“Semiconductors are about chip design; that’s microelectronics. We need strong microelectronics education to compete in the global semiconductor market… In the future, it is important for us to direct human resources toward the Golden Indonesia vision.” he stated after an economic seminar in Jakarta.

Hartarto said that, in the short term, vocational education in the country needs to be improved to produce human resources (HR) who are competent in the field of semiconductors. According to him, vocational schools are well-positioned to produce a highly technical workforce for chip production.

The government has also sought to improve vocational education by issuing regulations in the form of super tax deductions, he added. According to Government Regulation (PP) Number 45 of 2019, the super deduction tax is a tax incentive provided by the government to industries involved in vocational education programs, including research and development activities to produce innovations.

“It has been made easier because there were concerns from corporations regarding audits and others. The Minister of Finance also made the process easier, and it is hoped that it will start to be utilized,” Hartarto said.

He also said that to achieve the Golden Indonesia 2045 vision, Indonesia must continue structural transformation, increase human resources, and develop new engines of growth.

“Especially, the additional engine of growth is in the digitalization sector because Indonesia already has a digital economy framework agreement in ASEAN,” he added.

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TSMC’s new plant brings a total investment in its Japan venture to more than US$20 billion with the support of the Tokyo government. The Taiwanese chip titan announced plans in 2021 to build a US$7 billion chip plant in Kumamoto in southern Japan’s Kyushu.

The company said the first Japanese factory would open in February 2024 with volume production in the Q4 2024. TSMC was also exploring building a second factory in the country.

In a statement, TSMC said its majority-owned unit Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing in Kumamoto would build a second fabrication plant, or fab, in response to rising customer demand. TSMC added the second fab will begin construction by the end 2024. With both factories, the site is expected to have total monthly capacity of more than 100,000 12-inch wafers to be used for automotive, industrial, consumer and high performance computing-related applications.

The capacity plan may be further adjusted based upon customer demand, it noted. TSMC is a major supplier to companies including Apple and Nvidia, holds an 86.5% stake in the Japanese venture, with Sony Group 6%, auto parts maker Denso 5.5% and carmaker Toyota with 2%.

TSMC’s expansion in Kyushu is central to the Japanese government’s efforts to rebuild the country’s position as a leading chip manufacturing centre and ensure the stable supply of chips amid trade tensions between the United States and China. The decision to build a second fab is a vote of confidence by TSMC in Japan where construction of the first fab has run smoothly and which, it sees as a source of diligent workers with a government that is easy to deal with.

Japan’s chip-making sector, the world’s biggest in the 1980s, struggled to maintain its competitive edge, going into a steady decline in the past three decades, while rivals such as Taiwanese manufacturers gained ground. While both TSMC and the Taiwan government said the majority of the company’s most advanced manufacturing would continue to take place in Taiwan, TSMC has been expanding its global manufacturing footprint in response to what it says is customer demand.

TSMC’s flagship overseas investment is a US$40 billion project to build two fabs in Arizona, supporting Washington’s plans to boost U.S. chipmaking capacity. TSMC is also planning its first European factory, in Germany, which will mainly serve the auto industry.

TSMC’s Taipei-listed stock has risen 8.9% so far this year on the back of a boom in demand for chips for artificial intelligence applications, outperforming a 0.9% gain for the broader index.

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Source: Reuters

The companies are asking Malaysian chip packaging firms to assemble a type of chip known as graphics processing units (GPUs), according to sources with knowledge of the discussions. The requests only encompass assembly – which does not contravene any U.S. restrictions – and not fabrication of the chip wafers, they said. Some contracts have been agreed.

Seeking to limit China’s access to high-end GPUs that could fuel artificial intelligence breakthroughs or power supercomputers and military applications, Washington increasingly placed restrictions on their sales as well as on sophisticated chip-making equipment.

As those sanctions bite and an AI boom fuels demand, smaller Chinese semiconductor design firms are struggling to secure sufficient advanced packaging services at home, analysts have said. However, China has established its track record for acquiring western technologies through trade.

Some Chinese companies are keen on advanced chip packaging services. Advanced packaging of chips can significantly improve chip performance and is emerging as a critical technology in the semiconductor industry. This sometimes involves the construction of chiplets where chips are packaged tightly to work together as one powerful brain.

