Can India be a player in the computer chip industry?

A dependable provide of pc chips is important for Arnob Roy, the co-founder of Tejas Networks.

His firm, based mostly in Bangalore, India, provides the tools behind cell phone networks and broadband connections.

“Basically, we offer the electronics that carry visitors throughout telecom networks,” he says.

That requires particular chips designed for telecoms duties.

“Telecom chips are basically completely different from client or smartphone chips. They deal with large volumes of information coming concurrently from lots of of hundreds of customers.

“These networks can not go down. Reliability, redundancy and fail-safe operation are vital – the chip structure has to help that,” Roy says.

Tejas designs a lot of these chips in India, a rustic well-known for its experience in designing pc chips (also called semiconductors).

It is estimated that 20% of the world’s semiconductor engineers are in India.

“Nearly each main international chip firm has its largest or second-largest design centre in India, engaged on cutting-edge merchandise,” says Amitesh Kumar Sinha, Joint Secretary of India’s Ministry of Electronics and Info Know-how.

What India lacks is firms that manufacture semiconductors.

So Indian companies like Tejas Neworks design the chips they want in India, however then have them manufactured abroad.

The weak spot of that system was exposed during Covid, when the availability of chips dried up and corporations in all types of industries needed to reduce manufacturing.

“The pandemic made it clear that semiconductor manufacturing is simply too concentrated globally, and that focus carries critical danger,” Roy says.

That spurred India to develop its personal semiconductor business.

“Covid confirmed us how fragile international provide chains could be. If one a part of the world shuts down, electronics manufacturing all over the place is disrupted,” says Sinha.

“That is why India is creating its personal semiconductor ecosystem to scale back danger and enhance resilience,” he provides.

He’s main authorities efforts to develop the semiconductor business, which entails figuring out elements of the manufacturing course of the place India can compete.

There are several steps in making a computer chip. First design, the place India is already sturdy.

The second stage is wafer fabrication, the place skinny sheets of silicon have circuits etched on to them by extraordinarily costly machines in enormous factories generally known as semiconductor “fabs”.

That a part of the method, significantly for probably the most refined chips, is dominated by firms in Taiwan, with China attempting to catch up.

Within the third stage these giant silicon wafers are sliced up into particular person chips, packaged in protecting casing, related to contacts and examined.

That third stage, generally known as Outsourced Semiconductor Meeting and Take a look at (Osat), is the a part of the manufacturing course of focused by India.

“Meeting, take a look at and packaging are simpler to start out than fabs and that’s the place India is shifting first,” says Ashok Chandak, president of India Electronics and Semiconductor Affiliation (IESA).

He says that a number of such crops will “enter mass manufacturing” this yr.

Based in 2023, Kaynes Semicon is the primary firm to get a semiconductor plant up and working with help from the Indian authorities.

Kaynes Semicon invested $260m (£270m) in a manufacturing unit to assemble and take a look at pc chips within the northwestern state of Gujarat. Manufacturing began in November of final yr.

“Packaging isn’t just placing a chip in a field. It is a 10 to 12 step manufacturing course of,” says Raghu Panicker, CEO of Kaynes Semicon.

“That is why packaging and testing are as vital as making the chip itself with out this stage, the wafer is ineffective to business.”

His facility won’t be making probably the most superior pc chips discovered within the newest cellphones or used for coaching AI.

“India doesn’t want probably the most advanced datacentre or AI chips on day one. That’s not the place our demand is, and that isn’t the place our energy lies right now,” Panicker says.

As an alternative, they would be the sort of chips utilized in automobiles, telecoms and the defence business.

“These usually are not glamorous chips, however they’re economically and strategically way more essential for India. You construct an business by first serving your individual market. Complexity can come later. Scale has to come back first,” he provides.

It has been a steep studying curve for Kaynes Semicon.

“We had by no means constructed a semiconductor cleanroom in India earlier than. We had by no means put in this tools earlier than. We had by no means educated individuals for this earlier than,” Panicker says.

“Semiconductors demand a degree of self-discipline, documentation and course of management that could be very completely different from conventional manufacturing. That cultural shift is as essential because the technical one.”

Getting workers educated has been an enormous problem.

“Coaching takes time. You can not shortcut 5 years of expertise into six months. That’s the single largest bottleneck,” Panicker says.

Again in Bangalore, at Tejas Networks, Arnob Roy is wanting ahead to purchasing extra locally-sourced tech.

“Over the subsequent decade, we anticipate a major semiconductor manufacturing base to emerge in India and that can straight assist firms like ours.”

It is the beginning of a protracted journey, he says.

“I do see Indian firms ultimately designing and manufacturing full telecom chipsets however it should take affected person capital and time.

“Deep-tech merchandise take longer to mature, and India is barely now starting to help that sort of funding.”