Chennai: India has homed in on its first indigenous semiconductor product.
The Indian Semiconductor Mission under the Ministry of Electronics and IT has identified a tiny, but extensively used semiconductor chip used in LED bulbs, for manufacture within the country.
Industry veterans, silicon wafer startups and academics are accelerating the plan to indigenise the supply chain for this chip, the first step in a larger plan to cut into a market dominated by Chinese imports.
Non-profit EPIC Foundation - set up by HCL co-founders Ajai Chowdhry and Arjun Malhotra as well as other technocrats – is working on a proposal to localise design, manufacture, and packaging of the semiconductor chips.
The count of chips that go into LED bulbs stand at 700 million units a year and is set to touch 1 billion in two years.
The locally made chips for LED bulbs would serve as a “strong use case” for the global investor community about India's commitment to kickstarting semiconductor manufacturing, Chowdhry told ET.
EPIC has zeroed in on Bengaluru-based Qwikchip for its design.
The startup, headed by semiconductor industry veteran Rakesh Adhikari and IIT-M professor Qadeer Khan, is expected to hammer out the design by the end of the year.
EPIC has roped in packaging company Sahasra Semiconductors for packaging the wafers. There is a proposal to upgrade Chandigarh-based fabrication unit SCL for commercial wafer manufacture, paving the way for an indigenous design-to-package supply chain.
“We have also placed a request with the government on the upgrade. SCL can be upgraded within the next 12-18 months, and we've talked to companies that can upgrade it,” Chowdhry said.
Satya Gupta, chief executive of EPIC, told ET that the semiconductor chips, which fall under the 180-nm category, require the insertion of a module that would take about 15 months.
The government said late last year that it would explore a partnership with a commercial partner to modernise the brownfield facility at SCL.
The electronics and IT ministry has set up a multi-disciplinary advisory panel comprising bureaucrats, business leaders and academics to kickstart semiconductor manufacturing in India.
Besides Chowdhry and IIT-M Director V Kamakoti, the panel includes Intel veteran Vinod Dham, who has been credited with the development of the Pentium microprocessor. Last year, the ministry announced a Rs 76,000-crore incentive package for industries looking to set up semiconductor and display fab units.
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