Material Empire

"Director Tang, this is Qin Hai."

Tranquility walked up to the semi-old man, pointed at Qin Hai and introduced him respectfully. Don't look at her being unscrupulous in front of Qin Hai, she still looks very cute in front of her department head, although she has already won the appreciation of Tang Rongmin and some other professors because of several SCI articles.

"Professor Tang, hello, I'm Qin Hai from Qingfeng Agricultural Machinery Factory in Anhe Province." Qin Hai set aside Tranquility's bicycle and locked it, then walked forward with a smile and extended his hand to Tang Rongmin.

Tang Rongmin also smiled and stretched out his hand, shook hands with Qin Hai, and said, "Mr. Qin, we have admired you for a long time. I heard that in the past three years, the thermal spraying machines in your factory have created nearly one billion US dollars for the country. It is really remarkable that it has become the largest foreign exchange-earning project other than oil."

"Where is it?" Qin Hai waved his hand, "We just ran into a dead mouse and took advantage of a loophole that foreign countries didn't notice. Since last year, the rapid rise of foreign thermal spraying technology has seized most of our market , our factory is now facing the danger of going downhill."

"I think, with you, Mr. Qin, your factory will always be able to find opportunities to create new glories." Tang Rongmin said. He was originally an old pedant. Since he became the head of the Department of Physics, he had to pick up and drop off frequently. Over time, he also learned some ways to socialize.

Qin Haidao: "Then accept Professor Tang's auspicious words. Professor Tang, don't call me Mr. Qin one after another. I am just a primary school student in front of you. If you don't mind, just call me Xiao Qin." .”

"How inappropriate is that?" Tang Rongmin said.

Qin Haidao: "It's suitable, very suitable. Only in this way can I feel more comfortable, otherwise, I always feel that I am not discussing things in school, but conducting business negotiations."

"Haha, business negotiation?" Tang Rongmin laughed. "In that case, I'd rather be respectful than obedient and call you Xiao Qin. Come on, Comrade Xiao Qin, let's sit in the room."

The two of them gave in to each other and walked into the building. Tranquility hesitated for a moment, not sure if he should follow. Tang Rongmin saw it, and greeted with a smile: "Ningjing, you can come too, didn't you say that Comrade Xiao Qin is your brother's good friend?"

"Yes, he used to steal materials from the workshop with my brother." Tranquility quickly said this to Tang Rongmin again.

Tang Rongmin turned to look at Qin Hai, Qin Hai hurriedly explained: "This is what I did when I was young and ignorant in the past. Now we don't steal materials anymore."

"Haha, Xiao Qin is really humorous. You are the chairman of Qingfeng Agricultural Machinery Factory now, and the whole factory is yours. Who else can you steal?" Tang Rongmin joked with a smile.

The three came to Tang Rongmin's office talking and laughing. Tang Rongmin beckoned Qin Hai to sit down on the sofa, told Ning Jing to help pour tea, and sat down opposite Qin Hai. After exchanging a few pleasantries, Tang Rongmin asked, "Xiao Qin, you asked Tranquility to ask me out and said that there is something you want to talk to me about. Can you tell me what it is?"

Qin Hai sat upright and replied: "Yes, I came to Peking University this time to seek help from Professor Tang."

Tang Rongmin was a little strange and asked, "Help? How can I help you?"

Qin Haidao: "I just mentioned to Professor Tang that our Qingfeng Agricultural Machinery Factory earned some money by producing thermal spraying machines in the past two years. But since last year, the market for thermal spraying machines has been gradually divided by foreign manufacturers. Even our In this part of the market that is still occupied, the price of products has also dropped sharply, and the operation of our factory is facing serious difficulties. Under this situation, we consider actively developing new products and entering new markets, so I am looking for You are calling for help."

"I still don't understand." Tang Rongmin frowned and said, "You are a machinery factory, we are a physics department, there seems to be no intersection between us."

Qin Haidao: "How can there be no intersection? Although we are a machinery factory, the products we are producing now are new materials and process equipment. The theoretical basis of thermal spraying technology is physics. I think that the teachers of the Department of Physics of Beijing University are very interested in The understanding of the thermal spray process must be far above ours."

"Uh... Well, it can only be said that each has its own strengths." Tang Rongmin accepted Qin Hai's argument with half-pushing.

As Qin Hai said, thermal spraying technology is largely based on physics, and the interaction between high-speed particles and substrates is a very typical physical phenomenon. Some professors in the Physics Department of Peking University have a deeper understanding of the thermal spraying process than Qin Hai, but they do not have the conditions to actually verify this process, so they gave up the opportunity to invent the thermal spraying machine. Qin Hai.

