Chapter 1162
The Tin Drop Problem! AI Forcefully Saves the Day
This donation instantly shook the technology and finance circles of Longxia.
Everyone understands where this points!
"Grandpa...this..."
In the senior management office of Longxin Laboratory, Su Dingping looked at the transfer confirmation letter and the donation agreement personally signed by Qin Baichuan, his throat tightening with emotion.
He knew that while Zhongchuang Technology had made progress in recent years, the fact that it was putting up almost its entire fortune of 3 billion yuan at once meant something far more significant. "A gamble" wouldn't even begin to describe it; it was a tragic, all-or-nothing entrustment!
He didn't even make any additional requests!
Qin Mingzhu also rushed over to see Su Dingping. Her eyes reddened slightly as she looked at the document her father had signed.
She knows the family business's cash flow better than anyone else.
"My dad... he's staked his entire life savings on you..."
She looked at Su Dingping without complaint, only with a profound sense of responsibility.
“He knows how difficult things are for you right now. He said he doesn’t understand the technical stuff, but when it comes to money, it’s worth it as long as he can help in any way.”
Su Dingping was deeply shaken, and a surge of heat rushed from his chest to his eyes, which he forcibly suppressed.
This trust is too heavy! It is so heavy that it makes his spine straight, and it is so heavy that it weighs on his heart as well as on another, even more towering mountain—if he fails, he will not only betray his ideals in scientific research, but also the pure hearts of countless people like Professor Qin who have devoted everything to it!
"no!"
Su Dingping decisively picked up the pen on the table.
"My Longxin Laboratory must give an explanation for this money!"
He swiftly drafted a legally binding supplementary contract agreement.
A commitment letter signed by Su Dingping, a core team member of the Longxin High-Tech Laboratory, states that regardless of future changes in the laboratory's funding structure, if the laboratory successfully masters and manufactures lithography equipment or chips with 14nm and below high-end processes, it will commit to this commitment.
Zhongchuang Technology and related companies of the Qin family have the absolute priority to purchase goods at prices at least 30% lower than the normal market price under the same conditions, until the total demand of the Qin family is met within the contractually agreed period.
He pushed the signed document in front of Qin Mingzhu, his gaze intense and unwavering.
"Sister Mingzhu, I'll take the money!"
This promise represents the utmost sincerity that I, Su Dingping, and the Longxin Laboratory can offer! Please accept it, Professor Qin!
Looking at the contract, which was almost like "drawing a cake to satisfy hunger," Qin Mingzhu felt a mix of emotions.
When her father took out 3 billion, wasn't it also a desperate attempt to test the waters? For a behemoth like the lithography machine, which embodies the pinnacle of global industrial technology, can it really be accomplished by the efforts of just one generation or the genius of just one person? This is almost a consensus among all sober industry insiders.
"Your contract..."
She smiled wryly, shook her head, and solemnly signed her name after her father had already signed.
“Okay! The contract is valid! But Dingping, the old man and I... we really didn't pay this money because of the contract. We just... don't want to see any hope nipped in the bud.”
"I see!"
Su Dingping uttered three words heavily.
"The road ahead is long and difficult, but we can't just take the money for nothing!"
While a donation agreement, a commitment to the nation's well-being, was taking place in a corner of the Longxia tribe's technological front, an energy game was also unfolding on the other side of the continent.
The wealthy but resource-poor Eastern Wilderness tribe, represented by its shrewd representative Sato Ichiro, arrived in the capital of the Bear tribe with a meticulously prepared "Large-scale Regional Energy Cooperation Framework Plan." In the magnificent Kremlin reception room, Sato faced the emperor, known for his iron fist, and spoke eloquently.
"Your Majesty, the Eastern Wilderness and the Bear Tribe are neighbors with highly complementary economies! We possess the world's most abundant funds and a vast market! We urgently hope to establish a deeper and more strategic energy bond with you!"
Imagine an energy pipeline that traverses the vast permafrost of eastern Siberia, connecting your boundless treasures with the thriving economic heart of the Eastern Wilderness!
This will usher in a new era! We are willing to undertake all the initial planning investment and technical support!
The grand vision depicted is extremely enticing.
The leaders of the Russian tribe, who were eager to develop their economy and expand their energy export markets due to the continuous blockade and sanctions imposed by Western tribes, were deeply moved.
