Building a Sci-Fi Empire: Starting with Cold Nuclear Fusion

After half an hour.

"Engineer Chen, you're here?"

"Oh, we've been waiting for you for ages!"

"Engineer Chen, are you tired? Have some tea first?"

As soon as Chen Yuan walked in from outside, a group of people rushed forward.

Mr. Xu, the chairman, and Huang Yu and other senior company executives were incredibly enthusiastic.

Only Zhao Peng and Vice President Zhen had complicated expressions.

Needless to say, Vice President Zhen is about to be ousted from the center of power, how could he not feel lonely?

Zhao Peng is different.

He wanted to groom Chen Yuan as his successor.

Now that the other party wants to resign, he will naturally feel bad.

In addition, he knew that Chen Yuan was willing to come back today to deal with the problem, which was actually to repay him for his care and kindness during this period. Once this matter was settled, Chen Yuan would no longer owe anyone anything and could leave with a clear conscience.

Ignoring the enthusiasm of the higher-ups, Chen Yuan pointed to the nuclear battery and said, "The voltage is a bit low, isn't it?"

"Yes." Zhu Yun explained the problem: "We conducted tests and verifications yesterday afternoon, and everything else was fine, except that the voltage was lower than expected, and we couldn't find the reason."

Zhang Shulin, who was standing nearby, said, "I've tried that too, but I still haven't found the problem."

Chen Yuan looked over and blinked. He didn't believe Zhang Shulin didn't know what the problem was. He guessed that the other party deliberately didn't point it out in order to help him.

As expected, Zhang Shulin, who had been looking serious, suddenly smiled.

Chen Yuan pretended to be serious and said, "Let me check and see where the problem is."

"it is good."

Thank you for your help.

The chairman, vice chairman, and others spoke very politely.

Vice President Zhen stood outside the crowd, his eyes filled with malice. He certainly didn't want Chen Yuan to solve the problem.

He's going to have a tough time, so naturally he doesn't want others to have a good time either.

Under the watchful eyes of a group of people, Chen Yuan went to the nuclear battery and fiddled with it for a while.

Mr. Xu asked, "Engineer Chen, can the problem be solved?"

Everyone looked towards Chen Yuan.

This is the issue that everyone is most concerned about.

This includes Vice President Zhen.

Chen Yuan picked up the paper data report and glanced at it. "A small problem, easily solved."

The chairman asked, "What problem caused the test voltage to be lower than expected?"

Chen Yuan said slowly, "To understand why the test voltage of this nuclear battery is lower than expected, we must first understand its working principle. The core technology of this nuclear battery lies in the radioactive decay of nickel-63. In this process, nickel-63 releases beta particles. Our energy conversion layer is a semiconductor converter made of two single-crystal diamonds. So when the beta particles released by the decay of nickel-63 penetrate and collide with the diamond semiconductor, they interact with the atoms in the semiconductor material, exciting electron-hole pairs. Under the action of the electric field inside the semiconductor, these charge carriers are separated and move in a direction, thereby forming a potential difference, i.e., voltage, across the semiconductor."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "Through this direct radiation-to-electricity conversion mechanism, the nuclear battery can stably output a voltage of 3 volts. The current test results are lower than expected because there are some minor structural issues that lead to lower efficiency in collecting radiated electrons, resulting in a lower voltage than expected."

Zhao Peng, Lao Qin, Zhu Yun, and other technicians listened thoughtfully and roughly understood what was going on.

Vice President Zhen, General Manager Xu, and the Chairman, who are not technical personnel, were completely bewildered.

The chairman said helplessly, "I didn't quite understand. Could you explain it in simpler terms?"

"Sure," Chen Yuan summarized simply. "According to industry regulations, the allowable error range for diamond semiconductor wafers is generally ±5 micrometers. We..."

At this point, he paused, recalling that he seemed to have noticed the error in the diamond sheet without using any instruments during yesterday's inspection.

Did you see it with your own eyes?

Upon careful recollection, Chen Yuan realized it was indeed true; at the time, while he was fully focused, he instinctively sensed that the diamond sheet had thickened by five micrometers.

He was so focused at the time that he didn't even think about why he could distinguish such a subtle error with the naked eye.

The same condition was observed when he inspected the nuclear battery earlier.

Now that things are getting down to business, Chen Yuan suddenly remembered that such a tiny error is indistinguishable to the naked eye under normal circumstances.

A diamond sheet is only 100 micrometers thick, with an allowable error of 5 micrometers, while one centimeter is equal to 10,000 micrometers. Normal human vision can distinguish a difference of about 0.2 millimeters.

Five micrometers is only one-fortieth of a millimeter; how could the naked eye possibly distinguish it?

Chen Yuan realized that the fact that he could distinguish things with his naked eye must be related to the field of quantum spirit.

