Chapter 1160
Chasing the Light! A Desperate Struggle with EUV Light Sources
Its manufacturing difficulty is comparable to ascending to the heavens in hell! The Eagle Tribe mobilized the nation's top enterprises, amassed mountains of funds and an unimaginable team of genius engineers, and spent a full twenty years barely managing to complete it! The Loongson Laboratory? That's all they have at their disposal! And that's all they had under complete blockade!
The atmosphere of despair was almost enough to snap the last thread of hope.
“Starting from scratch…” Guo Xueyun’s clear yet stubbornly trembling voice came from the corner.
She walked to Su Dingping's side, not looking at anyone, but simply tilting her head back. Her bright eyes reflected Su Dingping's bloodshot eyes. Her voice was not loud, but it pierced everyone's heart like a nail.
"Then let's start from scratch! The magnetic confinement and magnetic field distortion control of the stellarators back then were millions of times more complex than a maze! Fusion plasma turbulence was an unsolvable devil! Weren't we also starting from scratch?! Who gave us a single brick or a single blueprint?"
"Wasn't it President Su who led us, starting from scratch, step by step, climbing out of the abyss to where we are today?!"
She suddenly turned to the technical backbone who looked desperate, and an amazing power burst forth from her small body.
"President Su said to do it!"
"Then we'll definitely succeed! We'll just keep up! Let's unleash our full potential!"
Looking at the girl beside him, who was clearly exhausted but whose eyes shone like sparks, Su Dingping felt the flame in his heart, which had almost been crushed by the cold winds of reality, suddenly ignite fiercely again!
He could even feel the mysterious "space" deep in his mind violently shaking, and blurry blueprints representing the future direction were rapidly condensing in his mental perception, with the progress bar pointing to a certain key node... starting to jump wildly!
first step.
Desperate groping and the dawn of space
No high-power CO2 lasers? Even data is being blocked?
Then let's use the strongest Nd available.
YAG solid-state laser!
Is there no specially designed tin target microdroplet generator?
Then, using a rudimentary inert gas jet device, they managed to spray out extremely irregular, teardrop-sized, and erratic tin metal droplets!
A rudimentary EUV light source pre-research facility was built.
The interior of the enormous vacuum chamber was crudely made, resembling a tin can. A blinding beam of solid-state laser light blazed forth, and after the engineers' almost futile efforts of meticulous adjustment, it relentlessly bombarded the irregularly swaying tin droplets!
"Bombardment! 10%, continuous energy input!"
The operator yelled.
On the screen of the specially designed EUV detector mounted on the side wall of the vacuum chamber, which is not completely shielded from various clutter, an extremely weak signal, almost indistinguishable in a sea of clutter, flickered briefly! It vanished instantly!
"There's a response! It's in the extreme ultraviolet band!"
Someone managed to catch that fleeting fluctuation!
However, it only lasted ten minutes.
"Warning! The cavity temperature is rising rapidly!"
"Sold dross is clogging the nozzle!"
"Localized ablation has occurred in the specular reflective coating!"
"System overheat protection! Force shutdown!"
Smoke and the smell of burning filled the laboratory. Another failure! And the costs were equally staggering!
That legendary light representing 13.5nm, like the most stingy will-o'-the-wisp, flickered for only a negligible moment at Loongson's fingertip before being completely extinguished, leaving only expensive scrap parts!
“It’s over…it’s hopeless…” Even the young engineer who had previously supported Su Dingping looked ashen-faced.
"This is just burning money for nothing... there's no end in sight..."
"ASML of the Eagle Tribe... that EUV lithography machine called NXE uses a CO2 laser array of tens of thousands of watts... impacting the tin droplet 50,000 times per second..." Yuan Tao's voice was trembling as he checked the scattered leaked information.
“Our machine… isn’t even good enough to warm up someone else…” A sense of despair washed over Su Dingping like a tsunami.
Just then!
Om-!
The mysterious space in Su Dingping's mind trembled violently!
A meticulously detailed drawing with unprecedented clarity, every line outlined in golden light, suddenly filled his mental field of vision!
[Illustrated Guide Unlocked. [Megawatt-Scale RF-Excited Coaxial Waveguide CO2 Laser – Complete Design]]
The details, down to the material requirements of every component, the optimization algorithms for every energy circulation path, and the coupling parameters of every radio frequency amplification module… were like the ultimate gift of the universe's mysteries, forcibly crammed into his consciousness!
The second step.
