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Information for EDAC on the Production of Integrated Circuits in Eastern Europe
1. Attachedhe Status of IC Production, Technology and Use in the USSR and Eastern Europp, are our replies to specific questions addressed to us by the Chairman of the Economic Defense Advisory Committee (EDAC). This response, which was preparedery short deadline, has already been disseminated to the members of EDAC by
of your Branch.
J
Actino/Chief, Industries Branch
and Eastern Europe
Question il.
Docs the USSR or any country in Eastern Europe presently produce IC'sass production commercial scale? If so, which ones?
Answer
No.
How many IC's are produced in the USSR at the present time? Answer
Unknown. Tho Information on IC production in the USSR is fragmentary, imprecise, and difficult to evaluate. There appear to be IC development programs underway at four 1) the SVETLANA electronics plant in Leningrad; 2) an electronics plant in Voronezh; 3) an electronics plant in Zelenograd (nearnd 4) an instrument-building plant in Riga. US visitors have been Admitted only to SVETLANA. rench engineerugoslavian businessman havo boon to Voronezh. Output at SVETLANA has been reported at about IS million devices per year; output at Voronezh has been reporteder dayoillion per year. None of these figures
(million unit)
* 1/
y
Production of 5rmiconductors in the USSR and Eastern0
Country USSR
Eastern Europe Bulgariaast Germany Hungary Poland Rumani a
1/ Mostly germanium.
2/ Most are germanium transistors and diodesmall
quantity of MOS devices being produced under French license. 3/ Mostly germanium; some silicon.
4/ Probably produces more silicon devices than the other countries in East Europe.
S/. Expanding output of silicon devices. Monocrystallinc silicon is being imported, in large quantities, from the West.
6/ This1 data. Upf output could be silicon planar devices.
are official. Furthermore, these are believed to be gross figures and not the useable yield. The Soviets have given no indication of the yield rate for any line. Probably it is quite low.
Soviet IC activity appears still to be in the researci. and development phase
.
How many IC's are produced in the Eastern European countries at the, present time?
Answer
Unknown. Every country in Eastern Europe (except Albania) has active research and development programs for
ooi/iec
X
integrated circuits. Czechoslovakia and Hungary have made
some prototype IC's. East Germanyew samples
at the Leipzig Fair for the first time, Bulgaria
i
has made some KOS devices.
Bulgaria is manufacturing MOS devicesiiise from Franco. Apparentlyaboratory scale capability exists.* Rumania appears to have some capability tomall amount of IC's as part of the deal with Franc toheomputer under French license..
Question M.
Han tho US (CIA, DOD, FTD) government identified any piece of Soviet or Eastern Europe military equipment which contains Soviet or Eastern European produced IC's?
Answer
No. During the past two years the US government has acquired, and technically examined, several items of Soviet
* Tho US corporation Teledyne, has recently submitted anto Commerce Department toillion worth of MOS devices (manufactured by North American Rockwell) to Bulgaria.
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military electronics equipment. Many of these items,onobuoy (forhip's
navigational radar"issile were manufactured9 (the most recent date of manufacture of any equipment examined). None of these items were equipped with IC's. The radar and the transceiver were based on tube technology; only the power supplies were solid-state. Tho other items contained transistors, but with the exceptionilicon rectifier, all tho transistors were germanium type. The missile, in particularan individually launched, optically sighted missile with infrared homing capabilityprobably would have had its electronic circuitry designed around integrated circuits had thoy heon available.
It would appear that, as9 at least, the USSR was not using IC's in military electronic equipment. Moreover, the almost exclusive use of germanium transistors suggests that silicon planar manufacturing techniques for transistors may not have been well advanced.
No East European military equipment is known to have
IC's.
* This radar has been noted only on merchant vessels. However, it ia perfectly suitable for use in naval vessels. Similar, and older, navigational radars are in use in the Soviet navy.
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Has the US government Identified any piece of Soviet or East European civilian equipment which contains Soviet or East European produced IC's?
Answer
No civilian equipment containing IC's made in the USSR or Eastern Europe has ever been examined by any agency of the US government.
