Aatmanirbhar Bharat: Suchi Semicon's OSAT Unit Targets 200 Crore Revenue In First Year, To Move Into Chip Designing In 2 Months Suchi Semicon inaugurated its OSAT facility in Surat. The company is aggressively expanding its semiconductor business and in a couple of months will open its design division, Ashok Mehta told Entrepreneur India

Suchi Semicon, the Gujarat-based semiconductor company, has officially inaugurated India's first outsourced semiconductor assembly and testing (OSAT) facility in Surat, Gujarat. This green field project was in making for the past two years. With a pilot line ready, the facility would be producing 300,000 chips daily and eventually aims to produce 3 million chips a day in the next three to five years. Besides, the company is aggressively expanding its semiconductor business and in a couple of months will open its design division. "There are no big investments planned for the design division. It is highly based on manpower and the right talent acquisition. I have taken the advice of a 35-year-old US experienced person to start the division and we are looking forward to leveraging the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme," said Ashok Mehta, chairman, Suchi Semicon.

The company will be spending INR 870 crore on the OSAT plant that will be set up in three phases in the next three years. The facility's current clean room is spread across 15,000 square feet and the chairperson aims to complete a clean room of 30,000 square feet within one - two years. Cleanrooms are enclosed spaces that are designed to have a very low level of airborne particles. They are used in many industries, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices and electronics.

Furthermore, Suchi Semicon is eyeing a revenue of INR 200 crore in the first year, "Revenue is based on projections at this point in time. To give a number, I am targeting INR 100 to INR 200 crore revenue in the first year. This amount would basically come from power chips used in the auto industry, we would soon enter the vertical," Mehta said.

In the first phase the company will focus on discrete categories to set the course for production. "The automotive industry needs at least some prior experience in manufacturing. We are starting with the discrete category which is very common and the applications are varied, it could go from TVs to laptops to LED lights, anything like that. So, we are starting from there and then eventually we will diversify into other products," said Shetal Mehta, founder, Suchi Semicon, adding that they are currently focusing on legacy nodes. "It is too early to speak on getting into assembly of advanced nodes, it would take some time for us," he added.

Once the trial run starts, it would take two-three months to start commercial production. "In the first phase of production, our company will completely focus on exports. We have already on-boarded clients from Japan, Philippines, USA and Korea," the chairman said.

Suchi Semicon has already applied for Centre's incentives under SPECS (Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors), as well as the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), and is expecting to get incentives both from the Centre and the state government. "We did not wish to wait long. So, we have used our own funding, credits from banks and on-boarded a few investors. I decided to first start production of chips and then wait for government aid. We are also finalizing our technology partner and may have a development soon," the chairman explained.

The company has already employed 120 engineers for operating the new OSAT facility. The success of the semiconductor industry is highly dependent on talent acquisitions. "We are 100 per cent training our employees in house. Majorly, we have not hired anyone from India with semiconductor experience. Our technical team has 30-40 years of experience in semiconductors, coming from different countries . So there are few people in our technical team who have lived all their life in semiconductors," said Shetal Mehta. Despite not having finalized a technology partner, the founder is confident that Suchi Semicon's in-house tech team is capable of running the show.

The company did not disclose its wafer partners. When asked if the company would source wafers from Indian companies, Shetal explained, "Definitely. If it suits the purpose, then why not? We want the entire ecosystem to be made in India: the talent, the wafers and the raw materials. This way, it will be an advantage as there would be less dependence on imports. The production timelines would get shorter."

Currently, four semiconductor OSAT/ATMP (assembly, testing, marking and packaging) projects are ongoing in India. Tata Electronics ATMP in Morigaon, Assam, Micron Technology OSAT, CG Power ATMP and Kaynes Semicon OSAT in Sanand, Gujarat.