Operator finance Kang Zhao / Wen

On April 15, according to foreign media reports, Russia has formulated a preliminary version of a new semiconductor industry development plan, which requires an investment of about 3.19 trillion rubles (about 38.43 billion US dollars) by 2030. The problem is that the progress is too slow. The goal is to establish manufacturing with 28nm nodes by 2030, which is at least more than ten years behind China, and whether Russia can achieve the goal is still a problem.

This is all caused by the United States. At the end of March this year, the US Treasury Department announced sanctions against 21 entities and 13 individuals in Russia, including Mikron, Russia’s largest chip manufacturer, microelectronics manufacturer and exporter. It also includes Moscow based serniya engineering and equipment manufacturer sertal, which the US Treasury accused of illegally purchasing equipment and technology that can be used for civilian use for the Russian defense sector. Therefore, Russia is determined to rebuild its semiconductor industry.

In the history of Russia, the semiconductor industry is also surprisingly backward. Russia lacks independent chips. 90% of the chips come from abroad, and the largest chip manufacturer in China has only the manufacturing level of 65nm chips. If it depends on domestic chip supply alone, it will be difficult to meet the demand.

But why can Russia still manufacture many high-end weapons when the semiconductor industry is so backward? This is because as early as the era of the former Soviet Union, considering the threat of nuclear attack, the former Soviet Union gave priority to the electron tube technology with stronger radiation resistance between the two technical routes of transistor and electron tube. The miniaturization of electron tubes did have inherent limitations, but at that time, no one thought that the miniaturization of transistors could develop to the nanoscale.

Russia is determined to catch up with the semiconductor industry this time, but the question is how difficult it is to catch up. It is reported that one of Russia’s short-term goals is to use 90nm manufacturing technology to improve local chip production by the end of the year. A longer-term goal is to establish manufacturing using 28nm nodes by 2030.

TSMC was able to produce 28nm chips as early as 2011. SMIC international 28nm technology was launched in the fourth quarter of 2013. In recent years, it has successfully entered the multi project wafer (MPW) and mass production stage, and can provide HKMG process services according to customer needs.

Russia is at least more than ten years behind SMIC and more than 20 years behind TSMC. With the United States blocking the industrial chain, whether it can produce 90 nm chips is a problem.