In March 2023, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade ordered the development and exploitation of photolithography materials for microelectronics production, in particular the production of photoresists, and the ministry will allocate 1.1 billion rubles for this work.
According to RIA Novosti, researchers at St. Petersburg Polytechnic University have developed a “domestic photolithography compound” that can be used for the etching and production of maskless chips, which will make it possible to “solve the problem of Russian technological sovereignty in the field of microelectronics”. It is possible.
This will make it possible to “solve the problem of Russia’s technological sovereignty in the field of microelectronics”, the representative of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic University said. The equipment complex includes equipment for maskless nanolithography and plasma chemical etching. It is stated that the cost of one of the tools is 5 million rubles, and the cost of the other is unknown.
The first device can be used to obtain an image on a substrate without the need for a special mask. According to the developers, this technology is much more cost-effective, both in terms of cost and time, than conventional lithography, which requires the use of a specialized mask plate to obtain an image. The device is controlled by specialized software that allows for complete automation.
According to the representative, the complex was developed by the St. Petersburg Polytechnic University to create “nanostructures” necessary for the “operation of various microelectronic devices. The first stage of the process requires the use of a basic mask lithography, and the second stage requires the use of a silicon plasma chemical etching machine.
It is noted that the second device will use the image created on the substrate in the first stage. The device can be used to form nanostructures directly, but it can also make silicon films, for example, for shipboard overpressure sensors, RIA Novosti writes.
The authors of the project assured RIA Novosti that silicon membranes made on this machine “exceed in reliability and sensitivity those made by liquid or laser etching methods.” They also emphasized that this is a completely (Russian) domestic product.
Indeed, St. Petersburg Polytechnic University is not the only institution working on advanced domestic lithography solutions. As early as October 2022, the Nizhny Novgorod Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences announced that it had begun work in this direction, but with slightly different goals.
Publicly available information indicates that as of October 2023, Russia will be able to use up to 65nm topologies, a technology that was virtually phased out nearly 20 years ago, although Russia is now building a 28nm chip factory.
The Novgorod Institute of Applied Physics is said to be working hard to close the huge gap between Russia and the rest of the world, and their specialists are developing the first domestically produced photolithography machine capable of producing 7nm topology chips. However, this will still take several years, and full operation will not begin until at least 2028.