Recently, the world's highest weight, the largest single artificial sapphire crystal was born in the production workshop of Inner Mongolia Jinghuan Electronic Materials Co., Ltd., the weight level of 450 kilograms, the previous world record of 350 kilograms maintained by Russia increased by 100 kilograms. This achievement of the Crystal Ring R&D team once again proved to the world that “the enterprise is an important subject of technological innovationâ€. The birth of this new core technology has also made the status quo and international competitiveness of China's artificial gemstone production industry change quietly. .
450 kg artificial sapphire with residual temperature
Sapphire manufacturing grows in adversity
Speaking of gems, people must first think of jewelry, jewelry, in fact, as an important raw material in the field of high-tech production, artificial sapphire has long been integrated into people's daily lives. Small to smart phone camera, touch screen, LED lights, large to the country, high-intensity laser, astronomical observing system optical components, artificial sapphire is everywhere.
Since the new century, when the demand and output value of sapphire originals in developed countries and regions such as the United States, Europe, and Japan have reached astronomical figures, China's sapphire production and manufacturing industry has just started.
In 2000, China began to develop sapphire growth technology in an all-round way. Although the products produced by the temperature gradient method can fully meet the requirements of the military and optoelectronic industries in terms of quality, they have not been able to go out of the laboratory for a long time in mass production. It was not until 10 years later that good news came frequently.
In April 2011, Qingdao Jiajing Electric Technology Co., Ltd. LED sapphire substrate wafer project was officially put into production, and its production capacity expanded to 1.8 million pieces in three years, marking China's LED sapphire wafers breaking foreign technology blockade and forming large-scale production.
In June of the same year, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, gave birth to a hundred kilograms of artificial sapphire crystals, which made China's fast-growing LED industry's high-quality materials supply a reality, breaking the passive situation of China's sapphire crystal growth and long-term dependence on imports in the substrate manufacturing market.
In April 2016, the first 120 kilograms of sapphire crystals were produced in Nanchang “Optical Valleyâ€, marking the official birth of the sapphire touch screen made in Jiangxi smartphone industry. At that time, Zhang Zhenzhi, chief engineer of the R&D project, proudly said: "The lens cover and home button of the Apple mobile phone are supplied by us. In addition to the field of optical application, we will also pay attention to electronic applications such as smart phone panels."
This series of news is enough to cheer up the people. However, fundamentally, the “Made in China†of sapphire has not completely gone beyond the adversity: the production equipment and production process of the products still rely heavily on imports, resulting in a lack of voice in production costs and product prices; Yes, China's production capacity and product size can not meet the comprehensive needs of national defense technology and the country's heavy equipment.
In early 2017, Russia proudly announced to the world that the world's largest 350 kg class of artificial sapphires was born in the country.
"In the end, we lack the international right to speak in the industry, because of the lack of core production technology, a set of production technology that is entirely our own!" said Zhang Jun, general manager of Jinghuan Electronics.
Spar giants compete for international voice
In the production workshop of Inner Mongolia Jinghuan Electronics Co., a man-made sapphire weighing 450 kilograms stands in front of the showcase, transparent and without bubbles. Touching with your hand, you can feel the residual temperature just released. Ouyang Penggen, general manager and chief engineer of Jinghuan Electronics, told the Science and Technology Daily: "This is the world's highest weight and single largest artificial sapphire, based on the production technology of the bubble method."
The soaking method is currently the mainstream method for producing artificial sapphire in the world, and it is also the most important production process for the world's countries to focus on technological research and increase investment in technology research and development. The principle is that the alumina raw material is heated to the melting point to form a molten soup, and then the seed crystal rod contacts the surface of the molten soup, and the single crystal of the same crystal structure is grown on the solid-liquid interface between the seed crystal rod and the molten soup. The seed crystal is pulled up at a very slow rate and finally solidified into a single single crystal wafer.
“This is a long process with a very long process. The control of the furnace temperature and the coordinated application of the production system have extremely high tests and extremely demanding requirements. Therefore, the production of 450 kg grade products and
The production of 200 kg class, 350 kg class products, its technical requirements are not at one level, there is a qualitative difference. "Ouyang Penggen said.
After the mass production of 100 kg class and 250 kg artificial sapphire, Ouyang Penggen led the research and development team of Jinghuan Electronics to stop the innovation. In 2017, Crystal Ring Electronics' 300kg sapphire reached production conditions. Russia's Mono Crystal's 350kg world record stimulated Ouyang Penggen's R&D team: "One is to compete with them, bite; second is us The domestic industry and the company itself are really eager for new core technologies, which is the biggest driving force for our research and development!"
Thus, the "bubble-forming fully automatic sapphire crystal growth technology and the oversized sapphire crystal growth process technology" were gradually formed in the laboratory of the crystal ring electron. Zhang Jun, general manager of the company, told the reporter: "Our core technology is self-developed automated production equipment, thermal production design theory and micro-process application. That is to say, from the selection, processing and production of raw materials, all are made in China. The birth of an artificial sapphire giant will gradually change the production order of the world's artificial spar industry, and we must get the right to speak internationally!"
New technology will open up new horizons in the industry
In recent years, the LED industry has developed rapidly in the world. Its products are widely used in the field of Lighting and blue lasers, especially in the field of liquid crystal display. The market is expanding rapidly, almost 100% of notebook computers and more than 50% of LCD TVs. In the application of LED products. The artificial sapphire crystal growth and substrate manufacturing are at the forefront of the LED industry chain, which is the industry's largest investment and the highest technical barrier. "At the same time, it is also the section with the highest added value, provided that it has its own core technology!" Zhang Jun said.
Zhang Jun said that due to China’s long-term and large-scale dependence on imported production equipment and production technology, the initiative to influence and influence international commodity prices has not been mastered by China, and domestic production enterprises have been suppressed and developed in the industry. At the same time, a large amount of profits were given overseas.
As the leader of the R&D team of the company, Ouyang Penggen deeply told the Science and Technology Daily reporter: "Technical enterprises must achieve cost-effective, no other way out, only rely on technology. The success of the trial production of the giant sapphire Not only in size but also in quality. Our New Products can be applied to LEDs with a 4 inch ingot with an effective length of more than 4,550 mm. This standard is derived from such a large size of spar, which is the best proof."
The reporter learned that due to the increasing technical threshold, domestic sapphire production enterprises are also facing the process of resuming the survival of the fittest. The previous hundreds of enterprises have now stopped production or transferred production. This is an inevitable requirement of the market and even higher. The result of sophisticated technology.
At present, Jinghuan Electronics is working on mass production of large-scale spar. Ouyang Penggen said: "For enterprises, our new technology can achieve a new production situation with a 2.5 times increase in the amount of feed, other costs remain unchanged, and production is increased by 5 times. For the country, the super large size spar Independent research and development and production, whether in the civilian sector or the military sector, will give them the greatest and most secure protection."
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