While foreseeing a planned goal to move up the technology curve from the 28 nanometre (nm) chips currently being planned domestically to 7 nm, and eventually to 2 nm, industry executives said the leap will require solving four critical challenges — technology transfer, capital, talent and access to advanced lithography equipment.
Structural Hurdles
Tata Electronics, whose upcoming Dholera fab represents a double-digit-billion-dollar investment, is currently building capacity only in the 28 nm-to-110 nm range. With Taiwan’s PSMC as a technology partner, the firm is putting India’s most advanced committed project well short of the nodes the government has eyed as long-term goals in India Semiconductor Mission 2.0.
Hareesh Chandrasekar, CEO and co-founder of AGNIT Semiconductors, said any realistic move to advanced nodes hinges on several factors — where the technology comes from, how much capital it requires, and whether India has the skilled manpower to execute at scale. India might want to take lead from Japan’s Rapidus, which has licensed IBM’s process technology and is targeting 2 nm production directly, skipping intermediate nodes, he said.
On lithography, Chandrasekar said EUV access could prove to be the harder constraint, potentially requiring government-to-government engagement rather than a standard commercial order.
Meanwhile, Navin Bishnoi, chairperson of the India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA), said only three companies worldwide currently operate at the most advanced process nodes, with Japan’s Rapidus the newest entrant attempting to join that group. “The ecosystem depth matters more rather than a hurry to go to an advanced node,” Bishnoi said, adding that India’s priority should be deepening the broader chain — design, packaging, materials, equipment and IP before racing toward a specific node number.
An outright technology purchase would offer little return, given India is not yet an advanced manufacturing base.
Building the Base
S. Krishnan, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) secretary, said the strategy rests on organic research rather than acquiring foreign technology outright. “Costs roughly double at each node, from 28 nm to 14 nm, to 7 nm, to 3-4 nm,” he said in an interview with FE earlier.
Alongside cost and the technical sophistication involved, the reason why the country is not pursuing advanced nodes immediately is the fact that roughly 70% of global chip demand remains for legacy nodes, a segment currently led by China. While Japan, South Korea and the United States pursue 1-2 nm technology, the short-term goal, for India is to position itself as a legacy-node alternative rather than compete directly at the leading edge, Krishnan said.
With Tata Electronics’ fab still anchored at legacy nodes and a global lithography supply chain that offers little room to move fast, the more immediate task for the country is to consolidate its position in legacy chipmaking while the pieces for a leap to 7 nm and 2 nm fall into place.
