The Union Cabinet has approved four semiconductor plants, including a unit backed by US technology major Intel and Lockheed Martin, entailing a total investment of Rs 4,594 crore in three states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab, Information & Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Tuesday.

The minister also said that the first 'made-in-India chip from an under-construction project is expected to be rolled out within two to three months, and the new projects in the pipeline will enhance the share of locally made components in electronics products to 30 per cent from 20 per cent at present.

Speaking about the new semiconductor projects approved by the Cabinet, the minister said two major projects will be set up in Odisha and one each in Punjab and Andhra Pradesh.

"Cabinet has approved four semiconductor plants that will be set up in Odisha, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh," Vaishnaw said.

The minister said Chief Ministers of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh spoke to him after cabinet nod for the project and shared that the construction of plants will be started at the earliest.

“All these plants will be operational in 2-3 years,” Vaishnaw said.

The cabinet approved a 3D Glass semiconductor packaging unit to be set up by Heterogenous Integration Packaging Solutions Pvt Ltd– which is backed by US technology majors such as Intel, Lockheed Martin and Applied Materials, entailing an investment of Rs 1,943 crore with an annual production capacity of 5 crore units.

This is the first semiconductor project that involves personal computer chip maker Intel Corporation along with other technology partners.

Vaishnaw said that this is the first time a chip will be packaged in 3D Glass using a glass base. He said that 3D Glass packaging is an advanced technology to package more chips in a small space as the size of semiconductor is reducing every year.

The minister said that at present the smallest chip size has been reduced to 2 nanometers and technology advancement is required to handle chips as their size further reduces.

The minister said that a silicon carbide semiconductor plant will be set up in Bhubaneswar with an investment of Rs 2,066 crore by SiCsem Pvt Ltd.

"Silicon carbide is a very robust material and can sustain at high temperatures. Silicon carbide is used in our missiles, satellites, telecom towers, rockets, railway engines, etc,” Vaishnaw said.

He said that the silicon carbide are very strategic for the country.

The minister said that the plant will have a capacity to produce 9.6 crore chips per year. The minister said the project will be backed by US firm Lockheed Martin as well.

A chip packaging plant in Andhra Pradesh, to be set up by Advanced System in Package Technologies with an investment of Rs 468 crore, was also approved by the Cabinet. It will have a capacity to produce 9.6 crore chips per year.

The cabinet also cleared a semiconductor project of electronics component maker firm CDIL. The facility will be set up in Punjab with an investment of Rs 117 crore, having an annual production capacity of 15.8 crore units.

The minister said that due to various steps taken by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, the electronics manufacturing sector has grown six times to Rs 12 lakh crore in the last 11 years.

He said that electronics exports have grown by 8 times to Rs 3.3 lakh crore and mobile production has increased by 28 times to Rs 5.5 lakh crore.

The minister said India will host Semicon India 2025 in partnership with four countries-- Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and Korea from September 2 to 4.

He said that one of the countries is looking to shift a major part of its rich semiconductor ecosystem to India to facilitate its continuous growth with access to young talented manpower and other resources. “We had a target to develop an 85,000 highly skilled talent pool for the semiconductor ecosystem. We have already crossed 60,000 trained talents. The world is estimated to have a shortage of 10 lakh talents by 2032 for semiconductors. I see Indian manpower to be the biggest strength in the entire semiconductor industry,” Vaishnaw said.

The minister said that IIT Bhubaneswar has started a research unit for silicon carbide semiconductors with an investment of Rs 45 crore.

He said that IIT Bhubaneswar has completed the first successful experiment of making vapour from silicon carbide powder from which ingot to make semiconductor wafer is made.

SiCsem Private Limited is setting up an integrated silicon carbide (SiC ) based compound semiconductors plant in collaboration with UK-based Class-SiC Wafer Fab Limited at Info Valley, Bhubaneswar, Odisha . This will be the country's first commercial compound fabrication unit.

The key applications of the proposed products from 3D Glass semiconductor project will be in the areas of defence, high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, RF and automotive, photonics and co-packaged optics, etc.

Advanced System in Package Technologies (ASIP) will set up a semiconductor manufacturing unit in Andhra Pradesh with an annual capacity of 96 million units in a technical partnership with South Korea's APACT Company Limited . The products manufactured here will be used in mobile phones, set-top boxes, automobile applications and other electronic products.

The new semiconductor projects raise the total number of chip plants in India to 10 with cumulative investment commitment of around Rs 1.6 lakh crore.

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