Reflections from Semicon India 2025: Beyond Moore, Toward Plasma

Absolutely electrifying experience at the Semicon India 2025. I got a chance to interact with representatives from Imec,Tokyo electron, SMC,LAM research,STI,Canon,AMD,Micron,Canon, ASML,Zeiss and learn about their expansion plans in India.

I was really excited to learn about companies manufacturing SIC crystals to meet the demands of the power sector. Manufacturers were highly optimistic about its chances claiming that it outperforms GaN in both cost and efficiency. Another surprise was learning about glass surface patterning through electrochemical discharge.

It was especially encouraging to see enthusiastic participation from students eager to learn about the semiconductor industry and drive the transformation in the coming decades.

Among the thought leaders AI unsurprisingly remained a topic of much discussion — though concerns were raised around its sustainability & the need to decarbonise the manufacturing process.

The conference provided a much needed thrust to India's aspiration of building a semicon fab. There were some accusations circling around that India is just playing catch up. But catching up is important. Although it's equally imp.to build something entirely new.

Semiconductor history provides some valuable lessons in that regard. Today we take computer chips for granted. But just a few decades ago solid state semiconductors were upstarts competing against vacuum tubes. It was a long and arduous battle for the semiconductors to get where they are today. Every small innovation since the breakthrough by Shockley and his team, from the Czochralski method - to the actions of traitorous eight - to the passivation technique developed by attala helped pave the way for semicon dominance and gave birth to the information age.

Today the industry is shaping the research in semiconductors with the goal of maintaining its hold. But it's getting increasingly difficult as feature sizes shrink. New techs like skybridge architecture for 3D integrated circuits give some breathing room but is it enough? Meanwhile there's another tech developing in the background, plasma based, that can revive the old vacuum tubes by miniaturising them.

Moore's law is not gospel truth. It's not the only way to economise production. New ways of computing can be invented. It's going to be tough but it can be done.

Akshat Jiwan Sharma

Strategy Consultant--Innovation/ Materials science/International relations/Telecommunications/Digital Transformation/Partnerships Mobile/whatsapp:+919654119771 email:getellobed@gmail.com

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Notes by Akshat Jiwan Sharma

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