CG Power begins shipping chips from its Sanand facility, a major step in India’s semiconductor goals. The venture, with partners Renesas and Stars Microelectronics, aims to scale up to 16 million chips per day and achieve Grade 1 qualification soon.
India’s semiconductor journey has moved from ground-breaking to shipping, with CG Power and Industrial Solutions aiming to scale to 16 million chips a day and achieve Grade 1 qualification within the next 18 to 24 months, Vellayan Subbiah, Executive Vice Chairman, CG Power, said.
First Shipment and Key Milestone
Speaking after the company dispatched its first chips from its Sanand facility, Subbiah said the milestone marks the start of a much larger build-out. “We’ve started shipping from Sanand; we’ve got our chips qualified with a couple of our customers now and started shipping chips from India to the world,” he said. The first customer for the shipment was Japan’s Renesas, with its India country president present to receive the consignment.
The Sanand facility is being operated by CG Semi, which is a joint venture by CG Power and Industrial Solutions, Japan’s Renesas Electronics, and Thailand’s Stars Microelectronics. It operates a major Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facility in Sanand, Gujarat, specialising in semiconductor packaging, testing, and turnkey solutions.
Expansion and Job Creation
The Sanand facility is expected to have a capacity of about 1 million chips per day. A second facility, currently under construction, will add another 15 million chips per day, bringing total combined capacity to 16 million chips per day. Subbiah said the two plants will directly employ 2,000 to 3,000 people, and 8,000 to 10,000 people, including indirect jobs, once the second facility is operational.
Product Roadmap and Qualification
On products, CG Semi is currently qualifying for automotive, industrial and consumer segments and plans to sell into all three from India.”It will depend on our qualification cycle, but it’s definitely our desire that G1, at least within the next 18 to 24 months, we can get there,” he added.
Building India’s Semiconductor Ecosystem
Subbiah framed the effort as part of building a full ecosystem in India. “To make a global semiconductor ecosystem player out of India, the different parts that are needed. The fab is coming up. We’ve set up packaging facilities. There are other facilities coming up now in compound semiconductor,” he said. “Raw materials are also beginning to come into India,” he noted.
Renesas from Japan and STARS Microelectronics from Thailand are partners in the venture and have “helped us significantly,” Subbiah said. CG is also working with multiple suppliers and qualifying customers across the globe.
The event was attended by Prime Minister Modi, Gujarat Chief Minister Patel, Deputy Chief Minister Sanghvi and Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. Subbiah called it “a prestigious occasion, a proud occasion for the country” and credited the team and government support for making the first shipment possible.
With packaging in place and compound semiconductor units coming up, Subbiah said India is “definitely on the way” to a complete semiconductor value chain. (ANI)
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