After several rounds of closed-door consultations, the "Eastern Eurasian Energy Strategic Partnership Agreement" was officially signed amidst intense media attention from both sides! The Emperor's face showed a long-lost sense of relaxation and joy.
This imagined "blood transfusion artery" seems to be able to alleviate the pain caused by sanctions.
However, the ink on the agreement hadn't been dry for long. The energy department and engineering expert team from the Bear Tribe, responsible for the actual implementation, sensed something was wrong.
When they requested detailed information from the Donghuang technical team, including preliminary design concepts, geological survey capability assessments, and technical reserves for pipeline construction in extreme environments, the team's responses became vague. Applications for on-site inspections were delayed for various reasons.
A month later, an official of a certain rank in the Maoxiong tribe, who was in charge of specific affairs, almost cursed loudly in private.
"These bastards!"
Aside from drawing a few concept diagrams, they haven't done any proper preliminary research at all! They don't even have a systematic reserve of core technologies for pipeline construction in high-altitude permafrost regions!
That so-called undertaking of initial investment is all empty promises! They're just waiting to reap the benefits from the agreement and then drag our people down with them!
They simply do not have the capability to independently lay ultra-long-distance pipelines across the complex permafrost region of the Far East!
The official's anger soon manifested itself in another way.
The news reached the Kremlin's crimson study.
The emperor stood before the enormous floor-to-ceiling window, outside which lay a cold, biting night.
His brow, which had relaxed slightly after the signing of the agreement, furrowed again. His hawk-like gaze fixed on the endless night outside the window, a cold, hard line forming at the corner of his mouth. There was no angry roar, but in the silent office, the air seemed to freeze.
The newly signed agreement, its ink still fresh, lay quietly on the enormous mahogany desk behind him, a stark irony that silently mocked his earlier anticipation.
The "empty city strategy" meticulously planned by the Eastern Wilderness Tribe was quickly exposed by reality, revealing its underlying weaknesses: idle capital and weak technology.
A calculated gamble ultimately resulted in immense disappointment and silent mockery, leaving the bear tribe, who were already eager to escape their predicament, with nothing but empty joy.
"Minister of Energy."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
In the corner, a slightly overweight official with gray hair immediately bowed.
"tell me."
The emperor's voice was frighteningly calm, but every word was like it had been chilled to the bone.
"Our warehouses are piled high with oil and natural gas. Besides selling them to the Longxia people, who else can convert them into cash before winter arrives? To heat our tribe and fuel our army?" A deathly silence fell over the room. The high-ranking officials present understood that there was only one answer. The Longxia tribe's vast and stable needs, and its status as the only neighboring country capable of constructing and maintaining the massive trans-Siberian permafrost gas pipeline, determined everything.
The Energy Minister broke out in a cold sweat.
"Your Majesty... at present... indeed... the Longxia tribe is the only option."
He swallowed hard.
"But...their negotiating delegation...sent a new quote yesterday...the conditions...are very harsh."
"Humph!"
The emperor suddenly turned around, his sharp gaze sweeping over everyone present.
"Demanding? They have the right to be! We desperately need buyers, we desperately need cash flow!"
They knew that without the traps of the Eastern Wilderness, we had no other choice!
His gaze finally settled on the Eastern Wilderness Agreement on the corner of the table, his eyes filled with the fury of being fooled.
We lost!
This time, we lost completely! We begged them to buy! We agreed to the new contract with the Longxia people! Immediately! Right now! I can't let the oil go cold and hard under my nose, waiting to turn into a pile of useless rocks!
He practically roared it out.
"Also, keep a close eye on those frozen-hard pipe joints; we can't afford any more mistakes this time! As for the price... we'll go with what they say!"
"Yes!"
The Energy Secretary bent even lower, his tone bitter yet resolute.
Deep within the Dragon Heart Laboratory.
Su Dingping had been in the ultra-vacuum anechoic chamber for 72 consecutive hours. The data reports of failed mirror coatings, those layers upon layers of red error marks far exceeding the standards, felt like steel needles pricking his nerves.
The money was burning, and Qin Baichuan's gamble on the entire Zhongchuang Technology weighed heavily on his mind. There was no turning back!
"Ultra-vacuum environment... ion beam... uniformity of polished surface..."
He stared at the screen full of data models, muttering to himself, his fingers unconsciously tracing invisible, complex structures on the desktop.
