OREANDA-NEWS. On 22 July 2009 was announced, that RUSNANO Supervisory Council approved the Corporation’s participation in the project aimed at setting up national production of 90-nm topology very large scale integrated circuits (VLSI). In the range of products manufactured as a result of the project are Russian-made microchips for smart cards integrated into electronic traveler’s passports, driving licenses and vehicle registration certificates, bank and social cards, mobile phones SIM-cards, and RFID chips. The integrated circuits manufactured under the project will also be used in GLONASS/GPS devices and digital set-top boxes.

The project funding will total 16.5 billion Rubles. The JSC SITRONICS, one of the Russian microelectronics leaders, will join the project as RUSNANO’s partner and a co-investor. To implement the project, the co-investor is expected to contribute the ICs production line and RUSNANO is planning to invest 6.5 billion Rubles into the newly set up project comany’s equity. In addition, RUSNANO and the co-investor will provide a loan to the portfolio company for the total amount of 3.6 billion Rubles.

The project will be deployed in the production facility of JSC NIIME & Mikron, a subsidiary of JSC SITRONICS, and use its infrastructure. The project objective is to make JSC SITRONICS the center of further development of microelectronics in Russia. The project will acquire a process license from ST Microelectronics’, one of the leading semiconductor developers in the world, to produce 90-nm integrated circuits. A design center may be established as part of the project for developing proprietary microchip designs.

"This project is of great importance for Russia. Its implementation will facilitate such federal target programs as National Technological Platform 2007-2011 and Development of Component Electronics and Radioelectronics 2008-2015. The project completely complies with the national priorities for setting up strategic infrastructure facilities that ensure sustainable performance of electronic industry,” said Dionis Gordin, RUSNANO Managing Director.

"This project will enable the Russian microelectronics industry to advance to a new level, and RUSNANO’s participation demonstrates the support of the Russian Government," said Sergey Aslanyan, President of OJSC SITRONICS. “Only by continued investment into technology and know-how development, even during the economic instability, we will be able to maintain the competitive edge and gain a key to success in the future.”