Tata Electronics and PSMC have completed the major equipment installation phase at the Dholera, Gujarat semiconductor fabrication plant, clearing the path toward trial wafer production targeted for December 2026. The 300mm fab, built at an investment of approximately INR 91,000 crore, is India's first and only wafer foundry. Equipment from Applied Materials, ASML, and Lam Research is now in place across key process modules.
Semicon Hunt -> manufacturing -> Tata Electronics / PSMC
2026-10-12
The semiconductor fabrication plant being built by Tata Electronics in partnership with Taiwan's PSMC at the Dholera Special Investment Region in Gujarat has reached a significant milestone with the completion of its major equipment installation phase. The teams from Tata, PSMC, and a roster of global equipment vendors have installed, connected, and begun qualification testing of the process equipment across the fab's core modules, including deposition, lithography, etch, clean, and metrology. This milestone sets the stage for the facility's targeted trial wafer production run in December 2026, which would make it India's first domestically produced semiconductor wafer from a commercial-scale foundry.
The Dholera fab operates on 300mm wafer substrates, which is the industry-standard format for high-volume cost-effective wafer production. The facility is designed for a monthly capacity of approximately 50,000 wafer starts per month at full ramp, which is comparable to a mid-tier foundry in Taiwan or South Korea. The initial process nodes at which the fab will operate are 28nm and older mature nodes, which serve a wide range of applications including automotive microcontrollers, display drivers, power management ICs, and industrial sensors. These mature node products represent the bulk of the global semiconductor volume by units and are the categories where India's electronics manufacturing industry has the highest near-term demand. A transition to more advanced nodes is planned for future phases as process development and yield optimisation progresses.
The equipment roster for the Dholera fab reflects the full complement of leading global semiconductor equipment companies. ASML supplies the lithography scanners that define circuit patterns on each wafer layer, and an MoU signed with Tata Electronics in May 2026 covers not only equipment supply but also talent development and local technical support infrastructure. Applied Materials supplies deposition and etch systems across multiple process modules. Lam Research contributes etch and deposition equipment for specific process steps. KLA Corporation provides inspection and metrology systems critical for yield management. This combination of tier-one equipment suppliers gives the Dholera fab a technology foundation consistent with international foundry standards and supports PSMC's know-how transfer under the joint venture arrangement.
The December 2026 trial production target involves running full process flows on test wafers to validate equipment settings, process parameters, and defect density before accepting customer designs. The trial phase typically takes three to six months for a new fab, after which process qualification for individual customers begins, a further two to six month process per customer depending on device complexity. Commercial volume production for the first customers is therefore expected to begin in the second half of 2027, with full capacity ramp taking until 2028. Indian electronics companies, including those in the automotive and consumer electronics sectors, are expected to be among the first customers, aligned with the government's domestic content objectives for electronics manufacturing.
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