Qin Mingzhu's Solitary Journey and External Ridicule
Almost at the same time that the blueprints lit up in Su Dingping's mind, Qin Mingzhu also arrived at the Eagle Tribe, a place of turbulent winds and biting cold.
The magnificent ASML headquarters building is as cold and arrogant as an ice-cast throne.
"I'm very sorry, Ms. Qin."
She was greeted by an ASML executive with a standard business smile, but whose eyes held undisguised coldness.
"The CO2 laser prototype system you mentioned? Even the most basic lab-level version? I'm sorry, due to extremely sensitive technology protection regulations and end-user agreement restrictions—it's not available for sale."
Not even a single wire will do.
He couldn't even be bothered to come up with a decent reason.
Qin Mingzhu's smile froze almost instantly.
She suppressed her barely contained rage and maintained her last shred of dignity.
"Any alternatives? Or technological cooperation..."
"impossible!"
The executive's voice was firm and resolute, carrying an undisguised sense of superiority.
"Core technology barriers will not be opened to non-alliance members, especially certain tribes with serious intellectual property concerns."
He deliberately emphasized those words, his eyes like poisoned needles.
The news somehow leaked to the astute Eagle Media.
The next day, a deluge of ridicule descended like vultures!
[International Chip Review]
The Longxia tribe's request for key components of an EUV light source was rejected! An ASML executive bluntly stated.
Its underlying physics will remain incomprehensible for at least 50 years! Ironic.
☆☆☆☆☆
[Eagle Technology News]
Exclusive scoop! Qin Group's crown jewel returns home in disgrace! Longxia EUV's dream shattered on the spot! An insider quipped.
They should learn how to properly operate a light bulb first! An ASML executive even made a contemptuous remark at an internal cocktail party.
EUV? That's a glory only God can bestow upon an eagle! The Longxia people? They even have to buy the worst, defective tin droplets from us to make the light source!
This is a miracle that humans cannot replicate!
"A clown!"
"A fool's dream!"
"They've brought this upon themselves!" "Even in a hundred years, it won't work!"
Harsh words, like poisonous needles from the internet, were viciously stabbed at Loongson, which was still struggling to find its way in the dark on the other side of the ocean!
This news was like a poison gas bomb, detonating within the already demoralized Loongson laboratory!
"Damn it! This is outrageous!"
Yuan Tao was so angry when he saw the news that he almost smashed an optical testing platform that he had just repaired!
"Who do they think they are?!"
Countless young researchers were filled with rage, their fists clenched, and they felt an unprecedented sense of humiliation!
Even the usually composed Old Li had his white beard trembling.
"You...you brat! This is an utter disgrace!"
A sense of grief and helplessness spread through me.
Su Dingping stared at the news screenshot on the screen, at the contemptuous and sarcastic photo of the ASML executive, his face remaining expressionless.
But his tightly clenched jawline protruded slightly, and deep in his eyes was a chilling aura that could pierce through steel!
He slowly turned around, his gaze sweeping over the faces distorted by humiliation and grief, finally settling on Guo Xueyun in the corner, her lips tightly pressed together, her face pale with anger.
She was also looking at him, her eyes filled with anger, but also with a silent, unwavering support.
"Scream."
Su Dingping's voice was as cold as the Siberian wind, without a trace of emotion.
"Let these frogs who have never seen the sky beyond the well's opening croak for a few more months."
He suddenly raised his hand and pointed to the rudimentary EUV light source pre-research device deep in the laboratory, which had just been abandoned and still exuded the lingering warmth and burnt smell of failure.
"Tear it down! Everything! Tear it down immediately! Clear the site!"
This order is astonishing!
Immediately, he issued a series of instructions in a tone that left no room for discussion.
"Starting today! Cease all preliminary research experiments related to tin droplets!"
"Purchase list adjusted! Place order immediately."
50 ultra-pure liquid helium transport and storage tanks (99% purity, -253 degrees Celsius)! High-purity isotope-calibrated helium-99999 fuel!
"Notify the Ministry of Energy to initiate the pre-assembly project for the Juyan-4 superconducting high-magnetic coil, ensuring that all materials meet military-grade standards!"
"Summon the head of the Skyscanner system at the Synchrotron Radiation Center of the Institute of Physics to see me! I want their most advanced ultra-low stray energy spectrum detector array!"
"Notify the Quantum Institute to pack up and send over the SQUID superconducting quantum interference device modules that were taken from the Starlink base last time and hadn't been processed yet!"
A series of seemingly unrelated commands bypassed the laser and even the traditional tin droplet bombardment route! This was completely beyond the comprehension of everyone at Loongson!
