Today, microelectronics and microprocessor technology cover all spheres of human life.. They serve as the basis not only for the most complex systems of government, economy, industry, by transport, but also present in every mobile phone, computer, household appliance, car and TV.
The process of digitalization of everything and everything has led to the need to introduce more and more advanced and reliable devices., guaranteeing the stable operation of any equipment around us. design, the production and implementation of microelectronic devices are rightfully considered the sphere of national security of any state, rather, a matter of his national survival.
Today we see in Russia only foreign samples of such devices., and gives the impression, that domestic microelectronics does not exist at all, that the West has always been in the lead, we have lagged behind him forever and this dependence can no longer be eliminated. Let's see how it is.
Soviet microelectronics
looking back, We'll see, that in Soviet times, at the time of the birth of microelectronics, the Soviet Union was at the level of world leaders and even in some areas was ahead of them. The level of development of Soviet microelectronics provided the opportunity to create not only the best rockets in the world, aircraft, submarines, but also household appliances. for example, at 1964 In 1999, at the US Congress of Radio Engineers, the first mass-produced radio receiver "Micro" made using thin-film technology was demonstrated and made a lot of noise., and everyone spoke, that the USSR overtook the USA.
AT 1981 the computer "Electronics NTs-8010" was developed, the first prototype of a personal computer in the USSR, and built entirely on domestic microcircuits with domestic architecture, and the development in the 70s of the Elbrus-1 multiprocessor supercomputers and in the 80s Elbrus-2 became a breakthrough in the creation of computer technology.
The impetus for the rapid development of microelectronics in the Soviet Union was the decision of the state leadership to 1962 year on the creation of the Center for Microelectronics in the city built in a pine forest - Zelenograd, a satellite of Moscow. The resolution provided for a comprehensive program for organizing a full development cycle, research, experimental and serial production of microelectronics, as well as technology development, materials and equipment for their production and a training center for relevant personnel.
The Scientific Center played a leading role in the development of domestic microelectronics. In the early 70s, it included nine research organizations, five pilot factories and a specialized university, which employed about 30 thousand specialists.
Two directions of development of microelectronics were laid. Research Institute of Precision Technologies with the Angstrem plant focused on hybrid technology, and the Research Institute of Molecular Electronics with the Mikron plant - for semiconductors.
In the organizations of the Center, taking into account the experience of Leningrad specialists, original developments were made, usually, having no direct foreign analogues, and in terms of their technical level, they were basically not inferior to foreign models or surpassed them. The list of created microelectronics products was quite impressive.. AT 1964 Angstrem mass-produced Micro receiver and Tropa microcircuits, in 1974 the first Soviet microprocessor appeared, in 1979 - microcomputer, at 1985 year - the world's first personal computer "Electronics-85".
It should be noted, that in 1965-1966 there were only three countries in the world, manufacturing precision photolithographic equipment for microelectronics: USA, Japan and Soviet Union. Today there are still companies in Zelenograd, designing and manufacturing such world-class equipment.
With the listed serious successes, a serious lag began in the late 70s. Why?
The development of microelectronics contributed to the rapid growth in the production of radio electronic equipment, whose manufacturers, instead of developing their samples, mainly copied foreign analogues and demanded the same copying from microelectronics developers, on the basis of which the equipment was built. The policy and practice of reproducing foreign samples that had developed by that time deliberately programmed the lag.
Under pressure from consumers, the scientific center was overwhelmed with work on copying analogues for two decades, and the original developments were gradually supplanted and replaced by foreign similar models. As a result of "copy work" many (But not all) teams of the Center, capable of independent architectural, structural and circuit design of original samples of the world level, gradually degraded and were unable to promote and implement their developments.
In addition, they had difficulties with financing work and orders for new equipment., and Western competitors organized isolation from international cooperation. This practice led to a real lag of the domestic element base and equipment from the world level by two to eight years., but, Despite this, nevertheless, the Elbrus-1 and Elbrus-2 supercomputers were created in the Center, which have already become the basis of Russian computers.
World development of microelectronics
In the 90s, Soviet microelectronics finally fell into decline and fell far behind the West, China, Japan. for example, Intel has made a huge leap in increasing the frequency by an order of magnitude and improving the technology of manufacturing chips. In addition, there was a serious outflow of specialists in the United States and other countries., leading to a halt in many developments.
During this time, a global market for microelectronics and microprocessors has formed with a turnover of hundreds of billions of dollars., where it was not so easy to enter. Intel became the monsters of the microelectronics market, Toshiba, Samsung, Infineon, Micron, their factories were built in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Korea and other countries. Overall Taiwan, Korea and Japan provide more than half of world production, and if you add China to them, Singapore and Malaysia, then Southeast Asia will take up three-quarters of world production. Only four plants in Europe: in Germany (including AMD, sold in connection with the conversion of its equipment to the Russian "Angstrem-T"), France and Ireland.
