similar to watching a stress-relieving video.

Planting solar panels is like planting crops.

"This is awesome, we're making such a fast pace."

"This time, the progress seems incredibly fast. When will Huawei be able to develop a superconducting chip?"

"It should be soon, right?"

"It should be soon. If it weren't for the superconducting chip, we wouldn't need such a huge photovoltaic array, right?"

Besides discussing robots installing photovoltaic modules, the live stream also focused on when superconducting chips would be available.

This is a technological breakthrough unique to China.

Even if this technological breakthrough is still only a conceptual blueprint, netizens on the Simplified Chinese internet are already thrilled.

Not only did Simplified Chinese netizens win, but foreign media also helped China win in advance.

Take India as an example. Indian media are the most prone to self-reflection, especially when comparing themselves to China.

Newspapers in Europe and America can turn a blind eye to this, but India cannot.

From the moment the crimson hue appeared, Indian media began to reflect:

“We lag significantly behind China in areas such as research spending, density of research talent, and university rankings. China has national strategies like the Thousand Talents Program and Made in China 2025, while we lack such long-term planning. In the field of artificial intelligence, China’s investment also far exceeds that of India. This is the reason for the gap between us.”

The Indian government has ambitions, and India has talent in the field of artificial intelligence, but our country's venture capital is unwilling to support genuine technological innovation. They only want to be technology porters, bringing America's mature technology back to India.

Such innovation is unsustainable, and this is the fundamental reason for the gap between us and China.

When the crimson emerged, India's reflections felt familiar to the Chinese, because when China reflected on the gap between itself and America, the rhetoric seemed similar.

However, after the superconducting chip project was announced, India's reflection began to deviate from a rational level, and it started to express emotions such as "Indians are just not good enough" and "India is just not good enough".

A Chinese person on Quora hit the nail on the head:
"India has always believed that they can compare with China and should emulate China. Mumbai should compare with Shanghai, New Delhi with Beijing, and Bangalore with Shenzhen. China's technological progress is of particular interest to them."

This time, India's collective breach of its defenses regarding superconducting chips has sparked a wider and more intense discussion in Indian public opinion than the emergence of the Crimson Red. This may confuse those unfamiliar with India, as superconducting chips remain only at the theoretical level and have not yet appeared in reality, while the Crimson Red has achieved better results with weaker computing power. Why would the former cause India to breach its defenses more?

I have many Indian friends around me who think that we are the same as China. Although China is ahead of us now, we are not fundamentally different. We are both followers.

No matter how powerful Crimson is, it is still an imitator of GPT. Even if it surpasses GPT, its emergence was not long after GPT. It may be the original, but from the perspective of Indians, it is imitation and plagiarism.

Therefore, their discussions and reflections are still at a relatively peaceful and rational level, but superconducting chips are a completely new product. It is a concept first proposed by China and has the potential to be implemented.

This made India realize that perhaps they are different, that China may not be a follower, and that China may be transforming into an innovator in the field of science and technology, or even has already become an innovator.

Going deeper, India still sees itself as a country that relies on Western capital, technology, and markets for development. They believe that China does the same, so they see each other as competitors; if China gains more, India gains less.

But the emergence of superconducting chips made India realize that it seemed we were also receiving capital, industry, and technology exports from China. This broke their defenses, because China had unknowingly undergone a transformation in its status, while India remained India.

Of course, India is not the only country paying attention to superconducting chips; developed countries are also taking notice.

This may be related to the next generation of chip materials.

Those working in the chip industry can intuitively feel that silicon-based chips have reached a limit. Every step forward is extremely difficult, with rising costs, declining yield rates, and various negative factors emerging.

If more advanced 3D structures are not adopted, silicon-based chips will reach their end in the next few years.

Whether China's low-temperature superconducting approach is feasible has become a focus of attention in the industry.

The moon can maintain a constant low temperature, which can be used to build superconducting chips. This is something that cannot be done on Earth. What they are interested in is whether low-temperature superconductivity may exhibit some interesting properties, and whether these properties can guide the emergence of next-generation chip materials.

Superconductivity itself is fascinating, so is it possible to achieve semi-superconductivity at room temperature and pressure without superconductivity?
New environments and new conditions may give rise to new materials.

Therefore, the industry is paying close attention to the latest developments in China's ultra-low temperature superconducting chips.

Of course, within Huawei, it was given even greater importance, and the most elite team was transferred from Songshan Lake to Shanghai.

