Without Lin benjian, there would be no TSMC today!

　　 He changed the technological path of the global semiconductor industry , Let big brother Intel （Intel） And equipment manufacturer esmore （ASML）、 nikon （Nikon） And other industry giants , Abandon and spend more than 10 Billion dollars and years of research effort , Follow him to turn with TSMC . Not only can the global semiconductor manufacturing process be further promoted 6 To 7 Generations , about 14 Years time , TSMC has therefore become one of the leading manufacturers 、 Leading industry specifications .

　　 He is Lin benjian, an academician of Academia Sinica , Former deputy general manager of research and development of TSMC . Zhang Zhongmou, chairman of TSMC, once said , Without Lin benjian and his team ,‘ Micro shadow of TSMC （ One of the key semiconductor manufacturing processes ） It won't be on today's scale . ’

9 month 8 Japan , The third “ Future science awards ” At the award ceremony, Lin benjian won one of the three awards “ Mathematics and Computer Science Award ”. And the reason why Lin benjian was able to win “ Mathematics and Computer Science Award ”, It is also mainly due to the infiltrating micro shadow developed by a series of breakthrough innovations （ Also known as lithography ） Method , Innovated the manufacturing process of integrated circuits , So that the characteristic size of advanced semiconductor chips can be continuously reduced to the order of fine nanometers , In the past 15 years and the foreseeable future , It has made a key contribution to the construction of the most powerful computing and communication systems .

official account “ intellectual ” Introduction , Because of his invention , The technological path that has affected the development of the world semiconductor industry , A large number of international giants, including Intel, abandoned their expensive research accumulation and followed their technical standards , Since then, it has created the brilliant achievements of Taiwan semiconductor , It has made great contributions to the development of Taiwan's science and technology industry .

Promote the infiltration micro shadow revolution

Conventional “ Dry ” Micro shadow from 1959 Since the invention of planar integrated circuits in the semiconductor industry in, it has been used for 40 years , However, limited by basic optical diffraction , stay 90 Late S , The feature size manufactured by this method is smaller than 65 Nano chips face insurmountable bottlenecks .

Lin benjian foresees expensive “ Dry ” Lithography technology will enter a dead corner , It is recommended to use immersion or “ Wet type ” Lithography , This method is a new lithography process , Replace the air gap between the lens and the wafer surface through the liquid medium to improve the optical analysis accuracy . Although the original concept of infiltration in 80 The s once proposed , But it is far from the realizable method .

In order to comprehensively characterize and optimize the immersion lithography system , Lin benjian defined and derived the key performance indicators and scaling formula , It standardizes the scaling law that must be obeyed for the high-resolution three-dimensional immersion lithography optical system . He also developed methods to overcome the formation of microbubbles in liquids , Developed under the thermodynamic limit , The lithography process diffracted by water .

A series of his inventions have been proved in science and Engineering “ Wet type ” The lithography method can be used for the most advanced IC Process , His breakthrough inventions and enduring technological leadership have prompted the global semiconductor industry to switch to “ Wet type ” Micro shadow method . In the past 15 years, infiltrative lithography has been the most cost-effective 193nm ArF Develop for laser source , take IC Technology node from 65nm Follow the industrial road map and continue to fall to 7nm, So that Moore's law can continue to extend for seven generations . according to IEEE Recent statistics , Infiltration lithography technology has produced at least the world 80％ The transistors .

Since the invention of integrated circuit 60 years ago , Semiconductor technology has promoted the largest industrial and social revolution in human history . On the occasion of celebrating the 60th anniversary of the birth of integrated circuits , The mathematics and computer science awards of the future science awards - To this highly accomplished scientist and inventor , Heroes of the semiconductor industry ,“ Father of infiltrating shadows ” Not only appropriate but also far-reaching .

Lin benjian, who was born in Vietnam , Go to high school in Taiwan , And in 1970 He received a doctor of electrical engineering from Ohio State University . He was in IBM Continuously improve imaging technology , Does is 22 year .2000 year , Lin benjian returned to Taiwan , Joined TSMC .

　　 Lin benjian, who retired as a distinguished research professor at Tsinghua University , Recently, he published his first semi autobiographical book , And review with us how he turned things around .

　 A sand is a world 、 One nanometer one universe

　　 Time goes back to 2002 year , Lin benjian was invited to attend a technical seminar of the International Institute of Optoelectronics , At the meeting, he published this discovery , It's amazing , At that time, most semiconductor equipment manufacturers focused on how to continue the life of dry-type machines , And has spent billions of dollars on development . Lin benjian's theory is undoubtedly a bomb in the industry , But after countless seminars, he worked hard 、 Looking for cooperation with equipment manufacturers , Last , TSMC is in 2004 Year and ASML We have jointly completed the development of the world's first moist microfilm machine , The industry is shocked and impressed .

　　 Now , Immersion development is not only Intel （Intel） Wait for semiconductor faucet 、 As recognized by the equipment manufacturer 45 The solution after the nano process , It has also been officially incorporated into the international semiconductor blueprint architecture and become the mainstream .

