Russian Electronics: Semiconductor and Processors #2

kvs wrote:"Ancient" circuit board manufactured in 2023 for a Russian MLRS guided missile.    The wankers in the comments show their ignorance.
...
2) Obviously no precious western washing machine chips anywhere.    But high grade military components that resist EW attacks.  The
   three main ICs are factory set gate array chips that are cheaper and more reliable than FPGAs.  

3) Russia obviously has the manufacturing capacity to produce the parts needed for its military equipment.   No need to run to China
   for help.

Most military tech in the West uses either what we would today consider basically obsolete technology predating the 2000s, not any better and often worse than we see here, or they use common off the shelf (COTS) i.e. commercial chips with commercial FPGAs for custom designs. If it was a Cold War era design the chips will definitively be worse than this.

The large chips on this board (1537HM2) are made at Angstrem. That is their logo. Like you said they are gate array chips. These ones have 17,600 gates. They have similar gate array chips with up to 100,000 gates. This is basically an ULA as seen on the ZX Spectrum computer except this is much larger and modern. They replace a ton of discretes. The lower layers of the chip are fixed designs, always the same for any chip, they have a bunch of gates. The upper layers basically determine how those gates are connected together and this is custom to each chip design. You design the circuit with a VHDL software tool like you would an FPGA, generate a file with their converter tools, then send this file to the factory where they basically "program" the chip by etching the last layers. This unlike an FPGA is fixed in place and can't be reprogrammed. FPGAs use memory cells for the programmable bits instead.

These huge ceramic IC packages did not exist back in the Soviet Union. They only had smaller ones. The company which makes them pretty much kept this expertise alive and made improvements since then. They are quite competitive and offer their services to the world market. The IC plastic package companies from the Soviet Union basically died because they weren't competitive against Asian companies like the ones in Malaysia. Russian chips in plastic packages are typically sent to be packaged abroad.

As for the fab which etches the actual chips on silicon wafers. Angstrem has a huge facility in Zelenograd near Moscow. They can make 150mm wafers at 600nm. More than enough for something like this. 600nm is basically the technology level used to make the Intel Pentium chips. Once again this technology level wasn't available in the Soviet Union either.

These large chips are basically representative of early 2000s Russian IC technology. Which wasn't available in Soviet times. When the Soviet Union collapsed the densest chips they could make were at the technology level of an 8086.

Russia can make denser programmable chips than this. They make their own FPGAs. The Russians have a waste capacity to make 180nm chips at Mikron. Also at Zelenograd near Moscow. Which is a process three generations newer than this. So it is 8x denser. This is basically the technology level used to make the Intel Pentium III chips. This is representative of early 2010s Russian IC technology.

Unfortunately things kind of stagnated since then. Mikron licensed a 90nm process from STMicroelectronics in France and made a small 200mm production line that can make chips with this process. Angstrem bought the AMD Fab in Dresden which used to make the Athlon 64, which were 90nm chips, and a new building was made and the tools were moved in. But this took like a decade to do. Partly thanks to the financial crisis and the bank freezing then funding for the project midway. This is the Angstrem-T fab. Owned today by NM-Tech. It has huge capacity and probably is only partially operating. According to the terms of the license the technology can't be used to make military chips though.

Like I said before in this forum the Russians are building what seems to be a pilot 300mm wafers at 28nm fab in Zelenograd between the Angstrem and Angstrem-T fabs. The building should have been topped off a couple months ago. I am sure they will find some way to get the tools for it. This should allow them to make 28nm versions of the Elbrus2K and NeuroMatrix which will be more than competitive against the yet to be deployed Block 4 electronics in the F-35.

lancelot wrote:

Unfortunately things kind of stagnated since then. Mikron licensed a 90nm process from STMicroelectronics in France and made a small 200mm production line that can make chips with this process. Angstrem bought the AMD Fab in Dresden which used to make the Athlon 64, which were 90nm chips, and a new building was made and the tools were moved in. But this took like a decade to do. Partly thanks to the financial crisis and the bank freezing then funding for the project midway. This is the Angstrem-T fab. Owned today by NM-Tech. It has huge capacity and probably is only partially operating. According to the terms of the license the technology can't be used to make military chips though.

Since 2014 the russian electronics development went underground.

There areno publicly available informations, everything done secretly.

Understandable, the usa using up all oportunity to identify anything that can cause delays, and use any legal or illegal means to harm them.
Including, but not limited to assassination and terrorist attack.

