Import substitution for 1.5 billion: Mikron plant entrusted to create an analogue of the American ARCHER for chip production

Zelenograd plant "Mikron" will receive 1.56 billion rubles for the development of an installation for measuring the misalignment of topological layers on silicon wafers - equipment is necessary for the production of microcircuits. The customer is the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The project code is "Archer", which in translation into Russian completely coincides with the name of the American analogue ARCHER 10 XT from KLA TENCOR, which is to be replaced, reports CNews.

According to the technical task, the new installation should automatically measure the misalignment of layers on wafers with a diameter of up to 200 mm with design standards up to 130 nm. Productivity - at least 75 wafers per hour. The work must be completed by July 31, 2029. Experts agree that the development deadlines are very tight. To be in time by 2029, a ready-made scientific base and impeccable work with component supplies are needed.

The American ARCHER installation is a high-precision controller in the production of microcircuits. When creating chips, drawings of future transistors are applied in layers to a silicon wafer, and each new layer must perfectly match the previous one - even a shift of several nanometers (thousands of times thinner than a hair) makes the chip defective. ARCHER uses optics and an interferometer to scan the wafer, finds special alignment marks and checks whether the layers have shifted. If there is an error, the installation provides data for correcting the process at the next stage. Simply put, it is a "microscope-controller" that monitors the accuracy of layer deposition during the production of microcircuits.

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