This is Lam’s third facility in India. It has two other facilities, also located in Bengaluru, which focus on software and hardware engineering and provide support to the company’s global manufacturing operations.
According to Lam Research, the new centre will be equipped with design and testing equipment, which will allow its engineers in India to design, test, and validate new deposition and etch technologies on site. Until now, design was sent to other locations for testing. This will shorten the design cycle significantly. At the new lab, Lam engineers can also connect with their overseas colleagues in virtual reality (VR).
In an interview with Mint, last month, Rangesh Raghavan, corporate vice president, and general manager of LAM Research India said that the company will open an R&D facility in India in September.
“This important facility is an expansion of Lam’s R&D operations and will play a critical role in the creation of new technologies needed in a time of rising semiconductor manufacturing complexity," Tim Archer, president, and CEO of Lam Research said in a statement.
Archer pointed out that the new centre will allow the company to leverage the “tremendous pool of technical talent" in India.
Semiconductor design and manufacturing-related activities have intensified in India after the central government announced a ₹76,000 crore PLI (Production-Linked Incentive) scheme for chip design and fabrication. Vedanta Group has announced plans to set up manufacturing facilities in India. In June, Applied Materials, another US-based hardware and software provider to chip manufacturers, said it was investing $50 million to purchase land in Bengaluru to build an R&D lab.
India can become one of the leading suppliers of materials, equipment, and services in the global semiconductor space by 2030, according to an April report by Indian Electronics and Semiconductors Association (IESA). India can account for $85 billion to $100 billion of the $550 billion to $600 billion global semiconductor market by 2030.
