India Explores SiC Wafer Fab as EV Growth Creates Domestic Market Pull

The India Semiconductor Mission has commissioned a comprehensive feasibility study for the establishment of a silicon carbide wafer fabrication facility in India under the ISM investment framework. The study, to be completed over six months by an international technology consultancy with semiconductor manufacturing expertise, will evaluate the market demand for SiC wafers in India's growing electric vehicle, solar energy, and industrial power conversion sectors, assess the technology transfer terms under which STMicroelectronics, Wolfspeed, or onsemi might partner with an Indian company or consortium on a domestic SiC fab, and develop a financial model covering capital requirements, operating economics, and the subsidy structure under ISM that could make a domestic SiC facility viable. India currently imports 100 percent of its SiC wafer supply from manufacturers in the United States, Europe, and China, creating both a cost disadvantage for Indian EV and solar equipment manufacturers and a supply chain dependency that the government's clean energy transition strategy creates incentives to reduce.

SiC Wafer Manufacturing Technology and Requirements

Silicon carbide wafer manufacturing is fundamentally different from silicon wafer production and requires specialised growth equipment, process knowledge, and quality control expertise that is concentrated in a small number of companies globally. SiC boules are grown from a seed crystal at temperatures above 2,000 degrees Celsius using a physical vapour transport process that requires precise temperature gradient control over periods of days to weeks to produce crack-free single-crystal material of the required polytype and carrier concentration. The grown boules are then sliced into wafers using wire saws with diamond abrasive, and the sliced wafers are polished to the sub-nanometre surface roughness required for epitaxial layer deposition. Each of these steps requires specialised equipment and process recipes that represent years of development by established SiC wafer producers including Wolfspeed, Coherent, and SiCrystal. The feasibility study will assess whether this process knowledge can be transferred to an Indian facility through a technology licensing agreement with one of the established producers and what the learning curve cost implications of establishing a greenfield SiC wafer operation in India would be.

India's EV and Solar Market as Demand Driver

The market demand analysis in the ISM feasibility study will focus on India's EV and solar energy sectors as the primary drivers of SiC wafer demand. India's EV transition, driven by government incentives, rising fuel prices, and falling battery costs, is creating a rapidly growing market for SiC power transistors used in EV traction inverters and onboard chargers. India's solar energy programme, which is targeting 500 GW of installed solar capacity by 2030, requires hundreds of millions of solar inverter modules, each of which uses SiC switching devices in its power conversion stage. Domestic SiC wafer production would reduce the input material cost for Indian SiC power device manufacturers and improve supply security during periods of global SiC wafer supply tightness, which has periodically constrained EV inverter production globally. The feasibility study will model the demand forecast for SiC wafers under different EV and solar adoption scenarios to assess whether the market is large enough to support an economically viable 150mm wafer fab.

Potential Partners and Investment Structure

The three companies cited as potential technology partners in the ISM study brief represent different strategic positions in the SiC value chain. STMicroelectronics is a vertically integrated SiC producer with both wafer manufacturing and device fabrication, making it a potential partner for an integrated wafer-plus-device fab investment that would capture more value than a standalone wafer fab. Wolfspeed is the world's largest standalone SiC wafer and device manufacturer and has experience with technology licensing arrangements through its supply agreements with other device manufacturers. Onsemi has been expanding its SiC supply chain aggressively and has strategic interest in India given its Pune design centre and engagement with Indian EV customers. The ISM will evaluate each potential partner's terms and conditions alongside the assessment of domestic Indian partners who might provide the land, manufacturing infrastructure, and local market access components of a joint venture structure.