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Rosatom lab gets 992.85 million rubles for chip tools
Russia’s nuclear center VNIIEF won a 992.85 million ruble contract to build domestic wafer bonding and debonding equipment by October 2029.
Image: iXBT
Russia’s federal nuclear center VNIIEF, part of Rosatom and known as the developer of the first Soviet atomic and hydrogen bombs, will build domestic equipment for semiconductor manufacturing under a contract worth 992.85 million rubles.
According to CNews, RFNC-VNIIEF was the only bidder in the tender and received the contract for an experimental development project called “Dentist.” The agreement was signed on July 6, 2026, and the equipment is scheduled to be completed by October 30, 2029.
The project covers two types of systems used in modern chip production:
- a temporary wafer bonding system for silicon wafers up to 200 mm
- a wafer debonding and cleaning system
Both machines will support wafers with diameters of 100 mm, 150 mm, and 200 mm.
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Temporary bonding is widely used in microelectronics when making complex chips. At one stage of production, a silicon wafer is temporarily attached to a carrier wafer so it can safely undergo further processing, including thinning and transport. Once that process is finished, the wafers are separated and adhesive residue is removed using the debonding system.
A key requirement of the project is maximum localization. Under the technical specification, the equipment must rely on Russian-made components, including controllers based on domestic processors, control boards with Russian microcontrollers and FPGAs, vacuum systems, automatic wafer loading and unloading mechanisms, and the software stack.
Computing Editor
Tomas lives in the terminal. He covers chips, laptops, and operating systems with a focus on performance and efficiency. He reads kernel changelogs the way other people read fiction, and he's always on the hunt for the perfect mechanical keyboard switch. If it processes data, Tomas has an opinion on it.
via iXBT
