Hope to break ground for chip plant by Q1 of next year: 3rdiTech CEO

What really worked for us, I think, is that none of us came from the industry but we did realise that we will be running into insurmountable problems, she said

The Indian semiconductor industry is being feted for the speed at which fabrication plants are being set up. One company that is getting attention is Delhi-based Bharat Semi and its design entity 3rdiTech (pronounced third-eye tech). Vrinda Kapoor, chief executive officer of 3rdiTech, is the only woman in India to head a semiconductor firm. Kapoor, in a telephonic interview over with Shivani Shinde, spoke about the company’s work. Edited excerpts:

How did 3rdiTech happen?

We wanted to create something unique in the Indian startup ecosystem, beyond ecommerce and quick commerce. While we (Kapoor and Vinayak Dalmia, 3rdiTech’s chief business officer) were thinking and contemplating, we stumbled upon this pocket of brilliance at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, which was working on sensors.

We met Mukul Sarkar, now chief technology officer and cofounder of 3rdiTech, at IIT Delhi. He had studied abroad and returned to India and got into research and development. This is the time when even the government research was not focused on such areas. By the time we met him it was 2018-19 he had spent over six-years establishing his lab at IIT Delhi, which was into imaging sensor and semiconductor design.

What really worked for us, I think, is that none of us came from the industry but we did realise that we will be running into insurmountable problems. We had an idea of how this should play out.

If you look at the way the semiconductor industry has flourished or came up in countries like the United States (US) or China over the last 25 years or so…it is like a playbook. All these companies stood up on the back of the US missile programme. The story is same for China. A Stanford University study talked about how the Chinese military played a crucial role in the development of the semiconductor industry there.

How did you get entry into the Indian defence segment?

The Army Design Bureau was the first to have spotted us and took a leap of faith in us. We are eternally grateful to the Indian Army. General Bipin Rawat (the Chief of Defence Staff who died in a chopper crash in 2021) had a lot of conviction in us. The rest followed. We also decided to work with the defence sector rather than think of the commercial market.

What we have done over the last five years is that we worked steadily with the armed forces, used their requirements to shape a design team and now we are accepting the technology transfer for manufacturing so that we actually build both bottoms-up and top-down capability to get to state-of-the-art.

Of course, the Indian Army introduced us into the international market. One of the biggest supporters of our work has been Dr Vivek Lall, an Indian American who is the global CEO of General Atomics Global Corporation.

He has personally driven our collaboration with General Atomics as India gets ready to procure the Predator drone from the US. That early validation and recognition of what we were working on, coming from him, was extremely critical in that initial leap of faith.

Why did you not create an integrated firm from the beginning?

We started with design because we wanted to build the IP (intellectual property), getting into manufacturing without a design base is pointless. The plan was to first build design and then manufacturing, because our main aim was to be an integrated device manufacturer.

The manufacturing piece was always part of the bigger plan but this kind of technology transfer does not happen on a cost basis. These happen when both the players see a mutual benefit. Semiconductors, especially these types of niche semiconductors, need capability too. I say niche because very few people enter this segment.

When will your semiconductor plant be operationalised?

We are hoping by the first quarter of next year we are able to break ground. The infrastructure construction will take us about two years. This will also mean getting the equipment etc. By the end of the third year we will start the low volume manufacturing that will help us test the prototypes and get the yields up to the industry standards.

We are 85 people now; we have a target of getting 150 people by the end of March 2025. And by December 2025, we want to be a 250-member team.

What’s the potential of compound semiconductors?

Silicon has been the mega material of the sixties, compound material is the 2010 onwards wave and this is the beginning of the new era of semiconductor. Compound semiconductors have been the mainstay of the defence ecosystem from the forties; they are now maturing to the extent that they are viable for the commercial markets, both in terms of cost and in new and advanced materials. Beyond defence, space is a very big application – 5G and 6G telecom, energy efficiency are big opportunities.

Semiconductors need a lot of investment in research

We file an average of 10 patents annually, both in India and internationally. And this number is only going to go up in a big way. India is home to 20 per cent of the semiconductor design manpower of the world. It breaks my heart to see that IP is being created by Indians in India for MNCs. I think it’s time for us to create IPs for the country and for the world.

What is the investment required to set up this plant and how do you intend to raise funds?

Compound semiconductor plants are cost effective. Silicon fabs (fabrication plants) do not start under an investment of $5-$10 billion. Compound fabs are typically in the range of $500 million. This fits in the semiconductor capability that the country is gearing up. The Tata group is already setting up a silicon fab; Foxconn and Adani are also coming up. We have a lot of capacity to build in the compound semiconductor space.

What is the client profile of 3rdiTech?

We work with the entire Indian defence segment; we work with the US defence department – both the army and the space force. We are working with the UK department of defence.