In the same year, Mao Ye, who was still studying for a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in the United States, began to take charge of a postgraduate course independently under the recommendation of his tutor, teaching nano-fabrication technology of chip integration. Looking at students of different skin colors and different countries in the classroom, I feel that Mao Ye, who is standing on the podium and teaching the nano-manufacturing technology of chip integration, is becoming more and more unattractive. On a snowy night in Michigan, an idea came to his mind: "Maybe I can do something."
When this idea appeared more and more, Mao Ye began to prepare to return to China. "I was thinking, since I have mastered the technology of chip integrated nano-manufacturing, why should I stay in the United States and tell international students? I should go back to China and tell this knowledge to domestic students. " After several twists and turns, Mao Ye officially joined Beihang University in 2020.
Cold spring, market demand, policy blessing, scientific research innovation ... In the "Spring" of "China Core", Mao Ye is poised for more possibilities.
Even though he has stepped into his thirties, Mao Ye still maintains his original purity: fearless and indomitable; Follow your heart and let nature take its course.
In 2007, Mao Ye was admitted to the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. In college, Mao Ye was not a particularly diligent and obedient student. Most of his motivation for learning comes from his interest. He does whatever he likes. One day, he suddenly had the idea of "going abroad to see", so he prepared to take exams abroad (TOEFL and GRE), got a scholarship and went to the University of Michigan to study for a master's degree in mechanical engineering.
Mao Ye's master tutor is an Indian, and he has a decisive influence and position in the University of Michigan. When Mao Ye came to his home, he got a research job, so that he could get free tuition and a salary as a research assistant, which was a good treatment. Mao Ye asked his tutor, "My grades are not the best, and my resume is not the most beautiful. Why do you give me such good treatment? "
Mao Ye's tutor replied, because he thought Mao Ye had his own ideas on this research. Before going to America, Mao Ye had some exchanges with his tutor. In the process of communication, he gave a variety of solutions to some research problems, which left a deep impression on his tutor. "He thinks this is one of my highlights." Mao Ye followed the tutor of master students in the related work of nano-biomaterial bionic bone scaffold, and achieved a series of results.
20 14, Mao Ye originally planned to work directly after graduating from master's degree. He said frankly: "It is actually a very accidental thing for me to study for a doctorate." At that time, Mao Ye had just found a job and came across Professor Yasha Yi who had just come to work at the University of Michigan in an academic report. Through communication, the two collided with many new ideas, and then his doctoral supervisor said to him, "We may be able to realize them." In this way, Mao Ye gave up his job opportunity and chose to continue his PhD in electronic and computer engineering at the University of Michigan.
Mao Ye's main research direction is chip integrated optoelectronic devices and chip integrated nano-manufacturing technology. Simply put, the latter serves the former. In order to manufacture chip-integrated optoelectronic devices, it is often necessary to spend a lot of time and energy on the nano-manufacturing technology of chip integration. From 20 14, Mao Ye entered Lurie Nano-fabrication Facility, a large-scale chip integration laboratory in the United States, and studied nano-fabrication and chip integration technology based on silicon-based materials, and gradually mastered this technology in the subsequent research work.
During his study abroad, Mao Ye has made in-depth and systematic research on optical superstructures and lenses in visible light band, optical grabbing nanostructures of medical scintillators, and chip-integrated laser radar optical phased array (OPA) devices, and achieved some international leading results.
Mao Ye has developed the design and manufacturing process system of superstructure lens based on silicon-rich silicon nitride with high refractive index, which has broken through the design technology of anti-etching delay superstructure lens and non-dispersive superstructure lens, solved the difficulties of high manufacturing cost and large dispersion of optical superstructure surface and superstructure lens in visible light band, and developed integrated photonic devices based on visible light band, such as grating superstructure lens, linear polarization superstructure lens and focusing structure superstructure lens. He developed light-catching nanostructures that can be used as medical scintillator materials, which greatly improved the luminous efficiency of traditional medical scintillators. Aiming at the core polarization component in chip integrated lidar, he proposed a non-mechanically controllable polarization scheme based on the combination of optical phase matrix (OPA) and optical superstructure surface, which can greatly reduce the volume, weight and cost of lidar. Related achievements have published more than 20 papers in well-known academic journals in this field, and granted international patent 1 item.
