Indian materials science core to chips worldwide

As semicon tech advances, talent here becomes crucial to global companies

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In our coding-obsessed world, material scientists and engineers are underappreciated. Materials science research is crucial in many areas, especially in the semiconductor space. The chips that power our electronic devices have got so miniscule that improving their performance and capabilities any further requires expensive specialised equipment and experts with PhDs in materials science to run those machines and conduct experiments.

It’s a fascinating process of trial and error, of testing hypotheses and confirming theories, and engineers in India are playing a key role in this field.

Micron is a leader in memory chips and its Indian R&D team has been instrumental in helping them maintain that dominance, says Anand Ramamoorthy, MD at Micron Technology. “Micron is constantly striving to scale the technology so that it results in products having higher memory capacity, memory that is denser, faster and more power efficient. To achieve this, we are constantly challenged on a daily basis to come up with innovative ways to overcome some of the extreme complexities posed by the basic physical phenomena and properties involving materials,” he says.