Russia is entering one of the world’s most strategically important semiconductor sectors with the launch of its first contract manufacturing facility for silicon photonic integrated circuits (PICs) based on Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) technology. The project is more than just another research initiative; it is set to start prototype production in 2026 and commercial deliveries in early 2027. It represents Russia’s first attempt to establish a domestic industrial ecosystem for silicon photonics employing CMOS-compatible manufacturing processes. This field is becoming increasingly recognized as essential for the future of telecommunications, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, quantum technologies, and defense electronics.
The Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) in Moscow is currently in the process of establishing a new production line, which was officially announced in late May 2026. The initial production campaign, as per Skoltech, will include the production of approximately one hundred photonic circuits, with a focus on prototypes and small-volume orders for multiple customers. The facility will operate as a shared foundry, where multiple customer designs are fabricated simultaneously on a common silicon wafer using the Multi-Project Wafer (MPW) paradigm, rather than as a traditional semiconductor fab dedicated to a single product. Fabrication will start on September 30, following the deadline for customer applications. Commercial shipments are expected to occur in the first quarter of 2027.
Why Silicon Photonics Matters
Moving electrons across increasingly dense integrated circuits has become one of the most severe performance obstacles in the semiconductor industry. As electrical interconnects struggle to provide adequate bandwidth for artificial intelligence clusters, cloud computing infrastructure, and next-generation telecommunications, power consumption continues to increase.
This challenge is resolved by silicon photonics, which substitutes electrical signals with light. Instead of transmitting information through copper wires, photonic integrated circuits manipulate photons that travel through microscopic optical waveguides that are directly engraved into silicon. Photons are capable of generating significantly greater bandwidth with less energy consumption than electrons, as they do not produce the same level of resistive losses.
This technology has emerged as one of the semiconductor industry’s most rapidly expanding sectors. It is being increasingly investigated for optical computing, quantum information systems, LiDAR sensors, precision measurement, and biomedical diagnostics. Additionally, it is the foundation of modern optical transceivers found in hyperscale data centers and facilitates high-capacity fiber-optic communications.
Russia’s First Industrial Silicon Photonics Platform
The Skoltech initiative is particularly significant not only because Russia can now manufacture photonic chips domestically but also because Instead, the manufacturing process has been optimized for industrial CMOS-compatible technology, rather than laboratory-scale fabrication.
CMOS continues to serve as the cornerstone of nearly all contemporary semiconductor manufacturing processes. Russian developers aim to help domestic microelectronics manufacturers integrate photonic production into existing CMOS facilities without creating a new ecosystem by ensuring compatibility with conventional manufacturing.
This is the first Russian contract manufacturing platform that is expressly designed around Silicon-on-Insulator technology, according to Skoltech. The platform is based on an industrial production philosophy, rather than an experimental research process.
Building an Entire Photonics Ecosystem
The foundry is a continuation of the Center for Rapid Prototyping of Photonic Integrated Circuit Devices, which was established at Skoltech between 2023 and 2024. It is the first facility in Russia that has been specifically designed, constructed, and outfitted for integrated photonics, according to researchers.
The center facilitates an end-to-end development cycle that starts with circuit design and simulation and progresses through wafer fabrication, optoelectronic packaging, device assembly, and performance testing. Vertical integration is especially critical in the production of photonic chips, as it necessitates significantly more than wafer processing. Packaging optical fibers, aligning lasers, integrating electronic controllers, and validating optical performance are all equally difficult engineering tasks.
Technical Capabilities of the First Production Process
The first manufacturing platform uses Silicon-on-Insulator technology, which is characterized by a 220 ±10 nanometer silicon device layer. This technology is in close alignment with one of the most commonly applied standards in the global silicon photonics industry.
The process is compatible with the C-band optical communications window, which spans from 1530 to 1565 nanometers. This wavelength range is widely used in modern fiber-optic communication networks due to its exceedingly low transmission losses.
Although the facility is primarily designed for prototype and small-volume production, individual chip areas may be as large as 5 × 5 millimeters, and minimal feature sizes are specified at 85 nanometers. Therefore, the optical integration is relatively dense.
Rather than establishing an isolated domestic standard, these specifications align the platform with internationally recognized silicon photonics process parameters.
A Standardized Photonic Design Library
The availability of a Process Design Kit (PDK), which is essentially the software toolkit necessary for the design of photonic integrated circuits, is one of the most critical components of the project.
Standardized design libraries that comprise pre-validated components are essential for contemporary semiconductor design. Designers assemble comprehensive photonic systems by utilizing verified building elements, rather than requiring engineers to construct each optical structure from the ground up.
