Indian national priority number one: 28nm Semicondutor fab

[Lotus_stalk]

In my opinion a Semiconductor fab is more important than a Rafale deal or S400.
In the microelectronics industry a semiconductor fabrication plant (commonly called a fab; sometimes foundry) is a factory where devices such as integrated circuits are manufactured.

Fabs require many expensive devices to function. Estimates put the cost of building a new fab over one billion U.S. dollars with values as high as $3–4 billion not being uncommon. TSMC invested $9.3 billion in its Fab15 300 mm wafer manufacturing facility in Taiwan.

The Semi fab needs to be the most latest possible. This fab should make the old fabs in China obsolete. Make in India will never be successful without a advanced Semiconductor fab.

Lead Partner Pulls Out of India Fab Plan
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329516

AMD backs chip manufacturing in India

World’s second largest computer chip manufacturer AMD is endorsing make in India in a big way by partnering with India's first upcoming chip manufacturing plant in Gujarat.

US-based AMD, which does not own any chip manufacturing plants across the world, has partnered with Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (HSMC) to help kickstart fabrication in India.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com...hip-manufacturing-in-india/article8467511.ece

 

[Lotus_stalk]

As of May 2016, out of 195 investment proposals, worth INR 1.21 lakh crore, the government has approved 74 applications amounting to Rs 17,300 crore, while 27 proposals have been declined.

• Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, which is based in Taiwan, has pledged investment worth $5 billion to set up R&D and electronic manufacturing facilities in India within the next five years.
• In January 2015, the Spice Group signed a MoU with the state government to set up a mobile phone manufacturing unit in Uttar Pradesh with an investment of ₹5 billion (US$74 million).
• In January 2015, Samsung contemplated a joint public-private initiative under which 10 "MSME-Samsung Technical Schools" will be established in India. In February, Samsung announced that it will manufacture the Samsung Z1 in its plant in Noida. In addition to mobile phones, Samsung's factories in Noida and Sriperumbudur produce appliances and consumer electronics such as refrigerators, LED televisions, washing machines, and split air conditioners.
• In February 2015, Huawei opened an R&D center in Bengaluru with an investment of US$170 million. It is also setting up a telecom hardware manufacturing plant in Chennai, which has been approved by the central government.
• In February 2015, Xiaomi began initial talks with the Andhra Pradesh government to begin manufacturing smartphones at a Foxconn-run facility in Sri City. In early August 2015, the company announced that the first manufacturing unit was operational within seven months after it was conceived.
• In August 2015, Lenovo had commenced operations at a smartphone manufacturing plant in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, run by the Singapore-based contract manufacturer Flextronics International Ltd. The plant has separate manufacturing lines for Lenovo and Motorola, as well as separate quality assurance and product testing functions.
• Taiwan's major contract manufacturer, Wistron Corp., which makes devices for companies such as Blackberry, HTC and Motorola, announced plans in November 2015 to manufacture the devices at a new factory in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
• In December 2015, Micromax announced that it would set up three new manufacturing units in the Indian states of Rajasthan, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh at a cost of ₹3 billion (US$45 million). The plants may become operational in 2016, each employing 3,000-3,500 people.
• phone manufacturer Vivo Mobile India began manufacturing smartphones in December 2015 at a plant in Greater Noida, employing a workforce of 2,200 people.
• The US-based personal comuting hardware multinational Dell Technologies ( formerly known as Dell), which in 2016 marked its twenty years of presence in India with a current strength of over 27,000 Indian employees, looks to expand its capacity with an objective of exporting from India, at its laptop and computer manufacturing factory in Sriperumbudur near Chennai, where it previously invested US$30 million. Dell has plans of investing in the tunes of US$300 million through its venture fund arm Dell ventures, in Indian start-ups working in cloud computing, security and analytics as well as in manufacturing of microprocessors and photo voltaic cells

According to a report of the NITI Aayog published in May 2016, the electronics industry's contribution to GDP is only 1.7% in India, compared to 15.5% in Taiwan, 15.1% in South Korea and 12.7% in China.

The total imports of electronic goods during 2012-13, 2013–14, and 2014–15, were estimated to be worth INR 1,79,000 crore (US$28 billion), INR 1,95,900 crore (US$31 billion) and INR 2,25,600 crore (US$37 billion) respectively. The importation of phones has increased sharply from $665.47 million in 2003-04 to $10.9 billion in 2013-14, according to the commerce ministry data. Import of phones from China has grown from a $64.61 million to $7 billion during the same period. In 2013-14, India's electronics trade deficit was valued at US$23.5 billion, of which China accounted for 67℅. From around $28 billion in FY11, the importation of electronics could reach $40 billion in FY16. As of 2016, local manufacturing of electronics has risen, beginning a turnaround at a time when Indian exports have been relatively weak. In January 2016, electronic imports, which accounted for 27% of India's yearly trade deficit, shrank by 2.2% to $3.2 billion, while electronic exports rose 7.8% to $0.5 billion.

