Mikron Group
Mikron Group is a manufacturer of semiconductor devices in Russia. It has manufacturing facilities in Zelenograd, St.Petersburg and Voronezh.
History
The plant started as a part of NIIME, when the Soviet Union attempted follow the Western countries' development on microelectronics.The plant had adopted its current name and became a standalone entity by 1970. The USSR invested heavily in Mikron, and developed technologies used for the Soviet space program there. The Elbrus computer systems was first produced by that time.
The 1980s Coordinating Committee for Multilateral [Export Controls|US embargo on hi-tech exports] affected USSR's ability to produce new chips. Unable to come up with new designs, Mikron and other semiconductor manufacturers resorted to copying foreign designs through the means of reverse-engineering. The ES EVM computer system of the era are unlicensed replicas of the IBM/360 series, and the two were generally compatible.
Following Soviet Union's opening to international trades in 1990, Mikron was contracted by Samsung to manufacture chips for wrist watches and calculators. The company collaborated with STMicroelectronics to start a 180 nm process node in 2007.
Mikron obtained a license to import 90 nm process in 2010. The design and production facilities cost a total of 16.57 billion Rubles, about half of it was financed by Rusnano. Production started in 2012-2013.
Mikron first taped-out experimental 65 nm samples in 2013; it has never produced any 65
Due to quality control issues, the scheduled production of the Elbrus-2SM never started, with the processor eventually manufactured entirely by TSMC. After International sanctions during the [Russian invasion of Ukraine|international sanctions] for Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, TSMC cut ties with the Mikron and supply of Elbrus-2SM ceased, forcing Mikron to bring the production back to its own facilities again. Instead of TSMC's 28 nm process from 2010, the new chips are produced with the 90 nm process List of semiconductor scale examples#Chips using [90 nm manufacturing technology|from 2003].
By early 2023, Mikron's production consisted entirely of chips for contactless smart cards. It started constructing a new plant in Zelenograd.
Mikron's 2024 MIK32 microcontroller is a copy of STMicroelectronics' STM32L0, manufacturerd on its 0.18 μm (180 nm) process. MIK32 is the first product to be packaged by Mikron itself.