Among them, the optical method of designing focusing structure developed by Mao Ye was reported by the world-famous science and technology review "MIT Science and Technology Review", and it was pointed out that this technology has an important application prospect in the chip lithography industry in the future (the title of the article is "Why metalens is about to revolutionize chip manufacturing").
After studying and researching abroad for many years, the relationship between Mao Ye and his mentor is more like friends and partners, which has been maintained until now. Mao Ye said that he and his doctoral supervisor are both very idealistic people and always think that they can do something to change the world. Therefore, their research is very pragmatic, and they often consider the feasibility of large-scale application of some cutting-edge technologies in industry. For example, when developing cutting-edge super lenses, they should study how to reduce costs in order to achieve mass production.
In constant communication with tutors and other teachers, Mao Ye became more and more convinced of this value: getting good grades is not for publishing papers, not for fame and fortune, but for improving people's lives and making the world a better place. "We have been moving towards this goal. When we make achievements, we often think of them at the first time. Can this be applied? What are the advantages compared with the same industry? The ultimate goal of our research must be to make scientific research results benefit mankind and the world. " Mao Ye said.
Just like a spiritual practice, Mao Ye kept learning knowledge, increasing his knowledge and improving his ability in the United States, and soon became a well-known young scholar in the chip manufacturing industry. He said: "It is very laborious to develop the nano-fabrication process of chip integration, but when you personally manufacture 40 nm and 20 nm structures and devices, you know every detail of the chip manufacturing process, which is very valuable experience. Looking back now, this is one of my biggest gains in the United States. "
Mao Ye's road to return to China to take office is still uneven, even though he has established his own world abroad.
After staying in the United States for more than seven years, Mao Ye didn't know anyone in domestic academic circles, so he could only search for jobs and resumes online. Fortunately, many domestic schools had overseas youth forums at that time, and some universities warmly invited Mao Ye. So, during the short Christmas holiday on 20 18, he returned to China and went to four universities at a time. However, this is not a successful journey. Compared with some nano-manufacturing technologies and device achievements made by Mao Ye, the teachers he met at that time seemed to be more interested in the impact factors of the papers on his resume. That winter, he first knew that there was such a thing as a paper partition.
Mao Ye was also advised to publish several papers in some high-impact journals before returning to China for employment. After thinking, Mao Ye refused. "I may be able to do this, but this is not the initial intention of my research. The value of research results lies in whether it can promote the progress of its field. I think that research that can really solve problems and can really be applied is good research. " Even though the brief return of 20 18 yielded nothing, Mao Ye still insisted on the idea of returning to China. After graduation, he continued to do postdoctoral research for one year, completed the unfinished work before, and returned to China at the end of 20 19.
This time, I met a "Bole" who understood him-Academician Fang. After some in-depth exchanges, Academician Fang said to him: "Your research is very good, and we really need talents like you in chip integrated optoelectronic devices and nano-manufacturing technology. Compared with papers, we pay more attention to results that can be applied to practice, solve problems, be really useful and easy to use. " In this way, Mao Ye joined Beihang University as an associate researcher.
"To do research, you need to find like-minded people. Academician Fang and I have the same idea, that is, to make something practical and useful. Compared with publishing articles, we are more concerned about whether we can do the chip integration business, make China's own chips in our own fields and put them into industrialization, change the pattern of the chip industry, and let China's chip business catch up with or even catch up with the United States. " Mao Ye said.
Compared with chip design, chip manufacturing is the key "short board" that restricts the development of chip integration in China. How to chip optoelectronic devices, make them so small, and at the same time reduce the cost, perfect functions, good performance and high yield is a big problem. Mao Ye came back to solve this problem.
