Can some give the reasons why a semiconductor foundry is not viable in terms of economics and weather with links.
Most of the companies I mentioned are multi-million dollar companies if not multi-billion companies (though most of them are).They are daughter companies given very small tasks at times some are funded in small scale to satisfy domestic demand of small electronic products. I have not mislead, This is my field.
In today's world you can't do everything yourself. It is not practical and economically feasible. You sometimes buy and use IP instead of re-inventing the wheel.We know what they are building. They take the design on license production from big players and they duplicate it with small changes and minute changes.
Eg: Rockchip is a fabless firm designing the IC on Chip under licence from ARM on ARM architecture.
I don't know where you are getting your information from but it is totally in-correct.Market is there but companies couldn't find a place to set up a fab. It is Not possible that you have one of the largest software markets and production facility and you don't have a market for wafers.
Your statement is like fox and sour grapes story. I have read that article. It is a poor attempt to whitewash failure of our government.Most probably there are, but I am telling you the reasons why foreign based firms rejected to put their fabrication units. They are NOT getting a suitable place.
In cooperate negation you can't always give the true reason for denying request or offer. For general public you have to give reason that won't embarrass any involved party specifically governments.Please explain this to those firms who rejected to put the plant based on water pollution
it has subtropical climate. The air quality is very high in the region North Taiwan where the foundries are. The temp, does not go above 25 degree centigrade has less fluctuation of temperature. This is why it is suited.
When you have high fluctuation in climatic weather in a season then it becomes tough to manage the humidity as it varies with the temp. and it requires more attention and is prone lapses inside a fab.
There are two types of foundries 1) which designs it's own and produces it, 2) which produces the wafers as per client's design.Pollution is just an excuse. Real reason is that USA doesn't permit ToT of semiconductor manufacturing outside of US and its associated countries like Taiwan, Japan and Korea.
It is awesome. We have a lots of talent and we need to Invest in R & D. If we put our money in R & D, I am sure that we can emerge as a very big Hub in R & D that we can compete with whole world and not only india.There are two types of foundries 1) which designs it's own and produces it, 2) which produces the wafers as per client's design.
India has a technology to develop wafers but only restricted to ISRO, SCL. Of course there are fabs working but they are manufacturing and further putting up of manufacturing plants will take time.
HSMC is doing really well and has good capacity to manufacture wafers.
Semiconductor Manufacturing[edit]
In March 2016, HSMC received ₹700 crore worth of seed investment for the project from Mumbai-based private equity fund Next Orbit Ventures (NOV).[83]
- Gujarat is expected to be home to India's first semiconductor wafer fabrication manufacturing facility by late 2017 in Prantij of Sabarkantha district. To be set up by anchor partner Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (HSMC) and copartners STMicroelectronics N.V. (France/Italy) and Silterra (Malaysia), it will employ a workforce of over 25,000 including 4,000 direct employees. The group will establish two manufacturing units at an expense of over INR 29,000 crore or about US$4.5 billion, each capable of producing 20,000 wafers per month. Technology nodes currently proposed by this consortium are 90, 65 and 45 nm nodes in Phase I and 45, 28 and 22 nm nodes in Phase II.[82]
In February 2014, the union cabinet approved setting up of these fab proposals with decision to extend incentives as follows:
- Another consortium, led by Jaiprakash Associates in collaboration with IBM and Tower Semiconductor Ltd., proposed to build a wafer fab in Greater Noida near Yamuna Expressway in Uttar Pradesh at an expense of over INR 34,000 crore or about US$5 billion, capable of producing 40,000 300mm-diameter wafers per month in an advanced CMOS with 90, 65 and 45 nm CMOS nodes initially before gradually switching over to 28 nm and 22 nm CMOS nodes in later phases. As of April 2016, the fate of the project remains uncertain as the debt-ridden lead partner, JPA, exited the project, citing commercial infeasibility of the project.[84]
- 25% subsidy on capital expenditure and tax reimbursement under M-SIPS Policy.
- Exemption of Basic Customs Duty (BCD) for non-covered capital items.
- 200% deduction on expenditure on R&D under Section 35(2AB) of the Income Tax Act.
- Investment-linked deductions under Section 35AD of the IT Act.
- Interest free loan of around INR 5124 crore to each.[85]
- SunEdison and Adani Group have signed an MoU to build the largest vertically integrated solar photovoltaic fab facility in India with an investment of up to US$4 billion in Gujarat's Mundra, creating 4,500 direct jobs and more than 15,000 indirect jobs by integrating all aspects of solar panel production on site, including polysilicon refining and ingot, cell, and module production.[86]
Yes.. Qualcomm, ST Micro, NXP are to name a few.. But almost all companies have huge presence in Bangalore only.I know that there are many chip design companies in Bangalore and maybe even in Hyderabad and chennai, and electronic manufacturing seems to be coming up noida and Gurgaon.
Are chip design companies coming up in north?
