US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed a watershed arrangement to set up a semiconductor fabrication plant focused on advanced sensing, communication, and power electronics for national security, next generation telecommunications, and green energy applications.
The plant (or fab), which will be built with the objective of manufacturing infrared, gallium nitride and silicon carbide semiconductors, will be enabled by support from the India Semiconductor Mission as well as a strategic technology partnership between Bharat Semi, 3rdiTech, and the US Space Force.
In a historic moment, the first ever National security Fab in India is announced as a technology partnership between Indian businesses Bharat Semi, 3rdiTech and US space force. This is the first ever India-US Semiconductor Fab cooperation of its kind.
It’s for the first time the US military has agreed to do a technology partnership for these highly valued technologies with India, so it’s a watershed moment as powerful as the civil nuclear deal.
The fab becomes not only India’s first, but one of the world’s first multi-material fab for national security. The Bharat Semi fab titled Shakti also became one of the first fabs of its kind in the Quad. The Fab will focus on three essential pillars for the modern warfighting – advanced sensing, advanced communications and high-voltage power electronics.
These three areas have huge growing needs for commercial sectors such as railways, telecom infrastructure, data centres and green energy. These semiconductors fall under a family known as ‘compound semiconductors’.
Three Main Technology Areas
The three main technology areas are infrared, galium nitride, and silicon carbide. It is part of PM Modi’s vision for India to become a chipmaker from a chip-taker. This fab will become a national asset and further help India’s goals of becoming a net security provider in the region.
For a country to become a net security provider it needs to become a net technology provider. This is a glass ceiling that has been broken in tech diplomacy and years down the road it will be seen in history as a watershed moment in India-US relationship.
India’s current import bill in these semiconductors for national security alone is $1 Billion a year. India and the US have signed multiple cooperation deals focused on critical tech with a special focus on semiconductors, from iCET to commerce to commerce MOU to the strategic trade dialogue.
This becomes the first true India US semiconductor fab project. Other projects in the past have included testing and assembly OSAT. But this is raising the game and going into true chip fabrication – the holy grail of semiconductors.
After this technology partnership, India will join a handful of elite nations with the capability and knowhow to manufacture these types of semiconductors on shore.
Bharat Semi and 3rdiTech are a true iCET success story and a true success story of PM Modi’s Atmnanirbhar vision From the launch of iCET in January 2023 to building India’s first compound semiconductor fab for national security.
This is history in the making as Bharat Semi and 3rdiTech emerge as national champions and truly the first Indian homegrown semiconductor integrated design and manufacturing company (IDM).