 

[Nilgiri]

As of May 2016, out of 195 investment proposals, worth INR 1.21 lakh crore, the government has approved 74 applications amounting to Rs 17,300 crore, while 27 proposals have been declined.

• Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, which is based in Taiwan, has pledged investment worth $5 billion to set up R&D and electronic manufacturing facilities in India within the next five years.
• In January 2015, the Spice Group signed a MoU with the state government to set up a mobile phone manufacturing unit in Uttar Pradesh with an investment of ₹5 billion (US$74 million).
• In January 2015, Samsung contemplated a joint public-private initiative under which 10 "MSME-Samsung Technical Schools" will be established in India. In February, Samsung announced that it will manufacture the Samsung Z1 in its plant in Noida. In addition to mobile phones, Samsung's factories in Noida and Sriperumbudur produce appliances and consumer electronics such as refrigerators, LED televisions, washing machines, and split air conditioners.
• In February 2015, Huawei opened an R&D center in Bengaluru with an investment of US$170 million. It is also setting up a telecom hardware manufacturing plant in Chennai, which has been approved by the central government.
• In February 2015, Xiaomi began initial talks with the Andhra Pradesh government to begin manufacturing smartphones at a Foxconn-run facility in Sri City. In early August 2015, the company announced that the first manufacturing unit was operational within seven months after it was conceived.
• In August 2015, Lenovo had commenced operations at a smartphone manufacturing plant in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, run by the Singapore-based contract manufacturer Flextronics International Ltd. The plant has separate manufacturing lines for Lenovo and Motorola, as well as separate quality assurance and product testing functions.
• Taiwan's major contract manufacturer, Wistron Corp., which makes devices for companies such as Blackberry, HTC and Motorola, announced plans in November 2015 to manufacture the devices at a new factory in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
• In December 2015, Micromax announced that it would set up three new manufacturing units in the Indian states of Rajasthan, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh at a cost of ₹3 billion (US$45 million). The plants may become operational in 2016, each employing 3,000-3,500 people.
• phone manufacturer Vivo Mobile India began manufacturing smartphones in December 2015 at a plant in Greater Noida, employing a workforce of 2,200 people.
• The US-based personal comuting hardware multinational Dell Technologies ( formerly known as Dell), which in 2016 marked its twenty years of presence in India with a current strength of over 27,000 Indian employees, looks to expand its capacity with an objective of exporting from India, at its laptop and computer manufacturing factory in Sriperumbudur near Chennai, where it previously invested US$30 million. Dell has plans of investing in the tunes of US$300 million through its venture fund arm Dell ventures, in Indian start-ups working in cloud computing, security and analytics as well as in manufacturing of microprocessors and photo voltaic cells

India has just begun process of pooling its bargaining power under aegis of govt and industrial titan JVs. It started far too late, but better late than never. It must be accelerated and continued to all other sectors. It is still very lacking in such areas as aerospace (esp seeing how many aircraft imported each year), advanced capital goods, large prime mover propulsion, shipbuilding etc.. Hopefully with GST and improving logistics and infra, there is a sustained breakthrough at all levels esp with local credit improvement/massive expansion.

China had something like 4 - 5 times the credit liquidity (as % of GDP) when they were pushing big time in the 90s and 2000s....whereas India pushed a large amount of this into wasteful subsidies and such (and is only now being rectified) in the same period...big mistake, we are still paying for it....from the sheer inertia it has built up. But finally it is being addressed structurally now....I am optimistic about it.

 

[Avon]

If i m not mistaken, perhaps Vedanta group was building a fab facility with an investment in tune of maybe 10k crores..

 

[Lotus_stalk]

Anything above 28nm will be a waste, We need a fab to out-date 90% of the fabs in China. This will reduce the trade deficit with China. Improve defense production and quality. Right Now if India wants a Chip we need to design it in a HDL language like Verilog or VHDL then send the design to a semiconductor foundry in Singapore or Taiwan.

 

[Jugger]

We need a fab lab now, this would be one of the biggest achievements of Modi Sarkar if they setup a unit in India.
The job creation potential of such a high tech unit will be tremendous.

 

[Srinivas]

Latest is 14 nm, and expected to go down soon.

Slowly R and D is shifting to India.

Anything above 28nm will be a waste, We need a fab to out-date 90% of the fabs in China. This will reduce the trade deficit with China. Improve defense production and quality. Right Now if India wants a Chip we need to design it in a HDL language like Verilog or VHDL then send the design to a semiconductor foundry in Singapore or Taiwan.

 

[Lotus_stalk]

Latest is 14 nm, and expected to go down soon.

Slowly R and D is shifting to India.

Semiconductor fab is not R&D, it is an industry.

 

[Srinivas]

Semiconductor fab is not R&D, it is an industry.

You also need an R and D in wafer design. How many years of experience you have in VLSI?

I am a designer in this field.

 

[proud_indian]

If i m not mistaken, perhaps Vedanta group was building a fab facility with an investment in tune of maybe 10k crores..

They are supposed to make a LCD plant.