Semi conductor industry is totally controlled by Patents from US. Every small detail like even Design of a storage element or new algorithm etc are patented. That is the reason it's very hard to really become stable and to become market leader in semi-conductor industry. What we really have in India (all private semiconductor companies) are just development centers. Every work which is new for example newer architecture or newer technology, generally starts in US. Then on from second revision, It will be in India where we will just do blind folded implementation.It is awesome. We have a lots of talent and we need to Invest in R & D. If we put our money in R & D, I am sure that we can emerge as a very big Hub in R & D that we can compete with whole world and not only india.
Ok. I am just a informed layman in this area.Semi conductor industry is totally controlled by Patents from US. Every small detail like even Design of a storage element or new algorithm etc are patented. That is the reason it's very hard to really become stable and to become market leader in semi-conductor industry. What we really have in India (all private semiconductor companies) are just development centers. Every work which is new for example newer architecture or newer technology, generally starts in US. Then on from second revision, It will be in India where we will just do blind folded implementation.
This completely indigenous fabrication is that India has now attained independence in designing, developing and fabricating end-to-end systems within the country, says IIT-M
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) have designed and booted up a microprocessor, India's first indigenously-developed one, that can be used in mobile computing devices, embedded low power wireless systems and networking systems. This microprocessor will be helpful in reducing reliance on imported microprocessors in Communications and Defence Sectors and is on par with International Standards.
The microprocessor, developed under the project 'Shakti' was fabricated at Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL) of Indian Space Research Organisations (Isro) in Chandigarh, making it the first 'RISC V Microprocessor' to be completely designed and made in India. The processors developed under Shakti are based on an open, free programming language ISA (Instruction Set Architecture), called RISC-V ISA, which provides software and hardware freedom for future developments.
The indigenous design, development and fabricating approach reduces the risk of deploying systems that may be infected with backdoors and hardware Trojans. This will have more significance when systems based on Shakti processors are adopted by strategic sectors such as defence, nuclear power installations and government agencies and departments, said the institute.
Lead Researcher Kamakoti Veezhinathan, Reconfigurable Intelligent Systems Engineering (RISE) Laboratory, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Madras, said, "with the advent of Digital India there are several applications that require customisable processor cores.
The 180nm fabrication facility at SCL Chandigarh is crucial in getting these cores manufacturers within our Country."
Shakti processor family targets clock speeds to suit various end-user application devices such as various consumer electronic devices, mobile computing devices, embedded low power wireless systems and networking systems, among others. The Project is funded by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India.
IIT-M said that the impact of this completely indigenous fabrication is that India has now attained independence in designing, developing and fabricating end-to-end systems within the country, leading to self-sufficiency. With a large percentage of applications requiring sub 200 MHz processors, the current success paves the way to productisation of many hand-held and control application devices.
The front-end design of the Shakti processors is developed with Bluespec, an open-source High-Level Synthesis (HLS) language. Shakti and its eco-system with its modular design approach enables design and development of application-specific end-user computing and communicating systems.
In July 2018, an initial batch of 300 chips, named RISECREEK was produced under Project Shakti, that were fabricated at the Multinational Chip Manufacturer Intel's facility at Oregon, US, that successfully booted the Linux operating system. Now, the fabrication has been done in India.
https://www.business-standard.com/a...-developed-microprocessor-118102600747_1.html
IIT-M said that the impact of this completely indigenous fabrication is that India has now attained independence in designing, developing and fabricating end-to-end systems within the country, leading to self-sufficiency. With a large percentage of applications requiring sub 200 MHz processors, the current success paves the way to productisation of many hand-held and control application devices.
The front-end design of the Shakti processors is developed with Bluespec, an open-source High-Level Synthesis (HLS) language. Shakti and its eco-system with its modular design approach enables design and development of application-specific end-user computing and communicating systems.
Significant but commercial implementation needs time.In July 2018, an initial batch of 300 chips, named RISECREEK was produced under Project Shakti, that were fabricated at the Multinational Chip Manufacturer Intel's facility at Oregon, US, that successfully booted the Linux operating system. Now, the fabrication has been done in India.
Just over ten years later, India is now in a position to develop a gallium nitride fab and a large industry around it, if the government is willing to invest Rs 2,500 crore over five years.
If India develops a gallium nitride fabrication unit, it will join a small club of countries with the technology to grow this material and make devices. A fab can also seed a large electronics industry around it, provided a new set of design and manufacturing startups are also seeded along with it.
A gallium nitride fab is different. It is much less expensive and the technology is still in its early days. Only a few companies now make gallium nitride chips but they would be widespread within a decade. India is expected to be a heavy user of gallium nitride chips for power electronics, especially if the electric vehicles market expands within a decade.
