US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi appreciated a significant arrangement to set up a semiconductor manufacturing plant focused on advanced sensing, communications and power electronics for national security, next-generation telecommunications and green energy applications.
This plant (or fab), which will be built for the purpose of manufacturing infrared, gallium nitride, and silicon carbide semiconductors, will be enabled with the support of the India Semiconductor Mission as well as a strategic technology partnership between Bharat Semi, ThirdTech, and the US Space Force.
In a historic moment, the first-ever national security fab in India has been announced, as a technology partnership between Indian companies Bharat Semi, 3rdiTech and the US Space Force. This is the first India-US semiconductor fab collaboration of its kind.
This is the first time that the US military has agreed to a technology partnership with India for these highly valuable technologies, so this is as significant a moment as the civil nuclear deal.
This fab has become not only India’s first but also the world’s first multi-material fab for national security. The Bharat Semi Fab named Shakti has also become the first of its kind in the Quad. The fab will focus on three essential pillars for modern warfare – advanced sensing, advanced communications and high-voltage power electronics.
All three of these sectors have growing needs in commercial sectors such as railways, telecom infrastructure, data centres and green energy. These semiconductors fall into a family known as ‘compound semiconductors’.
Three main technology areas
The three main technology areas are infrared, gallium nitride and silicon carbide. This is part of Prime Minister Modi’s vision to transform India from a chip taker to a chip maker. This fab will become a national asset and will further help India’s goals of becoming a net security provider in the region.
For a country to become a net security provider, it must become a net technology provider. This is a glass ceiling that has been broken in tech diplomacy and will be seen in history as a watershed moment in India-US relations in years to come.
India’s current import bill in these semiconductors alone for national security is $1 billion annually. India and the US have signed several cooperation deals focused on critical technologies, ranging from ICET to commerce memoranda of understanding and strategic trade talks, with a special focus on semiconductors.
This has become the first true semiconductor fab project in India and the US. Other projects in the past involved testing and assembling OSATs. But this is stepping up the game and truly moving towards chip manufacturing – the Holy Grail of semiconductors.
With this technology partnership, India will join the select group of countries that have the capability and know-how to manufacture such semiconductors.
Bharat Semi and 3DTech is a true ICET success story and a true success story of PM Modi’s Aatmanirbhar vision, from the launch of ICET in January 2023 to building India’s first compound semiconductor fab for national security.
This is history making, as Bharat Semi and ThirdTech emerge as national champions and become the first truly Indian homegrown semiconductor integrated design and manufacturing (IDM) company.
