CDIL becomes first Indian firm to produce Silicon Carbide components

Electronic component maker CDIL has become the first company in India to start manufacturing Silicon carbide semiconductors for use in high power-consuming technology products.

While speaking on the sidelines of the launch of the company's new surface mount semiconductor packaging line, CDIL Executive President and Chief Operating Officer Pankaj Gulati told PTI that the company has started exporting Silicon Carbide (SiC) components to China, the US, Europe and Australia.

"We are the first company in India to have started manufacturing of Silicon Carbide semiconductors. We have started shipping them to China, US, Europe and Australia," Gulati said.

CDIL operates manufacturing facilities and a reliability lab in Mohali and Delhi, serving industries with a focus on the automotive, defence, and aerospace sectors.

The company's expansion has received incentive support from the Centre under the Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS).

The company has initiated the first phase of production of 50 million Silicon Carbide components with a surface-mount packaging line and plans to ramp up it to 100 million devices.

The addition of new assembly lines has increased CDIL's total capacity to 600 million electronic components annually.

Gulati said the company's second phase will also be under the SPECS scheme, and for third phase, it will apply under a plan announced by India Semicon Mission, which offers up to 50 per cent incentives.

He said the company earlier had around 60-65 per cent of business from exports, but with the increase in local manufacturing, the share of domestic business has gone up and exports now account for 40 per cent of total revenue.

The company at the event signed an agreement with the Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL) to make Mohali an end-to-end semiconductor hub in the country.

Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity), Joint Secretary, Amitesh Sinha at the event said India still has much to catch up, with a projected surge in demand to approximately 110 billion by 2030.

He said MeitY wants to establish SCL as the premier research and development hub for semiconductor components and cultivate a dynamic ecosystem in semiconductor manufacturing and assembly in Mohali.

"As CDIL and SCL join hands for knowledge exchange, India can look forward to more indigenous chip manufacturing for the world in the future," Sinha said.

CDIL General Manager Prithvideep Singh said the company plans to add capacity of another 100 million devices in the next 12-18 months.

"Even though SiC devices are notoriously hard to manufacture at scale, we have spent effort and investment to master them," Singh said.

With SiC, the company is targeting sectors like electric vehicles, solar and power electronics, he noted.