Tata Electronics and ASML, the Dutch company that holds a near-monopoly on the lithography machines essential to chipmaking, have announced a strategic partnership to support India’s first semiconductor fabrication plant. The facility, located in Dholera, Gujarat, represents the most concrete step yet in India’s long-running ambition to stop importing virtually all of its chips.
What’s actually being built
The Dholera fab will be a 300mm facility, which is the industry standard wafer size for modern chip production. It’s designed to produce 50,000 wafers per month, targeting analog and logic chips using process technologies ranging from 28nm to 110nm.
The technology for the fab is being developed in collaboration with Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (PSMC). ASML’s role is arguably even more critical. Every modern chip fab on the planet needs ASML’s lithography systems, the machines that use light to etch circuit patterns onto silicon wafers.
The money behind it