Skoltech’s initial PDK comprises optical fiber tapers that are compatible with Ultra-High Numerical Aperture (UHNA) fibers, diffraction gratings that are optimized for eight-degree coupling angles, multi-mode interferometer power splitters in both 1×2 and 2×2 configurations, configurable directional couplers, ring resonators with quality factors that can reach 10⁵ depending on the configuration, thermo-optic modulators that operate at approximately 10 kHz, and refractory-metal heaters that enable the precise tuning of photonic devices using control voltages ranging from 0 to ten volts.
The provision of these validated components greatly reduces the development time, while simultaneously enabling multiple organizations to design compatible devices on the same manufacturing platform.
Cost Reduction Through Multi-Project Wafer Production
The Multi-Project Wafer model will be used by Skoltech to concurrently produce multiple independent circuit designs, rather than dedicating an entire silicon wafer to a single consumer.
This method has become the accepted practice among numerous international photonic foundries due to the exorbitant cost of prototype production when customers are required to purchase complete wafers.
Universities, startups, and industrial companies can get advanced semiconductor manufacturing at a reasonable cost without committing to mass production by distributing fabrication costs across a number of initiatives.
This approach could be particularly advantageous for Russia’s developing photonics sector, as numerous preliminary applications necessitate only a few dozen or hundreds of prototype processors, rather than millions of commercial units.
Participating in an international race
Russia is entering an exceedingly competitive global market.
In Europe, organizations such as PhotonDelta in the Netherlands have lead the development of comprehensive integrated photonics ecosystems, while the United States has made substantial investments through programs like AIM Photonics. GlobalFoundries, Tower Semiconductor, IMEC, Smart Photonics, Ligentec, and several Asian manufacturers are among the commercial foundries that currently provide silicon photonics manufacturing services to support the global telecommunications, cloud computing, and sensing markets.
Silicon photonics are relied upon by a growing number of technology companies, such as Intel, Cisco, Broadcom, Nvidia, and numerous optical networking firms, to meet the escalating bandwidth demands resulting from artificial intelligence.
Strategic Significance Beyond Telecommunications
Silicon photonics has implications that extend beyond communications, although the issue of speedier internet receives the most public attention.
Coherent optical communications for military systems, precision optical sensors for aerospace, interferometric measurement equipment, environmental monitoring instruments, quantum communication networks, and advanced LiDAR sensors used in autonomous vehicles are all made possible by photonic integrated circuits.
Optical computation is also one of the most promising long-term applications.
In contrast to conventional processors, which perform calculations electronically, optical processors manipulate information through the use of light. Photonic hardware has the potential to significantly reduce energy consumption and significantly increase throughput by executing specific matrix operations that are essential to neural networks.
Although electronic processors will continue to be essential, photonic accelerators may ultimately serve as a complement to traditional chips in the areas of AI inference, scientific computing, and data center networking.
Looking Ahead to 400G, 800G, and Beyond
The Skoltech roadmap’s most ambitious component may be found beyond the initial manufacturing procedure.
The researchers intend to create high-speed optical modulators that can operate at bandwidths of 20 to 30 GHz, and potentially even higher. 400G and 800G optical transceivers are currently being deployed in hyperscale data centers worldwide, and these modulators are essential building elements.
These modulators operate as optical switches that are incredibly rapid, converting electrical information into modulated light that travels through fiber-optic networks.
They regulate the speed at which information can be transmitted across optical communication systems by operating at tens of billions of switching cycles per second.
Future fiber networks will increasingly necessitate optical transceivers that can transmit 400 Gbps, 800 Gbps, and ultimately 1.6 Tbps as internet traffic continues to grow as a result of cloud computing, streaming media, artificial intelligence, and machine-to-machine communications.
In conclusion,
Russia’s establishment of its first contract manufacturing facility for silicon photonic integrated circuits marks a significant milestone in the country’s semiconductor development strategy. Although modest by international standards, the initial production of approximately one hundred prototype circuits establishes a critical CMOS-compatible Silicon-on-Insulator platform for a domestic photonics ecosystem.
It is anticipated that photonic integrated circuits will become as strategically significant in the next decade as conventional microprocessors have been over the past fifty years, spanning from high-speed optical communications and AI infrastructure to advanced sensing, quantum technologies, and future optical computing.
It is uncertain whether Russia will ultimately be able to bridge the gap with established international leaders. The Skoltech initiative, which integrates an industrial fabrication process, standardized design libraries, Multi-Project Wafer production, and long-term plans for high-speed modulators that support 400G and 800G optical networking, firmly establishes Russia in the global race to define the next generation of semiconductor technology.