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Raghavan switched to an emerging material called gallium nitride<\/a> for his postdoctoral research. This was a wonderful raw material for making electronic chips, but growing them precisely on a silicon substrate was extremely tough. Raghavan learned this difficult art in four years of research. Then he returned to India.
In 2006, when Raghavan joined the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), the country had no expertise in work with gallium nitride. Despite its strategic importance, defence laboratories had neither the equipment nor the skill to grow gallium nitride, which was already beginning to be considered as potential material for future power electronic chips.
Just over ten years later, India is now in a position to develop a gallium nitride fab and a large industry around it, if the government is willing to invest Rs 2,500 crore over five years. Raghavan joined hands with scientists at IISc and other institutions to develop the technology for gallium nitride, all the way from growing the material to manufacturing products for power electronics.
Their proposal, however, has been waiting at the doors of the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) for a year and a half.
ELITE GROUPING
<\/strong>
If India develops a gallium nitride fabrication unit, it will join a small club of countries with the technology to grow this material and make devices. A fab can also seed a large electronics industry around it, provided a new set of design and manufacturing startups are also seeded along with it.
“We are trying to nucleate a large electronics industry,” says Raghavan. Gallium nitride is now considered the second most important material for electronic chips after silicon.
Over the last decade, there have been several attempts in India to set up a silicon fab, but this idea is now all but abandoned forever. Setting up a silicon fab requires investments of more than Rs 30,000 crore.
While a section of the semiconductor industry feels that a domestic fab is of strategic importance, other industry observers feel the money would be wasted if Indian companies are not able to get an international market quickly for their electronics products.
A gallium nitride fab is different. It is much less expensive and the technology is still in its early days. Only a few companies now make gallium nitride chips but they would be widespread within a decade. India is expected to be a heavy user of gallium nitride chips for power electronics, especially if the electric vehicles market expands within a decade.
The power electronics market now stands at $36.93 billion, according to the firm Markets and Markets. It is expected to grow to $51.01 billion by 2023. Gallium nitride devices will be a key element of this market. “If India wants to start a semiconductor fab,” says Ganapathy Subramaniam, venture partner at Walden International, “power electronics is the best place to start.”
Raghavan had this in mind when he returned, but India had no infrastructure or expertise on gallium nitride research. He kept himself busy with other research projects, all the while thinking about how to set up a reactor to deposit the material on silicon. His first break came in 2009, when the Defence Research and Development Organisation<\/a> (DRDO) gave him Rs 10 crore to set up a gallium nitride reactor at IISc.
By then IISc had set up the Centre for Nanoscience and Engineering (CeNSe), a Rs 100-crore facility for nanoscience and technology research. It came up as part of the Mission on Nanoscience and Technology, often called the Nano Mission, which was started in 2007. In its first phase of the mission, the government invested Rs 1,000 crore at IIT Bombay and IISc to create state-of-the-art facilities for nanoscience and technology research.
INCUBATING NANOTECH<\/strong>
These two institutions now have some of the best facilities in the world for nanoscience and technology research. IISc has a 1,400-sq feet clean room, where dust particles are at a level that is a few millionth that of the environment just outside the building. With it, scientists can make — on a small scale — many devices that are now becoming important for the electronics industry. It can also test these devices as they are made. These facilities are not found beyond some developed countries. For example, even Australia does not have some of the equipment found at IISc.
Within two years of the DRDO grant, Raghavan was growing gallium nitride films on silicon. It was the most difficult part of developing gallium nitride devices. Silicon repels gallium nitride the way water repels oil. “When you try to grow gallium nitride on silicon, it does not spread to form a smooth layer,” says Raghavan. “It forms islands like oil droplets in water.”
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To overcome this problem, gallium nitride is deposited as a series of thin layers, which would together make up about a few millionths of a metre in thickness. Each layer has to have so few defects that about 10 of them together can function as a device without defects.
Having developed the technology in a lab, the IISc team started thinking about manufacturing on a larger scale. By then, gallium nitride products had been penetrating the market. One of their major civilian uses was to step down DC voltages while charging, as with a laptop or mobile phone. They would be especially useful in the charging of electric cars.
IISc scientists saw the potential for gallium nitride chips when manufactured in India, and wanted to take the next step. In their minds, it was a foundry.
A gallium nitride foundry is not expensive compared to silicon, but it required expertise. This was why gallium nitride transistors, although first made more than a decade ago, have been late to enter the commercial market. “Understanding all aspects of the device takes time,” says R Muralidharan, former director of the Solid State Physics Lab in Delhi and now Emeritus Professor at IISc. “The device also has to be made reliable.”
