OREANDA-NEWS  In Russia, until 2025, it is planned to organize the production of tantalum powder, which is needed for the production of electronics, writes Kommersant with reference to information about the relevant tender worth 300 million rubles announced by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

According to journalists, Rosatom and specialized universities can launch such work. The specified cost, experts believe, will be enough for development work, but the full implementation of the project, which is launched in the country, may require additional investments.

Tantalum is one of the most important materials for the microelectronic industry. Its properties allow the use of metal in the chip as a barrier between silicon and copper. Tantalum powder is used in high-tech industries, in particular, for the production of highly reliable capacitors, in electronic and radio equipment units.

According to Oleg Izumrudov, director of the Consortium of Russian Developers of Data Storage Systems, for full-fledged import substitution, it is necessary to create a production of tantalum powder inside the country, but the profitability of production will only ensure the possibility of exporting finished products, for example, to China, since the domestic market "does not need such volumes"

Now Russia has developed the extraction of "raw tantalum", which is sent for processing to third countries, after which it enters the manufacturing plants of electronic components in the form of powder, experts say. It is assumed that after the launch of production, domestic tantalum powder for microelectronics should replace the much more expensive foreign products.

Earlier it became known that electronics manufacturing enterprises in Russia faced a personnel shortage and were forced to significantly raise salaries in order to poach people. As of June 2023, on average, about 20 percent of manual installers, 40 percent of surface mounting line operators and 60 percent of production managers were missing.