Dahe Daily reporter Fan Xuejing Photography Zhang Yan
In recent two days, the project "Key Technology and Engineering of High-performance ITO Target for Flat Panel Display" led by Academician He Jilin of Zhengzhou University won the second prize of 2020 National Technology Invention Award. The news made this "China Target" which broke through the "neck-stuck" technology attract much attention.
What does "China Target" look like? What big energy does it have? Can we meet it in our life? On November 5th, Dahe Daily reporter walked into the Advanced Target Center of Zhengzhou University, looking for the birth story of "China Target".
[Let’s meet this target coffee first]
Walking into the advanced target center of Zhengzhou University, an inconspicuous charcoal black rectangular plate stands at position C on the most conspicuous display platform in the hall, and its business card-ITO target is also displayed next to it.
Want to find out the life experience of this big coffee? Let me talk about ITO first. ITO and indium tin oxide, the pair of "CP" of nonferrous metals, were yellow-green powders before combination. They were mixed and pressed in strict proportion to make a gray-green blank, which was put into a special sintering furnace and turned into a black-gray ceramic semiconductor after a high temperature of about 1700 degrees Celsius.
Indium oxide, zinc oxide powder, ITO target display. Correspondent Zhang Ning for the picture
This is the charcoal-black rectangular plate. When it is transformed into a thin film, it can show its magic power: conducting electricity, transmitting light, and isolating electronic radiation, ultraviolet rays and far infrared rays harmful to human body.
Because of this, it has become the "best choice" in the flat panel display manufacturing. But how can a large piece of "big guy" as heavy as a steel plate become an invisible film behind the screen glass? You know, the thickness of ITO film is only 30 nm to 200 nm.
Originally, it was first made into a standard size solid target, which was impacted by magnetron sputtering at high speed, and it was gasified and sputtered on the glass substrate to form a film-like "painting".
In our lives, there are ITO targets behind the screens of televisions, computer monitors, tablet computers and mobile phones. Not only that, it is also active in solar cells, antistatic coatings, EMI shielding transparent conductive coatings and other fields, and has a wide market in the world.
Photo courtesy of Zhang Ning, correspondent of laboratory experimental equipment.
["China Target" comes out and can replace imports]
In the laboratory, the reporter saw ITO targets with different sizes. Usually, the larger the target size, the fewer flat seams sputtered on the flat plate, and the higher the value.
But from small to large, it is not an easy task. It is precisely because we can’t burn large-size ITO targets that we have been "stuck" for many years.
China is a country rich in indium resources, but 80% of the target market is monopolized by Japan and South Korea. Not only the flat panel display industry attracts people’s attention, but also the price of ITO high-end targets depends on people’s faces. In the past, the target price was as high as 8,000 yuan per kilogram, but now it has dropped to 1,300 yuan per kilogram. The 80% decline is due to the advent of "China Target".
"The establishment of an independent system for ITO target preparation is related to the safety of emerging display industries accounting for 65% of the world, but once, the research and development of ITO targets in China lagged behind for 20 years." Recalling the past, He Jilin, an academician of China Academy of Engineering and dean of Zhengzhou University’s School of Materials, felt a little sad.
Why choose this field? Academician He Jilin’s answer is clear: "National strategic needs!"
"At the end of the last century, we paid attention to the research and development of ITO targets. After more than 20 years of scientific and technological research, we realized from scratch, independent research and development, and then ran beyond, breaking the foreign technology blockade and realizing the localization of large-size ITO targets with independent innovation."
It is understood that the team of Academician He Jilin innovatively invented the key technical system of ITO target powder preparation, blank grouting forming, oxygen-free atmosphere sintering and target blank binding, established a new process flow for ITO target preparation, formed a complete process equipment system and control standards, and realized the innovative application of ITO target powder metallurgy technology, with its technical indicators reaching the international advanced level. This technology has solved the "bottleneck" problem of key technology and equipment in the whole process of high-performance ITO target preparation, and filled the gap in China.
With the technical support of Zhengzhou University, our province has built a perfect research and development platform and production line of ITO target, and the ITO target produced has been successfully applied to BOE’s high-generation TFT line for the first time in China, which can completely replace imports.
The staff operates the experimental correspondent Zhang Ning in the laboratory.
[Winning the prize is an encouragement, so we should make greater achievements]
Talking about winning the prize, He Jilin said that this lofty honor is the recognition of the team’s hard work in tackling key problems in the past 20 years. "It is an encouragement. We will continue to work hard in the fields of key metals and advanced target materials, strive for greater achievements, do more for the country and society, and contribute to the development of local industries."
As one of the main finishers of the project, Shu Yongchun, a professor from the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Zhengzhou University, went to Beijing to receive the prize on behalf of the team. When the reporter contacted Shu Yongchun, his joy spread through the telephone line.
"I am excited and honored, but I feel more stressed. We have to make better achievements in the future to be worthy of it." Recalling the years when I got to know ITO targets, Shu Yongchun said, "It’s the hardest to know each other."
He recalled, "Under the leadership of Academician He, we have gradually deepened from the low end to the high end in our research for more than 20 years. But when we first started to do research on target materials, others asked for indicators, and we came to realize them. When we took the sample and went to the coating test, we found that it was not possible. "
"Behind closed doors, looking at the data in the laboratory is good, I take it for granted that it is good, and the judgment and understanding of many problems are not thorough. What we don’t think is a problem has become a big problem in practice. "
Shu Yongchun said that he didn’t really know ITO target at that time, but it was precisely because of this vivid past that he always remembered that applied research must be application-oriented. "Where to go next, how to decide the research direction, we must contact and interact with downstream enterprises, so that we can truly understand what materials should be done."
"Especially in the context of Sino-US trade war, China’s localization of raw materials in key areas such as chip manufacturing is also the general trend. Solving the’ stuck neck’ depends on yourself, and you can’t buy it if you can’t ask for it. " Shu Yongchun said that under the general situation of establishing China’s own new material industry system, we should meet the national strategic needs and strive to do a good job quickly.
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