US firm Cricket Semiconductor to set up Rs6,000-crore semiconductor unit in MP

US firm Cricket Semiconductor yesterday signed an MoU with the MP state government to set up a semiconductor fabrication unit involving an outlay of Rs 6,000 crore. According to the government this would be the biggest IT fabrication plant in the country.

According to industry experts, on completion, the project would likely create employment opportunities for 4.5 lakh people.

Lou Hutter, partner, Cricket Semiconductor told The Times of India, the proposed unit would produce 60,000 wafers per month. He added the fab unit was the need of growing Indian electronics market and would help develop electronics eco-system in India.

He added, a specialty wafer fabrication unit focused on analog / power semiconductors was  well suited to catalyse the Indian Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) ecosystem. He added, the company was confident of establishing a high-volume, globally competitive specialty wafer fab in India.
 
Analog semiconductors find application in electronic products connecting components like touch-screen of mobile phones with circuit and monitoring mobile phone and battery power.

India Electronics & Semiconductor Association, the representative body of Indian electronic system design and manufacturing industry, has provided strategic road map to the company for locating the project. Ashok Chandak, chairman of the body said the plant would bring Madhya Pradesh state to centrestage of global ESDM ecosystem with immense potential.

A specialty wafer fab focused on analog/power semiconductors was well suited to catalyse the Indian Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) ecosystem, he added. He said the company was confident that it could establish a high-volume, globally competitive specialty wafer fabrication facility in India.

He added, the project differed fundamentally from typical wafer fab projects in several ways. The project outlay, at around Rs6,000 crores, was less than less than 1/10th of a leading edge digital fab, he added. He said emphasis would be on processes and technologies that align to Indian as well as global requirements such as industrial and automotive.

The cost of analog / power semiconductor product development was substantially less than digital semiconductor products which  lowered the investment entry barrier for Indian entrepreneurs to bring innovative products to the market, stimulating the ESDM ecosystem and leading to the creation of many thousands of jobs.