US-based firm Applied Materials is looking to sell equipment to India’s first semiconductor fabrication plant, which is to be set up in Dholera, Gujarat, by the Tata Group in collaboration with Powerchip Taiwan.
The company will be spending $20 million by the time the India Validation Centre, which was commissioned by Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday, is completed.
The minister said with commissioning of the facility, PM Narendra Modi’s four promises to India have been fulfilled. He said that the semiconductor industry will play a vital role in making India a developed nation by 2047.
“Under the leadership of PM Modi, India’s semiconductor ecosystem has achieved significant growth over the past few years.
The India Validation Centre is a testament to the dedication and effectiveness of our approach to build India’s resiliency in chip manufacturing, and Applied Materials has been a trusted partner in enabling the Indian semiconductor dream.”
The India Validation Centre will enable early pilots, talent and capability development for the upcoming India Collaborative Engineering Centre, including validation, process engineering, lab management and collaboration with academia and suppliers. It will add new capabilities to enable end-to-end design, characterisation and qualification of semiconductor equipment.
Applied Materials demonstrated the capability to process 300-mm wafers in IVC; a first for a private industry in India.
“We believe this is India’s time to shine, and Applied Materials’ India Validation Center is one of the many milestones in our innovation journey,” said Dr Prabu Raja, president of the Semiconductor Products Group at Applied Materials.