Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Russia has been sanctioned by many countries and regions, resulting in restrictions on the import of various semiconductor chips and equipment. This has also forced Russia to increase its investment in self-research and locally manufactured chips, but it will still face bottlenecks in many aspects such as equipment and materials.

However, according to foreign media "TheInsider", Russia can still import products such as silicon wafers (semiconductor silicon wafers) from Taiwan, China through some channels. These are the raw materials necessary for manufacturing chips.

Chip manufacturing capabilities established based on military needs

Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in February 2022, the United States, the European Union, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, China and other places have successively introduced export controls on Russian semiconductors, hoping to reduce Russia's military combat effectiveness by blocking the supply of semiconductors.

While Russia lacks the modern technology to produce high-performance, commercially viable microchips, that doesn't mean local manufacturers don't know how to produce semiconductor cores. Older chip production technology was developed back in the Soviet era.

For example, according to lithography professional Denis Shamiryan,Russian company Mikron has mastered 180nm technology in mass production and 90nm technology in single-unit production. For the 90nm process, Mikron uses STMicroelectronics lithography equipment.

Mikron's civilian products are limited to bank card and passport chips, and its annual output reaches 4 billion microchips.

As Shamiryan recalled, Russia also plans to produce chips at Angstrem-T in Zelenograd, Moscow region, using 130nm and 90nm technologies. In the late 2000s, Angstrem-T purchased a complete ASML production line from AMD's Fab36 factory in Dresden.

However, these plans never came to fruition, as Angstrem-T was declared bankrupt in 2019. However, another Zeelengrad-based entity called Angstrem (dropping the T) produces a range of microchips.

△The Angstrem microchip of the Russian Iskander missile is on the same motherboard as the Western chip

Shamiryan also pointed out,The Crocus Nano Electronics factory under Russia's Rusnano Group once successfully established a 65nm process, mainly to produce MRAM memory. However, it could only complete half of the production cycle and still had to rely on foreign supplies. However, the factory was later forced to close due to sanctions.

Russia's existing microchip production facilities primarily serve military needs. Russian chipmaker Epiel, for example, operates primarily in Zelenograd near Moscow and has positioned itself as a leader in the epitaxial growth (epi) process of chip manufacturing in Russia.

According to Epiel's most recent public financial statements, the company had revenue of nearly $7 million in 2020.

Epiel mainly supplies wafers with suitable diameters of 100mm, 150mm and 200mm, of course, the most advanced modern technology currently uses 300nm wafers.

During the year, Epiel secured hundreds of thousands of dollars in government contracts from the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade and supplied processed wafers to the joint venture NZP Vostok ("Novosibirsk Semiconductor Device Plant"), which produces off-the-shelf chips for end manufacturers.

According to the latest public procurement data, NZP Vostok actively cooperates with the Rosatom entity K.a.Volodin Instrument Manufacturing Plant (Federal State Unified Enterprise), which specializes in the production of nuclear weapons.

NZP Vostok's factory still produces 64Kb memory chips, at least until recently, the factory sold millions of rubles worth of chips to military companies such as Rybinsk’s Luck Design Bureau, which develops military equipment including drones.

Another customer of Epiel is the Institute of Electronic Equipment in Voronezh, which supplies the Fiolent military factory in occupied Crimea, SozvezdieConcern (which manufactures electronic warfare and communication and control equipment for the armed forces) and Rosatom's Volodin instrument manufacturing plant.

Available records also show collaboration between Epiel and Pulsar, a former electronics factory that makes microwave equipment, transistors and microchips for the military. Epiel also fulfills a contract with the N.L. Dukhov All-Russian Research Institute of Automation, which develops nuclear warheads.

Epiel's address matches that of Sitronics Smart Technologies, said to be part of the Mikron Group. In addition, Epiel shares office space with Mikron and the Russian Institute of Molecular Electronics. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that Epiel belongs to the same group of companies.

Specific applications of Russian-made microchips in weapons include the 1890VM6Ya processor and its variant in the fighter jet Baguette flight control computer.

△Russian 1645RU3U memory chips manufactured by Milandr are used in S-300 and PantsirSAM systems

As early as 2011, an article on the popular IT portal Habr reported that,Milandr manufactures chips on 180nm technology equipment for use in Russian fighter jets and air defense systems.

The process of domestic chip manufacturing in Russia appears to be as follows: First, Epiel performs epitaxial growth on imported wafers. These semiconductor products are then used by companies such as Mikron, NZPP Stok, Pulsar or the Institute of Electronic Devices to create ready-to-use microchips. According to industry experts, the process may include cutting the wafer into individual cores, connecting the pins and "packaging" them.

Although most of these chips are outdated relative to modern chips,However, Russian weapons manufacturers choose domestic chips instead of more technologically advanced chips, on the one hand due to security considerations, and on the other hand due to supply problems caused by the manufacturing process.

Additionally, since these chips are primarily intended for use in large, heavy weapons, the miniaturization advantages offered by state-of-the-art electronics are largely irrelevant.

Russia currently has 5 old ASML lithography machines

For Russia, independent chip manufacturing is inseparable from key semiconductor equipment, especially photolithography machines.

