Sberbank is interested in solutions in the field of semiconductor production

Sberbank is showing interest in solutions in the field of semiconductor production. A group of bank engineers is developing software that could potentially speed up the production of microelectronics at semiconductor factories through the use of artificial intelligence technologies. Kommersant’s sources say that Sber is interested in a wide range of semiconductor technologies, and specialists from the American Intel already work in its structures.

At the Microelectronics 2023 forum, which will be held from October 9 to 14 in Sochi, a closed conference “Sber Technologies for semiconductor production” is planned, follows from the program of events. Judging by the brief description, the session will present “Sberbank’s vision and capabilities for production automation.”

We are talking about developments related to inverse lithography technology (ILT), explained Kommersant’s interlocutor familiar with the progress of the project, which allows, through the use of large computing power and artificial intelligence technologies, to speed up the process of designing photo masks (masks used to transfer the chip pattern to silicon wafer).

The development of photo masks is carried out by the manufacturing plants themselves or by individual companies specializing in the production of masks – mask shops. After the design center designs the processor, it goes to the mask shop. Calculations for preparing the mask are performed in special computer-aided design (CAD) systems that operate in data centers deployed in factories.

The production of modern chips requires the creation of a set of masks; their number and complexity grows with the level of the device. The more modern the technology on which the processor is designed, the greater the number of optical distortions that must be taken into account when designing a mask, which requires greater computing power.

Nvidia, in particular, is developing software that could potentially help speed up the design of photo masks. In March, American Forbes wrote that the corporation introduced the cuLitho software library, which allows you to speed up the development of photo masks by transferring the computing load from central processors to Nvidia graphics processors, which speeds up the design of photo masks by tens of times.

According to Kommersant’s interlocutor close to the Sberbank project, “a group of engineers within the company” is working on creating an algorithm that will make it possible to design masks and calculate optical distortions using neural networks, rather than standard calculation methods used in existing CAD systems.

Kommersant’s source in a large Russian microelectronics manufacturer also says that Sberbank specialists “have been showing interest in projects related to the production of semiconductors for at least the last few months.” According to him, representatives of the bank visited one of the leading specialized enterprises and consulted on the peculiarities of organizing technological processes. According to Kommersant’s interlocutor in one of the Russian design centers, a group of domestic engineers from Intel moved to Sber. However, the details of the project they are working on are unknown to him.

In the program of the Microelectronics forum, Kommersant discovered that Sber is also the organizer of a round table dedicated to the RISC-V processor architecture. Several other Kommersant sources in the microelectronics market say that the bank “shows interest in this architecture.” Kommersant sent a request to Sberbank.

Kommersant’s interlocutors in microelectronics design centers are still looking at Sber’s actions with skepticism: “Frankly speaking, no one yet understands why Sber took on such developments. Even if their developments become a product, it is unclear in which factories it can be used.” The fact is, one of Kommersant’s sources explains, that inverse lithography technology is being introduced at factories that work with fine topological standards – 14 nm and below, but in Russia “there are no such factories and are not expected in the foreseeable future.”

Nikita Korolev