Based on years of research and accumulation in the field of chip-integrated optoelectronic devices, facing the development needs of key domestic measuring and navigation instruments, Mao Ye immediately began to study the theoretical methods and manufacturing technologies of chip-integrated quantum precision measuring devices after returning to China, mainly including chip-integrated atomic magnetometer, chip-integrated atomic gyroscope, functional optical superstructure surface technology, and commercially oriented planar integrated optical superstructure lens. , committed to providing strong technical support for China to break through the core key photoelectric chip technology in a short time. At the same time, relying on the development of major national scientific research projects, Mao Ye has carried out related platform construction and teaching work.
Engaged in scientific research for many years, Mao Ye seldom has negative emotions. Looking back on his own journey, he said, "If there is a problem, solve it. In fact, I don't have so much time and energy to solve emotional things. "
When I was in the United States, Mao Ye's team had a lot of resources, but there were very few people in the team, only two doctors, he and his brother. In those years, it was the two of them who completed one scientific research after another. Various problems will occur in the manufacturing process of chip integrated optoelectronic devices. However, Mao Ye and his younger brother didn't complain, just buried themselves in their work and finally completed many scientific research tasks with strict engineering indicators. "In fact, we don't feel very tired, that is, on the one hand, we do research in a planned way, on the other hand, we think from another angle and try more. We have no time to think: this is so difficult, what should we do if we can't do it? In other words, this is too difficult to do. It is out of the question. Now that you have started to do it, you must do it and do it well. "
When he returned to China, although he was not recognized at first, Mao Ye never wanted to give up. What he thinks is that any problem can be solved. As long as I make achievements and use them, someone will recognize them one day. It is this optimistic and tenacious spirit that has created Mao Ye today.
Atomic magnetometer based on atomic spin free exchange relaxation (SERF) effect is the most accurate magnetic field measurement sensor at present, and its theoretical accuracy can reach sub-feit level. It is the core device in the current strategic magnetic measurement and medical biomagnetic measurement equipment. Atomic magnetometer based on chip will greatly reduce the current device volume (from the traditional centimeter level to millimeter level or even micron level), reduce power consumption and cost, which is the only way for high-precision, miniaturization and array quantum magnetic sensing devices in the future. Many kinds of military and medical equipment, such as micro quantum navigation system, micro deep-sea submersible system, high-resolution brain magnetic imaging device and in-vivo interventional biomagnetic measurement equipment, put forward urgent demand for atomic magnetometer chips.
From 2065438 to 2004, Sandia National Laboratory got the support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Nuclear Safety (DOE-NNSA), and started the development of the microchip SERF atomic magnetometer array (OPM) prototype. In addition, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been funded by the Strategic Environment and Development Research Program of the United States. In recent years, a prototype of vertically bonded atomic magnetometer suitable for chip integrated manufacturing method has been developed, and the research of chip integrated atomic magnetometer has been initiated first. At the same time, China clearly put forward the urgent demand for chip-integrated quantum precision measuring devices in the Tenth Five-Year Plan. The core of chip-based atomic magnetometer is to solve the photonics control and coupling problem in chip-integrated atomic magnetometer, which is an interdisciplinary problem of micro-nano photonics, chip-integrated nano-manufacturing and quantum precision measurement.
In order to solve this technical problem, Mao Ye applied for the Youth Science Fund Project of Natural Science Foundation "Research on Integrated Photon Manipulation and Coupling in Chip Atomic Magnetometer". In the project research, he will explore the precise optical manipulation method and optical/quantum coupling mechanism in the chip-level miniature atomic magnetometer, and on this basis, develop an integrated photon manipulation and coupling scheme for the chip-level atomic magnetometer. Finally, he will carry out the experiment of integrated optical/quantum coupling extremely weak magnetic measurement with micro-atomic ensemble, laying the foundation for the breakthrough of chip-level integrated atomic magnetometer from scratch.
Solving the problem of photon manipulation and coupling in chip-integrated atomic magnetometer is the first step to break through the existing bottleneck and develop a high-precision, array-based and integrated precision quantum measurement system, and it is also the core problem that needs to be solved urgently to realize high-resolution brain magnetic imaging, deep sea/deep geomagnetic detection and chip-based quantum measurement system proposed by the state in the tenth five-year plan.
