Polymatech starts sapphire crystal production in Chennai to build local semiconductor materials capabilit

Polymatech Electronics Limited has commissioned a sapphire ingot crystal-growth puller—an industrial crystal-growth furnace used to manufacture large blocks of single-crystal sapphire—at its Oragadam campus near Chennai, as part of the company's plan to expand its semiconductor materials manufacturing capabilities in India. The company said the furnace is designed to grow a 100 mm diameter sapphire ingot in five working days, with each ingot yielding a usable length of about 330 mm after cutting and grinding. Once qualified, the ingots are processed through slicing, grinding, lapping and polishing into epi-ready wafers. At full capacity, a single puller is expected to produce around 18,000 epi-ready sapphire wafers a year, which it said could translate into several billion semiconductor dies annually for micro-scale devices.The puller is currently undergoing process qualification and operational validation, during which parameters such as power quality, ultra-pure water supply, process gases and thermal conditions are being tested for consistent sapphire crystal growth.The Oragadam facility will serve as the baseline for the next phase of expansion, with additional sapphire ingot pullers to be set up at the company's SEZ at Nava Raipur in Chhattisgarh. The Nava Raipur SEZ spans 10.13 hectares and has been approved by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for the manufacture of semiconductors and electronic components.The company said the India expansion will add to its existing sapphire ingot and wafer operations in Grenoble and France, and part of its broader manufacturing footprint across India, Singapore, France, Estonia and the US. Polymatech said the sapphire programme, like its other facilities, has been funded through the group's internal resources. The company works across semiconductor packaging, opto-electronics and advanced materials. The wider Polymatech Group's operations include LED chip-on-board packaging, memory modules, sapphire ingot and wafer production, semiconductor substrates, printed circuit boards, and test and reliability equipment.Get the latest technology news and updates. Download the TOI App.