In their first year, their main task was to verify the feasibility of the technology. The technical path had already been determined: using iron-based superconductor FeSe thin films, they would achieve a superconducting state at a temperature of 100K by molecular beam epitaxy on SrTiO3 substrates. Such samples were theoretically feasible, but what about in practice?

How will it perform on the moon? Not just in terms of computing itself, but also in terms of stability, energy consumption, and other aspects.

They need to get a sample first.

Given Apollo's technological capabilities, they could send samples to the moon for testing almost as soon as they had them.

The lunar environment is ready, power is available, and the shadowed areas have been explored. Testing can begin at any time.

It's a situation where everything is ready except for the final push.

"Mr. Wu, how's the progress on your end?" Lin Ran was also concerned about this matter. He would hold a meeting with the technical team about once a week. The technical team was jointly built by Huawei and Apollo Technology, with a personnel ratio of about 7 to 3.

Wu is the person in charge of this technical team and is a senior engineer in Huawei's semiconductor division, second only to Liang Mengsong.

The first month: "Professor, let's start with FeSe. The parent FeSe is a semiconductor with a Tc of only 8K, but a single-layer thin film can be increased to 109K under the interface effect."

"The vacuum environment on the moon is a perfect match for MBE growth, avoiding oxidation," said Engineer Wu.
The team's researchers, wearing goggles, operated the equipment: first, they heated the SrTiO3 substrate to 600°C and cleaned the surface; then, they controlled the evaporation rates of the iron and selenium sources, with the iron atom beam intensity at 0.1 monolayers/minute and selenium in excess to ensure stoichiometry.

During the growth process, Engineer Wu occasionally corrected the parameters: "Pay attention to the substrate temperature. Too high a temperature will cause lattice mismatch and reduce electron-phonon coupling. The target thickness is a single atom layer of about 0.5 nm."

After the first sample was grown, they examined the crystal structure using X-ray diffraction (XRD): the peaks showed good epitaxy, but the resistance test in a liquid nitrogen bath (77K) showed that the superconducting transition temperature Tc was only 50K, far below expectations.

The second month: "I think the incomplete Fermi surface reconstruction is caused by selenium vacancy defects. Engineer Wu, try adding a post-annealing step and heating it to 400°C in a vacuum to promote interfacial charge transfer." Lin Ran reminded, "I think the interfacial effect will be the key. The polar layer of SrTiO3 will induce a two-dimensional electron gas and increase Tc."

This relates to a 2014 Nature paper that mentioned that the FeSe/SrTiO3 system can utilize interface effects to push Tc from 8K to over 100K.

After three iterations, adjusting the selenium/iron ratio from 6:1 to 8:1, the team finally saw progress on the fourth sample: XRD showed sharp peaks, indicating perfect lattice matching.

In the third month, initial success began to emerge. High-pressure oxygen doping caused lattice distortion in the FeSe thin film, increasing the a-axis parameter from 3.76 to 3.78 and enhancing electron-phonon coupling. Simulated observations showed that the Tc energy reached 105⁵ K.

Lin Ran said, "I know everyone is happy, but that's not enough. We need to continue to optimize."

The radiation environment at the lunar south pole can interfere with Cooper, but the low temperature can suppress thermal noise.

We need to integrate a radiation shielding layer, using boron-doped diamond as a buffer. Although BDD's Tc is only 11K, its wide bandgap can block cosmic rays.

They began doping experiments: introducing an oxygen beam into the MBE cavity, controlling the pressure at 10^-6 Torr, and doping at a level of 0.1-0.2 atoms.

The resistance-temperature curve was measured using the four-probe method: under helium refrigeration, the resistance dropped sharply to zero near 110K when cooled from 300K. The magnetic susceptibility test confirmed the Meissner effect, and the critical current density Jc reached 10^5 A/cm.

"Professor, based on the analysis of the failed samples, STM analysis shows that oxygen clusters caused phase separation," said Engineer Wu.

After thinking for a moment, Lin Ran said, "Is adjusting the oxygen beam energy feasible?"

They adjusted the oxygen beam energy from 5 eV to 3 eV to optimize uniformity.

In the fourth month, the team finally produced the second sample: a 5cm square chip with a metallic sheen on its surface and an integrated BDD shielding layer with a thickness of 2μm.

Tests under liquid nitrogen simulation showed that the resistance dropped to zero, enabling the chip to run simple AI algorithms: it can process 100x100 matrix multiplications with 500% higher efficiency than silicon-based chips, and without heat accumulation.

The entire team was incredibly excited because at least they had gotten this far, and this path was feasible.