These two institutions now have some of the best facilities in the world for nanoscience and technology research. IISc has a 1,400-sq feet clean room, where dust particles are at a level that is a few millionth that of the environment just outside the building. With it, scientists can make — on a small scale — many devices that are now becoming important for the electronics industry. It can also test these devices as they are made. These facilities are not found beyond some developed countries. For example, even Australia does not have some of the equipment found at IISc.
Govt to study IISc’s Rs 2,500-crore semiconductor fab proposalIf the government does not fund the full amount of Rs 2,500 crore, IISc has a back-up plan. The gallium nitride team will set up a company and seek investments of Rs 300 crore, probably from the government itself. It will then be in a position to sell some material that it can make in the facility, and start attracting investment.
India has two fabs — SITAR in Bengaluru and Semiconductor Laboratory in Chandigarh which builds silicon chips for strategic purposes like defence and space and not for commercial use. The country is a net importer of semiconductor chips for its $ 100 billion electronics industry with limited local capabilities. The Niti Aayogbacked proposal is to build a fabrication facility using Galium Nitride, a material that is commonly used in light emiting diodes or LEDs and an emerging technology, while skipping the already mature silicon-based fab technology. US and China dominate silicon chip technology. The IISc project includes not just building the chips, but also systems for applications in power electronics and radio frequency electronics used for cellphone towers in 5G applications and radars.
$35 million isn't too much & viable to invest too. @ezsasaThe IISc team has submitted two proposals: the first Rs 2,500 crore greenfield facility and managing it for five years. It includes design and roll out of a qualified product in 36 months. The second one is Rs 300 crore line in CeNSe facility and roll out of the first product in 24 months. “If we have to become leaders of this technology, the government has to fund it. That is the way they have done it in China, Taiwan and Korea. It has to be a government-funded and privately operated company,” he said. The government is yet to finalise the funding mechanism, said the Meity official.
My view was that they should not go thru Govt funding route, they should rather try for the market itself. if not a single big investor, they can try to impress upon their potential indian customers to form a consortium to invest. This consortium of potential customers will keep the future R&D strong.Articles from July I missed.
India could develop a gallium nitride fab, if the government is willing to invest
Govt to study IISc’s Rs 2,500-crore semiconductor fab proposal
$35 million isn't too much & viable to invest too. @ezsasa
@aditya10r was asking for update. So, here is the most active plan. Prantji & Noida Silicon fans are close dead projects as no one's willing to invest fearing losses.
The problem with the mentioned approach is that what IISC is offering is an academic, untested, unproven and immature product with no support eco-system and developers. I doubt they have not even identified target applications (communication and defense are very vast field with very different processing requirement).My view was that they should not go thru Govt funding route, they should rather try for the market itself. if not a single big investor, they can try to impress upon their potential indian customers to form a consortium to invest. This consortium of potential customers will keep the future R&D strong.
NEW DELHI: Bengaluru-based Saankhya Labs Wednesday unveiled the first indigenously developed electronic chipset that can be used for functions like direct TV broadcast on mobile devices, curbing call drops and 5G connections.
"Saankhya Labs, a Bengaluru-based company is launching its indigenously designed and developed, the world's first and most advanced multi-standard next-generation TV system on the chip," Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said after unveiling the chipset.
All electronic chipsets, considered as the heart of modern devices, have been developed by foreign companies so far. None of them is made in India because there is no modern semiconductor manufacturing plant in the country.
Electronic chipsets of Saankhya Labs are also being manufactured at
Samsung facility in South Korea.
"I am also told that this broadband-broadcast convergence technology has great potential to minimise or eliminate call quality issues faced by telecom operators today," Sinha said.
Saankhya Labs co-founder and CEO Parag Naik said the chipset will help in separating video content from a mobile network and hence reduce the load on the spectrum for improving call quality.
Saankhya's Pruthvi-3 chipset will facilitate direct transmission of video on mobile phones and can also help convert an Android-based smartphone into a satellite phone.
The company expects to launch its chipset-based mobile phone accessories in the form of a dongle and mobile phones within a couple of years, Naik said.
"Semiconductor technology takes time in maturing and adoption. Original design manufacturers will incorporate our chipsets into various products. We will try for getting certain standards based on our technology incorporated in 5G services. Our chipsets are 30 per cent more efficient in output compared to our nearest competitor and 50 per cent cheaper too," he said.
The company already has clients in the US and China and bagged orders to supply 5 million chipsets for various kinds of devices.
"We are looking at 50 per cent year-on-year growth in business. In this financial year, we are expecting sales of around USD 14-15 million (Rs 98-105 crore). We have advance orders for supplying 5 million chipsets to companies in the US that they will use in tablets (PCs), television gateways etc. This order will be completed by the first quarter of 2020," Naik said.
Saankhya Labs has started a pilot for rural broadband services in Scotland and Africa and received a request for the project in the Philippines, Brazil and the US.
"We are in talks with an Indian firm to start rural broadband trials in the country," Naik said.
He said that in the next two years TV gateways, rural broadband technology, satellite communications and defence will be the main contributor to the business.