First Made-in-India Chip: Polymatech Begins Making, Distributing Opto-Semiconductors, Memory Modules

Indigenous company Polymatech has begun manufacturing and releasing made-in-India Opto-semiconductors and memory modules to the market.

The production of Opto-semiconductors, which are used in lighting, medical, and food sanitisation applications, and memory modules has begun at India’s first and foremost semiconductor chip manufacturer powered by Japanese technology.

1-mn-a-day target

The company’s main manufacturing plant in Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, currently produces 400,000 chips per day, which are already on the market. The Chennai-based company hopes to reach its full capacity of 1 million per day within the next few months (300 mn chips per annum).

This manufacturing growth follows the company’s July announcement of massive business expansion and investments totalling $1 billion in semiconductor chip manufacturing.

Polymatech offers fully packaged Opto-semiconductors in HTCC (High-Temperature Co-fired Ceramic Substrates) and COBs (Chip on Board).

HTCC and COB are both closed tools conceived, designed, and developed entirely by Polymatech.

COBs are packed for high-power lighting applications such as stadium lighting, port lighting, airport lighting, and so on, whereas Opto-semiconductors packed in HTCC substrates are used in aircraft, metro trains, mining stations, and traffic lights, among other things.

Furthermore, UVA chips in production are used in medical and food sanitisation applications. Memory modules manufactured by Polymatech are an essential component of all major electronic systems.

Eswara Rao Nandam, founding president, Polymatech, said: “Our Optos give more than 97% CRI (Color Rendering Index).”

He also noted that by 2029, the global semiconductor industry market size is predicted to be $1,340 billion and the Indian market will form a significant portion of this industry with a projected growth of $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,” added Nandam.

Polymatech is also nearing completion of production trials for semiconductor chips with medical and general applications and its semiconductor manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu is expected to play a significant role in this.

Industry’s view

After Polymatech announced that it is rolling out made-in-India semiconductor chips, News18 reached out to some industry experts to understand what such a move means to India and what would be the roadmap ahead for other manufacturers.

Sumit Garg, who is the MD and co-founder of Luxury Ride, said: “We all know that the semiconductor production industry has always been highly-concentrated. As Taiwan and South Korea are the leading players when comes to exporting semi-conductor, the auto industry faced the brunt of it during the pandemic.”

According to him, even in post-pandemic times, the imports from these countries were disrupted, which led to long waiting periods and significant price hikes.

So he believes that it is high time to produce semiconductors in India to meet the rising demand of the domestic automotive industry.

Furthermore, Garg said: “I hope the procurement of raw material like ultrapure water and sliver of silicon neon and hexafluorobutadiene gases will not be an issue and measures will be taken to ensure the smooth functioning of the plant because eventually, we should aim to export our products to the global market as well, but before that, we need to have a robust infrastructure first in our country.”

Recently Vedanta and Foxconn have agreed to establish a $20 billion semiconductor and display unit in Gujarat.

Garg found this agreement a positive step for the automobile industry and believes that the Vedanta-Foxconn unit will also contribute to making India self-resilient, reducing the dependency on other countries.

“While marching toward achieving the aspirational semiconductor ambition, the Gujarat unit will boost the economy as well as the job opportunities in the country,” he added.

Regarding Polymatech, another industry expert, Kalyan C Korimerla, MD and co-promoter at Etrio, said: “This is a groundbreaking move for the automotive industry in India. We congratulate the rollout of the Made in India semiconductor chips as it aligns with the Industry 4.0 vision and will further ease EV manufacturing in India.”

“It’s exciting to see the entire green mobility ecosystem converging at a rapid pace. While most of the global automotive supply chains already run through India, this will allow India to create a self-reliant manufacturing base that is less dependent on imports of high-tech auto components,” Korimerla noted.

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