NEW DELHI: Fabless chip firm L&T Semiconductor Technologies expects manufacturing of semiconductor merchandise designed by it to start in the subsequent two years, a high firm official stated. While talking to PTI, L&T Semiconductor Technologies CEO Sandeep Kumar stated the corporate will set up its chip manufacturing vegetation after attaining a threshold income in the vary of USD 50 million to USD 1 billion for various semiconductor applied sciences.
The firm is constructing groups to deal with round 15 totally different merchandise in parallel, and it’s already midway on that journey, he added.
(*2*) Kumar stated.
He stated the corporate is of the view that beginning as a fabless chip agency is essential for India to cut back dependency on international corporations.
“First, we need to build products. We need to figure out how to sell those products that are of true strategic value. Tomorrow, you build a factory, and it is building somebody else’s products from the outside. You can always shift to another fab, and that foundry can go belly up. There’s always that risk,” Kumar stated.
He additionally talked a few hypothetical scenario the place if a developed nation decides to cease sharing expertise with India then in that case, the whole expertise sector in the home market might come to a halt.
Kumar stated if an indigenous firm makes a product, then it’s assured that the product is strategically retained in India.
“It cannot be controlled or stopped by some other country. It doesn’t mean that what others are doing is wrong. In the chip industry, there is a foundry business where you build a factory, and you find other customers who want to use that factory. They will have their own challenges. I’m sure they’ll figure it out,” Kumar stated.
Tata Electronics, Micron, CG Power and Kaynes Technologies are setting up semiconductor models in India with a cumulative funding of Rs 1.52 lakh crore.
Tata Electronics is the one firm setting up two models, together with the nation’s first huge wafer fabrication plant.
Besides, Tower Semiconductor is teaming with Adani Group to set up one other chip manufacturing unit with a proposed funding of Rs 83,000 crore.
HCL and Foxconn have additionally submitted a proposal for setting up a semiconductor plant.
Kumar stated that to construct on semiconductor merchandise, L&T is in talks with a number of main corporations in the house and has not too long ago signed a pact with IBM as properly.
L&T Semiconductor’s cope with IBM contains engagement in a analysis and improvement collaboration to design superior processors.
The scope of this work may embrace processor design for edge gadgets and hybrid cloud methods, in addition to for areas like mobility, industrial, vitality, and servers.
Kumar stated the corporate will work on chips in the vary of nanometer (nm) to 130 nanometer nodes and even smaller nodes of 2 to 5 nm that can be utilized in cell phones, electrical automobiles, industrial electronics and many others.
It will initially get the chips produced at a semiconductor foundry exterior and discover its production at an Indian unit if the associated fee is cheap, he added.
Kumar stated the corporate will take a look at setting up its personal semiconductor models primarily based on totally different applied sciences after attaining a minimal threshold income in the respective segments.
“A 28-nanometer fab and above is roughly USD 10 billion. In order to turn that into a profitable business, you need to have sales of roughly a billion dollars per year from that fab. We need to achieve that kind of sales outlook with high confidence before we decide to embark on setting up a silicon fab at 28 nanometers,” he stated.
Kumar stated a 2-5 nm fab will want a USD 100 billion funding.
“You need to have a sales figure of USD 10 billion in order to make it profitable. We are not in the business of carrying loss. At least from a planning standpoint, we need to be at that (revenue) point,” he famous.
Kumar stated there are two different processes often called silicon carbide and gallium nitride for semiconductors. Silicon carbide is getting used for energy vitality, and EVs and gallium nitride chips are getting used for wi-fi merchandise and energy.
“The cost of setting up those fabs is somewhere between half a billion and a billion dollars. That means those can need about USD 50 million to USD 100 million in sales a year in order to justify that. We are looking at all options, but we think those two will occur earlier, 28 nanometers will occur later, and the five nanometers will occur even later,” Kumar stated.
