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'India prime location for fabs'
By Vimali Swamy
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Saturday, 05 July 2008, 00:07 IST
Bangalore: Applied Materials, a provider of nanomanufacturing technology, envisions India as a site for future chip manufacturing fabrication facilities, commonly known as 'fabs'. "India has all the synergistic elements - a growing market for semiconductor, expertise in chip designing and a large talent pool - essential for a robust semiconductor industry," said Dr. Madhusudan Atre, President, Applied Materials India. Development of fabs would be quiet beneficial as it would not close the loop between design, manufacturing and testing but also fuel economic productivity by contributing to the GDP and create job opportunities.
"The announcement of Semiconductor Policy of the Government of India is a boost to the Indian semiconductor industry. We are hoping to see an increased investment in this space and are ready to provide the necessary infrastructure and equipment to support these new fabs when they are created," he added.
The company is already working closely with educational institutions to increase awareness and research and development (R&D) activities. Last year, it had joined hands with IIT Mumbai and invested about $7-8 million to set up a nanofabrication lab in the campus. It has also formed research alliance with Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Apart from this, the company is looking forward to support start-up ventures in these areas through its investment arm, Applied Ventures.
Launched in June 2002, the company's India operations is completely involved in R&D activities and has its headquarters in Bangalore with offices in Chennai (set up by acquiring Brook Automation) and New Delhi where it has set up a thin film assembly line with one of its largest customer, Moser Baer. With employee strength of nearly 1500 in India, the company core business areas are silicon systems, flat panel displays and energy and environment products.