Like the MRAM development.

if they are talking about the latest micro circuits on the competetive level of leading foreign manufacturers than this is significant news.
https://rostec-ru.translate.goog/news/roselektronika-sozdast-peredovye-mikroskhemy-dlya-bortovogo-oborudovaniya/?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Ruselectronics will create advanced microcircuits for on-board equipment
The Ruselectronics holding of the Rostec State Corporation is developing a line of integrated circuits and microassemblies that will be used in on-board power supply systems of aircraft. The created ECB has dynamic characteristics at the level of leading foreign manufacturers. The start of mass production is planned for 2025.

New electronic components are capable of operating in a temperature range from –60 to +125 degrees Celsius, and have built-in protection against low supply voltage and static electricity. The products are planned to be used in on-board power supply systems of aircraft, as well as in electric drive control circuits.

A key feature of new microcircuits and microassemblies is the presence of capacitive galvanic isolation implemented on the crystals themselves. Thanks to the use of modern technological processes, ECU developers managed to achieve performance characteristics corresponding to similar products from leading foreign manufacturers: Infineon, International Rectifier, Texas Instruments and others.

NPP Pulsar is proactively developing components for Ruselectronics.

“Ensuring technological sovereignty is one of the key tasks of Russian industry, and we continue to actively work in such a sensitive area as microelectronics. By the end of 2024, the company plans to complete the development phase and begin production of a new electronic component next year,” said Sergei Korneev, Deputy General Director for Technological Development and Production of Pulsar Research and Production Enterprise.

The new product range includes high-voltage single- and dual-channel drivers for driving high-power N- and P-channel transistors with voltages up to 600 V.

https://rostec.ru/news/sotrudnik-shvabe-razrabotal-lazernye-izluchateli-novogo-pokoleniya-/

An employee of the Polyus Research Institute named after M.F. Stelmakh of the Shvabe holding of Rostec State Corporation has developed a new technology for producing semiconductor nanostructures, and also created high-power laser emitters of a new generation based on them. The results of the scientific work can be applied in the production of medical equipment, unmanned vehicles, lidar systems and other devices. The invention was awarded the highest award at the competition of young scientists organized by the Moscow government.

Maxim Ladugin, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, has developed the physical foundations for the design of laser quantum-dimensional structures, the dimensions of which range from nanometers to several micrometers, which ultimately makes the final device more compact, as well as reduces energy consumption. The project was implemented on the basis of semiconductor compounds of aluminum, gallium and indium with phosphorus and arsenic. Such structures will be the most optimal for the popular spectral ranges of 750-850 nm, 900-980 nm and 1500-1600 nm and will increase the power of laser devices.

"Improved performance of near-infrared lasers is extremely important for many areas. For example, for metrology, medicine, rangewatch, high-speed fiber optic communication, and others. In his scientific work, our colleague demonstrated the results of creating a new generation of high-power laser emitters – laser diodes, rulers and gratings – that operate in pulsed and continuous modes in the infrared spectral range from 750 to 1600 nm. The use of the proposed technologies will make laser emitters more efficient, faster and miniaturized, which will have a positive effect on the devices being created. In particular, on the productivity and compactness of technological units, rangefinders and medical devices, including surgical and cosmetology. Congratulations to Maxim on his well-deserved victory, I wish him to continue to achieve his goals!" said Evgeny Kuznetsov, CEO of Polyus Research Institute.

Maxim Ladugin won the competition of young scientists of the Moscow government. In total, 76 people became laureates. Specialists under the age of 35 applied for the award.

This is not the first time that the merits of the specialist have been assessed at a high level. In 2012, the team of authors of the Polyus Research Institute, which included Maxim Ladugin, was awarded the Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of science and technology for young scientists for the development and implementation of technology for the production of nanoheterostructures and high-power diode lasers for optical pumping of active media of advanced laser systems for controlled thermonuclear fusion.

Today, the Polyus Research Institute develops and manufactures semiconductor and solid-state lasers and devices based on them, laser gyroscopes, navigation devices, medical devices and other products. Employees of the institute contribute to the development of domestic science by developing and implementing innovative products.

Another huge scam by Anatoly Chubais.

