First micro-LED screen rollout in 22 months, says Ashwini Vaishnaw

India targets semiconductor and micro-LED leadership with phased manufacturing push

With the government deploying most of the ₹76,000 crore earmarked under the Indian Semiconductor Mission, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, tells Surajeet Das Gupta in an email interview that this year many projects on micro-LED (light emission diode) panels and micro chips will start. Edited excerpts.

 

Under its semiconductor policy, the government recently cleared a project to bring in micro-LED technology to India. What does it mean for the country? 

The recent approval of the display fab in Dholera, Gujarat, is a landmark moment for India’s display ecosystem. The global display industry has been on a rapid geometry shrink — from 300 microns to 70 microns. The real inflection point for mass-market adoption of TVs and smartphones is 50 microns. At 50 microns, micro-LED becomes directly competitive with LCD (liquid crystal display) and OLED (organic LED), on both user experience and cost.

 

The Dholera facility will adopt both the mini-LED and micro-LED technologies. Mini-LED will have two chip sizes: 50 micron x 100 micron, and 75 micron x 125 micron. The micro-LED chip size will be 30 micron x 60 micron. The first micro-LED screens are expected to roll out of the Dholera plant in approximately 22 months. Their applications will span the full range: Large displays for TVs, commercial screens & signages, medium-sized displays for tablets, smart phones, and in-car displays, and micro-displays for AR/VR glasses and smart watches.

 

As the initial investment is small, is the government ready give more support when it scales up?

 

Micro-LED is the technology of today, and India has the opportunity to lead. We are following a phased approach: Prove the technology, build the supply chain, train the workforce, and then scale up. We are positioning ourselves as a trusted long-term partner. With this focus, we are on course to be among the top semiconductor manufacturing nations by 2035. And display manufacturing is a core element of that journey.

 

Can India develop the technology indigenously or will a tieup with others like Lumens be necessary?

 

For the Dholera facility, Crystal Matrix has tied up with Lumens on technology transfer. Crystal Matrix will invest in research & development for developing the technology from the point where it begins production.

 

With most of the ₹76,000 crore for the ISM deployed, what kind of fab/OSAT (outsourced semiconductor assembly and test) capacity shall India be able to reach when all the projects take off?

 

In just four years since the launch of the ISM, India has gone from having no semiconductor plant to 12 now. Two plants — of Micron and Kaynes — are in commercial production. The third will begin production in July and the fourth by the end of this year. India’s first fab is coming up in Dholera by 2028.

 

Let us also look at the scale being created. Tata’s OSAT facility in Assam will produce 48 million chips a day, serving automotive, electric vehicles, telecom and consumer electronics. CG Power’s OSAT facility in Sanand, Gujarat, will produce over 15 million chips per day. Kaynes’ OSAT facility, also in Sanand, will produce over 6 million chips per day. Our immediate priority is to meet domestic demand. Exports will follow naturally once the domestic market is anchored.

 

With other countries providing subsidy budgets many times more than India’s, are we in a disadvantageous position even after Semicon 2.0 takes off?

 

Our country has many competing priorities. We have been clear that this is a 20-year journey. We are investing in patient capital, not in a short-term subsidy race.

 

What are the key areas of focus for India in artificial intelligence (AI)? With global companies and countries sending billions of dollars, is ₹10,000 crore enough?

 

Our investment is more in the form of strategic seed capital. And it has started showing results. We have crossed the original target of 10,000 GPUs (graphics-processing units), with over 38,000 GPUs deployed and additional 20,000 in the pipeline. At ₹65 per hour, this is the most affordable AI compute facility in the world. Twelve startups are building indigenous AI foundation models, with some like Sarvam meeting global benchmarks. India has the world’s most vibrant AI adoption rate at 87 per cent. Our ₹10,000 crore mission is the catalyst ensuring that this energy is for solving local problems. Ultimately, the market and industry must do the heavy lifting.

 

Are we pushing the manufacture of servers, which are a key element in data centres? What has been the progress on this?

 

Dell and HPE have increased production the of “Made in India” servers matching global standards. Our homegrown companies such as Netweb and VVDN are emerging as early domestic champions. They are scaling up capabilities in server manufacturing, system integration, and high-performance computing solutions. At the groundbreaking of Google’s AI hub in Visakhapatnam, we urged every technology company involved to expand into server manufacturing. The policy architecture is in place to support this.