The Ministry of Industry and Trade chose the main manufacturer of lithographic materials for chips in the Russian Federation

In March 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Trade chose the main manufacturer of lithographic materials for chips in the Russian Federation. We are talking about the Research Institute of Molecular Electronics (NIIME), which will receive 1.4 billion rubles under a contract with the department.

This project is reported by CNews with reference to the unified IT system of public procurement. It involves the creation of photoresists for use in the process of photolithography with a long wave of actinic laser radiation of 248 nm. Photoresists are a type of photosensitive polymer that is applied to a silicon wafer during chip fabrication. Further, the photoresist is exposed by the lithographic system through the windows of the photographic patterns, followed by "etching" the tracks on the silicon crystal.

NIIME will receive 1.4 billion rubles. for the development of the production of materials for the production of chips in the country

According to the publication, NIIME also won the ministry's competition for research and development "Development and production of a reagent for measuring plate pollution with metal cations by the X-ray fluorescent method" for 158 million rubles and research and development "Development of tetramethylammonium hydroxide production technology" for 187.3 million rubles. In these two competitions, NIIME was also the only participant.

NIIME said that the institute organized work on the creation of a backup for the development of materials for photolithography. NIIME has created the only physicochemical analytical laboratory in Russia for conducting research in the field of quality control of technological media.

According to a spokesman for the institute, by March 2023, many countries with their own microelectronic production, especially China and South Korea, are trying to establish or expand their production of photoresists and other chemistry in order to avoid dependence on other states. By March 2023, over 80% of the total global photoresist market is occupied by manufacturers in Japan and the United States. Moreover, Japan holds most of the market.^[1]

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