The Decades of Wait is Finally Over: India to Have Its Own Semiconductor Fab

In an effort to boost India’s semiconductor industry, the union cabinet, after several rounds of discussions, has finally approved three semiconductor venture applications, worth Rs 1.26 lakh Crore. The applications include the nation’s first semiconductor fabrication unit, a joint collaboration between Tata Electronics and Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (PSMC).

According to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) spearheaded by Ashwini Vaishnaw, the joint venture between Tata and PSMC will be set-up in Gujarat’s Dholera region with an investment of Rs 91,000 crore. This is the second biggest announcement in India’s semiconductor ecosystem after Micron’s ATMP unit in the same region. The upcoming fab is expected to produce 50,000 wafers per month, coupled with a direct employment of 26,000 people and 1 lakh indirect employment.

Apart from the fab approval, the cabinet also approved Tata Semiconductor Assembly and Test Pvt. Ltd’s ATMP unit in Assam with an investment of Rs 27,000 crore. Interestingly, Japan’s Renesas Electronics and India’s CG Power have also formed a joint venture to set-up another ATMP unit in Sanand region of Gujarat with an investment of Rs 75,000 crore. It is expected to produce 15 million chips per day.

Speaking of the semiconductor fab unit, Tata, in collaboration with PSMC, will manufacture high-performance compute chips with 28-nm technology. The chips will cater to various segments such as electric vehicles (EV), telecom, defense, automotive, consumer electronics, display, power electronics, etc. Power management chips are used in high voltage, high current applications. During the press conference, union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “Within a very short time, India Semiconductor Mission has achieved four big successes. With these units, the semiconductor ecosystem will be established in India. India already has deep capabilities in chip design. With these units, our country will develop capabilities in chip fabrication. Advanced packaging technologies will be indigenously developed in India with today’s announcement.”

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