Mint ·
Economy, business and finance
India’s semiconductor opportunity lies beyond the fab
Advanced packaging could give India a lower-capital pathway to semiconductor manufacturing—and help build the talent and systems ecosystem needed to compete globally.
India stands at a pivotal moment in its semiconductor journey.
The country has earned global recognition for chip design and software. It now has an opportunity to build on those strengths by becoming a leader in advanced packaging and, ultimately, evolving into a world-class systems foundry. By focusing on advanced packaging and workforce development, India can lay the foundation for a semiconductor-driven economy of the 21st century.
Advanced packaging has emerged as one of the most strategic technologies in the semiconductor industry. It enables the integration of chips, chiplets, memory, photonics, sensors, RF components and power devices into highly functional systems that power artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, communications, transportation, healthcare, defence and consumer electronics.
As demand for artificial intelligence (AI) grows, advanced packaging is becoming the critical technology that connects semiconductor innovation to real-world applications. This opportunity is reinforced by a fundamental shift in the industry—from the traditional system-on-chip (SoC) paradigm towards a system-on-package (SoP) paradigm, a concept I pioneered at Georgia Tech.
For decades, semiconductor progress depended on transistor scaling to improve performance while reducing costs. Today, scaling faces physical, electrical and economic constraints, even as the cost of advanced semiconductor fabrication continues to rise. Innovation is therefore increasingly moving beyond the transistor level to the package and system levels.
For India, advanced packaging offers a practical and attractive pathway into semiconductor manufacturing. Unlike advanced wafer fabrication facilities, which require investments of tens of billions of dollars, advanced packaging involves significantly lower capital requirements while creating opportunities for high-value manufacturing and innovation.
By integrating multiple specialized chips into optimized architectures, advanced packaging can deliver greater functionality, higher performance, lower power consumption, faster development cycles and greater design flexibility.
India's ambition, however, should extend beyond participating in this transformation. The country should aspire to become a global leader in selected strategic areas of advanced packaging.
That will require a comprehensive semiconductor-to-systems ecosystem spanning system design and architectures, advanced substrates and interconnect technologies, embedded power integration, assembly and testing, reliability engineering, workforce development, commercialization and startup creation.
At the centre of this vision should be a national innovation ecosystem built through partnerships among academia, industry, startups and government.
I propose establishing nine industry co-development technology centres across leading institutions, including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institute of Science, and Birla Institute of Technology and Science, alongside a national system integration centre and a pilot line at IIT Gandhinagar.
These centres could focus on strategic technologies such as chiplet architectures, glass-core substrates, power-efficient packaging, photonic packaging, thermal management, reliability engineering and advanced testing.
The pilot line would provide a critical bridge between research and manufacturing, helping translate laboratory innovations into commercially viable products. It would give researchers, students, startups and industry partners an environment in which to develop, validate and scale next-generation technologies before commercialization.
A defining feature of this strategy would be its distributed innovation model. Rather than concentrating resources and expertise in one location, specialized centres across the country could build on complementary strengths. This hub-and-spoke approach would leverage India's diverse capabilities, develop regional talent, improve resilience, encourage industry participation and accelerate innovation nationwide.
Close engagement with industry would ensure that research remains aligned with market needs and moves rapidly towards commercialization.
Workforce development is equally important. The semiconductor industry will require thousands of engineers, scientists, technicians, operators and manufacturing specialists.
India can build this talent pipeline through interdisciplinary academic programmes, industry internships, professional certifications, pilot-line training and collaborative research initiatives. By aligning education with industry needs, the country can develop one of the world's largest and most capable semiconductor workforces.
Advanced packaging can also support India's broader goals of technological self-reliance, economic growth and national security. As global supply chains seek trusted manufacturing and innovation partners, India can emerge as a preferred destination for advanced packaging, assembly and testing.
Such a strategy can reduce import dependence, create high-value jobs, attract investment, accelerate startup creation and strengthen India's national competitiveness.
Achieving this vision will require sustained commitment, strategic investment, coordinated policies and deep partnerships among government, industry and academia. The rewards, however, will be transformative.
Prof. Rao Tummala is chief executive officer, Indian Design, Semiconductors, Packaging and Systems (IDSPS).