06 February 2024
"Rusnano" intends to bankrupt its company for the production of flexible tablets

To do this, the state corporation will appeal to the Moscow Arbitration Court

Rusnano's intention to bankrupt its portfolio company is reported on the Fedresurs website. In 2022, Plastic Logic received a net loss of 702.4 million rubles. In addition, Rusnano handed over inspection materials on the progress of this project to law enforcement agencies, the company told Interfax .

“The initiation of the bankruptcy procedure of Plastic Logic LLC is associated with the completion of an assessment of the prospects for restoring the company’s solvency, carried out by the Rusnano team to return the initial investment.”

Back in 2011, the head of Rusnano, Anatoly Chubais, presented Vladimir Putin with an experimental gadget called Plastic Logic and promised that it would soon replace the entire set of textbooks for schoolchildren. But less than a year had passed since the project was closed due to “lack of economic feasibility,” and tax audits began in three Rusnano companies.

Auditors of the Accounts Chamber conducted an entire investigation to understand where the billions allocated for the creation of an innovative gadget disappeared. As representatives of the joint venture found out, in the fall of 2010, Rusnano bought 44% of the shares of the Irish Plastic Logic Holding for 7.1 billion rubles. The funds are then transferred almost immediately to Plastic Logic Luxemburg. Meanwhile, Plastic Logic CJSC is being established in Russia, which, under the guarantee of Rusnano, takes out bank loans for 5.7 billion rubles and... immediately issues them as a loan to Plastic Logic Luxemburg at preferential interest rates until 2020. With this loan money, Plastic Logic Luxemburg buys shares of its lender, the Russian JSC Plastic Logic.

As a result of the implementation of this scheme, no (even outdated) technology was purchased, the plant in Zelenograd was never built, but more than 5 billion rubles settled in the accounts of the foreign Plastic Logic Luxemburg (taking into account the complex system of offsets), and in the accounts of the Russian closed joint-stock company, which does not even directly belong to Rusnano; by 2013, only 620 million rubles remained - this is the conclusion the auditors of the joint venture came to.

https://mashnews.ru/rosnano-namereno-obankrotit-svoyu-kompaniyu-po-proizvodstvu-gibkix-planshetov.html

On February 20, Micron (part of Element Group), a resident of Technopolis Moscow SEZ, opened mass sales of the MIK32 Amur microcontroller (K1948VK018). Cupid can be purchased both from authorized dealers and directly at the Micron plant (in coils, 2500 pcs.).

"The MIK32 Amur microcontroller is our first chip for general industrial use based on the RISC—V architecture. Testing and debugging have been successfully completed, the chip is in the series, and now MIK32 Amur is available from all distributors of Micron JSC, including retail sales from Tellur Electronics. There is a single price matrix for all dealers of Micron JSC, based on the volume of the annual consumer quota," said Alexander Kolesov, Product Director of Micron JSC.

At the launch online webinar on February 20, which was attended by more than 300 representatives of interested companies, technical capabilities and application features were presented and considered in detail, as well as three debugging boards with a microcontroller were played live. Their owners were representatives of ICL Techno (Kazan), Energomery (Stavropol) and the Institute of Engineering Physics and Radioelectronics of the Siberian Federal University (IIFiRE SFU) (Krasnoyarsk).

MIK32 Amur is designed for industrial automation and Internet of Things devices, wireless peripherals, intelligent networks, security systems, alarm systems, telemetry, monitoring, smart home and climate control, lighting and other consumer and industrial solutions.

Read more detailed information and order the MIK32 Amur microcontroller here.

"Rusnano" intends to bankrupt its company for the production of flexible tablets

This is quite unfortunate, Rusnano was created with the intention of becoming one of the leading companies in Russia that will spur tech innovation. But as it turns out, the managers put in charge of running the company had no other plans in mind but to turn it into a financial blackhole. No wonder the Crook Anatoly Chubais had to flee Russia when the SMO started because he probably knew that Russia would unmask him as a NATzO plant tasked with wreaking havoc in the Russian economy.

Rusnano was not 100% a scam. For example this investment was successful:
https://www.metaclay.ru/en/media/news/2017/metaclay-products-are-represented-in-the-federation-council

But it sure had a lot of that. Many people in Russia complained that much of its activity consisted of attempting to bring foreign technologies to Russia. However, unlike what Rusnano claimed, this technology was not leading edge and in many cases didn't even become viable businesses or lead to successful tech transfer. The little Russian research they did sponsor seems to have had much more success but this was a minute part of what they were involved in. They bought loser foreign technology at eye watering prices and most often it didn't even get to be produced in Russia.