What is he building? And what does this have to do with EUV light sources?!
Facing the astonished and incomprehensible gazes of everyone, the suppressed chill in Su Dingping's eyes finally transformed into a flame that was almost manic yet extremely rational, and the corners of his mouth even curled into an extremely cold arc.
"Project Chasing the Light - Phase Two, officially begins."
"Target.
"Create Longxia's own 13.5nm process!"
No one knew that the core path on the newly unlocked blueprint in his mind had already been completely reconstructed!
The blueprint didn't point to ASML's tin microdroplet laser bombardment of plasma! Instead…
[An ultrastable, coherent 13nm synchrotron radiation source generated by the atomic-level resonance transition of helium-5 under strong magnetic field confinement!]
A hellish path that exists only in theoretical physics as a wild fantasy in a few papers and has never been actually realized by anyone!
Time passed under pressure and in silence.
The two months felt like being fried in a pot of boiling oil.
Deep within the Loongson Lab, a completely isolated area with the highest security level was established. Codenamed "Lighthouse Zero".
There were no roaring lasers inside, only a huge superconducting magnetic confinement ring that constantly emitted a chilling aura, with countless thick cryogenic helium pipelines coiled around it like giant silver pythons.
Inside the core region, a cloud of helium-3 atoms, refined and condensed at ultra-low temperatures through countless complex processes, is controlled by a strong magnetic field and a precise radio frequency microwave field…
A resonant storm of unconventional origin from the atomic scale is brewing with great difficulty!
Inside the Loongson Laboratory.
Yuan Tao and his colleagues continued their frantic attempts to repair and patch things up on "Fuxi-1," but without any progress. The EUV "Zero Lighthouse" project was too secretive and ahead of its time, with only a handful of core participants.
Most technicians viewed Su's self-proclaimed plan to develop a "completely new light source" as nothing more than a desperate and delusional madness.
On this day, Su Dingping convened a meeting with some of the core members who participated in the preliminary research of "Lighthouse Zero".
The atmosphere inside the meeting room was somber.
As a veteran, Yuan Tao couldn't help but speak up again.
"President Su, the lighthouse over there... it's been over two months, and there's not a single sign of progress... this helium-3 route... even the most cutting-edge laboratories internationally have been working on it for over a decade with absolutely no progress... we..."
He didn't say anything more, but the doubt and despair in his words were already evident.
Su Dingping did not answer.
He walked to the huge floor-standing display screen and silently started the projector.
When the assembly drawings of the core components of the [megawatt-class radio frequency excited coaxial waveguide CO2 laser], with its exceptionally precise design, ingenious geometric symmetry, and brutal mathematical and physical barriers, filled the entire screen with an undeniable presence... the entire conference room seemed to be paused!
The air froze instantly! You could hear a pin drop!
Yuan Tao's eyes widened to their limit, and his mouth opened as if an egg could fit inside!
He felt as if he had been struck hard on the head with a club, and he sprang straight up from his chair! All the blood rushed to his head, and his whole body was trembling violently and uncontrollably!
He stared intently at every line and data label on the screen. It was an engineering solution they had never encountered before, yet it was logically rigorous and aesthetically pleasing in a brutal way! Especially those key energy stacking waveguide structures and radio frequency resonant cavities... they shattered all his preconceived notions like divine pronouncements!
"this!
This is?!"
"A CO2 laser?! Complete blueprints?! Which tribe built it?!"
The elderly man next to him, Mr. Li, moved closer to the screen in a daze, his reading glasses slipping down to the tip of his nose, his age-spotted fingers pointing at the several extremely complex and exquisite structures.
"The pulse repetition frequency reaches 100kHz?! Peak power... This! Exceeds 3000 kilowatts?!"
This metric?!
How is that possible?! The most publicly reported peak level in current literature is only…”
Su Dingping's calm voice rang out in the deathly silent conference room, like a thunderclap from a clear sky, shattering everyone's worldview.
"It hasn't been built yet. The blueprints have just been finalized."
Theoretical verification is complete. Immediately prioritize 3D metal printing! Focus all efforts on manufacturing these key heat dissipation modules and vacuum-sealed waveguide cavities!
As if possessed, Yuan Tao rushed to the screen and examined every enlarged detail again, then suddenly turned around! He stared intently at Su Dingping with an expression that was almost like looking at God, a mixture of extreme shock and fanatical worship!
"Mr. Su...Mr. Su!"
This idea is brilliant!
This stacked structure!
This...this completely overturns the configuration limits of traditional CO2 lasers! (End of Chapter)