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

In my opinion a Semiconductor fab is more important than a Rafale deal or S400.
In the microelectronics industry a semiconductor fabrication plant (commonly called a fab; sometimes foundry) is a factory where devices such as integrated circuits are manufactured.

Fabs require many expensive devices to function. Estimates put the cost of building a new fab over one billion U.S. dollars with values as high as $3–4 billion not being uncommon. TSMC invested $9.3 billion in its Fab15 300 mm wafer manufacturing facility in Taiwan.

The Semi fab needs to be the most latest possible. This fab should make the old fabs in China obsolete. Make in India will never be successful without a advanced Semiconductor fab.

Lead Partner Pulls Out of India Fab Plan
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329516

AMD backs chip manufacturing in India

World’s second largest computer chip manufacturer AMD is endorsing make in India in a big way by partnering with India's first upcoming chip manufacturing plant in Gujarat.

US-based AMD, which does not own any chip manufacturing plants across the world, has partnered with Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (HSMC) to help kickstart fabrication in India.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com...hip-manufacturing-in-india/article8467511.ece

Various points here:

1. Make in India doesn't need Semiconductor Fabs to succeed. If India even reaches China's manufacturing strength today, where semiconductor manufacturing is minimal, it will be a big deal.
2. 3-4 billion dollars is pretty much the minimum that is required for a fab.
3. India has absolutely no infrastructure, supply chain, and talent in fabs.
4. AMD is not offering anything substantive. Certainly not money.
5. There were two concrete plans to build a fab. One has already ended with JP pulling out. The other may soon meet the same fate.
6. Indian bureaucrats have themselves recognized that putting a fab right now is premature.
7. A 28 nm fab in India, won't create other fabs in China redundant. Smaller node sizes are not a necessity for all kinds of chips, and certainly not economical, or feasible.
8. A lot of semiconductor manufacturing still happens on higher nodes.
9. India has not even finalized the plan, got the money. Even if that would happen, it will take a couple of years to actually get it working.
10. No major chip fab, that runs 28 nm today has signed up. Which includes TSMC, UMC, Intel, Samsung, Gloflo.
11. Where will the required technology and IP come for the 28 nm process?

12. China is not sitting still. It already has a 28 nm fab running at SMIC. SMIC intends to start 14/16 nm trial runs from the next year. TSMC (The 800 pound gorilla) is itself building a 16 nm fab in China which will start operation by the next year. Gloflo is building its own fab in Chengdu which will ultimately operate on 22 nm FD-SOI process.

13. These fabs we are talking about are microprocessor centric fabs. You then need separate fabs for MEMS, Memory, LED, etc.

14. China is running fabs now since at least 2000s, more than a decade. Apart from that China has easy access to all the talent present in Taiwan, which has been the fabrication hub. In fact, China's largest foundry, SMIC, is run by a Taiwanese. A million or more Taiwanese work in China.

If i m not mistaken, perhaps Vedanta group was building a fab facility with an investment in tune of maybe 10k crores..

They were talking about LCD. Which again, needs a separate kind of fab.

Latest is 14 nm, and expected to go down soon.

Slowly R and D is shifting to India.

How is R and D shifting to India. Will you like to elaborate?

 

[Papa Dragon]

The TDP government planned to set up the largest semi conductors & chip manufacturing industry allocating 1050 acres and signing MoUs with many international firms naming it as Fab city in Hyderabad in the early 2000s but eventually they lost the subsequent elections and the corrupt Congress regime won making it a pipe dream. Only if this would've materialized, semi-conductor industry in India would've been on a whole new level.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...-remains-a-pipedream/articleshow/18375207.cms

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

The TDP government planned to set up the largest semi conductors & chip manufacturing industry allocating 1050 acres and signing MoUs with many international firms naming it as Fab city in Hyderabad in the early 2000s but eventually they lost the subsequent elections and the corrupt Congress regime won making it a pipe dream. Only if this would've materialized, semi-conductor industry in India would've been on a whole new level.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...-remains-a-pipedream/articleshow/18375207.cms

MoUs usually are worth less than the paper they are written on.

Just to illustrate my point about the fraud that a MoU is:

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities...ments-under-Make-in-India/article16776216.ece

Read this very carefully.

The thing is that there are perverse incentives for both sides to sign useless MoUs. Government gets to boast about incoming FDIs and things moving right. About their success. The businesses get to boast about how they are helping the country, and how their businesses are going good. It is a win win.

In fact I believe that they get crores of rupees of free advertisement.

 

[Śakra]

MoUs usually are worth less than the paper they are written on.

Just to illustrate my point about the fraud that a MoU is:

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities...ments-under-Make-in-India/article16776216.ece

Read this very carefully.

The thing is that there are perverse incentives for both sides to sign useless MoUs. Government gets to boast about incoming FDIs and things moving right. About their success. The businesses get to boast about how they are helping the country, and how their businesses are going good. It is a win win.

In fact I believe that they get crores of rupees of free advertisement.

Stop being anti-nationalist.

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

Stop being anti-nationalist.

Any body who can't stare into facts with cold objective eyes is a useless nationalist. He may cause more damage than good regardless of his intentions.