Tom had originally thought that, with the successful breakthroughs in 7 nm, 5 nm, and 3 nm technologies, the 2 nm chip technology would also be successfully overcome.
However, he did not expect that at this moment, closest to the limit, numerous extremely complex and difficult technical problems would all emerge.
"Thinking about it, this is actually quite normal."
Tom sighed softly: "To precisely engrave over 40 billion transistors onto a silicon wafer within a few square centimeters, and to make them maintain the connections from the blueprints, working together to function—how could that be simple...?"
But no matter how difficult, it had to be done.
Tom sorted through the existing technical obstacles and once again began the breakthrough mission. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel★fire.net
He discovered that a major constraint preventing him from mastering 2 nm chip technology was a more severe short-channel effect compared to previous generations.
Leakage current was almost uncontrollable at such minuscule dimensions. This led to transistors being unable to function properly; once powered on, a large number of transistors would instantly burn out.
Tom mobilized the brainpower of tens of thousands of clones, simultaneously thinking, using supercomputers for simulations, and conducting various experiments.
Finally, he conceived a solution.
"Perhaps... I can change the structure of the transistor? By wrapping the channel with the gate, I might be able to improve control and reduce leakage current."
Upon this thought, Tom immediately began to experiment.
Using the high-precision lithography equipment in the laboratory, Tom attempted to create a brand-new chip based on the gate-all-around field effect mode and powered it on for testing.
After a series of tests, looking at the current data on the screen, Tom let out a long breath.
He knew that the technical problem of leakage current had been overcome.
However, this was only the first difficulty encountered in the process of developing the 2 nm chip.
After this, Tom immediately encountered the second technical challenge.
How to further increase light source power to achieve a shorter wavelength?
Clearly, only with a shorter wavelength of light could smaller transistors be engraved.
But currently, the lithography machine Tom was using could already be called an "extreme ultraviolet light source" lithography machine.
The "extreme" in it meant extreme.
But now, even "extreme" was not enough; a way had to be found to further improve it.
Tom once again gathered a large amount of brainpower and resources, beginning cost-unrestricted attempts.
After several days, a new idea emerged from the mind of one of the clones and was synchronized into Tom’s brain.
"Perhaps other materials could be tried in the laser plasma light source."
After a series of attempts, Tom finally discovered that bombarding tin droplets with a high-power carbon dioxide laser generator could produce a light source with a wavelength that met his requirements.
This problem was also overcome.
However, with the light source problem solved, the photoresist problem surfaced.
Existing photoresists could not effectively absorb and react with this wavelength of light, making it impossible to effectively engrave transistors on silicon wafers.
Furthermore, its sensitivity was not high enough, and while its related defects were acceptable in the previous generation of chips, they were magnified to an unacceptable degree in the manufacturing of the 2 nm chip at this moment.
"New materials need to be developed."
Tom pondered, resuming material science experiments, directing hundreds of thousands of clones to conduct tens of millions of experiments in total. Finally, he found a material that met the current requirements.
This was a new type of photoresist based on metal oxides and organic-inorganic hybrid materials, which perfectly solved all the problems of the previous generation of photoresist.
After this, new problems continued to emerge.
The insufficient reflectivity of the mask used in the lithography process led to energy loss from the light source, making it impossible to engrave transistors of sufficient quality.
Tom once again launched a concentrated effort, attempting to use multi-layer molybdenum and silicon reflectors, which successfully resolved this issue.
After this, one problem after another still appeared.
Problems related to the optical system, stability, precision issues, thermal management, cooling systems, and so on—the problems were almost endless.
Often, one problem was solved, and it was thought that progress could be made smoothly, but the next moment, hundreds or thousands of problems would appear.
After solving these hundreds or thousands of problems, tens of thousands more would then appear.
Sometimes, an extremely minor issue could tie up millions of the chip research clones under Tom for over ten days. But even if Tom mobilized immense brainpower and material resources to finally solve this problem, he would find that it was still only a small step forward.
Time slowly passed amidst these constantly emerging problems and the ceaseless attempts, thoughts, and research of millions of clones, day and night.
Finally, one day, Tom solved another problem, and when he subconsciously looked at the problem list, he was startled to find that the problem list... was empty.
A wave of excitement instantly surged through Tom’s heart.
After such a long period of struggle, had he finally mastered 2 nm chip manufacturing technology?
Although what he had mastered at this moment was only the manufacturing technology in the laboratory, there was still some distance to go before mass production.
Once the mass production stage was entered, more problems would inevitably emerge, requiring him to solve them one by one.
But at least, from the perspective of basic principles and processes, he had truly mastered this technology! All subsequent problems would only be technical problems, no longer problems of principle!
In his excitement, Tom immediately began to upgrade and transform one of the factories that originally produced 3 nm chips, manufacturing more precise equipment, replacing existing equipment, and attempting trial production.
As soon as trial production began, sure enough, numerous problems resurfaced one by one. But it didn’t matter; Tom had a million clones on standby, ready at any moment.
Problems appeared; they just needed to be solved.
Thus, this chip factory began rapid optimization and iteration. Finally, after half a year, the production line stabilized.
The first batch of 2 nm process chips was finally produced.
Although the yield rate at this moment was less than 10%, meaning that out of the factory’s annual production capacity of 10 million chips, less than 1 million chips met production expectations, it didn’t matter.
At least the supercomputer could be built first! The yield rate could be slowly improved later.
Therefore, all of the factory’s good products for the first full year, approximately 1 million chips, were taken by Tom and used entirely in the construction of just one supercomputer.
At the same time, a full 100 newly constructed 2 nm process chip factories had already begun production.