Chapter 266: The First Plan, the Lithography Machine

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"What kind of contraption is this?" Lao Ma from the mechanical workshop asked, frowning.

"This," Li Mingyuan's voice carried an undisguised excitement, "is the key equipment that can completely change our military electronics technology—a Lithography Machine. It can manufacture electrical circuits a hundred times thinner than a strand of hair!"

The entire conference room instantly erupted.

"A hundred times thinner than a strand of hair? Is that even possible?"

"With lines that thin, they'd be invisible to the naked eye, right?"

"What materials are used to make it? How do you check the quality?"

Li Mingyuan raised his hand to signal for silence, "Please let me finish. The core concept of this machine is to use the properties of light to transfer extremely fine circuit patterns onto special materials, thereby manufacturing miniature electronic components."

Lao Liu from the materials group was the first to stand up.

He took off his reading glasses, examined the drawings on the blackboard carefully, then put his glasses back on and shook his head.

"Engineer Li," Lao Liu's tone was full of doubt, though not entirely dismissive,

"This 'lithography' you speak of... is using light to draw circuits? How could this possibly be more precise than our current mechanical scribing?"

Li Mingyuan smiled, "Lao Liu, think about it: light is much thinner than mechanical tools, right? If we can control light, we can achieve precision that machinery cannot reach."

Lao Liu nodded as if he understood, but his eyes remained full of skepticism.

Director Wang from the instrumentation workshop spoke up next, his voice somewhat agitated,

"Chief Engineer Li, I studied in Beijixiong Guo for five years and have never heard of such technology! You say you'll use light to draw such fine structures—never mind our own country, do even Beijixiong Guo or Di Guo have this technology? Do you really have the full set of designs?"

Group Leader Zhang Shifu of the electrical group couldn't hold back either,

"Even if we take a step back and assume we really could make such thin lines, can this thing actually be used in our radios and Fire Control System? Can Resistors and Capacitors really be made that small? Is this reliable?"

Li Mingyuan was not flustered; he had long expected to encounter such questioning.

In fact, if no one raised any questions, it would actually worry him—a technological revolution of this level would be the real problem if no one questioned it.

"Everyone's questions are very reasonable," Li Mingyuan walked to the blackboard and picked up a piece of chalk,

"Let me explain the basic principles of this technology to you all."

He began to draw on the blackboard, simply sketching out the workflow of the Lithography Machine.

"Imagine a camera; it can project scenery through a lens onto film, right? A Lithography Machine is a special kind of 'camera' that can 'shine' extremely fine circuit patterns through a special optical system onto a silicon wafer coated with photosensitive material."

Li Mingyuan continued to explain, "This special photosensitive material is called 'Photoresist'. The parts exposed to light undergo a chemical change, and then through steps like development and etching, precise circuit patterns can be formed on the silicon wafer. A single exposure can simultaneously produce hundreds or thousands of identical circuit components!"

Everyone in the conference room listened intently; although most were still confused, their intuition told them this might be an extraordinary breakthrough.

"This is the 'Integrated Circuit' of the future!" Li Mingyuan announced with a resonant voice.

"Integrated... circuit?" Lao Liu repeated the unfamiliar term in confusion.

The entire conference room fell into an eerie silence.

Everyone looked at each other, no one daring to speak rashly.

The term "Integrated Circuit" was something almost no one in Long Country had heard of in this era.

Li Mingyuan looked at the bewildered expressions of the crowd and realized he might have moved too fast.

He needed to use more common language to explain this concept, which was extremely familiar to him but incredibly foreign to the people of this time.

"Let me explain it another way," Li Mingyuan picked up the chalk, "Does everyone know what is inside our current electronic equipment, like radios?"

"Vacuum Tubes, Resistors, Capacitors, Transformers..." a few technicians began to list them.

"Right," Li Mingyuan nodded, "These components are all independent, connected together by wires to form a circuit. An Integrated Circuit, however, is 'integrating' these components onto a small silicon wafer. They are no longer independent, but connected together by extremely fine lines to become a single whole."

"Is this... possible?" someone asked in a low voice.

"Not only possible, but it is inevitably the direction of future development." Li Mingyuan answered firmly, "The materials in my hands contain the complete design for the Lithography Machine and the manufacturing process for Integrated Circuits. As long as we can build the Lithography Machine according to these materials, we can realize this technological revolution."

For a moment, the conference room went quiet again. This concept was too advanced; many people couldn't even imagine what the miniature electronic components Li Mingyuan described would look like.

"Engineer Li," Factory Director Sun finally spoke, his voice sounding somewhat hesitant, "This... Lithography Machine project, how much resource support does it need? And time-wise... is it feasible?"

Li Mingyuan was prepared and immediately pulled a detailed budget and schedule from the pile of materials.

"According to my plan, we need to form a specialized team, including experts in optics, mechanics, electronics, materials, and other fields. The preliminary budget is about 5 million yuan, and time-wise..." he paused, "if everything goes smoothly, we can complete the construction and testing of the first prototype within three months."

"Three months?" Sun's eyes widened, "That fast?"

Li Mingyuan nodded, "Yes, we have no other choice. The enemy will not give us much time. Moreover, I have already done a lot of preliminary preparation work, including simplifying designs and finding alternative material solutions, to adapt to our existing industrial conditions as much as possible."

The atmosphere in the conference room changed subtly. Doubt, surprise, excitement, worry... various emotions flashed across people's faces in turn.

"I want to hear more technical details," electronic engineer Xiao Wang finally couldn't help but ask, "What exactly is this 'Integrated Circuit' all about?"

Li Mingyuan smiled; he had been looking forward to this moment for a long time.

Nothing excited him more than explaining cutting-edge technology to people who truly loved technology.

"Alright, then I will explain it in detail."

He walked to the blackboard, erased the previous content, and started drawing again. First, he drew a traditional electronic circuit board, covered with Vacuum Tubes, Resistors, and Capacitors.

"This is our current circuit board," Li Mingyuan said, pointing to the drawing, "It is bulky, has many components, complex wiring, and is prone to failure. Moreover, every single component needs to be manufactured separately and then manually soldered onto the circuit board."

Then, he drew a small square next to it.

"And this is an Integrated Circuit—we can also call it a 'Chip'."