It seems western sanctions are giving the Russians an excellent opportunity to clean house across the board and find corruption and western stooges making decisions that are bad for Russia. This is a good thing... in comparison in the west such things would be hidden by authorities who are likely in on the cut of the steal.

Here in Dunedin a guy called Swann stole 17 million dollars from the local hospital. He eventually got caught because it was just too big to hide.

This guy put all sorts of things in his wifes name and hid things like expensive cars with friends and family. He did not cooperate with police and actively tried to stop the recovery of the money he stole.

He got out on parole.

It is pretty clear he bought favours and knows secrets of powerful people to get parole like that... if he was poor and was caught stealing from the company he worked for they would be much harder on him than they appear to be at the moment.

Lets just say I would not hunt him down and shoot him... but if he stepped out in front of my car there would be no skid marks left by my tires.

17 million dollars from a hospital... that has killed people... probably quite a few people.

My only hope is one of his victims does shoot him but paralyses him so he needs medical care the rest of his life.

https://rostec.ru/news/shvabe-pokazyvaet-proryvnye-tekhnologii-na-vystavke-fotonika-mir-lazerov-i-optiki/

Shvabe Holding of Rostec State Corporation introduces the participants of the largest industry exhibition to long-range reconnaissance systems, radio photonics products, optical materials and other product samples at Expocentre Fairgrounds in Moscow. In total, more than 20 developments are presented in the exposition.

"This exhibition is one of the key specialized events for the holding. Here we show developments for medicine, security, emergency prevention and other solutions created by the efforts of our scientists and developers. Every day, they conduct a lot of fundamental research in the field of photonics, solve complex scientific and technological problems and develop the Russian industry," said Vadim Kalyugin, General Director of Shvabe, a member of the Bureau of the Russian Engineering Union.

The grand opening of the exhibition took place with the participation of Sergey Popov, Deputy General Director of Shvabe and Head of the Priority Technology Direction for Optoelectronics and Photonics Technologies.

Among the key exhibits at the Shvabe stand in the field of security systems is the Blockpost reconnaissance complex with intelligent analytics. The first fully domestic drone with a UAV400T thermal imager is integrated into the system. The development makes it possible to detect various objects in difficult operating conditions. The video image received from the camera on the UAV is displayed in real time on a head-mounted television device (VR glasses).

The exposition also includes products implemented as part of the development of radio photonics, a new technological direction for the Russian industry. For example, a high-power single-frequency continuous wave semiconductor laser with distributed feedback. The use of such lasers makes it possible to create devices with high speeds of information transmission and processing.

Another key exhibit of the holding is the unique MIM-N laser microscope. It is intended for early diagnosis of malignant tumors and analysis of the effectiveness of antitumor drugs.

Laser technology is also represented by a simulator for sports shooting. This is the only domestic development consisting of a laser pistol and a sensor target. It was created by order of the Russian Modern Pentathlon Federation to prepare for competitions.

At the same time, the Shvabe exposition includes various materials, substances and electronic components of photonics – optical fiber, a lightweight mirror made of silicon carbide and highly purified germanium tetrachloride used in the manufacture of preforms for optical fiber, as well as various photodetectors and modules of the infrared spectral range.

Among the optoelectronic devices at the Shvabe stand are a SWIR camera, which can be used to see camouflaged objects and people in zero visibility, as well as a system for video and thermal imaging monitoring and analytics. The latter is used to detect and record faults, for example, in the operation of equipment in heating and electrical networks.

There is also a stereoscopic microscope MBS-10M with VR glasses and a three-dimensional visualization function, an analyzer of the individual norm of intraocular pressure, which allows you to identify the risk of the occurrence and development of glaucoma in the early stages, and other developments.

"Photonics is the locomotive of innovative development. Today, none of the strategically important technological areas can do without it. Our holding conducts a lot of scientific research in this area and is happy to share the results of its work with colleagues within the framework of the exhibition. In addition to the demonstration of products and technical solutions, this year we are also taking part in the business program, where we discuss the changes taking place in the optical industry," said Sergey Popov.

