Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com In March 2023, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade ordered the development of photoresist materials for microelectronic production, especially the production of photoresist, and the department will allocate 1.1 billion rubles for this work (CTOnews.com Note: Currently about 79.86 million yuan).

Researchers at St. Petersburg Polytechnic University have developed a "home-made photolithography complex" that can be used to etch maskless chips, which will make it possible to "solve Russia's technological sovereignty problem in the field of microelectronics," Russia's International News Agency reported.

St. Petersburg Polytechnic University representatives revealed. The equipment complex includes equipment for maskless nanolithography and plasma chemical etching. According to reports, the cost of one of the tools is 5 million rubles (currently about 363,000 yuan), and the cost of the other tool is unknown.

The first device can be used to obtain images on substrates without special masks. According to the developers, the technology is much more cost-effective, both in terms of cost and time, than traditional lithography, which requires the use of specialized masks to capture images. The device is controlled by professional software and can be fully automated.

According to the representative, the complex was developed by St. Petersburg Polytechnic University to create "nanostructures" needed for "the operation of various microelectronic devices." The first stage of the process requires the use of a basic mask lithography machine, and the second stage requires the use of a silicon plasma chemical etcher.

It is understood that the second device requires the use of images created on the substrate in the first stage. The device can be used directly to form nanostructures, but silicon films can also be made, for example for shipboard overpressure sensors, RIA Novosti wrote.

The authors of the project assured RIA Novosti that silicon films made on such machines "exceed silicon films made by liquid or laser etching methods in terms of reliability and sensitivity." They also stressed that this is a completely (Russian) domestic product.

In fact, St. Petersburg Polytechnic University is not the only institution dedicated to developing advanced home-grown lithography solutions. As early as October 2022, the Nizhny Novgorod Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences announced the start of work in this direction, but with slightly different goals.

Public sources show that as of October 2023, Russia can use up to 65nm topology, which has been almost eliminated nearly 20 years ago, but Russia is now building 28nm chip factories.

The Novgorod Institute of Applied Physics is reportedly working to close the huge gap between Russia and the rest of the world, while their experts are developing the first home-made lithography machine capable of producing 7nm topological chips. However, it will still take years, at least until 2028, before it becomes fully operational.

Related Reading:

"The Russian Academy of Sciences released a bold statement: in 2028, it will develop its own lithography machine, which can produce 7nm chips"

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