In terms of applications closer to people's lives, Mao Ye also mentioned: "For example, our mobile phones have gyro sensors. Although it is enough for people's life, it has not yet reached the ideal state. If the quantum gyroscope is made into a chip, the navigation and positioning of the mobile phone will be more sensitive and accurate. At present, most autopilot systems rely on lidar as the core ranging sensor, but the current radar is still relatively large and can only be placed on the roof. If it is a microchip, it can not only reduce the size, but more importantly, reduce the cost, so that a car can be equipped with multi-chip integrated lidar scanning of different dimensions, thus making autonomous driving more accurate and safe. "
At present, relevant work is being carried out in an orderly manner. Mao Ye said, the rice should be eaten bit by bit, and the road should be walked step by step. Making China's own chip is not achieved overnight, but he is willing to make unremitting efforts for this goal.
In addition, Mao Ye is committed to building a chip-integrated clean room laboratory system with Laurie Nano-processing Technology Laboratory, the top chip-integrated clean room laboratory in the United States, as a template. Chip-integrated clean room laboratory is an important experimental manufacturing platform for microstructure and microsystem, which can play an important supporting role for the whole disciplines of electronics, electricity, machinery, materials, biology and optics in the future. However, the construction of the platform is a long-term project, and the initial goal is to build a 100-level ultra-clean room, an internal circulation system for gas purification, and a personnel management and use system. The expected goal of five years is to produce nanostructures in the laboratory that exceed the accuracy of domestic industrial chips at present.
"After returning to China, I found that the development of domestic chips is already very hot. Like mushrooms after rain, many laboratories for making chips have also been established. But relatively speaking, there is a lack of professionals in equipment debugging, maintenance and process development in China. " Although the construction of the laboratory has been put on the agenda, in the previous research, Mao Ye proposed to temporarily use the domestic public nano-manufacturing platform. He said: "Because the country has spent a lot of money to build chip manufacturing laboratories, we should make full use of them. Compared with some mature laboratories in Europe and America, they may not have accumulated enough technology, but the equipment is still very good. We can cooperate, use overseas process experience to carry out research, jointly tackle key problems, improve accuracy and maximize benefits. "
At the same time, Mao Ye also said that it is definitely necessary to establish his own laboratory in order to realize the autonomous control of technology, but before that, we must first cultivate or introduce a group of relevant talents, and then build a mature talent reserve and management system to better help the construction of the experimental platform.
At Beihang University, Mao Ye plans to open an English course on chip integrated nano-manufacturing. At present, this course is relatively rare in domestic schools, and even in the United States, only a few universities with excellent conditions offer it. However, the trend of electronic and optical devices in the whole industry is miniaturization, so the chip integrated nano-manufacturing technology is not only used to manufacture chips, but also the only way to manufacture new nanostructures/devices with multiple functions. This technology will surely become more and more popular in the future. With the experience of teaching this course in the United States, Mao Ye hopes that by offering this course, domestic students can learn more about this technology and train more talents in chip integrated nano-manufacturing for China.
Mao Ye has his own requirements and expectations for his students. First, he wants students to have a strong heart, not to avoid or even give up because of the difficulty of research work, but to have an indomitable spirit; Second, he hopes that students can make the research process happier and enjoy the scientific research process. "Experience is the most precious wealth. Even if I didn't do it in the end, I accumulated a lot of valuable experience in the process. How can you gain experience without trying and exploring? I am still the same sentence. If you have a problem, solve it, don't escape, don't give up, and have the spirit to do it. "
Playing basketball, learning guitar, and practicing good cooking with short videos ... After work, Mao Ye also took it very seriously. Whether in work or in life, he keeps his own pace, without arrogance or rashness. Mao Ye doesn't make too many assumptions about the future, and he won't be anxious about the unknown. For him, the only clear thing to do is to grasp the present, work hard and devote himself wholeheartedly to the scientific research he loves.