From a pathway perspective, this is a material that can surpass silicon-based materials.

On Earth, we have no way to surpass Nvidia in the short term, so let's look to the stars.

Just as the team's morale was boosted, Lin Ran reminded them, "This is just an Earth test. The microgravity on the moon will affect the stress on the thin film. We need to simulate vacuum degassing."

In the sixth month, the team conducted the final verification in a vacuum simulation chamber.

The experimenters put on gloves and carefully placed the sample into the test rack.

All the members held their breath, some waiting for the results outside the lab, others waiting in their offices: this was the final step, and if it passed, they could send it to the moon.

"Start the simulation!" Lin Ran commanded.

The chamber was evacuated to 10^-7 Torr, and the temperature was reduced to 100K through radiation cooling. The lunar radiation was simulated by bombardment with proton beams at a rate of 10^10 particles per square centimeter per second.

The chip is connected to an AI testing circuit: a convolutional neural network model is input to process simulated lunar image data.

The screen displays a resistance of zero, the calculation error rate is <0.1%, and Jc decreases by only 5% under radiation.

"Mr. Lin, it's stable!"

The interfacial superconductivity of FeSe was perfectly maintained in a vacuum, the shielding layer absorbed 80% of the radiation, and Cooper remained undamaged.

The researchers shouted excitedly.

It only took six months to go from failure to success.

Anyone would be proud of such speed.

Moreover, what they developed is a chip capable of performing artificial intelligence algorithm calculations, which is many times more powerful than the basic demo.

Lin Ran smiled and clapped. This was truly original, not following anyone else, but a path that no one had ever walked before.

To elaborate further, regarding breakthroughs in photovoltaics, researchers are typically subject to centralized management, but Lin Ran doesn't. He enjoys a much higher degree of freedom and is responsible for research on numerous different areas simultaneously.

Lin Ran's abilities are displayed differently from different perspectives. In the photovoltaic sector, the young scholars felt that he had mathematical ability, a kind of omnipotent mathematical brute-force ability. As long as it can be applied to a mathematical model, Lin Ran can find an exact solution for you, thanks to his ability to solve the Navier-Stokes equations.

In the superconducting chip line, Wu's impression is that he is very knowledgeable. Lin Ran has read any paper that is even remotely related to it and can explain it in detail. What he said might be effective was eventually proven to be effective, which led the whole team to trust him unconditionally and the progress was far faster than expected.

For the next six months, testing of this chip sample continued. When a magnetic field of 5T was applied, Tc remained at 105K, which is consistent with the upper critical field Hc2~Tc^1.5 predicted by the Ginzburg-Landau theory.

The chip remained stable with temperature fluctuations of ±5K, showing no signs of degradation.

Integrating water-ice sublimation heat dissipation, the chip still operates stably even with a heat flux of <1W/cm.

Lin Ran has accounts on various social media platforms, and the private messages he receives are incredibly varied, ranging from asking for money to inquiries about finding a wife, mistresses, and even his supposed mastery of the Strong Goldbach Conjecture. In short, there are countless private messages.

Lin Ran doesn't check private messages and rarely posts anything.

Netizens joked that every time he posts something, it causes a stir.

As before, Lin Ran's latest video was released quietly.

The video had no background music and was exceptionally quiet.

The camera pulls back from the blue arc of Earth, traverses the dark space, and heads straight for Shackleton Crater at the south pole of the moon.

In the image, the permanently shaded area is completely black, and the thermometer next to it displays "100K".

A chip visible to the naked eye appeared in the lens.

The camera then switched to laboratory equipment, where the MBE chamber hummed as iron and selenium atoms evaporated and deposited layer by layer onto the SrTiO3 substrate, forming a monolayer FeSe film.

The development process of the fast-paced video was done with visuals but no parameters, so even professionals could only get a general idea.

Test screen: Inside the vacuum simulation chamber, the temperature drops to 100K, and a proton beam with an energy of 1MeV bombards the chamber; data flows on the display.

The scene shifts to rocket launch, followed by the chip landing in Shackleton Crater with the lunar rover.

After posting the video, Lin Ran also posted an update: "The superconducting chip experiment was a perfect success, and it's about to head to the moon."

He then posted another update: "I forgot to mention, this trip to the moon is very exciting. There are three astronaut slots available, and we plan to open one. Anyone interested? I will be going myself. If you want to go to the moon with me and witness the miracle, please contact us."

P.S.: The fees are high, please pay according to your means.

　There’s another chapter tonight!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)