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Semicon fab to transform electronics industry in India

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Harmeet
New Update

BANGALORE, INDIA: Dr. Om Nalamasu, senior VP and CTO, Applied Materials Inc. remarked at the IESA Vision Summit 2014: "Applied Materials is proud to be a participant at the IESA Vision Summit 2014. The event brings together government, industry bodies, ESDM players and academia at a historic point in India's electronics industry.

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"It took years of determination and collaboration to reach this inflection, an inflection that makes the creation of semiconductor manufacturing in India a reality, bridging the gap between consumption and creation. This is a truly transformative juncture for the Indian electronics industry, and we offer our full support to making it successful."

Establishing such a high-value manufacturing industry as semiconductor chip fabrication will have a truly transformative effect on the overall electronics industry in India. This will have a very strong multiplier effect that will result in major strides forward in the value generated from all sectors within the semiconductor ecosystem - one of the biggest being the growth of high-tech and high value-add employment opportunities this will generate in the country. The historic significance of this approval will be felt for many years to come. Manufacturing in India will soon witness a new frontier.

A strong manufacturing base is critical for high-growth economies. There are successful examples in South East Asia where advanced manufacturing has resulted in strong GDP multipliers.

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In India, there's a strong electronics market opportunity, driven by telecom, IT, consumer and industrial electronics; 65 percent of these electronic products are imported today. The disposable income of the growing middle class in India and China will continue to drive electronics market growth.

Semiconductor manufacturing enables India to increase its status in the electronics value chain. There are multiple areas for growth in India (e.g. mobility, energy, health, transportation) which are critical for India's infrastructure and overall development.

India now has a semiconductor fab policy in place. Now it is imperative to execute. Government, industry and academia should come together to make this a reality. Given the competitive and complex nature of this industry, and the timing of its creation in India, focus must be placed on the sustainability of this ecosystem.

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Semiconductor is a one of the highest R&D intensity and capital intensity areas, so in order to build on the two fabs and make them successful we need to build an ecosystem around it. There are established global models on how to do this.

In this industry access to globally competitive technology is critical due to the furious pace of innovation. Due to this, the semiconductor industry has one of the highest R&D intensity and capital intensity among advanced manufacturing industries. This high investment in technology (~ 16-20 percent of sales) is required to fuel the innovations that enable the electronics industry to continuously produce devices and systems that are smaller, more powerful and richer in features at lower prices.

Developing a robust domestic market ensures demand that can be forecasted and road-mapped. Partnering with global leaders for technology and developing differentiated products for the local market in growing areas are steps in the right direction to ensure the success of the semiconductor manufacturing eco-system.

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In order for the eco-system to be sustainable, the stakeholders will need to evolve a capability to continuously innovate to effective address the opportunity at hand.

A winning strategy would be to strengthen domestic R&D, target innovation toward building leadership in specific opportunities, while continuing to customizing globally competitive technologies. Executing on this strategy is required to develop differentiated products and not have to compete purely on cost.

There should be a collaborative effort across industry and academia to focus more on R&D. Governments can enable the right local ecosystem with long-term and sustained support, and also help enhance the overall awareness on IP creation and protection across the industry and academia.

Applied Materials has strong academic partnerships with universities worldwide. In India we have been working with IIT Bombay over the past several years on a wide area of topics, which has resulted in papers, publications and patent applications.

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