　　 Lin benjian once said ,22 After the nano process, multiple direct electron beams （E-Beam Direct Write） Will be the best solution , He said that the evolution of Aerospace Engineering gave him a lot of inspiration , He cleverly compares , Now many equipment manufacturers have invested EUV Equipment is like a space shuttle, which is too expensive , It's not suitable for carrying passengers ,E-Beam It's about helicopters that don't need runways , It can be directly airborne on the wafer , Smart and cost-effective . It seems “ A sand is a world 、 One nanometer one universe ” This sentence could not be more suitable for him .

　　 His proposal , The supervisor of the same industry approved the disturbance

　　“ Although ten million people , I'm going ！ ” Lin benjian described him like this 2002 To 2004 The battle of rewriting history in .

　　 The situation was like this ： As the semiconductor process evolves downward , One of the key processes of the microfilm , You have to keep shortening the wavelength of the beam . all the time , The industry is used to taking air as the medium , yes ‘ Dry ’ Micro shadow of , But this technology has ‘ Against the wall ’, stay 157nm Wavelength stuck . At that time, Lin benjian, who worked for TSMC, jumped out of the frame , return 157nm The previous generation of wavelength , Use water as the medium , To develop a ‘ Infiltrating micrograph ’ technology , Let the wavelength of the light beam be shortened to 134nm nanometer , Break through the bottleneck .

　　 Such a broken box thinking , At first, it was lonely , Even suffer hostility .

　　 Because other industries have invested a total of more than $1 billion in research and development funds in dry development , It is close to the capital expenditure of TSMC for a whole year . If Lin benjian's theory is adopted , It is equivalent to declaring that others' previous efforts have been wasted . Jiang Shangyi, former chief operating officer of TSMC, wrote a preface for Lin benjian ：“（ That year ） Indeed, senior executives of large companies have expressed serious concerns , I hope I can manage him （ Lin benjian ）, Don't mess up .”

　　 Before he does something , It will be deduced to the end

　　 internal , Lin benjian wants Jiang Shangyi, Zhang Zhongmou and other supervisors to pay the bill , foreign , It is necessary to persuade the industry to abandon the original investment .

　　 His secret , yes “ thoroughly ” Two words , Think thoroughly , And thoroughly implement . “ Like playing chess , Think about the next few steps first ”, Lin benjian said , Before you do something , Extrapolate to the end , It's his habit all the time ,“ Keep thinking about all the possibilities ,（ until ） Unexpected possibility .”

　　 A TSMC executive who once fought with Lin benjian remembers , At first, the opposition often fought head-on with TSMC at international seminars , It is doubted that taking water as the medium is easy to produce pollution , And bubbles in the water will affect the exposure and so on . Lin benjian, who is prepared for external doubts , Decide to solve it more thoroughly , He took the team to complete three papers within half a year , Contribute to international journals , Even the questions that have not been raised are also envisaged 、 Respond to . “ Originally, a representative of a large American factory said that they would never use this technology , It turns out that one （ Semiconductor process ） Generations later , They also used .”

　　 In addition to logic , Lin benjian's communication is also complete , At that time, he traveled all over the United States 、 Japan 、 Netherlands, Germany and other places , One by one, visit the industry , It urges manufacturers such as esmore and Nikon to turn . He said , communicate , It is an important lesson he learned from Zhang Zhongmou .

　　 From his 2000 Since joining TSMC in , Zhang Zhongmou has lunch with the three-level executives in two echelons every season , And the deputy general managers meet every month . During the meeting, Zhang Zhongmou and the executives can talk about the development of the company and the international political and economic situation , Including the core of TSMC “ Integrity ”、“ promise ” Equal value , Also condenses in it ,“ The chairman will encourage everyone to ask him questions , Sometimes people ask well , He answered happily , Don't eat anything .”

　　“ Think thoroughly 、 Done thoroughly , It's his habit ”, Hold hands with Lin benjian 50 Huang Xiuhui, wife of, for example , He was the conductor of the church choir , Many members are not good at reading staff , Encountering symbols of repeated paragraphs , Often forget to sing back , General commanders will constantly correct and remind , But Lin benjian solved the problem completely , Re transcribe the score , Write the spectrum directly after the repeated symbol , Let everyone sing smoothly .

　　 He completely , But in case of problems, I know better about detours

　　 however , Lin benjian's ‘ thoroughly ’ With ingenuity , He thought that he encountered difficulties , Sometimes you might as well stop first 、 rest , Even detour , Move on , Huibi just follows the path of his predecessors , Blindly “ the determination to win victory and the courage to surmount every difficulty ” good . At the beginning, he proposed infiltrating microfilm , Is to bypass the usual path of the industry , Burst out of spiritual light .

　　“ He often says , Imagination can be infinite , Only in practical use , Be careful , He never suppressed any idea of the engineer ”, The director of TSMC said , Lin benjian quite encourages his subordinates to imagine , Only in this way can we innovate .

　　 After teaching in university two years ago , Lin benjian also expects students , Don't become a cramming education ‘ A mending slave ’. He encourages students to cooperate , It is stipulated that some assignments must be completed in teams , Just like he used to reverse the rules of semiconductors , Although he put forward the idea alone , However, it needs the support of Zhang Zhongmou, Jiang Shangyi and others , And find allies outside , To practice epoch-making Technology .

　　“ I hope to try my best to pass on some valuable things to the next generation ”, Same as the original intention of writing the book , This year, 76 Year old Lin benjian , We should continue to take the school as a platform , Teach the way of thinking and practice .

Comprehensive from ： Business week 、 NetEase Technology