Currently, the world's main suppliers of DUV lithography machines with a wavelength of 193nm ("deep ultraviolet") are only ASML, Nikon and Canon, while only ASML can manufacture EUV lithography machines with a wavelength of 13.5nm ("extreme ultraviolet", close to the X-ray range).

An ASML spokesperson confirmed to TheInsider,ASML has never sold significant amounts of equipment to Russia.

Since 2014, only $50 million worth of ASML brand lithography machines have been imported into Russia. Although $50 million seems like a lot of value, it doesn’t even buy an EUV lithography machine.

ASML claims,Russia only imports parts of dismantled old equipment from third countries.

The Ukrainian publication Pravda largely confirmed this assessment.

According to reports,As of 2022, Russia has five ASML lithography machines (all PAS5000 series) with wavelengths ranging from 365 to 193 nanometers in operation, located at the Russian Institute of Systems Analytical Sciences, Mapper, Zelenograd Nanotechnology Center and Mikron.

After the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine broke out, TSMC has stopped OEMing Russian chips. For this reason, Russia also has to rely on existing imported semiconductor equipment to manufacture self-developed chips domestically.

Although there are currently five ASML equipment in operation in Russia, these equipment are very outdated, even 15-20 years old.

In this regard, ASML insists that it does not provide maintenance services for Russian lithography equipment, but there are still many related parts circulating in the secondary market that the manufacturer has no control over.

It should be noted that in addition to the few Western lithography machines imported before sanctions, Russian manufacturers can also obtain lithography machines from the Planar factory in Minsk. These lithography machines operate at a wavelength of 350nm with a minimum feature size of 500nm and represent a technology that emerged in 1995 but was obsolete by 1999.

Semiconductor raw material supply

Another problem with Russia's own chip manufacturing is that it lacks local suppliers of necessary semiconductor materials, such as semiconductor silicon wafers and photomasks, and must rely on imports. Although it encountered some obstacles before, Russia can still purchase these products through some channels.

According to internal Russian customs data, Russia imported a total of $150.5 million worth of semiconductor-related products (customs code 848620) in 2023 for the production of microchips and printed circuit boards. The list of buyers includes civilian entities (such as Sitronics Smart Technologies, which makes smart cards and chips, and Hevel, which makes solar panels), dealers of various equipment (including sanctioned goods), and organizations that purchase small quantities of equipment for peripheral non-core projects (such as IT company Craftech).

While the largest importer of silicon wafers in Russia is OOOHevel, which imported nearly $7 million worth of silicon wafers from China in 2023, these wafers are mainly used in solar panels. Epiel is one of the largest importers of semiconductor wafers used in chip manufacturing, importing US$2.2 million worth of semiconductor wafers in 2023. Many of the company's end users were military-industrial enterprises, and from the early 2010s through the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, most of its suppliers were Asian and American entities.

However, after the Russian-Ukrainian conflict broke out, Epiel had to completely change its supplier base and switched to purchasing semiconductor silicon wafers from several major exporters in Southeast Asia.

Judging from the list compiled by The Insider, Pai Haung Technology, a Taiwanese company, has also exported a lot of semiconductor silicon wafers to it, and it only has business dealings with a few Russian and Belarusian entities, and can directly ship semiconductor silicon wafers to them from Taiwan.

Since the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war, PaiHaung has sold $4 million worth of semiconductor wafers to Russia and Belarus under its brand, but the brand has no visibility online. TheInsider believes that many customs documents point the manufacturer to another company, Taiwan-based WaferWorks, because this company was also a supplier of Epiel before the conflict between Russia and Ukraine broke out.

TheInsider believes that the little-known PaiHaung does not actually produce semiconductor silicon wafers, so his role in the supply chain is limited to that of a resale middleman.

Kharon, a data firm founded by a former U.S. Treasury Department official, discovered that PaiHaung was once listed as an affiliated entity on the website of the U.S. DMS Electronic Components Group, but this information has now disappeared from the website.

PaiHaung CEO Bao Yongjian said in an interview with Taiwanese media that the company will strictly abide by the laws of Taiwan, China and will not do business with sanctioned companies.

Epiel, which is currently headquartered in Zeelengrad, Russia, is indeed not listed on U.S., Taiwan, or other sanctions lists, even though it is an integral part of the manufacturing process for products ultimately used by the Russian military industry.

However, another PaiHaung customer, AOVZPP Mikron (Voronezh Semiconductor Equipment Joint Stock Company Mikron), is subject to sanctions. In 2020, Mikron was awarded a series of government contracts to develop radiation-hardened Zener diodes up to 1,200 volts, which are more likely to be used in the military than in civilian applications.

Epiel's fourth largest supplier is the Chinese branch of Japan's D&X Co., Ltd. At the request of TheInsider, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry sent a list of contraband items, which showed that Japanese companies are not allowed to export silicon wafers (code 381800) to Russia.

D&X, another Epiel supplier, has not yet responded to The Insider's investigation. Management said it was unaware of D&X's shipments to Russia.