Macrodeup of space chips: industry lagging behind in nanometers

The forum participants discussed the development of the digital economy in Russia, the formation of a regulatory framework, the development of an electronic component base (ECB) and the development of production facilities.

As noted by the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Gennady Krasnikov, today microelectronics is one of the most important areas on which the stability of critical infrastructure, the banking sector, the country's defense capability, the development of all sectors of the economy depends. According to him, the development of the industry is put under special control. The industry receives strong support from the state.

Microelectronics is an extremely important industry. It is critically important to have the ability to independently create chips with a very small size of elements for rocket and space technology, aviation, unmanned aerial vehicles.

But in Russia there is no appropriate technology and equipment. Creating such a base is a very expensive process.

Our country began to lose its position in microelectronics in the 1980s. Now we are gradually restoring our capabilities in this area. But it is necessary to radically reduce the technological lag behind the world leaders.

Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said that by the end of the year, Russia will master the production of key equipment for the manufacture of chips. It was about lithographers to form elements with a size of 130 nanometers.

How do we measure this result? The world has already mastered the serial production of chips with elements of 2 nanometers. But the pursuit of such microminiaturization is hardly worth it. With these small elements there are functional problems.

It would be enough for us to reach 28 nanometers. Microchips with such elements are much more reliable. But we're talking about 90 nanometers, but only after we've mastered 130.

Of course, because of this lag, our own chips are many times larger in size, weight and power consumption than many foreign ones. So far, this has to be tolerated, not achieving the desired characteristics of their products.

Of course, it is still possible to order chips according to our drawings in foreign factories or directly buy something suitable there.

The forum participants discussed rational ways to reduce the backlog in microelectronics. It was noted that the development of electronic components and equipment should proceed in parallel. So, the manufacturer of microelectronics should see, for example, the design of the future spacecraft, and the developer of the satellite should know about the capabilities and prospects of manufacturers of electronic components.

Our rocket and space industry cannot provide a mass market for every type of microelectronic product. Therefore, it is necessary to interact with aviation, the nuclear industry, telecommunications, robotics, unmanned technologies to identify demand.

At the same time, for example, the rocket and space industry can be the customer of the electronic component base with the highest characteristics in terms of reliability, resistance, weight and overall parameters and power consumption.

The conclusion is as follows: to create the necessary electronic component base and microelectronic products, it is necessary to build system cooperation. It is necessary to identify the needs of industry enterprises and form a single order, eliminate duplication and unify requirements.

It is necessary to create a typical “family” of components. Together with manufacturers of microelectronics to bring promising projects from concept to real application, to develop platform solutions for related industries. And then, perhaps in the nanometer race, we can close the gap with the leaders, and our satellites will not be the heaviest in the world.