Russia finishes first 130nm-capable lithography tool, but it is still far from factory use

The prototype marks progress toward domestic chipmaking equipment, yet it remains years from mass production and still depends on work done with Belarus-based Planar.

Russia’s Zelenograd Nanotechnology Center says it has finished the third R&D stage of its first lithography tool for 200-mm wafers at 130nm, but the machine is still an internal prototype and remains far from factory use. The project matters because it suggests Russia is trying to rebuild domestic chipmaking equipment, though the reporting says Belarus’s Planar handled much of the system development and assembly while Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade put about $70 million into the program. The tool is estimated at about $7.3 million per unit, with a $600,000 laser source, and Tom’s Hardware says a realistic date for actual commercial wafer processing is around 2029 at the earliest. In a separate development, a Centre for Technology & Statecraft report says Chinese chipmakers accumulated 343 immersion DUV scanners from 2012 through early 2026, including 270 ASML Twinscan NXT:1980i systems, giving China a sizable base of tools usable for 7nm-class production despite EUV restrictions. CTS also says Chinese fabs bought about 90 NXT:1980i scanners in 2024 and 89 more in 2025, spending more than $13 billion over those two years.