NITTY GRITTY
<\/strong>
In October 2015, a CeNSe team pitched the idea of a gallium nitride fab to MeitY. In March 2016, it got Rs 60 lakh for writing a proposal, which required deep research and hiring of people. The team submitted the proposal in October 2016. In February 2017, an empowered committee chaired by former DRDO chief V K Saraswat cleared the proposal for investment. It is still waiting for approval from MeitY.
In the 2,000-page proposal, written by seven IISc professors working together for six months, CeNSe has proposed the cost at roughly
IISc has plans to make transistors and electronic products through its startup as well as through partnerships with other institutions. “The value addition keeps increasing as we go up,” says Navakanta Bhat, chairman, CeNSe.
Some 10 scientists have worked on different aspects of the chip. The team had experts on fabrication, testing, packaging, power electronics systems and device integration. And yet, they did not have to look outside too much for help. “The entire supply chain for this research was assembled within IISc,” says Rudra Pratap, professor and former chairman of CeNSe.
The CeNSe infrastructure came at a crucial juncture for the project. The gallium nitride team got the clean rooms at CeNSe, which take roughly Rs 20 crore a year just to maintain, at relatively no cost. Other departments, especially electrical engineering, have chipped in with their expertise. CeNSe has also involved institutions outside. For example, C-DAC in Thiruvananthapuram is helping develop power electronics.
Industry observers think the investment and expertise of the fab is now within India’s capabilities. “We don’t have to spend all the money now,” says Saraswat, now Niti Aayog member. “We can do a phased manufacturing approach.”
India will have to import some machinery. Trimethyl gallium, a raw material for gallium nitride, also has to be imported. “Fortunately,” says Saraswat, “the technology does not have to be imported.”
PLAN B<\/strong>
If the government does not fund the full amount of Rs 2,500 crore, IISc has a back-up plan. The gallium nitride team will set up a company and seek investments of Rs 300 crore, probably from the government itself. It will then be in a position to sell some material that it can make in the facility, and start attracting investment.
Since the value of the business goes up rapidly with each additional level in the chain (See graphic), the IISc team expects outside investments once they demonstrate technology clearly. One of the biggest markets – up to 30% – for the final products come from electric vehicles. If India goes fully electric, the chips for the converter can come from within India.