Bulgaria has indicated that it willYAD model using Soviet IC's. No such production is known to have begun. Some Western visitors to the USSR claim to hove seen prototype instruments containing IC's. No such instruments are known to be in production.
Question
Docs CIA believe that the Soviets have manufactured IC'saboratory basis for high priority military equipment?
Answer
a/ firm that ran destructive tests onybrid thin-film circuits (with inserted discrete transistors) indicated that the USSR attempted (with partial
success) to radiation harden the device. This indicates that the USSR was attempting to design hybrid devices for military end-use. However, we have no evidence that the USSR is actually producing IC'saboratory*basis for mi li tary applications.
What further information is available on Poland being designated by CEMA as the semiconductor producer for the RYAD series?
Answer
task of conductin
develo
The Soviets have never explicitly announced that Poland has been designated theDroducer of IC's for the RYADt is reporte
announced that Poland and the USSR would jointly carry out research in semiconductors. And in the Polish representative to CEMA stated that the USSR and Poland would jointlyumber of articlesessential for the manufacture of computers."
Does CIA believe that this technology may be passed to Soviets and/or other Eastern European countries if tho Poles get the technology from the French/UK?
Answer
We do not know what is involved in passing on "technology to another country. Presumably some "know-how" could be passed. To the oxtent that the Soviet difficulties in IC manufacture are related to the quality of the equipment in use, Poland's ability to help the USSR in its IC program might be limited. lausible alternative, from tho Soviet point of view might bc to simply import the finished devices from Poland.
In addition to the evidence cited in answerf tho close working relationship in the semiconductor area now existing between Poland and the USSR, tho following quotation of the Polish Minister of Foreign Trade concerning Polish soviet technical cooperation, is of interest.
"EconosUc, scientific and technologicalplays an important role in Polish-Soviet relations. Within the framework of this cooperation, Poland receives from the Soviet Union technical documents and product samples. Our specialists constantly travel to the USSR to work and to acquaint themselves with Soviet scientific
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and technological achievements on the spot... In our turn, wc send copies of our technical and scientific projects and all sorts of documents to the Soviet Union. Soviet specialists also visit our country and we give them every help and share our experience with them."
Finally, we know that in one important area of electronics in which the Soviets have had prolonged difficulty in keeping up with the state-of-the-artoscilloscopesthereoint Polish-Soviet development effort. Polish engineers work in Moscow with their counterparts and vice-versa.
It would appear, at the minimum, that the Soviets would have full access to any Western IC technology acquired by Poland. It appears probable that Poland would pass on any "passable" technology to the USSR.
Door, CIA believe or question French assertions that the Poles will be able toass production IC plant even if the cases are denied?
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Answer
We do not believe that Poland will be able to mass produce IC's5 without Western assistance. The small development effort that now exists in Poland is based, primarily, on Western equipments that have been acquired illegally. These purchases have not given Poland command over the industrial "black magic" that is crucial to the manufacturing process. Despite intensive efforts over several years duration, Poland was never able toass production capability for silicon planar transistors. Although France has provided Poland with this starting point, they still do not have all the processing know-how needed to move into large-scale production of IC's The current Polish effort to acquire this "know-how" from France and the UK is implicit evidence that Poland is not optimistic about the chances of producing high quality IC's,arge-scale,5 from its own resources.
.
List countries which are believed to have pilot production lines for JCs.
Answer
Sec
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Question
Expand briefly on the levels of IC production in other Communist countries (include Poland) found onn Tartters memo of
Answer
Our comment for specific countries is as follows: Bulgaria: We have no information that tho output of IC's will rise toear when the new Botevgrad plant is opened. This would imply that Bulgaria has received, or is planning to receive, additional production machinery and equipment from the West to outfit that plant. We have no evidence of that.
Czechoslovakia: We concur.
East Germany: We concur.
Hungary: We have no evidence that Hungary is aiming for an outputillion- IC's.
Rumania: We believe Rumanian capability is very small.
USSR: There is no evidenceass manufacturing capabi1ity.
Original document.
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