Tagore Technology ready to capitalize India for GaN chip production

India is eyeing to strengthen its presence in the $1 trillion semiconductor opportunity in 2030, and is hopeful of some leading foundries (who manufacture chips) to apply in the second round. Meanwhile, US-headquartered Tagore Technology, whose chips are currently manufactured in Taiwan, is ready to capitalize India for the production of its Gallium nitride (GaN) chips. However, US-headquartered Tagore Technology is a fabless company - designs chip and outsource production - and will be dependent on the foundry partner for the same.

GaN is a compound semiconductor and interestingly, the Indian government has extended a flat 50 per cent incentive for setting up compound fabs in India. Tagore Technology is working with GaN, a key technology for RF (applications such as Radar, public safety radio, 5G infrastructure) and power (such as electric vehicles, solar, chargers). 

Tagore’s RF GaN chips are used by companies across the globe including in India, with the famous examples being public safety handsets used in Tokyo Olympics used Tagore’s RF GaN switch. 

Amitava Das, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Tagore Technology told Business Today, “we are also shipping power GaN IC’s for a multitude of applications, such as mobile phone/laptop chargers, electric scooters. All the power GaN activities are done in Kolkata. We always hear surprises and get accolades for developing a very advanced semiconductor chip right from Kolkata. Our chips are currently manufactured in Taiwan but as the chip ecosystem grows in India we are ready to capitalize that to make domestic production of GaN chips.”

As nations such as the USA and Europe are aiming for leading edge nodes (3,5,7 nanomerter), Das believes India should start with older semiconductor technology as most of the semiconductor demand today is based on the latter. For instance, most of semiconductor chips used in EV’s, use old technology. “In my opinion, India should focus on winning the semiconductor IC market share in dollar terms, not the latest/greatest technology. Starting the Semiconductorization using older/matured yet high-demand technology is a better use of investment. If that is the strategy, $10 billion incentive is a healthy starting point,” Das added.  

Commenting on the time taken by the Indian government to evaluate fab proposals, Das said, “I am not familiar with the inner working of the government of India and can’t comment on delay of approvals.  Having said that, building a semiconductor fab ecosystem is a long process and it is not going to happen overnight. It is important to make the right decisions about technology, partner and location taking appropriate time for due diligence.”

Semiconductor manufacturing will require lots of input raw materials not commonly used in India at the purity level that semiconductor fabs will require and lots of water. So, thinking about supply chain of the inputs to the semiconductor fabs is important. “So, in a nutshell, a short delay of a few months or a year is not going impact government of India’s goal as long as right decisions are made. Fast spending of lots of money without proper thought is wasteful and will not achieve the ultimate objective of becoming a semiconductor nation. Just look at our previous attempts (in ‘80s), such as building up Semiconductor Complex Limited in Chandigarh,” Das added.

As all the leading nations are looking at increasing their share of semiconductor value chain, in the current geopolitical situation, Das believes India is one of the best locations.

Also read: BT Budget Roundtable: Semiconductors important for India’s future, says IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

Also read: ‘For semiconductor fabs… we have to make a start now,’ says father of Pentium processor Vinod Dham