Although not subject to U.S. export restrictions, it’s an area that can require sophisticated technology which the firms worry might one day be targeted for curbs on exports to China.

Why Malaysia?

Malaysia, a major hub in the semiconductor supply chain, is seen as well placed to grab further business as Chinese chip firms diversify outside of China for assembling needs. Unisem, whose largest shareholder is China’s Huatian Technology, and other Malaysian chip packaging companies have seen increased business and inquiries from Chinese clients.

Unisem Chairman John Chia said: “Due to trade sanctions and supply chain issues, many Chinese chip design houses have come to Malaysia to establish additional sources of supply outside of China to support their business in and out of China.”

Chinese chip design firms also see Malaysia as a good option because the country is perceived as being on good terms with China, is affordable, with an experienced workforce and sophisticated equipment. Asked whether accepting orders to assemble GPUs from Chinese firms could potentially provoke U.S. ire, Chia said Unisem’s business dealings were “fully legitimate and compliant” and the company did not have the time to worry over “too many possibilities”.

He noted that most of Unisem’s customers in Malaysia were from the United States. The U.S. Department of Commerce did not respond to requests for comment.

Other big chip packaging firms in the country include Malaysian Pacific Industries and Inari Amertron. They did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Chinese companies are also interested in having their chips assembled outside China as that could also make it easier to sell their products in non-Chinese markets, said one source, an investor in two Chinese chip startups.

Malaysia currently accounts for 13% of the global market for semiconductor packaging, assembly, and testing and is aiming to boost that to 15% by 2030. Chinese chip firms that have announced plans to expand in Malaysia include Xfusion, a former Huawei unit, which said in September it would partner with Malaysia’s NationGate to manufacture GPU servers – servers designed for data centres and which are used in AI and high-performance computing.

Shanghai-based StarFive is also building a design centre in Penang, and chip packaging and testing firm TongFu Microelectronics said last year it would expand its Malaysia facility – a venture with U.S. chipmaker AMD. Offering an array of incentives, Malaysia has attracted multi-billion dollar chip investments. Germany’s Infineon said in August it would invest €5 billion (US$5.4 billion) to expand its power chip plant there.

Intel announced in 2021 that it would build a $7 billion advanced chip packaging plant in Malaysia. 

Chinese companies are not just choosing Malaysia. In 2021, JCET Group, the world’s third-largest chip assembly and testing company, completed an acquisition of an advanced testing facility in Singapore. Other countries such as Vietnam and India are also seeking to expand further into chip manufacturing services, hoping to lure clients keen to minimise U.S.-Sino geopolitical risks.

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In December 2021, the company renewed its commitment, that includes a US$7 billion investment over the course of a decade, bringing the total investment in Malaysia by the US chip giant to US$14 billion as of 2032. The US$7 billion in investments is mainly to increase the size of its operations in Penang and Kulim, Kedah.

As it is, Malaysia is Intel’s largest offshore site, with a workforce exceeding 10,000 employees across two campuses in Penang and Kulim. It is one of the largest assembly and test facilities, and a mature site with multi-functions in manufacturing, design, development, and local and global support services.

It has just been revealed that another factory being built in Penang will be Intel’s first overseas facility for advanced 3D chip packaging, known as Intel’s Foveros technology. Malaysia will eventually become Intel’s largest production base for 3D chip packaging, Robin Martin, Corporate Vice President for Manufacturing Supply Chain and Operations, told the media. 

The company, however, did not specify when the facility would begin mass production. A report by Nikkei Asia quoted Intel saying that Amazon, Cisco, and the US government have committed to using its advanced packaging technology.

The company is also building a chip assembly and testing factory in Kulim for its US$7 billion expansion in Malaysia. For context, Malaysia is currently the world’s sixth-largest exporter of semiconductors, and Intel contributes an average of 20% of its total semiconductor exports annually.

Malaysia alone accounts for 13% of the world’s chip testing and packaging, a critical step in reading semiconductors for cars, phones, and other devices. Penang has emerged as the nation’s electrical and electronics hub.

Over half a million people were employed in the E&E industry as of 2022, working with global chipmakers from STMicroelectronics NV and Infineon Technologies AG to Intel and Renesas Electronics Corp.

Intel In Asia

Since Pat Gelsinger took the helm, Intel has viewed Asia more prominently, while being aware that the US needs to catch up to be on par with its Asian rivals. Even in Vietnam, Intel took a giant step into the country as the first and largest major foreign high-tech investor about a decade ago. 

By the end of 2021, Intel had injected a total of US$1.5 billion in Vietnam, and there had been talks that the US chip giant was planning a significant increase in that existing investment. The aim is to expand its chip testing and packaging plant in the Southeast Asian nation, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The possible move, which one source said could be worth around US$1 billion, would signal a growing role for Vietnam in the global supply chain for semiconductors as companies push to cut reliance on China and Taiwan because of political risks and trade tension with the US. Gelsinger also believes that it is not “palatable” that so many computer chips are made in Asia.

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The two-year old startup said in a statement that the 73,000sqm factory would create over 1,000 jobs with support from Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB).

“This new facility is well poised to solve the unique challenges for chiplet adoption, which is critical to meet market demands of emerging technologies. Our proprietary interconnection technology will not only shorten the design cycle of chips but also lower new device costs, reduce power consumption and enable faster time-to-market for industry partners like artificial intelligence, data centres, and electronic vehicles” explains Dr. Han co-founder and CEO, Silicon Box to The Straits Times.

Silicon Box focuses on “chiplets”, or small chips, which can be the size of a grain of sand and are brought together in a process called advanced packaging, a cost-efficient way to bind small semiconductors to form one processor that can power everything from data centres to household appliances.

The global chip industry has increasingly embraced the technology in recent years as chip manufacturing costs soar in the race to make transistors small enough to be measured in the number of atoms. CEO Han told Reuters that “customers had been lining up” even before the factory’s launch, with artificial intelligence firms driving demand. He said Silicon Box was in talks to supply Canadian AI startup company Tenstorrent.

The establishment of this factory is poised to have a significant impact on Singapore’s semiconductor sector. It is expected to boost the industry’s growth and elevate the country’s standing as a formidable player in the global market. This development will contribute to the nation’s economic expansion and support Singapore’s long-term vision of expanding its manufacturing base.

Developing Local Talent To Be Ready For Next- Gen Manufacturing

With the support of EDB, the factory will create over 1000 technologically advanced jobs while providing upskilling opportunities. This venture focuses on human capital spanning from entry-level to highly skilled engineering roles; the homegrown talent is vested in Silicon Box’s vision as they commit to providing upskilling programs to keep the Singaporean workforce market-ready in disruptive technologies.

This investment will bolster the nation’s GDP and drive workforce development, ensuring Singapore remains at the forefront of technological innovation and manufacturing excellence.

“Singapore is home to a vibrant and sophisticated semiconductor industry, with a strong ecosystem of solution providers and partners. Silicon Box’s decision to set up its first manufacturing and R&D facility in Singapore is a testament to our competitiveness as a critical global node for semiconductors and a vote of confidence in the long-term growth prospects of the sector in Singapore. We will continue strengthening our industry’s competitiveness by developing a stronger talent pipeline, reducing the sector’s carbon footprint, and deepening our semiconductor R&D capabilities” explains EDB’s Chairman Png Cheong Boon.

Next-Gen Semiconductor Technology To Accelerate The Future Of Computing And AI

Silicon Box offers design flexibility and exceptional electrical performance at a lower cost and power consumption with its proprietary fabrication method. They have developed the shortest interconnections using sub-5-micron technology, setting a new standard in semiconductor design cycles. This means the industry can efficiently scale chiplet-based solutions across the semiconductor value chain.

With Singapore actively starting semiconductor design facilities, automotive assembly plants and even battery jigs, the country will also go through a machine tool demand hike across the board – from metal cutting to forming.

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First it was unknowing acts of inputting data into an A.I. tool to correct coding. Prior to that was allegedly meeting minutes that involved confidential wound up being leaked. The common denominator between the two was data breach though it was anybody’s guess if it were honest mistakes.

The latest involved a conscious act of knicking confidential data to a set up a counterfeit Korean chip factory. In various reports, prosecutors alleged the 65 year old former Samsung Electronics executive was apprehended on suspicion of stealing stealing company technology for a copy-cat chip factory in China and jeopardising national economic security.

Such is an indication of the cutthroat chip industry with the prevalent geopolitical conflict. The acts included theft chip plant detailed engineering data and design drawings, from August 2018 to 2019.

Formerly From SK Hynix

South Korea is a known chip powerhouse with Samsung and SK Hynix dominating the ring. The defendant happened to be a former Vice-President possesses 28 years’ worth of professional experience at both chipmakers. He is accused of illegally acquiring Samsung data to build a rival factory only 1.5 km (1 mile) away from a Samsung chip manufacturing facility in Xian, China, the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement.

Prosecutors added the estimated losses of data theft in this degree of data is at least KRW300 billion ($233 million) for Samsung Electronics.

“It’s a grave crime that could deal a heavy blow to our economic security by shaking the foundation of the domestic chip industry at a time of intensifying competition in chip manufacturing,” the prosecutors’ office said.

In semiconductor manufacturing, impurities are a big no-no. That’s where boron enhanced diffusion (BED) technology comes in – it ensures every step of the production process is free of unwanted extras. The layout can determine the floor plan and dimensions of a chip plant’s eight core production processes. Secrets like these are vital for crafting sub-30-nano DRAM and NAND flash chips and are even considered national core technologies.

Replicating A Titan’s Facility

Unfortunately, not everyone can be trusted with these secrets. His plan fell through after a promised investment of US$6.2 billion from a Taiwanese company fell through.

Last year, the former executive received a staggering investment of KRW460 billion from Chinese investors. With this influx of funds, he proceeded to build a state-of-the-art chip manufacturing plant in Chengdu based on Samsung technology.

The Associated Press reported the suspect created chip manufacturing companies in China and Singapore with the backing of Chinese and Taiwanese investors and lured more than 200 chip experts from Samsung and Hynix with higher pay before arranging to smuggle out crucial technologies from Samsung, prosecutors said. 

Analysts estimated the technology gap between China and South Korea tops at two years between China-based YMTC’s NAND Flash Chips and that of Korean titans — which could be another pull factor for data theft to clone a factory given it is almost on par.

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Source: Yahoo

Testing site Geekbench, a platform run by Canadian software developer Primate Labs, published the key parameters of Shenzhen-based Powerleader’s Powerstar P3-01105 CPUs on 26 May 2023 and found the chips identical to Intel’s Core i3-10105 Comet Lake CPU.

The South China Morning Post was unable to independently verify whether the Powerleader chip was indeed an Intel IC in disguise. Shenzhen-based Powerleader, which has no track record in semiconductor development, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. Phone calls made to its head office in Shenzhen and sales service contacts went unanswered.

Intel has not made any comments on Powerleader’s chip. The Geekbench findings were widely reported by both Chinese and foreign media outlets focused on computer hardware.

Should the Geekbench findings get confirmed, Powerleader’s Powerstar CPU would mark the latest scandal to tarnish China’s development of indigenous chips, following the infamous Hanxin case in 2006.

A government investigation found that the developer of the Hanxin series of chips, Chen Jin of Shanghai’s prestigious Jiaotong University, had “committed serious falsification and fraud”, the university and state media said at the time. The Hanxin, or China chip, was initially hailed as the project that would make Shanghai one of the world’s top chip manufacturing centres, when the breakthrough was officially announced in 2003.

The project was funded by a special government programme aimed at nurturing major scientific and technological achievements.

The post Powerleader: Powered by Intel or a Power Play? appeared first on Asia Pacific Metalworking Equipment News | Manufacturing | Automation | Quality Control.

Bloomberg reported Nvidia Corporation, the world’s most valuable chipmaker, forecast sales that surpassed analysts estimates, showing how booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) processors has the potential to reshape the sector and sending shares to a record high. Sales in the three months ending in July will be about US$11 billion, Nvidia revealed on 24 May 2023. That shattered an average analyst estimate of US$7.18 billion.

“We’re seeing incredible orders to retool the world’s data centers,” Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Jensen Huang told analysts on a conference call. A trillion dollars of data center infrastructure will be upgraded to handle so-called accelerated computing, he said, letting them run generative AI tools such as ChatGPT. “The budget of a data center will shift very strongly to accelerated computing.”

The outlook shows that Nvidia is benefiting even more from the AI frenzy than thought possible. Under Huang, the company has positioned itself as the top provider of components for training AI software. That helped it weather a broader slowdown in technology spending.

Nvidia had outperformed stocks in the major indexes it trades on this year, turning it into the world’s fifth-largest publicly traded company by 24 May 2023’s close. It is now on the verge of joining Apple Inc. and others in the trillion-dollar club.

