India needs to be more aggressive in semiconductor ambitions

Electronics rely on transistors, which amplify the flow of electrons, converting the current from alternating current to direct current (this is called rectification, and the reverse is the inverter, converting the current from storage batteries to direct current. is designed for) or switch the flow of electrons. Before the advent of the transistor, these tasks required large vacuum tubes and bulbs made of glass. Older radios and the original mainframe computers were large and bulky, as they contained a large number of glass-made diodes, triodes, pentodes, etc. Integrated circuits consist of a large number of transistors on a wafer of semiconductor material, mostly silicon, to perform coordinated functions.

These semiconductor chips are of mixed types, broadly divided into logic chips, memory chips, and DAOs (discrete, analog, and others). The modern economy requires huge amounts of chips of all kinds for anything from computers, telecommunications gear, robots, medical equipment, watches, industrial machines. The government estimates that India will need $63 billion worth of semiconductors by 2026, which will approach the country’s $80 billion oil import bill. India imports all its silicon. It is highly desirable to produce these things in the country itself, for an important reason other than the balance of payments consideration.

Semiconductor chips go into computers, phones, server farms that store data. They are used to launch missiles and control their guidance systems. Chips are fitted in warplanes, submarines, aircraft carriers. Currently, all the silicon needed in these critical pieces of tactical equipment is imported. If we do not have foolproof access to all the silicon needed for our strategic capability, India may bid goodbye to its goal of strategic autonomy, to be a regional if not a global power. India has its own nuclear power programme, a space program and a program to build nuclear weapons and delivery systems based on both of these. India does not want to take refuge under the nuclear umbrella of any other country when faced with a nuclear-armed enemy power. India would like to be able to defend itself on its own.

External dependence for critical semiconductors is a chime in India’s armor. In general, the risk of India not having access to state-of-the-art semiconductors when it is needed is very low. China thought the same way – until President Trump ruthlessly shook it off that statue. The US has imposed technology sanctions on important Chinese companies such as Huawei, which not only manufactures telecommunications equipment but also has a footprint in quantum computing and quantum communications, among other things. The Chinese are now making intense efforts to become self-sufficient in silicon.

As the US strategic partner to balance China, why should India worry about being on the receiving end of a potential US technology embargo? India is not satisfied with placing itself under the protection of any major power. It buys weapons from various regions, including Russia. Right now, the US government is debating an exemption for India to sanctions from its laws against any country that buys sophisticated weapons from Russia due to India’s purchase of the S400 missile system from Russia. American politics is fast becoming a partisan quagmire and the president and his administration in their design to give a country like India a free pass on sanctions may be thwarted by a hostile Congress portraying the administration as weak. wants.

What can India do to avoid such an incident? It has no option but to build its capability in semiconductors. However, current plans to promote local manufacturing of chips and displays and other advanced microelectronics don’t quite cut it.

The government provides subsidy on the following lines. It provides 30%/40%/50% of the capital cost as a subsidy for those who want to make chips with nodes smaller than the size range 45–65 nanometers (nm)/28–45 nm/28 nm. Let’s install the fab. The importance of circuit size is that the smaller these are, the more transistors you can store on a chip. For example, Apple’s M1 chip, which drives its latest MacBooks, mounts 16 billion transistors on a wafer of silicon. This is possible because the node is 5 nm in size. Apple has designed and outsourced chip production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC), arguably the world’s most strategic company at the moment – ​​assembling phones, personal computers, servers and other sophisticated devices if it goes down. The line will come. The grinding stop, missile and guidance system would be shut down if they needed replacement chips.

When you want a compact size and light weight, you need these ultra-small nodes. Samsung is targeting 4nm chips. Intel, which both designs and manufactures the chips, has been unable to go below 11nm in its fab.

Large node chips are large enough for use in cars, industrial machines, refrigerators, microwave ovens, sprinkler systems and all the sundry other appliances that now come with chips embedded in them. But not when it comes to the most advanced applications.

In response to the government’s plan, three companies have come forward to set up semiconductor manufacturing plants and two to set up display fabs. While information technology and electronics minister Ashwini Vaishnav termed the response as ‘fantastic’, the description sits poorly on proposals by newcomers to the world of chipmaking to manufacture silicon with circuits of 28 nanometers and above, which can be as big as At least seven times bigger than that. Can be described as state-of-the-art.

Contrary to the prescribed eligibility criteria, the two contenders do not have any prior experience in large scale manufacturing of advanced electronics. That doesn’t mean that they will fail in their attempt to build new facilities that are good enough for the job of producing the chips they planned. But it does not give India strategic autonomy in advanced silicon.

India will need to develop capabilities in microprocessor core technology, chip design based on that core and the machines required to manufacture chip foundries. A Dutch company called ASML supplies basic machinery that uses lasers to etch tiny grooves on thin wafers of silicon, vaporizing the metal to deposit in the grooves to form the circuit. Lenses are needed to focus lasers. How many of these India needs to develop on its own is open to question, but a good deal will be needed.

Is India capable of such technological development and manufacturing? Just look at India’s space and nuclear programmes. India has built its own cryogenic rocket engine and a prototype fast breeder reactor within the government sector, at a time when there was no startup ecosystem that could be tapped to outsource individual pieces of the technological puzzle. Had to be put together eventually. Create self-reliance in the needs of Advanced Semiconductor India.

Is it doable? India has the largest workforce in technology, both in India and in the rest of the world, to tackle R&D problems set by multinationals and foreign governments. The point is to bring together enough numbers to meet the government’s strategic needs, with funding from the government and the promise of ownership of the intellectual property they develop, to solve the problems identified by the government.

It is completely possible, provided we have the ambition and the will.