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 was launched in 1966, and changed to its current name by 1970. They produced the Elbrus computer systems.

The 1980s US embargo on hi-tech exports affected USSR's ability to produce new chips. Unable to come up with competitive designs, Mikron and other semiconductor manufacturers resorted to reverse-engineering and producing replicas of foreign designs. The resulted ES EVM computer system was based heavily on 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, almost half of it financed by Rusnano. Production started in 2012-2013.

Mikron produced the first sample of 65 nm chips in 2013. It did not enter production.

Mikron's scheduled Elbrus-2SM processors were never produced due to quality control issues. The 2SM was eventually produced soly by TSMC. After the 2022 international sanctions due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, TSMC cut ties with the Mikron, ceasing supplies of 2SM processors.

Mikron started 2SM's production in its own facilities. Instead of TSMC's 2010 28 nm process, the new chips are produced with the 90 nm process from 2002.

Mikron's production consisted entirely of microprocessors used for contactless smart cards in 2023.

Mikron started manufacturing the MIK32 in 2024, a copy of the STMicroelectronics' STM32L0 microcontroller, manufacturerd by its 0.18 μm process.

 US Sanctions 
During 1990-ties the Cold War era COCOM embargo was eased and in 2000-ties Russian chip manufacturing plants cooperated with US companies such as AMD in effort to obtain decommissioned past generation equipment needed to shorten the technological gap. In effort to curb these attempts, in 2012-2016 US government introduced sanctions against major Russian chip makers, Mikron included. Export of the US chip making equipment to Mikron became only available if duly licensed by the BIS. In April 2022, the US Treasury Department imposed blocking sanctions on 21 entities and 13 people, including Mikron, for their ties to Russia following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

 Gallery 

 References 

Category:Semiconductor companies of Russia
Category:Manufacturing companies based in Moscow
Category:RTI Systems
Category:Zelenograd
Category:Electronics companies of the Soviet Union
Category:Ministry of the Electronics Industry (Soviet Union)
Category:Electronics companies of Russia