Russian Photolithography Machine Was Launched: Want To Be Among The Top Ten in The Field Of Optoelectronics in The World!

Recently, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin (Mikhail Mishustin) will be the country's technological sovereignty into a series of key development goals, emphasizing the need to promote localized high-tech products, raw materials and components, and accelerate the country's scientific research and technological progress.
According to the report, this new strategy not only focuses on breakthroughs in areas such as unmanned aircraft systems, medicine, artificial intelligence and space technology, but also highlights the importance of means of production and automation. Among them, the laser and photonics market was specifically mentioned as a key area.
On May 25 foreign media reported that Russia's first photolithography machine has been manufactured and is being tested. The equipment ensures the production of 350nm (0.35μm) chips for a number of industries, including automotive, energy and telecommunications. The successful development of the lithography machine is a milestone for Russia's future realization of its own chip production, and its next goal is to build a lithography machine that can support the 130nm process in 2026.
Importance of laser technology and advanced photonics
Mishustin noted, "Photonics and laser technologies have a huge potential for development in this field, and their market has become one of the most promising in the world, having reached $20 billion last year, with an annual growth rate of more than 10 percent."
He further emphasized the breadth and importance of laser technology and advanced photonics in modern industrial applications, which are already widely used in machine tools, electrical engineering, medical instruments, and gradually penetrating into a variety of industries such as telecommunications and agriculture, such as sensors, displays and projection technology.
He said a series of measures "will enable us to develop our science and technology and machinery industries at an advanced rate, and photonics has great potential in this area. "The market for such devices is one of the most promising in the world."
Mishuskin also mentioned that advanced photonics technology also plays a key role in areas such as unmanned transportation, space exploration, additive manufacturing and artificial intelligence research. In particular, he mentioned the Laser Fusion Research Facility, launched last year, which is a concentration of advanced technologies and the result of the joint efforts of a large team of specialists, already used for research in plasma physics.
As of now, among the most established nuclear powers, Russia has been the only one that does not yet have a high-energy laser. The United States has the National Ignition Facility (NIF), which is currently the highest energy laser system in the world. Its 192 individual beams combined provide 3.88 megajoules of energy.
France, meanwhile, has its own laser system, which currently has 80 beams outputting 350 kilojoules, although it aims to have 176 beams outputting 1.3 megajoules by 2026. Britain's Orion laser produces 5 kilojoules of energy; China's SG-III laser, 180 kilojoules.
Russia's Tsar Laser laser system, which has yet to be built, like the NIF, will have 192 beams with an estimated total output of 2.8 terajoules. This specialized laser is capable of focusing high-energy levels of energy onto a cluster of atoms, increasing the temperature and pressure to trigger a nuclear reaction.
Supporting Photonics and Laser Research in Russia
To support the development of photonics and laser technology, the Russian government has invested significant resources in recent years. The government has supported a number of research projects in photonics and laser technology, including the production of a range of solid-state lasers and fiber-optic systems for telecommunications, Mishustin said. In addition, the country has launched a program aimed at developing technologies for designing and manufacturing photonic integrated circuits (PICs).
In the face of growing global demand for photonics projects, Mishuskin emphasized that "we must develop a series of measures to enhance the development of this promising field." "It is crucial that manufacturers, designers and research organizations work closely together. And most crucially, we need to localize the entire technological production chain, from special materials to the assembly of finished devices. Our goal is to be among the top ten world leaders in the field of optoelectronic production."
For its part, the Russian government has been instructed to make provisions for the implementation of the aforementioned executive order in the budget when drafting the federal budget for the next fiscal year and planning period.
The Strategy defines the purposes, main goals and priorities of the scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation, sets out the principles and guidelines of state policy in this area and measures for its implementation, as well as the expected results of the Strategy's implementation, with a view to ensuring the long-term sustainable, dynamic and balanced development of the Russian Federation.
Overview of the Russian laser optics market
According to statistics, there are more than 800 organizations and companies in the field of lasers in Russia, which are spread across 85 organizations in 57 regions. These organizations serve various functions, including training professionals, performing laser equipment maintenance, engaging in research and development, and producing laser components.
Ivan B. Kovsh, president of the Laser Association of Russia (LAS), emphasized that the laser/optics discipline is one of the strongest in Russia's high-tech sector, and that LAS, based in Moscow, has a membership that includes laser research laboratories, companies, and research institutes, of which up to 80% are specialized companies and research institutes.
Kovsh further noted that there are 165 companies and organizations producing lasers in Russia. Of these, 60% are located in Moscow, 15% are concentrated in the St. Petersburg and Leningrad regions, 6% are located in Novosibirsk, and the remainder are located in the Volga, Urals and Central Siberia (e.g., Tomsk) regions.
Currently, there are 6 large optical plants and 40 small optical companies in Russia, and the privatization process is in full swing. Half of the organizations in the field of laser optics are private companies, and the other half are state-owned. according to Kovsh, forecasting the Russian optoelectronics market has become quite difficult in view of the current uncertainty in the global economy.
Kovsh also mentioned that these companies offer a wide and diverse range of laser products. He said that Russian laser companies have thousands of models of lasers or equipment worldwide, which cover a wide range of fields and applications, including light sources, industrial and medical lasers, measurement and test equipment, navigation and alignment systems, and equipment for characterizing, controlling, shaping, and regulating laser beams.