Russian firm completes country's first 130nm-capable chipmaking tool, trails modern equipment by 25 years

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Russia-based Zelenograd Nanotechnology Center (ZNTC) has completed the third R&D stage of the company's first lithography tool capable of processing 200-mm wafers using a 130nm process technology, reports CNews. The tool is currently being tested internally and is years away from being used at a real fab to produce chips in mass quantities. Blogger Dmitrii Kuznetsov suggests that the device is the "first Russian 130nm-capable lithograph" that consists of components made in Russia. This may not be the case, though.

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"The creation of a prototype of a domestically developed photolithography system designed for a 130nm process is an important milestone for Russia's microelectronics industry," Alexander Mikhailov, an analyst with Strategy Partners, told CNews. "It demonstrates that Russia has its own engineering expertise required to develop such equipment and paves the way for developing a range of systems targeting smaller process nodes (90nm and 65nm)."

Truth be told, while the Zelenograd-based ZNTC is responsible for the project, Belarus-based Planar was responsible for developing the lithography system, according to documents seen by CNews (which corroborates earlier reports). In addition to the system itself, Planar was responsible for manufacturing mechanical assemblies and components, as well as commissioning the prototype. Lasers for the unit were developed by Lassard. Meanwhile, ZNTC is responsible for development of the overall system, design of the test and process equipment, projection-lens calculations, as well as process modeling and development, the report claims. Russia's Ministry of Industry and Trade allocated approximately $70 million for the entire development program.

It is estimated that one 130nm-capable ZNTC stepper costs $6.7 million, while its laser light source costs around $600,000, bringing the cost of a single tool to around $7.3 million. To put the number into context, ASML's PAS 5500/150 stepper had a list price of $3.1 million when it was launched in Q1 2001. Implying a cumulative inflation of about 88%, this translates to around $5.8 million in 2026 dollars. Meanwhile, the Russian stepper is a 200-mm machine capable of 130nm fabrication technologies.

Speaking of 130nm manufacturing processes — which Intel and AMD adopted in 2001 and 2002, respectively — Russian chipmakers have historically developed two 130nm-class nodes, but those technologies rely on lithography equipment from ASML. Whether or not ZNTC's stepper could be integrated into existing nodes remains unclear, but ZNTC claims that it is also responsible for process technology 'modeling and developing.' This likely refers to developing/qualifying the lithographic process around this particular machine —resist, exposure dose, focus/process window, masks, alignment/overlay, develop conditions, temperatures, etc. —rather than inventing an entire 130nm technology from scratch.

Given a typical lithography tool development cycle, ZNTC's 130nm stepper is still likely years away from being used for actual chip production. For now, ZNTC's 130 nm step-and-repeat system is still an engineering prototype, which was delivered five months later than expected. The first prototype is currently undergoing internal engineering and acceptance testing, after which ZNTC will have to finalize the design and validate everything from imaging and overlay to reliability and throughput, which will take well over a year. Only after that, it can build prototype machines for actual chipmakers that will have to characterize them and then qualify them for their production flows, which will take months, if not years.

Even established lithography suppliers typically require several years to move from the first integrated engineering system to production deployment, so a realistic timeframe for the Russian machine to begin processing commercial wafers would probably be around 2029 at the earliest. Limited production of the steppers themselves could potentially begin earlier as long as ZNTC has all the required parts, but that should not be confused with their qualification for volume semiconductor manufacturing.

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Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

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