To understand the current situation, a little about the technology for the development and production of processors. Technology has come a long way, to reduce the amount of equipment, power consumption and cheaper production instead of discrete elements, they began to be placed on crystals - microchips, of which a processor is assembled according to a given architecture.
Its design and manufacture is well-established: the lead developer defines the processor architecture, microchip structure and topology, prepares photomasks and gives them for manufacturing to specialized factories, who make a substrate with many chips on a chip. At the end of the process, the substrate is cut into chips, which are placed in the body, and on the board a processor is assembled from them.
According to this technology, there was a division: leading developer (brain) processor - microchip substrate manufacturer - microchip manufacturer - processor manufacturer - equipment manufacturer. Chip wafer manufacturing plants stand out in a separate cohort, with unique technology and specialized equipment. Taiwan's TSMC is the largest chip wafer manufacturer., focused on satisfaction of orders of developers of microelectronics and microprocessors from all over the world.
The production of very expensive photolithographic equipment for the production of chips was monopolized by the Dutch company ASML, controlling 80 percent of the market.
Today, chips are produced according to the standards 250, 180, 90, 65, 28, 16 and 7 nanometers, and all of them find application in various equipment and processors. Only half of chip production is done according to regulations 28 nm and above.
With each step to tighten the design standards for the manufacture of chips, there is a rapid rise in the cost of production and equipment., measured in billions of dollars. The technology used today is approaching its physical limit, so the next step may lie in using graphene, capable of significantly improving processor performance.
Russian microelectronics
The Russian microelectronic industry had to solve the following problems in order to reduce the backlog:
- create firms, able to develop their own processor architecture, chip manufacturing topology and proprietary software, compatible with Western counterparts;
― build factories for the production of chip wafers;
― build factories for the production of case chips;
― build factories for the production of processors.
The task is extremely difficult, and, the most important thing, you had to have your own processor developers. In this part, not everything Soviet was lost, the team survived, developed the Soviet Elbrus supercomputers at the Institute of Fine Mechanics and Computer Engineering. Based on this group 1992 In 1999, the Moscow Center for SPARC Technologies was established (MCST), which is the base organization of the Department of Informatics and Computer Engineering of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and specializes in the development of universal microprocessors, control computer complexes, operating systems and software. The company continued to develop the next computer of this series "Elbrus-3", which became the basis of modern Russian computers of the MCST and Elbrus families.
The Elbrus architecture turned out to be very successful and was distinguished by high specific performance per transistor and efficient binary compatibility with the Intel/AMD architecture., which allows using the already developed array of Intel platform software through the compiler and simplifies the user's work when switching to the Elbrus family of computers.
Considering, that the development of a microprocessor is a rather lengthy process and takes about five years, such success of Russian developers did not pass by the attention of Western monsters of microelectronics. Intel tried to buy MCST, but it ended with the relocation to the USA of only a part of a group of specialists headed by the supervisor Babayan, who went on to take a very high position at Intel.
MCST continued its successful work, developed and introduced into mass production a family of multi-core microprocessors "MCST" and "Elbrus" in accordance with the standards 90 and 65 nm with a clock frequency up to 1,0 GHz, at 2016 In 2010, microprocessors of the Elbrus-8 family were developed and prepared for production in accordance with the standards 28 nm and clock frequency 1,5 GHz. MCST has mastered the technology according to the standards 16 nm and ready in 2022 to start production of a microprocessor using this technology with a clock frequency 2 GHz. The company is going to 2025 year to develop a processor based on technology 6 nm, and this will allow it to achieve parity with Western leaders.
Another leader in the development of Russian processors is Baikal Electronics., specializing in the development of processors mainly for mobile use and related software. The company introduced the Baikal-T1 processor into mass production in accordance with the standards 28 nm and clock frequency 1,2 GHz, plans to change 12 and 7 nm and intends to increase the production of processors in the coming years to 600 thousand pieces per year.
At the same time, both companies produce plates with chips according to the norm 28 nm and higher according to their photomasks are ordered in Taiwan from TSMC and then in Russia they produce chip packaging and processor manufacturing. Production of plates according to standards 90 and 65 nm organized at the Mikron and Angstrem plants in Zelenograd.
In addition to these two companies, in Russia (in St. Petersburg, Voronezh and other cities) there are a number of small companies and enterprises, developing and producing separate blocks and nodes of processors of various degrees of perfection.
The remnants of the Soviet heritage have been preserved in Zelenograd. At the Mikron plant 2012 began the production of microcircuits according to the standards 180 nm, and since 2014 they switched to the norms 90 and 65 nm, launched the production of the Elbrus-2SM microprocessor, planning to transition 28 nm. This requires new equipment and investments in the amount of 1,5 billion, and without the participation of the state, this problem is unlikely to be solved.
