A new technology for manufacturing microchips for microcircuits in the space industry was created in Belarus

This technology is more efficient and less costly compared to its counterparts. The Eurasian Patent Office has granted a patent for it. The developers are specialists from the State Scientific Institution ‘The Joint Institute of Mechanical Engineering of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.’

Standard microcircuits are not generally used in space since they can be destroyed by fast-moving electron-charged particles and radiation. Therefore, silicon-on-sapphire composite components are used for microcircuits in the space industry. They are more rarely damaged, but at the same time the manufacturing technology of such components is complex and expensive. For example, the price of a compound microchip for space industry is about 100 thousand dollars.

Belarusian developers have decreased the price of such microchips. They have improved the technology of sapphire substrate manufacturing, reduced its roughness to 4 nm and less, while almost completely eliminating cracks and residual stress in the substrate.

The patented technique of processing thin sapphire wafers’ flat surfaces and the device for its application reduce the processing time and produce processed surfaces with a roughness of less than 4 nm. This meets the requirements to reduce the technological standard of crystals to 7-10 nm.

The Eurasian patent for this invention will be valid on the territory of 8 Eurasian states: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan.