Semiconductors: what exactly is India going to manufacture?

Subject: Economy

Section: External Sector

Context:

In a major setback, Foxconn Technology Group recently withdrew its support from its joint venture with Vedanta, Ltd. to establish a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Gujarat.

Details:

Initially, the plan was to establish a manufacturing unit for a 40-nm node.
After Foxconn’s withdrawal, Vedanta has maintained that it acquired the relevant technologies from another major company. It is also in the process of acquiring the technologies for the 28-nm, 63-nm, and 90-nm nodes.

What is a semiconductor chip?

A semiconductor chip is composed of transistors, which in turn are meticulously crafted from a specially selected material, typically silicon.
- One major function of a transistor is to encode information in the form of 0s and 1s, and to manipulate them to produce new information.
These transistors have three parts:the source, the gate, and the drain (or the sink).
- The flow of current between the source and the drain points is regulated by the voltage applied to the gate. This arrangement gave rise to the specific meaning of ‘gate’ in computing – analogous to a physical gate, but operating with electrical means rather than mechanical ones.
- By manipulating the gate to ‘open’ or ‘close’, the transistor stores and manipulates the data in a semiconductor chip.
The semiconductor stores information in the form of bits. Each bit is a logical state that can have one of two values (represented by voltage levels) at a time.
- The more bits a semiconductor can store and the more quickly it can manipulate them, the more data transistors can process.
The three parts of a transistor are connected to multiple metal layers on top of them that apply voltages, forming a complex mesh of electrical connections with the transistors.
The metal layers allow selective access to a transistor and provide the versatility required for the chip to execute multiple tasks.

What does the node number mean?

Through history, the names of semiconductor nodes have been based on two numbers:

The latter, when measured centre to centre, is called the pitch. These dimensions were often equal.
The size of transistors has progressively shrunk over the years. The smaller a transistor becomes, the more of them can be fit on a semiconductor chip, the more data the chip can store, the more computing power there will be.
Yet as transistors continued to become smaller, researchers spotted a discrepancy between the gate length and the metal pitch, rooted in the fact that while smaller transistors generally resulted in faster operation, reducing the size of metal wires created different problems, including not being able to transport data fast enough.
Since 1997, as the miniaturisation continued, both the half-pitch and gate length ceased to contribute to the node name.
From a technical standpoint, node names hold no significance vis-à-vis the actual physical dimensions. Instead, marketers use them to mean one node is better than a previous iteration.
In fact, different companies have also been using “nm” in the name to mean different things. The only information that can be derived from the node number of a particular company is that it is an improvement on its predecessor.

Does India need legacy nodes?

The choice of nodes involves compromises. While advanced nodes range from 10 nm to 5 nm, India’s current focus is around 28 nm or higher.
Starting with legacy nodes can offer numerous advantages, including equipping us for long-term success.
Many applications require legacy nodes, including robotics, defence, aerospace, industry automation tools, automobiles, Internet of Things, and image sensors – because they are more cost-effective.
The principal revenue source for any fabrication facility, or ‘fab’, is its most advanced node. But almost every commercial fab also maintains the production of legacy nodes to fulfil demands in the aforementioned areas.
As the demand for electric cars and electric equipment in the car increases, the demand for legacy nodes will also increase.

What are the Initiatives related to Semiconductors?

Semi-conductor Laboratory (SCL):
- MeitY will take requisite steps for modernization and commercialization of Semi-conductor Laboratory (SCL).
For Compound Semiconductors:
- Government will support fiscal support of 30% of capital expenditure to approved Compound Semiconductors units.
Production Linked Incentives:
- Incentive support to the tune of 55,392 crore (7.5 billion USD) have been approved under Product Linked Incentive (PLI ) for Largest Scale Electronics Manufacturing, PLI for IT Hardware, SPECS Scheme and Modified Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC 2.0) Scheme.
India Semiconductor Mission (ISM):
- Launched in 2021 with a total financial outlay of Rs76,000 crore under the aegis of the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY).
- The programme aims to provide financial support to companies investing in semiconductors, display manufacturing and design ecosystem.