Chapter 509 Prospects for Carbon-Based Chips

The investment in material research and development is a big pit, but it also depends on who invests in it.

Having tasted the sweetness from the SG-1 wire, Manager Sun had already made up his mind, clung to the thigh of Jinling Institute for Advanced Study and would not let go.

As for Lu Zhou, Manager Sun is willing to ask him for advice, and he is also happy to give them advice.

On a larger scale, it can help Huaguo enterprises establish their core competitiveness in the global market.

From a practical point of view, it is also profitable for him.

Take SG-1 material as an example, every centimeter of SG-1 wire produced by Julius Baer Group includes patent costs. Although this income is not as rich as the lithium battery brought him, it is quite considerable.

After thinking for a while, Lu Zhou said in a chatty tone: "I am not too good to say anything about the future development direction of your company. But since you have already established advantages in the production of carbon-based materials, why don't you consider this? Expand the advantage?"

Hearing this sentence, Manager Sun immediately showed a serious expression on his face.

"Oh? What is Professor Lu's opinion?"

"It's not a good idea," Lu Zhou smiled, and after a short pause, he continued, "I just heard that recently, a research team at the University of California successfully synthesized A graphene nanoribbon with a width of only 1 nanometer and a length of 50 nanometers has been obtained. At present, this research has aroused the interest of IBM and is widely expected by the industry to be used in the production of next-generation carbon-based chips."

As we all know, 5 nanometers is the physical limit of silicon-based transistors. Once the transistor size is below 5 nanometers, the behavior of electrons will be limited by the influence of quantum uncertainty, resulting in quantum tunneling effects, passing through the " wall". Under such circumstances, silicon-based transistors will become unreliable, and the upgrading of chip manufacturing processes will also face great challenges.

In order to face this challenge, it is almost a consensus in the industry and academia to find new materials to replace traditional silicon materials and produce electronic devices with smaller size and better performance.

According to the known research results, among the several technical routes that are currently considered feasible, there are already options such as carbon nanotubes, molybdenum disulfide, black phosphorus, graphene, and tungsten diselenide.

Because he is studying carbon nanomaterials, Lu Zhou is naturally more optimistic about the technical route of graphene.

In fact, this is indeed the case. In the case of Mott insulators, graphene does have the potential to be applied to electronic devices as a semiconductor material.

chip...

Hearing what Lu Zhou said, Manager Sun couldn't help but feel a little headache.

Although the thighs are thick enough, it is nerve-wracking to always jump into the pit.

"Professor Lu... Could it be that he suggested that we jump into the big pit of the chip?"

Seeing the embarrassing expression on Manager Sun's face, Lu Zhou laughed and said, "You are not an electronics company, so it is definitely unrealistic for you to develop chips. I just think that since we have completed thousands of nanometers For the production of graphene materials, why not try to challenge graphene nanoribbons with a width of a few nanometers? I know that these are two completely different technologies, but I think we are fully capable of doing this.”

Lu Zhou wasn't just talking.

When chatting with Professor Bawandi on the plane, he had plans in this regard.

Of course, the current research must still focus on controllable nuclear fusion.

What's more, even if he is interested in black technology such as carbon-based chips, Jinling Institute for Advanced Study has no talents in this field.

Let's wait until the end of the controlled nuclear fusion project to consider this issue.

I believe that by that time, many problems will no longer be problems.

With a helpless smile on his face, Manager Sun shook his head.

Graphene nanoribbons a few nanometers wide...

That's easy to say.

It's all money...

...

The controllable nuclear fusion exchange meeting lasted for five days.

For Lu Zhou, the harvest in these five days can be said to be quite rich.

In addition to those interesting lectures, the advanced technologies displayed by major research institutes also greatly enriched his vision.

Including Tri-Alpha's FRC unit, he has purchased at least $40 million in equipment.

Although compared with the microwave heating device, the function of the FRC device is only to make the heating speed of the plasma a little faster and more stable. It is not a key technology, but it is still useful.

In addition to the non-critical components such as the FRC device, there are also critical components such as the He-3 atom probe in Lu Zhou's purchase list.

When it comes to the He-3 atom probe, we have to mention Professor Lazersson.

The former PPPL laboratory engineer, now stepping into the industrial world as a technician, is now very successful in the plasma physics community.

Relying on the contacts he has accumulated in academia, he knows better than anyone what kind of experimental equipment those scholars need, so he insisted on making the He-3 atom probe technology bigger and stronger.

At the dinner on the closing night of the meeting, while chatting with this old friend, Lu Zhou learned that his business has grown bigger and bigger. Not only has he maintained close cooperation with more than 20 plasma research institutes, he has also become a One of the suppliers of the ITER project.

Not only that, the He-3 atom probe technology has also been upgraded under his improvement, and now the observation accuracy of high-density plasma has been significantly improved.

Speaking of which, when He-3 was first established, Lu Zhou seemed to have invested millions of dollars.

In this way, he seems to be one of the shareholders of this company?

"I bet this is definitely one of the most successful investments in your life," Professor Lazelson said with a smile when talking about the past, "The millions of dollars at the beginning are worth at least 100 million now. Etc. The prospect of controllable nuclear fusion technology is clear, and I plan to list on the NASDAQ board, and then you can just wait and count the money.”

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Really? Good luck then."

Professor Lazersson looked at Lu Zhou in surprise: "Why aren't you excited at all?"

Lu Zhou made a helpless expression: "...When you have so much money that you can't spend it in your next life, even if someone suddenly tells you that you have made hundreds of millions more, I'm afraid you will be expressionless. I am concerned about money now. That’s probably how it feels, you should be able to feel it.”

Although compared with the billionaires on the Forbes wealth list, his assets of several hundred million dollars may indeed not be ranked, but the problem is that his several hundred million dollars are all cash, and the meaning is completely different .

In addition, his consumption level is not high. Although the establishment of the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study spent a lot of money, the surprise is that not only has it paid back, but it has also earned him a lot due to patent fees.

Professor Lazersson stared blankly at Lu Zhou for a long time.

After a while, he shook his head.

"...No, I can't understand it."

...

After the closing dinner of the meeting, the group returned to the hotel room one after another, preparing to pack their luggage.

The flight back home is tomorrow morning. In order to allow more time before boarding the plane tomorrow, preparations must be done in advance.

I found Fei Jingti and Dian Cili in the corridor of the hotel, and Lu Zhou told them.

"Tomorrow at eight o'clock in the morning, you will go to the plane with Professor Li Changxia, remember not to get up late."

Fei Jingti: "Good professor... won't you go back with us?"

Lu Zhou smiled and shook his head.

"I still have something to deal with, you go back first."