🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

India’s fab relies on proven, not cutting-edge, chip technology

• Tata’s Dholera plant will make chips on 28 nanometer to 110 nanometer nodes through a technology tie-up with Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (PSMC), a contract chipmaker 1.
• That setup uses deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography tools, which rely on older production methods, instead of ASML’s advanced and tightly controlled extreme ultraviolet (EUV) machines 2.
• India’s central government and Gujarat’s state government will cover about 70% of the 910 billion rupees (US$9.49 billion) investment, or about US$11 billion 2.
• The fab is planned for 50,000 wafers a month for global automotive and mobile customers 2, 1.

Geopolitical chip restrictions on China create an opening for India

• Export controls limit ASML’s shipments of EUV systems and some advanced DUV immersion tools to China unless it gets export licenses 3.
• China can still use older deep ultraviolet immersion (DUVi) tools with multipatterning, a method that repeats lithography steps to make finer features, to produce fairly advanced chips at scale with lower yields and higher costs 4.
• With access to ASML lithography tools and support, India gains a chance to serve companies that want less supply chain exposure to China 1.
• That gives India room to grow local chipmaking on established nodes and win some demand that might otherwise go to fabs in China 1.