The Russian lithography machine plan was released, pointing directly at ASML, 7nm target locking.
As we all know, since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Russia has been subjected to multiple rounds of sanctions by the Western world, which has affected Russia in many ways, including lithography machines that produce chips.
According to the interpretation of the West, the ban on lithography machines to Russia is on the one hand a sanction for Russia to provoke the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and on the other hand, it is also a military restriction, because many ** need chips.
Russia is relatively backward in the development of semiconductors, and in terms of manufacturing technology, Russia currently has only 65 nanometer technology, but Russia is still unable to manufacture its own lithography machines.
But now the Russian side has announced its own lithography machine development plan, which can also be said to be a road map, and judging from this development plan, it has to be said that Russia's ambitions are not small.
Of course, Russia is also more pragmatic, first conquering 350 nanometer lithography technology, and plans to achieve mass production next year in 2024.
You may think that 350 nanometers is too late, but in fact, in the military field, many heavyweight chips only need 350 nanometers.
Because unlike commercial chips, military chips do not emphasize the level of performance, but the stability of the chip, so 350 nm is enough to meet military requirements.
Following 350nm lithography, Russia plans to mass-produce 130nm lithography in 2026.
Of course, 130nm is not an advanced process, it has been around for 22 years, but it is still very important and plays a vital role in many important areas such as automotive.
Therefore, we can see that 350 nm and 130 nm can well address Russia's urgent needs in key areas.
Now is the time to show Russia's ambitions, and the Russian Agency for Strategic Development in Veliky Novgorod has made a bold statement that the Institute of Applied Physics under the Russian Academy of Sciences will unexpectedly develop a lithography machine capable of producing 7-nanometer chips by 2028 and beat ASML.
Obviously, this means that Russia can develop an EUV lithography machine with better overall performance than ASML's EUV lithography machine, because if it is a DUV lithography machine, it is obviously not comparable to an EUV lithography machine.
However, if the development is a direct-write type lithography machine, it is not the same type as ASML's lithography machine.
At the same time, Russia also said that in the field of lithography machines, ASML and Nikon have been the two largest producers of such equipment, but Russia wants to change this pattern.
It can be seen that Russia is very confident, considering that ASML is developing EUV lithography technology, it has to be said that Russia's lithography technology development plan is very radical, almost equivalent to completing ASML's 20 years of development in 5 years.
So, from a traditional point of view, Russia's initiative may be more symbolic than practical, but as the Russians say, it will amaze people, maybe Russia has really made some kind of breakthrough in ultraviolet lithography.
For example, the manufacture and power of the light source, the manufacture and performance of the objective lens, the accuracy of alignment, etc. In short, since Russia does not have much experience in the manufacture of lithography machines, if Russia can really mass-produce lithography machines that surpass ASML products in 2028, then Russia has undoubtedly created a miracle, let's wait and see.