U.S.-based chip manufacturing company Cricket Semiconductor is setting up a $1 billion analog seminconductor fabrication facility in the central state of Madhya Pradesh in India. The fab will manufacture analog/power chips that are key components of any electronic product.
India is a large consumer of electronic products and services, and the electronics market is growing rapidly. It is expected to rise from a reported $68 billion in 2012 to $400 billion by 2030. The county consumes close to $7 billion worth of semiconductors every year and this is expected to expand to $55 billion by 2020. Currently India imports almost all electronic content. Without an internal semiconductor manufacturing capability, by 2030 India’s outflow of cash will be 8% of its gross domestic product.
Both Lou Hutter the CEO of Cricket Semiconductor and Mark Harward the co-founder used to work at Texas Instruments Inc.
“India has a large and fast growing electronics market. A specialty wafer fab focused on analog/power semiconductors is well suited to catalyze the Indian Electronics System Design and Manufacturing ecosystem. We are confident that we can establish a high-volume, globally competitive specialty wafer fab in India,” said Lou Hutter.
