‘Semiconductor industry not complicated, but processes crucial’

Singapore-based Mindox Techno makes equipment, platforms and provides engineering services for semiconductor firms. In an interview to TOI, Sri Thirunavukkarasu, founder and CEO of Mindox Techno, talks about the

firm’s facilities in India, tapping the existing supplier ecosystem in Coimbatore for chip making, and the policy push needed. Excerpts:

What is Mindox Techno doing in Coimbatore?
We are a semiconductor equipment company providing direct products and platforms for other equipment makers and automation solutions for semiconductor fabrication. Mindox has a manufacturing plant and product development centre in Coimbatore, which started operations in 2021. We made an investment of $5 million and have plans to put in $10 million by next year on product development, which includes getting additional tools, resources and testing facilities.

How did you build a local team and supplier network there?

We have a team of 140 employees in Coimbatore, including 35 in product development, who we took to Singapore for training and now they are helping train our suppliers. Currently, Mindox works with three suppliers. Initially, we faced a lot of challenges in meeting the semiconductor industry’s requirements. The suppliers would say, ‘we made things for the last 25 years, but you are asking for something we do not understand’. They were into textile and auto component equipment. We asked them to make different components and assessed where they stood. It’s a stringent process and the team from Singapore analysed it. First product they built met only 20% of the industry requirement. There was a lot of scepticism around the effort. Now we are shipping products to Japan, which is known for minimal tolerance in manufacturing. We developed it over a year. We trained our suppliers in handling materials, safety, cleanliness, finishing, tolerance of the components, and using the right tools.

Semiconductor industry is not complicated, but everybody needs to follow certain processes and simplify. We are helping them to bridge the gaps. With this, we can focus on building products and scale our operations. These suppliers are much bigger than Mindox.

Can Coimbatore become a semiconductor hub?

We make load port, one of the first and crucial modules in semiconductor fabrication. Mistakes in that could prove costly. There was some scepticism about our efforts to train our team and suppliers. But, I was looking at the long term. Having spent more than two decades in the industry, starting my career in applied materials, I have seen a similar learning curve. I spearheaded greenfield projects in Taiwan to Korea, Singapore and Malaysia. Success needs continuous training and each process requires different training.

Coimbatore has the know-how in engineering, materials and has talent. It is better situated than many other places. Local industries capabilities have to be modified for semicon industry. Some of the units in the automotive industry already have standardisation and it is easy to shift them.

What are the Indian companies’ concerns while setting up semiconductor units?

External environment is favourable for setting up semiconductor units in India. People setting up these units want the entire supply chain reachable quickly. Customers expect suppliers to be located in India and support to come quickly, because downtime could have major financial consequences.

Do you think enough attention is paid to the ecosystem compared to setting up fabs?

Currently a lot of focus is on chip manufacturing. The govt should realise, for it to work, the rest of the ecosystem — right from raw materials, metals and ceramic parts to equipment to clean rooms — should work. Some of these are not available in India and you cannot depend on materials from outside.

More weightage should be provided to build that. Tomorrow, you will have a fab but, without the ecosystem, you cannot get the output industry wants.