India’s chip ambitions get Japanese support before Modi-Takaichi talks

All eyes are set on Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who arrived in New Delhi on July 1 on her first official visit to the country. She will participate in the 16th India-Japan Annual Summit and hold talks with her Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi and others. From defence to economy, from north-east to southern India, from business to travel, she will discuss several topics. However, the most important and watershed moment will be when she makes an announcement on semiconductors. Ahead of the visit of Sanae Takaichi, major Japanese companies like ROHM Co. and Tokyo Electron have already announced partnerships with Indian firms like Tata Electronics for the development of advanced silicon MOSFETs. These firms have also agreed to provide the technological know-how for backend packaging, assembly, and testing.

Semiconductor Mission 2.0
Analysts believe that the Japanese companies may be tempted by India’s Semiconductor Mission 2.0. The Union government is most likely to approve the Rs 1.25 lakh outlay for providing help to those companies that set up greenfield plans for chip manufacturing, advanced packaging, supply chains, research and skilled workforce development. Some of the salient features of Semiconductor Mission 2.0 are the following:

• The government has already approved 12 projects under this scheme that will cover semiconductor fabs, ATMP/OSAT facilities, compound semiconductors and display manufacturing.
• In an attempt to encourage indigenous chip design, 24 semiconductor design firms have been selected under the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme.

Tata Electronics Semiconductor plant at Dholera, Gujarat.)Some projects are already there under different phases of development, such as:
Semiconductor fabrication plant of Tata Electronics-SMC Fab at Dholera in Gujarat.

• Micron Technology plant at Sanand in Gujarat for ATMP, or the Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products. It will have the facilities for Assembly, Test, Marking, and Packaging in semiconductor manufacturing in the health sector.
• An Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facility at Sanand. The plant being developed by CG Power–Renesas–Stars
• Microelectronics will take raw silicon wafers from foundries and transform them into finished, usable chips.
• Kaynes Semicon is developing an OSAT facility at Gujarat’s Sanand.
• Tata Electronics is setting up an ATMP facility at Jagiroad in Assam.
• The government has approved a GaN-based Mini/Micro LED display facility.
• The approval has also been given to set up a compound semiconductor facility.

DNA India