The 2020 Changsha Cybersecurity·Intelligent Manufacturing Conference will be held at the Changsha International Convention and Exhibition Center from November 28 to 30. With the theme of "Innovation Leading  Intelligent Manufacturing for the Future", the conference fully demonstrates Changsha's achievements in cybersecurity and smart manufacturing, and attracts more Many related companies land in Changsha. Before the conference, the author walked into Hunan Qitai Sensing Technology Co., Ltd., located in Liuyang High-tech Zone, to explore the "smart manufacturing" charm of this "smart factory".

Fifteen years to sharpen the sword

Mathematics professor led a team to conquer the "Chinese chip"

According to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, my country’s sensor market has maintained rapid growth in recent years, and has maintained a double-digit growth rate in the past five years.

But unfortunately, due to the late start of domestic chip technology, the market for sensor chips is almost monopolized by foreign companies, which also causes domestic manufacturers to pay a lot of money for purchasing chips every year. However, there are also many companies that have successfully broken the monopoly and achieved good results in the field of sensor chips. Hunan Qitai is one of them.

In the lobby of Qitai Company, there are fire hydrants and fire water pressure monitoring systems, and the data is updated on the big screen in real time. Place a pressure-sensitive sensor chip in the fire hydrant-a "small button" with a diameter of no more than five or six millimeters. It can very accurately convert the pressure data into an electronic signal and provide real-time feedback on the water storage and water pressure in the fire hydrant To the fire department and the owner.

Don’t underestimate this tiny chip. Put it under a microscope at 100 times and you can see that it is full of dense circuits.

The  chip is the core component of the sensor. The self-sufficiency rate of my country's MEMS (ie micromechanical microelectronic system) sensing metal-based pressure-sensitive chip is less than 0.5%, and China has always been a major importer of high-end sensors.

 Wang Guoqiu, born in 1963, is the founder and helm of the company, as well as a professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Mathematics and Statistics of Hunan Normal University. Researching mathematics, he chose to conquer sensor technology that has nothing to do with his profession. He insisted on 15 years of continuous research and development, and conquered the key chip technology in MEMS sensors. China's high-end sensor chips with independent intellectual property rights have been industrialized on a large scale, and their technology has reached the world's leading level, and the price has certain advantages compared with imported products. It fills the gap in domestic production lines and breaks the foreign blockade of my country's high-end pressure sensor metal-based chip technology.

According to Wang Guoqiu, this chip can completely replace imported chips. Compared with the same type of chips on the market, Qitai’s chips also have many advantages. Not only are they higher in measurement accuracy, but they are also cheaper than similar foreign products. With two advantages, Qitai has received orders from major domestic companies and has achieved remarkable results.

Upstream and downstream are fully connected

Break through the chip "neck" technology

On the Qitai metal substrate pressure-sensitive chip production line, a metal strip with a thick little finger that looks like stainless steel is placed in a high-precision CNC machine tool. After tens of seconds, it becomes a smooth and shiny "small button"— -This is the base of the chip.

After pretreatment such as grinding and polishing, these substrates will be sent to the "ultra-clean workshop" upstairs, where they will go through many processes such as automatic sorting, cleaning, deposition, photolithography, and testing, and then packaged into sensors.

The auxiliary facilities on the first floor are all unattended, and there are only a few engineers monitoring the data in the 2000-square-meter "ultra-clean workshop" on the second floor. The production line has more than 40 links, and most of the processes are automated.

The auxiliary facility room provides environmental protection and supporting services such as materials, water, and gas for the “ultra-clean workshop”. "Pressure-sensitive chips are extremely demanding on the production environment. There can be no more than 100 dust particles with a diameter greater than 0.25 microns in a cubic foot of space, which is much higher than the cleanliness requirements of a hospital operating room; the water used for cleaning is so pure that it cannot be drunk. Because there are no other elements except H_2O." Wang Guoqiu said that if impurities adhere to the substrate material, the film layer of the chip will not be firmly bonded, which will affect the performance and life of the chip.

According to the introduction, after the pressure-sensitive sensor chip production line was pulled through, after a 9-month yield ramp-up period, the current yield rate is over 93%. After that, after a large number of long-term actual tests, the quality of the chip can be ensured without any problems. Pressure-sensitive chips can be used in military industry and rail transit, civil vehicles, fire protection, smart cities, petrochemicals and other fields. Different fields have different requirements for sensors and different prices. Thousands of thousands.

In the integrated circuit industry, the six parts of equipment, materials, design, production, testing, and packaging constitute the upstream and downstream industrial chain, and each enterprise has its own responsibilities. Generally, an enterprise only does one of them.

It is worth mentioning that Qitai’s technology is 100% independent research and development, and the process is 100% independent research and development. The core equipment such as lithography machine is jointly developed with domestic manufacturers, and the auxiliary materials such as substrate, target and photoresist are all developed with domestic manufacturers. Joint research and development. Qitai has almost established an industrial ecosystem.

Wang Guoqiu proudly said: “As a chip practitioner, I don’t want to be caught by anyone in any link.”

"We are the only factory-made metal-based pressure-sensitive chip production line in China. We hope that in the next 3 to 5 years, Qitai will take the first place in this field in China and have strong international competitiveness. Change the face of China's sensor industry that is neither big nor strong." Wang Guoqiu said firmly. At present, the company is planning a second metal-based pressure-sensitive chip production line specially developed for the automotive industry. After the production line is put into production, it will produce 30 million pressure-sensitive chips per year, and the production level will reach the industry 4.0 standard.

Business card

Hunan Qitai Information Technology Co., Ltd. was established in March 2006, settled in Liuyang High-tech Industrial Development Zone in November 2015, and changed the establishment of Hunan Qitai Sensing Technology Co., Ltd., which is specialized in metal film pressure chips and precision sensors A modern high-tech enterprise of R&D, production and sales.

Qitai Sensor Internet of Things Industrial Park project is located in Liuyang High-tech Zone. Construction started in 2016. It covers an area of ​​100 acres and has a total investment of 1 billion yuan. It will be constructed in two phases. The first phase investment is 500 million yuan, covering an area of ​​35 acres. After the first phase is completed, it will produce 6 million pressure-sensitive chips per year. After being packaged into sensors, the annual output value will be more than 1 billion yuan; after the second phase expansion, the annual output of pressure-sensitive chips will be After 30 million pieces, packaged into sensors or made into application systems, the annual output value exceeds 5 billion yuan.

Original link：https://hnrb.voc.com.cn/hnrb_epaper/html/2020-11/19/content_1486328.htm?div=-1