Russia is opening access to one of the key technologies of the future — photonic chips. Bauman Moscow State Technical University, together with VNIIA named after N. L. Dukhov, is launching a pilot production of photonic integrated circuits (PICs), and it will be free for scientific teams and developers. Applications are already being accepted for the first contract launch — they can be submitted until May 30, and the first finished chips are planned to be issued in the third quarter of 2026.
Photonic chips operate not on electricity, but on light, which provides higher data transfer rates, lower signal loss, and lower power consumption. These solutions are being considered as the basis for AI, data centers, quantum technologies, and sensor systems.
The production is built according to the MPW model — one silicon wafer is divided between several projects. This dramatically reduces the cost and makes the technology accessible not only to large companies, but also to universities, laboratories, and startups. In the pilot launch, the manufacturing will be fully funded by the university for Russian scientific groups.
The technology is based on silicon nitride (SiN) with optical losses of up to 0.05 dB/cm — at the level of leading world centers. The process used allows creating photonic circuits with the possibility of thermo-optical signal modulation. Each chip will include test structures on which characteristics will be measured and the results will be transferred to developers.
Scientific groups from the Russian Academy of Sciences, universities, industrial companies, and startups will be able to place orders. The Russian Academy of Sciences will provide expertise for the projects.
Such solutions are already used in telecom, AI, lidar systems, medicine, and quantum computing. At the same time, the main barrier — access to production — has long remained high.
The new launch effectively removes this restriction: developers can send the topology, receive a finished chip, and test it without having to create their own production. This shortens the path from idea to prototype and accelerates the development of technologies within the country.