Suddenly, he paused, his eyes fixed on the cover of an old research file in the corner. It had several words covered in dust and a slightly exaggerated structural diagram on it: "Feasibility Study on the Polishing Process of Plasma Confinement Wall of Stellarator".
A bolt of lightning instantly cleaved through the fog in Su Dingping's mind!
"That's it! A stellarator!"
He slammed his hand on the table.
A loud "bang" echoed in the quiet laboratory.
"Isn't its core confinement cavity inner wall also required to achieve atomic-level absolute smoothness and flatness in an ultra-vacuum environment? And that complex magnetohydrodynamic morphology... the etching of the material surface by the ion beam..."
He clung to the computer like it was a lifeline, his fingers flying across the keyboard so fast they left afterimages.
A wealth of stellarator technical details, ion flow density models, and surface deformation data of vacuum cavity wall materials under bombardment by particles of specific energy... Experimental data that had been accumulated previously and seemed unrelated to lithography machines are now flowing like a raging flood into the ultra-precision polishing scheme for designing EUV mirrors, finding new channels!
Two days and two nights, without sleep or rest! Amidst the strong smell of coffee smoke and the frantic roar of the printer, a completely different set of design drawings was born!
Unlike Zeiss's reliance on traditional mechanical polishing and magnetron sputtering, its core technology is based on "atomic-level engraving" of the optical substrate surface in an ultra-clean vacuum environment using an ultra-high-energy ion beam. With the help of a dynamic compensation system, the original 0.1nm precision line, which was locked in the blueprint and could not be broken through, has been compressed to 0.08nm!
The final drawing was completed, but the ink was still wet.
Su Dingping stared at the final core data – “Surface accuracy RMS error”.
"≤0.08nm," even his usually composed face couldn't help but show a flush of wild joy.
He grabbed the blueprints and rushed to the polishing lab next door, his voice hoarse but filled with barely suppressed excitement.
"Old Chen! Follow this plan! Prepare for the experiment immediately!"
Engineer Chen took the blueprints, glanced at them for a few seconds, and his eyes widened in astonishment.
"Ion beam diameter controlled to 0.5 micrometers? Energy tiered compensation? This idea... is brilliant! Chief Engineer Su... where... did you come up with this?"
"Our ancestors planted the trees."
Su Dingping was panting, his eyes gleaming with a burning light.
"Ion beam confinement technology for stellarators! With a solid foundation, we can scale even the highest walls! Let's go with this!"
"Let's do it!"
Engineer Chen roared and led his team into the renovated laboratory.
A few days later, when the first lens core substrate polished using this new process was scanned under a phase interferometer profilometer, which is more precise than an atomic force microscope, the entire inspection room was completely silent.
On the display screen, the three-dimensional color cloud map representing the flatness of the mirror surface appeared astonishingly pale blue, and the glaring crimson in the core area, which symbolized the high error zone... disappeared!
“RMS…0.078nm!”
The inspector's voice trembled with unbelievable elation.
"My God! We...did it! Below 0.1nm! Even below the target precision!"
Success! The brand-new ultra-precision ion beam polishing technology has broken through the first major obstacle in mirror processing technology, building upon the foundation laid in the early research of stellarators! Looking at the results on the screen, Su Dingping let out a long, long sigh of relief that had been weighing on his chest for who knows how long.
He rubbed his face hard, his eyes glistening with tears.
"Our ancestors were right, it's never a bad thing to have many skills!"
Every single thing this stellarator produced is a treasure!
But polishing is only the first step. After solving the mirror-finish blank, the crucial fourteen-layer nano-scale thin film array still needs to be deposited on top! The thickness error of each layer is still stuck at the hopeless 0.1nm limit.
"The reflective layer must be deposited with different materials alternately... precise control of atomic layers... interlayer interference..."
The problem did not disappear, but with the previous barrier broken, Su Dingping's thinking seemed to have been opened up.
"Since polishing can draw on the idea of plasma confinement, then this multi-layer deposition..."
He once again plunged into the vast archives of stellarator research.
A few days later, another inspired solution was developed—an optimized solution for ultra-high vacuum atomic layer deposition technology.
By utilizing a principle similar to that of a stellarator to control the magnetic confinement boundary layer, and by precisely controlling the vacuum cavity environment, precursor pulse time, and complex substrate temperature field, the fourteen complex optical film systems are constructed layer by layer and atom by atom on the surface of the mirror blank!
The new coating solution has been put into intensive experimental testing. (End of Chapter)