By market value, the chipmaker is eight times the size of Intel Corporation, a company that doubled Nvidia’s annual revenue last year. Revenue in Q1 2023 beat estimates by the widest margin in five years. The company’s forecast for sales this period is 53% higher than analysts projected, marking a record quarterly total.

“They may be in a unique position,” Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon said on Bloomberg Television. While the company doesn’t project individual unit revenue, the overall forecast implies a 75% surge in data center revenue, he said. “Is it a one-time thing or is this the new normal? I don’t know.”

An article from Kite Rocket cited advanced computer chips that semiconductor manufacturers design and fabricate power AI. The chip industry benefits from using those AI chips and software to optimise its semiconductor manufacturing processes. In that way, AI can facilitate incredible breakthroughs across the entire semiconductor manufacturing value chain.

The piece added that chip and AI industries are at an inflection point; the same conventional chips that have been used in PCs and servers have gotten us this far. To get to the next level in AI will take leading-edge chip and packaging solutions. When these new integrated systems reach the market, everything will be set in motion for AI to truly reach its fullest potential.

The Alpha, Not The Omega

Going back to basics, an AI chip is a type of semiconductor designed for AI specific applications and different from traditional chips. Firstly, the latter is incapable of handling large amounts of data required for AI applications.

AI chips are designed to work with neural networks, which are a key component of many AI applications. Traditional semiconductors are not as well-suited for working with neural networks. 

A neural network is a method in artificial intelligence that teaches computers to process data in a way that is inspired by the human brain. It is a type of machine learning process, called deep learning, that uses interconnected nodes or neurons in a layered structure that resembles the human brain.

AI chips often incorporate specialised hardware that helps speed up the training and inference process. This includes dedicated neural network processors and hardware-accelerated maths libraries.

They are often designed to be power efficient, as many AI applications are deployed on mobile devices or other devices with limited power budgets. Therefore, it is a tall order for traditional chips to keep up with the influx of new computing functions which call for substantial volume of data and algorithms.

The change resulted in a design relook for AI chip to feature multiple microprocessors and accelerators that perform the different functions needed for the AI applications. Nvidia is singled out as one of the big potential winners in AI, following the viral success of the ChatGPT chatbot and other popular tools.

The company’s chips excel at parallel processing, which makes them well suited for training software by bombarding it with data. The growth also suggests that Nvidia is getting adequate supplies from manufacturing partners such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said the company has secured a “substantial” increase in supply of AI-related chips from its subcontractors for the second half of the year. Nvidia’s Huang argued that the use of the technology is only in its infancy and more tailored products for specific industries are needed.

He’s built online services and software tools to help encourage the broader adoption of AI outside of his big customers — cloud providers like Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc.’s AWS. As part of its Q2 2023 forecast, Nvidia predicted an adjusted gross margin of about 70%, above the 66.9% analysts were projecting. 

The AI spending surge has boosted Nvidia’s data center unit, though a collapse in demand for personal computer components is still hammering its graphics chip business — and weighing on overall sales. Nvidia said revenue growth in its data center unit was driven by “strong demand from large consumer internet companies and cloud service providers.” Those customers are deploying its graphics chips to power generative AI and large language models, the company said.

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Sources: CNN, DIGITIMES

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced the decision on 21 May 2023, saying the US chip maker failed a cybersecurity review. The news came shortly after the close of the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Hiroshima, Japan, where leaders of major democracies spoke in one voice on their growing concerns over China.

“The review found that Micron’s products have relatively serious cybersecurity risks, which pose significant security risks to China’s critical information infrastructure supply chain and would affect national security,” the Chinese regulator said in a statement. As a result, operators involved in domestic critical information infrastructure projects should stop purchasing products from Micron, it said.

Shares of Micron Technology declined 3% on 22 May 2023. Its Asian rivals reportedly finished the day higher. Shares of Chinese memory chip maker Ingenic Semiconductor jumped 2.8%.

Shenzhen Techwinsemi Technology surged 6.3%. Toyou Feiji Electronics soared 14%. In Seoul, SK Hynix, one of the world’s largest memory chip makers, gained 0.9%, outperforming the South Korean market.

China’s decision came seven weeks after it kicked off a cybersecurity review of Micron’s products, in apparent retaliation against sanctions imposed by Washington and its allies on China’s chip sector.

