By Yasutaka Ihara, Director & Corporate Officer, TANAKA Precious Metal Technologies Co., Ltd
India has not been shy about its ambition to become a global hub for semiconductor manufacturing. Through initiatives like the landmark India Semiconductor Mission 2.0 (ISM) and the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, the country has the wind beneath its sails.
India’s semiconductor push is steadily moving from building infrastructure to strengthening real capabilities. While earlier investments focused on fabrication and assembly, testing, marking, and packaging (ATMP), ISM 2.0 shifts the focus to industry-led R&D, design, and talent, laying the foundation for long-term innovation.
However, as India expands its capabilities in chip design and fabrication, attention is also increasing on the materials that enable semiconductor manufacturing. According to Deloitte, over 90% of India’s semiconductor demand is still met through imports, highlighting the gaps in its domestic ecosystem.
This brings increased focus to ensuring stable material availability to support ongoing semiconductor manufacturing activities. At the same time, demand is rising fast, with the semiconductor market expected to grow from around US$45-50 billion in FY2024–25 to US$120 billion by 2030 and and US$300 billion by 2035, driven by AI, automotives, data centers and electronics manufacturing. Encouragingly, this trajectory is expected to shift over the next decade, with local production projected to meet over 60% of domestic demand by 2035. Bridging this gap between rising demand and domestic capability will be key to building a more resilient and self-reliant semiconductor ecosystem.
Advanced materials powering innovation
The performance, reliability, and longevity of every high-tech semiconductor is intrinsically linked to the materials used in its packaging. These components are the unsung heroes of the digital world:
Bonding wires: These ultra-fine wires, often made of gold, silver, or palladium coated copper electrically connect multiple layers of semiconductor chips and electrodes on printed circuit boards, directly impacting electrical conductivity and device reliability.
Conductive adhesive paste: Anchoring the chip to its substrate and providing critical thermal and electrical conductivity, these materials are essential for high-power devices like those used in artificial intelligence (AI) and electric vehicles.
Probe pin materials for micro-pitch testing: Precision testing demands robust probe pins made from high-strength, conductive alloys. They ensure accurate electrical measurements during wafer and device inspection, critical for quality assurance in advanced chips powering 5G, AI, and autonomous systems.
Sputtering targets: Used in thin-film deposition processes, sputtering targets play a critical role in forming conductive and functional layers in semiconductors, hard disk drives, and electronic components. Advances in purification, alloy design, and process control contribute to improved film uniformity, electrical performance, and device reliability.
Plating technologies and equipment: Precious metal plating solutions are widely used in semiconductor components to enhance conductivity, corrosion resistance, and durability. Plating systems designed for scalability—from prototyping to high-volume production—support evolving manufacturing requirements, including larger wafer formats and finer device geometries.
While India’s strategy has rightly focused on attracting high-visibility fabrication and ATMP units, the materials ecosystem, the true enabler of next-generation chip performance and reliability, remains underdeveloped.
Ensuring stable material supply
As semiconductor manufacturing evolves, collaboration across the value chain is becoming increasingly important in supporting material requirements. This requires a concerted push to develop domestic manufacturing and research and development (R&D) capabilities for high-value materials that power AI, 5G, and the vast consumer electronics sector.
This transition demands a new model of collaboration, one that brings together India’s R&D institutions, start-ups, and global specialists. Global leaders in advanced materials engineering are exploring this partnership and laying the groundwork to support the value chain. TANAKA, a leading precious metals company, continues to supply advanced materials to India, leveraging technologies widely adopted across the global semiconductor industry.
Furthermore, the development of a more integrated materials ecosystem aligns with India’s broader efforts to strengthen its industrial base. Expanding capabilities in advanced materials can support deeper participation in the global semiconductor value chain and foster innovation across applications such as AI and telecommunications. These developments contribute to building a more robust foundation for long-term, sustainable manufacturing.
Forging a sustainable future
India’s semiconductor trajectory will be shaped not just by how many chips it can fabricate, but by how effectively it can command the underlying layer of materials innovation that enables those chips to perform reliably, efficiently, and at scale.
Advances in bonding materials, heat-dissipation materials, and advanced packaging materials contribute to meeting the performance and reliability requirements of semiconductor manufacturing. These developments support India’s continued participation in the global semiconductor value chain and enable manufacturers to address evolving demands across applications, including digital infrastructure and AI-driven technologies.
In the end, aligning progress in materials science with the growth of fabrication and assembly capabilities can support the development of a more robust and environmentally responsible platform for high-performance semiconductor manufacturing in India.