Speaking of this incident, Tang Rongmin was tearful. There are a group of national-level masters in the Department of Physics, and there are enough ideas in their minds, but to put these ideas into practice, a lot of experiments are needed. The Department of Physics lacks experimental equipment, and the experimental funding is even tighter. It cannot support such an experiment at all, so it can only watch foreign colleagues achieve results first.

A method like thermal spraying involves many interesting physical phenomena. Several professors in the department approached Tang Rongmin and expressed their hope to get a thermal spraying machine so that they could do some thermal spraying experiments in the laboratory and verify some of their academic conjectures. But how could Tang Rongmin have such ability? He found someone to inquire about the price, and he knew that the thermal spraying machines exported by Qingfeng Agricultural Machinery Factory cost more than 2 million US dollars each, which could cover the entire cost of the entire physics department for four to five years. How could this be something they could afford? ?

"Professor Tang, we got an inspiration from the development and production of thermal spraying machines, that is, equipment related to material technology has a large market, and whoever occupies a leading position in technology will be able to win the market. Therefore, We want to form an industry-university-research alliance with the Department of Physics of Peking University to jointly develop advanced materials and equipment." Qin Hai said.

"Advanced materials and equipment?" Tang Rongmin muttered the word with a thoughtful expression.

"For example, we know that the Department of Physics of Peking University has made great achievements in ion implantation technology. I wonder if Professor Tang is interested in developing industrial ion implantation equipment with us?" Qin Hai threw out a proposal.

"You want to make an ion implanter?" Tang Rongmin was taken aback, and his gaze towards Qin Hai gradually became hot.

The so-called ion can be understood as an atom that has gained or lost a part of its electrons, and is also a basic particle that constitutes a chemical structure. In a vacuum, if you shoot an ion beam at a solid material, it may bounce off the solid material, or go through the solid material, but it may also stay in the solid material. The latter case is called ion implantation.

Ion implantation means that new elements are added to the original material, which can change the properties of the original material, so it has become a very important material processing method. The ion implantation method can realize the surface modification of ceramic materials, metal materials, and polymer materials, and produce new materials that meet people's needs.

Another very important application of ion implantation is the manufacture of large-scale integrated circuits in the microelectronics industry. By implanting ions into silicon wafers, various impurities can be doped into silicon elements, thereby changing the electrical characteristics of semiconductor materials. For this reason, ion implanters have become one of the important equipment for large-scale integrated circuit manufacturing.

The Semiconductor Physics Teaching and Research Office of the Department of Physics of Peking University studies ion implantation technology, and has also designed ion implanters for several domestic electronic equipment companies. However, in addition to theoretical guidance, the manufacture of ion implanters also requires high-precision machining capabilities. Due to the limitation of processing capacity, the performance of domestic ion implanters is very different from that of foreign countries, and foreign countries have banned the export of certain types of ion implanters to China for the purpose of technological blockade, which has caused domestic semiconductor production capacity to lag behind. foreign.

Hearing that Qin Hai intends to enter the ion implantation equipment, Tang Rongmin was both excited and somewhat worried. He said, "Xiao Qin, how much do you know about ion implantation machines? Do you know how difficult it is to develop an ion implantation machine?"

Qin Haidao: "I am a layman in this regard. I know that ion implanters are very cutting-edge equipment, and there are certain difficulties in both development and manufacture. However, it is precisely because of the difficulties that we plan to enter this field. The chairman said that the infinite scenery is on the perilous peak, how can you get a high return if you don’t take risks?”

"You are right. However, determination alone is not enough. The investment in the research and development of ion implanters is not such a figure as 100,000 to 200,000. Are you mentally prepared for this?" Tang Rongmin reminded.

Qin Hai smiled and said, "If we take out 100 million yuan, what step does Professor Tang think we can achieve?"

"100 million?" Tang Rongmin almost couldn't believe his ears, "Xiao Qin, are you kidding me? How could you use 100 million to develop it?"

Qin Haidao: "Professor Tang, you are a professional researcher. You should know that if you want to compete with foreign counterparts in ion implantation technology, an investment of 100 million is probably not much. The goal of our factory is not to fight small To fill the gap in the country, but to directly enter the forefront of the world, let foreigners imitate us, instead of us imitating foreigners. It is precisely because of this consideration that I made a special trip to Beijing University today, and I would like to invite Beijing University The professors here help us realize such a dream."

"One hundred million... Where do we start..." Tang Rongmin's tone was trembling. If Qin Hai said one million or ten million, he could discuss the feasibility, technical route, etc. with Qin Hai in a leisurely manner. But when Qin Hai suddenly mentioned an astronomical figure of one hundred million, Tang Rongmin suddenly felt his mind was empty, and he didn't know what to do.