One key element is still missing in the value chain — the ability to design stateof-the-art products. India’s fabless semiconductor industry is still small, with only a few companies that has a record of shipping a large number of designs. “It may be important for the government to invest in a few fabless chip design companies before a gallium nitride fab comes up,” says Subramaniam.
Electronics may be ripe for a national mission like space or atomic energy.
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Raghavan转向一种新兴材料氮化镓他的博士后研究。这是一个美妙的电子芯片的重要原料,但越来越精确的硅衬底上非常艰难。Raghavan学到这个艰难的四年来艺术的研究。然后他回到印度。
2006年,当Raghavan加入印度科学院(印度),这个国家没有专长与氮化镓。尽管其战略重要性,国防实验室设备和技能成长氮化镓,这已经开始被视为潜在的未来电力电子芯片的材料。
就在十年之后,印度现在能够开发一个氮化镓工厂和一个大行业,如果政府愿意在5年内投资2500卢比。Raghavan加入与印度和其他机构的科学家们为氮化镓发展这项技术,从不断增长的电力电子材料制造产品。
他们的建议,然而,一直等在电子产品和信息化部的大门(MeitY)一年半。
精英分组
如果印度发展一个氮化镓制造单元,它将加入一个小俱乐部的国家技术种植这种材料和制造设备。工厂也可以种子大电子行业,提供一套新的设计和制造公司也播种。
“我们正试图泡核电子行业,“Raghavan说。氮化镓现在被认为是第二个最重要的电子芯片后硅材料。
在过去的十年里,已经有几次在印度建立一个硅晶圆厂,但现在这个想法永远都放弃了。建立一个硅工厂需要投资超过30000卢比。
在半导体行业的一部分觉得国内工厂的战略重要性,其他行业观察人士感到钱会浪费如果印度公司不能迅速得到国际市场的电子产品。
一个氮化镓工厂是不同的。它是便宜得多,技术仍处于早期。现在只有少数公司制造氮化镓芯片,但他们将在十年内广泛。印度预计将是一个沉重的氮化镓芯片用户电力电子,尤其是电动汽车市场的扩大在十年内实现。
电力电子市场目前为369.3亿美元,根据公司市场和市场。预计到2023年增长到510.1亿美元。氮化镓设备将这个市场的一个关键要素。“如果印度想开始一个半导体晶圆厂,“Ganapathy Subramaniam说,瓦尔登湖国际风险投资合伙人“电力电子是最好的开端。”
Raghavan这一点,当他回来的时候,但印度对氮化镓没有基础设施或专业知识的研究。他一直忙于其他的研究项目,同时思考如何建立一个反应堆,沉积在硅材料。他的第一个突破是在2009年,当国防研究与发展组织(DRDO)给了他10卢比在印度建立了氮化镓反应堆。
那时印度建立了纳米科学与工程中心(用香熏),一个价值100卢比的设施用于纳米科学与技术研究。它是作为纳米科学和技术的使命的一部分,通常被称为Nano的使命,这是开始于2007年。在第一阶段的任务,政府投资1000卢比IIT孟买和印度创造先进的设施为纳米科学和技术研究。
孵化纳米技术
这两个机构现在有一些世界上最好的设施的纳米科学与技术研究。印度有一个1400平方英尺的清洁房间,尘埃颗粒在水平几一百万大楼外的环境。,科学家可以使-小规模的许多设备,现在成为电子工业重要。它还可以测试这些设备。这些设施在一些发达国家中是找不到的。例如,澳大利亚甚至没有在印度发现的一些设备。
在两年内的DRDO格兰特,Raghavan生长氮化镓薄膜在硅。这是最困难的部分发展中氮化镓设备。排斥硅氮化镓水疏油的方式。“当你试着在硅氮化镓生长,它不会扩散到一个平滑层,“Raghavan说。“这形式岛屿像油滴在水里。”
为了克服这个问题,氮化镓沉积为一系列的薄层中,将一起约占几上百万米厚。每一层都有一些缺陷,大约10人一起可以作为设备没有缺陷。
拥有发达的技术实验室,印度团队开始思考大规模生产。到那时,氮化镓产品已经渗透市场。他们的一个主要民用下台直流电压充电,为笔记本电脑或手机。他们将在电动汽车的充电特别有用。
印度科学家看到潜在的氮化镓晶片生产在印度,和想要迈出下一步。在他们心目中,这是一个铸造。
氮化镓铸造不是昂贵的硅相比,但它需要专业知识。这就是为什么氮化镓晶体管,虽然第一次超过十年前,迟到了进入商业市场。“理解所有方面的设备需要时间,”R来自说,固体物理实验室前主任现在在新德里和印度名誉教授。“设备也必须是可靠的。”
细节
2015年10月,用香熏团队投MeitY氮化镓工厂的想法。2016年3月,Rs 60十万的写一个提案,需要深入研究和雇佣的人。2016年10月团队提交的提案。2017年2月,一个授权委员会主持DRDO前首席V K萨拉斯瓦特扫清了建议投资。它从MeitY仍在等待批准。
在2000页的建议,由七个印度教授一起工作了六个月,用香熏提出了成本约为
印度计划使晶体管和电子产品通过其启动以及与其他机构的合作关系。“增加价值不断增加我们上去,“Navakanta·巴特说,主席,用香熏。
一些10科学家从事芯片的不同方面。团队专家在制造、测试、包装、电力电子系统和设备集成。然而,他们没有太多以外寻找帮助。“整个供应链的研究是在印度组装,“楼陀罗普拉塔普说,教授和前主席用香熏。
用香熏的基础设施项目在关键时刻来了。氮化镓团队得到了洁净室用香熏,这需要大约20卢比一年维护,在相对没有成本。其他部门,尤其是电气工程的专业知识。外面用香熏还涉及机构。例如,在特里凡得琅C-DAC帮助开发电力电子。
行业观察人士认为,投资和专业的工厂现在在印度的能力。“我们没有花所有的钱现在,“萨拉斯瓦特说,现在镍钛Aayog成员。“我们可以做一个阶段性的制造方法。”
印度将需要进口一些机器。三甲基镓、氮化镓的原料,也有进口。萨拉斯瓦特说,“幸运的是,这种技术不需要进口。”
B计划
如果政府不资助全额2500卢比,印度有一个后备计划。氮化镓团队将建立一个公司和寻求投资300卢比,可能从政府本身。它将能够出售的一些材料,它能使设施,并开始吸引投资。
自业务迅速上升的值链中的每个额外的水平(见图表),印度团队预计外部投资一旦清楚地演示技术。最大的市场之一——30%——对最终产品来自电动汽车。如果印度全电动,转换器的芯片内可以来自印度。
一个关键元素是失踪在价值链-设计先进产品饮片的能力。印度王智立产业仍然是很小,只有少数公司有发货的记录大量的设计。“可能是重要的政府投资一些制程芯片设计公司在氮化镓工厂出现之前,”苏说。
电子可能成熟等国家任务空间或原子能。
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