The Ministry of Industry and Trade has developed a draft strategy for the Russian electronics industry until 2030 and proposes to create microelectronics production on the basis of the Zelenograd Angstrem-T plant. Additional financing will allow the plant to master large-scale production of microelectronics using technology from 250 to 90 nm by 2024. By 2026–2027 The plant will be able to ensure mass production of integrated circuits using 28 nm technology, and by 2030, create an infrastructure for the development of 10–7 nm technology, the draft strategy says.

The draft strategy is contained in a letter from Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Alexander Morozov. Vedomosti reviewed a copy of the document; its authenticity was confirmed by a federal official familiar with its contents. A representative of the Ministry of Finance said that the letter had been received and would be considered as a matter of routine.

In 2008, VEB (now VEB.RF) lent 815 million euros to Angstrem-T for the purchase of equipment from the microprocessor manufacturer AMD and the construction of a chip plant using 130 and 110 nm technology. The 250 nm technology has been mastered, plant representative Vitaly Aryshev said this winter.

In January 2019, VEB .RF received 100% of Angstrem-T and filed for bankruptcy. A representative of the plant declared in court that the plant could not pay off its debts. Even after the transfer of control to VEB.RF, the former Minister of Communications and former owner of the plant, Leonid Reiman, remains the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Angstrem-T.

The development strategy and bankruptcy of Angstrem-T are not related to each other: bankruptcy is exclusively a legal procedure, part of financial recovery, said a representative VEB.RF. of In January it became known that work was underway on an investment program and a search for a strategic partner or investor was underway. In March, the court introduced a surveillance procedure at the plant.

But Angstrem-T needs money to survive. On February 4, 2019, Chairman of VEB .RF Igor Shuvalov (quotes from the government website) announced that government instructions had been given to prepare an investment program for Angstrem-T. This will be a budget project, Shuvalov warned, and if VEB takes part in it, it will be as an agent of the government. And the budget for the current year is the responsibility of VEB.RF - 3.4 billion rubles.

In 2016, the US Department of Commerce imposed sanctions against 11 Russian enterprises, including Angstrem-T: their work contradicts the interests of US national security. The US ban on the supply of dual-use technologies is one of the reasons why the plant cannot repay the debt, Reiman assured (reported by Reuters).

A person familiar with employees of microelectronics manufacturing plants points out that 28 nm technology can only be purchased, but a contract with the sanctioned Angstrem-T will complicate the life of the seller. This makes the search much more difficult, he says.

The smaller the chips, the more of them there are on the processor: memory increases, performance increases, and power consumption decreases. Now in Russia the production of chips with a 65 nm topology has been mastered (Mikron plant).

The plan to create production with a 28 nm topology has been discussed for a long time. In September 2015, it became known that the owner of AFK Sistema, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to provide the Zelenograd Mikron plant with a targeted loan of 25 billion rubles to build a chip factory with a 28 nm topology.

Such a factory could cost about $1.5 billion, said a representative of the Zelenograd Mikron plant. The main microelectronics factories were built by Intel, TSMC, Global Foundries, the average cost of construction and equipment is almost the same all over the world, in Russia it will also cost $2–5 billion, estimates Andrey Malafeev, a representative of the Russian processor manufacturer Baikal Electronics.

28 nm technology is now widespread and will remain relevant for 5-7 years, says Malafeev. For example, at the Taiwanese manufacturer of microelectronic components TSMC in 2018, about 63% of revenue came from the 28 nm topology. The company produced its own Baikal-T1 processors at this plant.

It is not known whether 28 nm technology will be in demand in a few years, when Angstrem-T masters the production of such chips, says Anton Sovin from Nautekh (an aggregator of services for the development and production of microcircuits): now 16–22 nm topologies are becoming increasingly popular.

A representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade declined to comment. A representative of Angstrem-T did not respond to Vedomosti’s request.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade wants to save the bankrupt Angstrem-T plant