An Opportunity For Home, Followed By Korea?

China is Micron’s second-largest market. In 2022, Micron’s revenue reached US$30.8 billion, of which China accounted for 11%, or US$3.31 billion. Furthermore, in terms of product structure, Micron’s revenue consists of US$22.4 billion from DRAM and US$7.8 billion from NAND Flash, accounting for 74% and 24% respectively.

This earth shaker was sufficient to turn analysts’ eyes inwards first — catalysing optimism towards locally made chips. China-based Guojin Securities believes that the decision will greatly benefit Chinese memory makers which directly compete with Micron, such as Ingenic, CXMT, YMTC, and GigaDevice.

Meanwhile, China International Trust Investment Corporation (CITIC) Securities believes that wafer procurement is temporarily unaffected in the module sector, but the customers downstream may switch orders, benefiting domestic module manufacturers. Likewise, Huatai Securities believes that Chinese companies have already gained a foothold in the DRAM and NAND sectors.

Currently, China’s self-suffiency rate in the memory industry remains relatively low, and the Micron ban is expected to drive the substitution process in China’s low- to mid-end memory sector. However, according to CITIC, Chinese companies may also shift their memory module/wafer procurement orders to non-US vendors such as Samsung and SK Hynix, creating opportunities for suppliers in their supply chains.

Similarly, the Capital Group suggests that the worst-case scenario would see Micron completely withdrawing from the China’s memory market, leading to short-term order shifts to competitors such as YMTC, Samsung, and SK Hynix.

Nevertheless, as Micron is the world’s third-largest DRAM manufacturer and one of the top five NAND Flash chip manufacturers, it can redirect its sales efforts to other regions, according to the investment consultancy.

After all, memory chip is a standardised product that can be sold anywhere, and the Capital Group estimates that this will only cause minor shifts in the market landscape without significant impacting global chip supply and demand or price fluctuations. However, the big question is will the electronics titans settle for low- to mid-end standards when they have a reputation to protect? China still has an ongoing stigma to contend with; the republic appears to be trying its best to shake this off.

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At present, the company’s main manufacturing plant in Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu manufactures 400,000 chips everyday and these have already been released into the market. Within the next few months, Polymatech aims to attain its full capacity of manufacturing 1 million per day (300 million chips per annum).

This manufacturing rollout comes at the heels of the company’s July announcement about massive business expansion and investments to the tune of US$1 billion in semiconductor chips manufacturing. Opto-semiconductors are used in lighting, medical and food sanitisation applications.

Polymatech has completely packaged Op HTCC (High Temperature Co-fired Ceramic substrates) to-Semiconductors in both HTCC and COBs. Both, HTCC (High Temperature Co-fired Ceramic substrates) and COB (Chip on Board) all are wholly conceived, designed and developed by Polymatech and these are closed Tools. COBs are packed for High Power Lighting applications used for Stadium Lighting, Port Lighting, Airport Lighting, etc. while opto-semiconductors packed in HTCC substrates are used in Air Crafts, Metro Trains, Mining Stations and Traffic Lights etc.

Further, UVa chips that are in manufacturing are used in medical and food sanitisation applications. Memory modules that are in manufacturing at Polymatech form an integral part of all major electronic systems.

Eswara Rao Nandam – Founding President, Polymatech, spoke about this latest development and said, “We are thrilled to be announcing the full-fledged rollout of production for our Opto-semiconductors and memory modules. Our Optos give more than 97 percent CRI (Color Rendering Index).

By 2029, the global semiconductor industry market size is predicted to be US$ 1,340 billion and the Indian market will form a significant portion of this industry with a projected growth of US$64 billion by 2026. This, coupled with the ongoing worldwide chip shortage, makes for immense growth potential. We at Polymatech aim to leverage this global opportunity to the fullest and become one of the largest chip manufacturers in Asia by 2025.”

In addition to Opto-semiconductors and memory modules, Polymatech is also in the final stages of production trials for semiconductor chips that will have medical and general applications. Their sprawling 150,000 sqft semicon manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu will play a significant role in this.

This state-of-the-art facility, in which temperature and RH-controlled clean rooms have been made ready and equipped with machinery that was imported from Japan, has adopted a full-fledged Industry 4.0 theme. The company is also working on forward and backward integration of current products and indigenization of products that are manufactured.

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