Russian Electronics: Semiconductor and Processors

Homegrown silicon. Will Russia be able to do without imported microchips?, by Vladislav Strekopytov for RIA Novosti. 21.04.2022.

Due to Western sanctions, the Russian microelectronics industry is in a difficult situation: leading manufacturers have stopped deliveries of components and equipment, and the prospects for importing finished products are unclear. About whether it is realistic to cope on their own - in the material of RIA Novosti.

"Blood of the global economy"

The Soviet Union was one of the leaders in microelectronics. The technological level made it possible to make not only the world's best rockets, aircraft, submarines, but also household electronic devices. In 1974, the first microprocessor appeared, in 1979, a microcomputer, and in 1985, the Elektronika-85 personal computer. But in the 1990s, this industry in the country fell into decline, and world technologies, on the contrary, took a step forward. By the early 2000s, a global market with a turnover of hundreds of billions of dollars had formed.

Now semiconductors are called "the blood of the global economy." Microchips created on their basis are the most important elements of any electronic device. The production of modern-day materials is such a complex and costly process that not a single state, including the United States and China , is able to localize full-cycle production.

The world has developed an international division of labor - a kind of ecosystem, which includes hundreds of suppliers from different countries. Many enterprises occupy a monopoly position. Thus, almost all manufacturers of integrated circuits buy photolithographic installations from the Dutch company ASML. A serious failure in the circuit was caused by a recent shutdown due to the tightening of environmental requirements of the 3M plant in Belgium : it provided up to 80 percent of the world's need for coolant for etching silicon wafers.

There are also only three undoubted leaders in the production of final products - chips and processors - Taiwanese TSMC, Korean Samsung Electronics and American Intel.

"The creation of chips with a resolution of 9-15 nanometers is provided by the resources and developments of almost the whole world. This requires ultra-high purity inert gases, single-crystal silicon, appropriate laser sources and high-precision positioning technologies, equipment for technical control, and much more," says Associate Professor of the Department of Automation and telemechanics of the Perm Polytechnic University (PNRPU), Ph.D. short term".

The closest thing to solving this problem came China, which 20 years ago headed for import substitution in the field of microelectronics. Today, the Chinese SMIC factory, despite huge investments, has only reached the 14nm technology level that leading manufacturers achieved in 2015. By comparison, Taiwanese TSMC, founded in 1987, took 30 years to catch up with the leaders. Now the company owns technologies for the production of microcircuits with standards from 90 to five nanometers.

Parameters in nanometers are a conditional technological indicator. The smaller its value, the more compact and efficient the chip and the more functions it can perform.

Domestic potential

Not all of the Soviet heritage in the field of microelectronics has been lost. In Russia , there is a production of microcircuits with design standards of 90 nanometers, there are developments for 65 nanometers. If we talk about consumer electronics, then this is the level of processors from 2005-2008. Such chips are not suitable for modern smartphones and personal computers, but they are quite enough for household appliances, cars, power plants, industrial equipment, as well as for solving most applied issues in the defense and space industries.

In 1992, on the basis of the Institute of Fine Mechanics and Computer Engineering, the Moscow Center for SPARC Technologies (MCST) was created. He is still working: he designs universal microprocessors used in Russian Elbrus computers, computer systems and operating systems. Another leader in Russian microelectronics, Baikal Electronics, develops Baikal processors and software for them.

Now, due to sanctions, both companies have problems with the supply of chips. The production of semiconductor wafers of the level of 90 and 65 nanometers was organized at the Mikron and Angstrem factories in Zelenograd , but wafers of 28 nanometers and higher were ordered in Taiwan from TSMC. The channel is now closed. In addition, there is a direct ban on the supply to Russia of equipment for creating microcircuits.

"Leading Russian enterprises have mastered and skillfully exploit foreign technological lines, producing high-quality products, including microprocessors," says Professor of the Department of Semiconductor Electronics and Semiconductor Physics, NUST MISiS , Doctor of Technical Sciences Petr Lagov. "The problem is that foreign companies do not sell their latest developments, what we put into operation, as a rule, is two or three generations behind the leading foreign models. And domestic equipment has not been produced at all for thirty years."