Within the framework of the forum, Shvabe has planned a rich business program, which includes participation in the Scientific and Practical Conference of the XII Congress of the Photonics Technology Platform. Presentations will be made by representatives of the S.I. Vavilov State Research and Production Institute, the State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation NPO Orion, the Polyus Research Institute named after M.F. Stelmakh and the State Institute of Applied Optics. They will discuss topical issues in the field of optoelectronic systems and components, laser information systems, radio photonics, as well as optical materials, nodes and components of photonics.

In addition, the forum will host a joint meeting of the councils under the heads of the priority technological areas "Optoelectronics and Photonics Technologies" and "Radio Photonics Technologies". The event will be chaired by Sergey Popov, Deputy General Director of Shvabe, and Evgeny Kuznetsov, General Director of the Polyus Research Institute.

International Specialized Exhibition "Photonics. World of Lasers and Optics" has been held annually since 2006. On behalf of Shvabe Holding, the event is attended by the Astron Optical and Mechanical Design Bureau, the Yalamov Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant, the Lytkarino Optical Glass Plant, Germanium, the State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation NPO Orion, the Polyus Research Institute named after M.F. Stelmakh, the Zagorsk Optical and Mechanical Plant, the State Institute of Applied Optics, the Vologda Optical and Mechanical Plant, the Vavilov Research and Production Association, the Moscow Sapphire Plant, the Foton Central Design Bureau and Novosibirsk Instrument-Making Plant.

Seems a Russian company has one a large contract to produce active whiteboards and laptops for government departments:



So about $3,700 US per panel board and about $530 US per laptop.

Quite reasonably prices.

Isn´t there a heat barrier for making stuff smaller and smaller?

This is a video about the effects of the western ban for chips for China and how China started making the chips themselves for a fraction of the price the western countries were selling them to China for.

These are not CPU chips for high end systems, they are simple chips used for cars to open windows and other basic stuff.

The west is scared at how cheaply China is making electric cars and their new lithium battery technology is scaring the west too... western car companies should have invested in the technology the way Chinese companies have and then they wouldn't have lost their competitiveness...



The thing is that the west wants to put tariffs and restrictions and block access to their markets for Chinese vehicles... protectionism. Russia should be smarter and cooperate with Chinese car makers and chip makers and perhaps set up production in Russia too so Russian companies can catch up and perhaps even cooperate on further improvements in these new technologies.

Whom are they aiming to be competitive with


Xiaomi car factory .... ah i forgot Chinese are working for a bowl of rice right?

So when they say 1nm size are they actually referring to the transistor itself or the compacting of larger size transistors into a more efficient shape? I always got the impression it has to do now not so much with shrinking the transistors as shrinking the circuitry itself in order to fudge the numbers.

TMA1 wrote:So when they say 1nm size are they actually referring to the transistor itself or the compacting of larger size transistors into a more efficient shape? I always got the impression it has to do now not so much with shrinking the transistors as shrinking the circuitry itself in order to fudge the numbers.

"nm" numbers are just marketing. They are supposed to give you an idea of how advanced the process is but it has no relation to any physical metric. It hasn't had any since the end of the planar transistor at 28nm. In actual physical terms even earlier than that.

Making the transistor walls thinner and the transistors smaller in a plain planar process is no longer possible. The electrons would just tunnel through the transistor walls. However transistor density has continued to increase by making the transistors grow in size vertically. By doing this you can continue to hold a similar electron charge in the transistor. But this has meant every couple of generations they have needed to change the design of the transistors. It is getting increasingly hard to do.

Right now the industry has hit a wall in terms of scaling down SRAM cache sizes. TSMC failed to shrink the SRAM cache cell sizes from the 5nm to 3nm process. They are still scaling down the transistors used for logic though.

Just to give an example. The TSMC 5nm process has 138.2 million transistors per millimeter squared. SRAM bit-cell size of 0.021 micrometers squared. The TSMC 3nm process has 215.6 million transistors per millimeter squared. SRAM bit-cell size is 0.021 micrometers squared. So the amount of logic transistors you can put in is much larger but the SRAM cell size hasn't shrunk at all.

Compare this with older processes. TSMC 16nm process had 28.88 million transistors per millimeter square.

If they continue to be unable to shrink SRAM cache sizes you might see a move towards computer architectures where you spend more time doing computations just to cut down on memory size.

But I don't think it is impossible to continue making computers smaller. Even after they hit the limits with electrons. There are smaller particles than electrons. Even just using regular electrons it might be possible to encode more data with each electron.

The 28nm fab building at Zelenograd, close to the Angstrem facility, seems to have been finished.