In other words, the quantum realm is very likely not just an accessible virtual world; it may be able to influence reality to some extent through its connection with itself.

Chen Yuan guessed that his ability to detect a five-micrometer error with the naked eye was likely a function in the quantum spiritual realm, but he had never paid attention to it and therefore did not know what it was.

He decided to take some time later to learn more about it and see if he could fully develop this potential feature.

When everyone saw that Chen Yuan had stopped, they all looked puzzled, not understanding what was wrong with him.

Zhao Peng asked softly, "Xiao Chen, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing, I was just thinking about something." Chen Yuan quickly recovered and continued, "Normal diamond semiconductor wafers are allowed to have an error of up to five micrometers, but the requirements for our nuclear battery are very strict. It is only allowed to be thin, not thick. The diamond wafers you used are exactly five micrometers thick, which is why the electron collection efficiency is slightly lower, resulting in a lower voltage than expected."

what?

Is diamond semiconductor five micrometers thicker?

The reason is actually that simple?

After hearing the reason, Vice President Zhen immediately showed a speechless expression.

He was severely punished; it's not worth it if it's just for this reason!

Vice President Zhen asked incredulously, "Is it really that simple?"

Besides his refusal to believe it, he had another reason not to believe it: Chen Yuan had not used any professional instruments to measure the diamond sheet since he arrived, and the problem with the nuclear battery was only discovered yesterday during testing and verification, when the other party was not present.

That is, Chen Yuan could not have measured the thickness of the diamond sheet.

Vice President Zhen wasn't the only one with this idea.

Whether it's Zhao Peng, Lao Qin, Zhu Yun, or other R&D personnel, or the company's senior management leaders such as General Manager Xu, Chairman, and Board Secretary Huang Yu, almost everyone thinks this way.

Like Vice President Zhen, they had never seen Chen Yuan measure the diamond sheet.

It's obvious to the naked eye that it's five micrometers thicker?

This is no joke!

What does five micrometers mean?

To put it another way, E. coli is about two micrometers in size, so five micrometers is about the size of two and a half E. coli.

If the human eye could distinguish a five-micrometer error, it would be virtually indistinguishable from a microscope, allowing it to directly see the vast majority of bacteria with the naked eye.

Bacteria visible to the naked eye?

Who the hell believes that?!

Although everyone thought so, no one dared to voice their doubts like Vice President Zhen did.

Chen Yuan didn't have a good impression of Vice President Zhen, and retorted without giving him any face, "Otherwise what? You're not a tech person, you wouldn't understand even if I told you."

Vice President Zhen was almost speechless, choked by the question. After a brief silence, he stubbornly asked, "Without taking measurements, can you really be certain that the diamond sheet is five micrometers thick?"

"No need to measure, my eyes are the ruler!" Chen Yuan said confidently, then added, "If you don't believe me, you can measure it."

Are you really that confident?

What if the data we measure later doesn't match what you said? Aren't you afraid of losing face?

People are a bit skeptical, but if your eyes can distinguish a five-micrometer error, let alone a ruler, even if you say you have Sun Wukong's fiery eyes, everyone would have to believe it.

But... is it even possible?

The chairman said calmly, "Old Zhao, have someone take a measurement."

Zhao Peng replied, "Yes."

As he spoke, he looked at Zhu Yun, "Old Zhu?"

Zhu Yun said, "Let me test it with the equipment."

He then had someone remove the diamond sheet and place it on a laser length measuring instrument for measurement.

"Really five micrometers thick?"

"I don't know. Logically speaking, I don't believe that the human eye can distinguish such subtle differences, but Xiao Chen spoke with great confidence, so I'm not sure for the moment."

"Neither today nor yesterday did I see him measure the thickness of the diamond sheets. These diamond sheets were provided by our partner. They sent over a batch, and after we sampled and measured them, we used them once they met the standards. It shouldn't really be as he said, with an error of five micrometers, right?"

"It's hard to say; we'll have to wait for the measurement results."

The project team members were whispering among themselves.

Mr. Xu, the chairman, and Huang Yu and other senior management personnel were close to the project team and overheard these words.

Therefore, they were even more convinced that the data Chen Yuan mentioned might be nonsense.

Even Vice President Zhen, who was on the periphery of the crowd, was wondering if Chen Yuan was just making things up to fool people because he didn't want to work for the company anymore.

The test results came out shortly afterward.

Everyone looked at Zhu Yun.

"How's it going, Xiao Zhu?" Mr. Xu asked.

Zhao Peng pricked up his ears.

Vice President Zhen didn't blink.

The chairman, Huang Yu, and the others reacted in the same way, and everyone listened attentively.

Zhu Yun gave Chen Yuan a strange look, then said with a dreamy expression, "The thickness of the diamond sheet is one hundred and five micrometers!"