plans to have equipment to manufacture chips much cheaper than ASML’s in three years

In the field of semiconductors, China and Russia are taking the same path, although at the moment we do not know for sure if they are collaborating. These two countries are subject to sanctions from the US and its allies that seek to hinder the development of its integrated circuit industry, as well as its access to the cutting-edge chips that can currently be found on the market. At this juncture, its only option is to invest to strengthen itself and limit its dependence on lithography equipment from abroad.

At the beginning of last October, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade launched a large-scale program that seeks to definitively end the need to import chip manufacturing machines from other rival nations. The country led by Vladimir Putin will invest 2.54 billion dollars until 2030 in the development of its own photolithography machines that will allow it to become independent from foreign powers. A priori it may seem like a modest investment, but within the framework of the Russian economy it is an important expense that in the medium term seeks to develop the capacity to manufacture 28 nm chips.

Russia’s trump card against ASML: the 11.2 nm wavelength

The first results have already arrived, if we stick to the information provided by Russia itself. And at the end of last May Vasily Shpak, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, announced during the “Digital Industry of Industrial Russia” conference that his country has already prepared its first extreme ultraviolet photolithography (EUV) equipment. ). In addition, Shpak confirmed that its construction is entirely Russian, and, more importantly, he also anticipated that this first SVU machine is capable of manufacturing 350 nm integrated circuits.

It seems very little if we keep in mind that the Taiwanese company TSMC and the South Korean Samsung have been manufacturing 3nm semiconductors with ASML UVE equipment for more than two years. However, what is really important is that Russia apparently you already have the necessary technology to tune up these photolithography machines. From here, its engineers and physicists can gradually refine their technology to make the production of more advanced integrated circuits possible.

In fact, that is just what the Russian government plans to do. And its itinerary establishes that in 2026 Russia should have ready a prototype of EUV lithography equipment capable of manufacturing 130 nm chips. And in 2028 another similar one capable of producing 7nm integrated circuits. A priori it seems like an exaggeratedly ambitious plan, but we already know some details about its technology that had not seen the light at the end of May, when Russia officially announced that it had already prepared its first EUV lithography equipment.

And the Russian media outlet CNews has published a very interesting article that includes some technical details about the technology that Vasily Shpak talks about. According to this report, Russian engineers have decided to use lasers that work with lasers in their future extreme ultraviolet lithography machine. a wavelength of 11.2 nm instead of the 13.5 nm used by comparable lithography equipment produced by ASML. In addition, the Russian laser source will use xenon instead of tin.

Nikolay Chkhalo, the physicist at the Institute of Microstructure Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences who leads this project, assures that his technology will allow them to manufacture EUV machines much cheaper than those produced by ASML. And, what is even more important, with slightly better performance because the use of the 11.2 nm laser offers a 20% improvement in resolution, according to Chkhalo.

All this sounds good, but it is important that we do not overlook that the use of a laser with a different wavelength implies that the Russian machines will be incompatible with today’s cutting-edge IC manufacturing ecosystem. And developing a complete new ecosystem will most likely take Russia longer than the three years it will take, according to Vasily Shpak, to have its first lithography equipment capable of producing 7nm semiconductors ready.

More information | CNews

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