According to the scientist, for the revival of microelectronics in Russia, it is necessary to act in several directions at once. First of all, create your own means of production.

“Currently, huge prospects are opening up in the field of precision microelectronic engineering. It must be gradually restored, starting with relatively simple things and up to advanced lithographic complexes based on hard ultraviolet and, possibly, X-ray radiation, as well as ion doping equipment in a wide energy range,” — notes Petr Lagov.

Another direction is the organization of the production of high-quality semiconductor wafers for microcircuits. In Russia, silicon is already being made, however, so far in small quantities and only with a diameter of 200 millimeters. And for modern chips you need 300.

“The main task is in their precision machining: cutting, grinding and polishing,” continues the professor. “For plates up to 150 millimeters, there is previously purchased imported equipment, for those that are more than two hundred, no.”

Another problem is high-purity single-crystal silicon, a raw material for the production of wafers.

“We are good at growing silicon for solar energy. If we set specific tasks and allocate funding, we will get electronic,” says Arkady Naumov, head of the Astron Design Bureau, expert of the Commission for Scientific and Technical Development under the Russian government.

Two strategies: catch up or deepen

However, the executive director of the Association of Electronics Developers and Manufacturers (ARPE), Ivan Pokrovsky, believes that it is impossible to “replace imports” of silicon, like other elements of production, in the foreseeable future. This will take time and significant costs. Instead of the catch-up strategy that China has chosen, it suggests that Russian manufacturers look for their own niche.

“China has taken advantage of the trend of globalization and has become a “world factory.” Russia cannot go this way, and the conditions are different now,” explains Pokrovsky. one technological direction. And each requires investments from one to tens of billions of dollars a year. Such an amount of investment is needed to maintain technologies at the level of global corporations. External dependence will still remain. Therefore, it is more correct to strive not for self-sufficiency, but to increase sustainability in order to diversify risks, be able to manage them.

According to the expert, by creating its own chip factory, Russia will become even more technologically dependent on foreign suppliers of materials, equipment, spare parts, design tools and libraries of IP blocks.

“We need to cooperate with friendly countries, introduce standards that will ensure the compatibility of different solutions in equipment,” Pokrovsky argues. “It would be more correct now to support the Chinese SMIC project with all our might. semiconductor products.Even at the technological level that is now mastered in Russia, there are many promising areas.If we talk about Mikron, this is the production of microcontrollers - relatively simple logic circuits that do not require extreme topological standards.As large corporations transfer focus on more modern standards, there is a certain supply vacuum in ordinary technologies. Competition in these areas is falling, and they can become quite marginal".

Another option is to work with wide-gap semiconductors from the A3B5 group. Not silicon, but, for example, gallium arsenide. Such materials are needed for the production of power semiconductors, which are in great demand in connection with the development of electric transport, alternative energy, microwave electronics, optoelectronics, and 5G and 6G radio communications. Russia has historically strong developments here.

Development plan

The government is now discussing a plan to create its own production of radio electronics in the country. We are talking about the launch by the end of 2022 of the creation of microcircuits using a 90-nanometer process technology. American Intel produced processors of this level 19 years ago.

By 2024, they are going to complete the import substitution program in electronic engineering, and by 2030 form a "product portfolio of Russian technologies" and reach the level of 28 nanometers, mastered by world leaders ten years ago. At the same time, they plan to develop infrastructure, increase demand for domestic electronic products and raise personnel.

Despite the fact that four-nanometer processors are considered the most modern in the world today, and leading companies are preparing to move to the level of three and even two nanometers, the plan announced by the government seems to most experts to be "extremely ambitious." In their opinion, its implementation largely depends on the support of foreign partners, primarily China.

https://ria.ru/20220421/mikrochipy-1784536026.html