On the premises of the Angstrem plant in 2005 Angstrem-T was established in 1999 to organize the production of microcircuits according to the standards of 130–90 nm with the prospect of developing to the standards 65 nm. For the implementation of this task, the company received a loan from VEB in the amount of 815 million euros, for which she purchased hundreds of pieces of equipment from American and Japanese firms, and also acquired a line for the production of chip wafers from the German company AMD.
In connection with the introduction of 2016 the year of US sanctions, the deadlines for putting equipment into operation were disrupted, and only 2018 year, production was hardly launched, and the production of chips began. Due to the inability to repay the loan, the company became the property of VEB through bankruptcy proceedings, under state control.
Today Angstrem-T can produce up to 15 thousand plates per month according to the norm 90 nm with the prospect of reaching the standards 65 nm, and its products are in demand, including the international market.
One of the promising breakthrough areas could be the use of graphene for the manufacture of chips.. Serious work is underway in Russia on graphene and graphene nanotubes. In the Novosibirsk Academgorodok and the Graphene Institute in Moscow, there are already industrial installations for its production., and explores the possibility of using in chips.
Thanks to the preservation of the Soviet backlog in the creation of processors and its further development at the present stage, Russia together with the United States, China, Japan and Israel entered the top five countries, developing their processor architectures, and is able to organize its own production of world-class microprocessor technology.
All this indicates the possibility of creating a powerful microelectronics base in Russia., and for this there is the most important thing - domestic developers with a full development cycle from chips to a specific product in the control system, capable of independently creating the original architecture of processors, operating system and software. They have already proved in practice the possibility of their implementation and bringing them to the level of world leaders.. There has been a division of spheres between the two main developers MCST and Baikal Electronics: the first one is focused on stationary servers commissioned by the state, and the second one for mobile devices.
Now in Russia, the technology for the production of chips according to the standards above has not yet been implemented. 28 nm and memory blocks, in connection with which you have to use the services of the Taiwanese company TSMC. Russian developers believe, that they are able to implement this within two years with the financial support of the state and the acquisition of the missing equipment. Problem solving is made easier, that there are firms in Russia, working with the Dutch ASML to create photolithographic equipment, necessary for the organization of a full production cycle.
The main equipment at the plants in Zelenograd already allows mass production of microelectronics and partially satisfies the needs of the Russian market. Unfortunately, He is at 70 percent depends on imports, including defense orders. for example, Roscosmos before 2014 year it, surprisingly, suited. This approach is simply amazing.: in the Soviet military-industrial complex not only imported electronics, even an elementary transistor or a bolt could not be used. With an introduction to 2014 year of sanctions, life forced them to switch to the chips of the Mikron plant and the architecture of the Elbrus processors.
Prospects for Russian microelectronics
Demand for microelectronics exceeds supply in Russia. Rapid development and improvement of information systems, all types of transport and household appliances requires the creation of a powerful production base of microelectronics, allowing to produce it in a closed cycle with the rejection of imports. It is also necessary to create an infrastructure for servicing the implemented processors and systems. There are currently no domestic computers and mobile phones in the domestic market. They are only in prototypes and small series., therefore, serious efforts are needed to organize their mass production, And that takes time and money. This task can be solved only by the state with its financial capabilities., but so far there is no body, determining the strategy for the development of domestic microelectronics.
Now this direction is supervised by officials of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Digital Development, which, due to their isolation from the really occurring processes, cannot in any way ensure the necessary pace of implementation of the Digital Economy national project. According to experts, a coordinating body is needed at the level of a competent state committee with appropriate powers. It is ridiculous to place such hopes on the so-called development institutions to stimulate innovation processes., producing mainly "Chubaisyatin", the maintenance of which annually takes up to 1 trillion rubles. Treasury of funds!
The need to develop microprocessor devices is primarily related to state and information security, and the use of imported equipment does not guarantee this. In recent years, a number of government decrees have been adopted, obliging government agencies to use only domestic processors, and began a gradual transition to processors architecture "Elbrus" and "Baikal". Information storage database systems, of strategic importance, switch to Russian-made servers. In such structures, as MIA, Russian Railways, FIU, Russian processors and computers are being introduced, and electronic passports and bank cards are made only using Elbrus processors. FROM 2022 year in state structures it is planned to introduce at least 50 percent of computers based on Russian processors. How feasible will it be?, still unclear.
According to the existing scientific and design groundwork and mastered technologies, Russia is able to 2025 to become one of the world leaders in the production of microelectronics, saturate government structures and enter international markets. Today, following the example of the GOELRO plan, we need the same grand plan for digitalization and informatization based on domestic microelectronics - there are prerequisites and a basis for this. The state will have to focus serious efforts and funds on this vitally important area., which will ensure national security and a scientific and technological breakthrough in many aspects of government management, defense, economy, industry and transport.
Yuri Apukhtin,
