Question 1

OSAT facilities fabricate raw semiconductor wafers from scratch.

Accepted Answer

OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test) facilities only package, wire, and test completed silicon wafers into finished chips; they do not perform the initial front-end silicon fabrication.

Question 2

The India Semiconductor Mission provides funding exclusively to foreign multinational corporations.

Accepted Answer

Under ISM, domestic Indian companies like Kaynes Technology (via Kaynes Semicon) and CG Power are receiving substantial financial incentives (up to 50 percent of project cost on a pari-passu basis) to build semiconductor facilities.

Question 3

Consider the following statements regarding the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) and semiconductor manufacturing:
1. The India Semiconductor Mission functions as an independent business division within the Digital India Corporation.
2. OSAT facilities are primarily responsible for the front-end fabrication of integrated circuits on raw silicon wafers.
3. The Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme under ISM provides financial incentives exclusively for semiconductor packaging and testing.
How many of the above statements are correct?

Accepted Answer

(a) Only one — Statement 1 is correct; ISM is an independent business division within Digital India Corporation. Statement 2 is incorrect; OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test) handles back-end packaging and testing, not front-end wafer fabrication. Statement 3 is incorrect; the DLI scheme provides incentives for the development and deployment of semiconductor design and IP, not packaging.

Question 4

Match the semiconductor industry terms in List I with their correct descriptions in List II:
List I
A. Front-end Fabrication
B. OSAT
C. Intelligent Power Module (IPM)
D. DLI Scheme

List II
1. Financial support framework for developing domestic semiconductor design IPs
2. The process of creating complex integrated circuits onto raw silicon wafers
3. The back-end process of assembling, enclosing, and validating completed chips
4. A multi-chip package integrating power switches and control circuits for EVs

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

Accepted Answer

(a) A-2, B-3, C-4, D-1 — Front-end Fabrication (A) refers to making the chips on raw silicon (2). OSAT (B) is the back-end assembly and testing (3). An IPM (C) is a specific multi-chip power package (4). The DLI Scheme (D) targets semiconductor design (1).

Question 5

Assertion (A): The Indian government prioritized the establishment of OSAT and ATMP facilities like the Kaynes Semicon plant in Sanand before achieving large-scale domestic front-end silicon fabrication.
Reason (R): OSAT facilities require significantly lower capital investment and help build the foundational talent pipeline, logistics, and supply chain ecosystem necessary for complex wafer fabrication in the future.
Select the correct answer from the codes given below:

Accepted Answer

(a) Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A. — Both statements are factually correct. The Indian government pivoted to supporting OSAT/ATMP (back-end) first because front-end fabrication is highly capital intensive and requires an existing ecosystem of pure gases, chemicals, and highly trained personnel. R correctly explains the strategic rationale behind A.

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