New Delhi: The government has accepted three semiconductor proposals for ₹1, 25,600 crore in Dholera and Sanand, Gujarat, and Morigaon, Assam. Tata Electronics Pvt. Ltd. and Tata Semiconductor Assembly and Test Pvt. Ltd. will build the Dholera and Morigaon facilities, respectively. The former will be an operational fabrication plant capable of manufacturing 50,000 ‘wafer starts,’ the first form of silicon chips, per month.
The approved three semiconductor units are the Semiconductor Fab with a 50,000-wfsm capacity at an estimated cost of Rs 91000 crore in Dholera, Gujarat; the Semiconductor ATMP unit in Assam with an investment of Rs 27000 crore; and the Semiconductor ATMP unit for specialized chips in Sanand, Gujarat, with an investment of Rs 7006 crore.
The technology partner for the fab unit will be Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, while the technology partners for the assembly and testing unit in Morigaon have been kept confidential at their request, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a media briefing.
The Dholera facilities will be utilized to produce “high performance compute chips with 28 nanometre technology,” as well as chips for power management, which Mr. Vaishnaw stated accounted for a significant portion of semiconductor demand. Mr. Vaishnaw stated that the output from both factories would meet domestic demand as well as export chips.
The facility in Sanand will also include a packaging unit built by CG Power using technology from Renesas Electronics Corporation of Japan and Stars Microelectronics of Thailand.
The three semiconductor units under ‘Development of Semiconductors and Display Manufacturing Ecosystems is just a move towards an AatmaNirbhar Bharat. All three units will start construction within the next 100 days.
The Programme for Development of Semiconductors and Display Manufacturing Ecosystems in India was notified in December 2021 with a total outlay of Rs. 76,000 crore.
In June 2023, the Union Cabinet approved the proposal of Micron for setting up a semiconductor unit in Sanand, Gujarat. The construction of this unit is progressing at a rapid pace, and a robust semiconductor ecosystem is emerging near the unit.
The demand for semiconductors, also known as integrated circuits, has skyrocketed, as these chips are now present in nearly every modern electrical appliance and personal electronics gadget. Following geopolitical pressures to minimize their reliance on supply chain vulnerabilities, a growing number of countries are attempting to distance themselves from China’s supremacy.
While facilities for assembling finished goods have progressively increased in quantity, semiconductor fabrication units, or fabs, for producing chipsets and displays, which are critical components of many electronics manufacturing processes, are becoming increasingly scarce.
A significant portion of semiconductor production requires design and intellectual effort. India has an advantage in this regard because a significant proportion of semiconductor design engineers worldwide are Indian or of Indian descent.
