Tata group’s slow but steady steps toward semiconductors

Silicon-based fabs make semiconductor chips that are much more commonly used and cover the whole range from microprocessors used in computers and smartphones.

On its website, the Tata group says “Tata Electronics Private Limited (TEPL), a greenfield venture of the Tata group, has expertise in manufacturing precision components”. It goes on to add “TEPL's manufacturing facility is located in the Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu where it works towards creating a conscientious socio-economic footprint with a target of employing 85 percent women in its workforce”. There are a few more lines about the social causes it serves, but hardly any technical details of the facility.

This has been the style of Tata Electronics - not revealing much except for occasional news or interviews in the media, but slowly building up on a big plan. Here’s a look at some of those, though it is quite likely only a partial picture.

One Step at a Time

The facility at Krishnagiri likely makes components - possibly non-electronic - that eventually go into products like smartphones. Tata group is said to be close to buying out an iPhone assembling plant owned by Wistron located in Karnataka and some of the components from Krishnagiri facility may end up being used there. While the final assembly is a last mile business in the entire chain of getting an electronics product out, Tata has already started getting into segments further up the supply chain.

As per reports in July 2021, Tata Sons moved to acquire a total of 69.35 percent stake in Tejas Networks, a listed telecom firm, in a deal which will bolster the conglomerate Tata group’s 5G capacity. Tejas Networks in turn holds a 64.4 percent holding in Saankhya Labs - an Indian semiconductor design (fabless) company.

In an effort to have a homegrown 5G solution, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has been working on a homegrown 4G solution first. TCS and Tejas have been partners and the solution is said to be ready for launch. Recently, Tejas Networks bagged a Rs 696 crore pan-India router network deal from BSNL.

In June 2022,  Renesas Electronics Corporation, a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced a strategic partnership with Tata Motors and Tejas Networks, both Tata Group companies, on the design, development and manufacturing of Renesas’ semiconductor solutions for enhancing innovation across electronics systems for the Indian and emerging markets. In March 2023, TCS and Renesas announced the opening of a joint innovation centre in Bengaluru and Hyderabad and collaboration on radio frequency, digital and mixed-signal design and software development for innovative next-generation semiconductor solutions catering to the needs of a wide range of industries.

Closer to The Goal

Around August of 2021, Tata Electronics hired Raja Manickam, founder of Tessolve as the CEO of a new division under Tata Electronics for Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Testing (OSAT) or in other words chip packaging. The exact details of the packaging units planned are not yet publicly known, but it is believed that Manickam was also involved in exploring Tata Electronics getting into semiconductor fabrication units also in addition to OSAT.

By April 2022, news of such possibilities had started coming out and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu was even listed as a probable location while Karnataka and Telangana were also said to be in consideration. It is possible that Tata Electronics has been evaluating compound semiconductor fabs with Renesas as a possible technology provider or silicon-based fab for which it will need technology from a high-volume manufacturer and the central government has to take decisions on first-round applications it received more than 14 months ago and reopen the scheme for new applicants.

Silicon-based fabs make semiconductor chips that are much more commonly used and cover the whole range from microprocessors used in computers and smartphones to microcontrollers, communication-related chips and power management. Most of these fall under the category of ‘Very Large Scale Integration’ (VLSI) amounting to a huge number of transistors and other components integrated into a single chip. Much of what is needed in automotives are still silicon-based. However, small, specific segments including in automotives are also catered to by compound semiconductors-based components or small-scale integration chips.

The Economist reported in September 2022 that Tata group is considering a $5 billion semiconductor fab, which if true is likely to be silicon-based. As predicted in an earlier article Tata Electronics hired the former head of Intel Foundry Services Randhir Thakur as CEO and MD hinting at getting closer to its goals.

Arun Mampazhy is a semiconductor engineer. Twitter: @nano_arun. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.