Japan’s Hirata bets on India’s semiconductor boom with ATS India tie-up

Hyderabad: Japanese semiconductor automation and equipment maker Hirata Corporation is entering the Indian market through a strategic partnership with industrial automation company ATS India, as the country seeks to build out its semiconductor manufacturing and advanced packaging ecosystem.

Under the partnership, ATS India will be Hirata's exclusive distribution partner in India and will initially focus on bringing the Japanese company's standard semiconductor automation products to the market. ATS estimates that the total addressable market for semiconductor automation in India could reach about $100 million by 2030.

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Hirata's entry comes as India is seeing investments across semiconductor fabs, outsourced semiconductor assembly and testing (OSAT) and advanced packaging, areas where automation and material handling are expected to become increasingly important.

Hirata's semiconductor portfolio accounts for about half of its annual business globally, John Derzy, vice president at Hirata Corporation of America told ET. The company currently supplies automation solutions to semiconductor equipment makers and has been involved in processes including lithography, wafer cleaning and metrology.

The company will initially bring standard products that can be sold without extensive customisation, including equipment front-end modules (EFEMs), load ports and FOUP openers, FOPLP load ports, panel handling robots and high-performance wafer handling robots.

EFEMs and load ports are used to interface semiconductor manufacturing equipment with the material being processed, while wafer and panel handling robots automate the movement of semiconductor material between processes. Hirata also sees an opportunity for ground-based automation, including autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and collaborative robots (cobots), particularly in facilities that do not have overhead transport infrastructure.

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For ATS, the partnership provides an entry into the semiconductor sector by leveraging capabilities it has developed as a special-purpose machine builder and systems integrator, particularly in automotive.

“There might be opportunities while we continue to market and sell standard Hirata semiconductor products, the customers might actually need some integration. So we step in, and we'll be able to do that,” ATS India CEO Kishen Kavikondala said.

The partnership builds on more than a decade of work between the two companies in sectors including automotive. ATS said the same engineering and integration capabilities can be extended to semiconductor manufacturing.

Hirata sees OSATs and semiconductor equipment companies as key initial customer segments in India.