India's First Semiconductor Assembly and Testing Facility Begins Operations

India's CG Semi held the opening ceremony for a semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) pilot facility on August 28, which was under construction in the Sanand industrial estate near Ahmedabad, Gujarat (GJ) state. Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and GJ State Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel participated in the ceremony. CG Semi is a joint venture led by CG Power from the Chennai-based conglomerate Murugappa Group, with Japan's Renesas Electronics and Thailand's Stars Microelectronics also providing investment and technical cooperation. The pilot facility that held the opening ceremony has a production capacity of up to 500,000 units per day, with samples expected to be shipped soon. Separately from this facility, CG Semi is also constructing a large-scale OSAT factory in the Sanand industrial estate with a production capacity of 14.5 million units per day, aiming for completion by 2026. These facilities can handle various packaging including SoIC (System on Integrated Chips), QFP (Quad Flat Package), QFN (Quad Flat No-lead Package), BGA (Ball Grid Array Package), FC-QFN (Flip Chip Quad Flat No-lead Package), and FC-BGA (Flip Chip Ball Grid Array Package). The Indian government has approved 10 semiconductor manufacturing projects for subsidy eligibility, with 4 of them progressing in GJ state. CG Semi has taken the lead in reaching the opening ceremony stage. While not receiving government subsidies, Suchi Semicon in southern Surat conducted sample shipments in April within GJ state, showing that domestic semiconductor ecosystem formation is achieving concrete results.