India’s Long Road to an Indigenous GaN Chip
A group of IISc professors and researchers spent more than 15 years developing Gallium Nitride semiconductor technology. Their work eventually created AGNIT Semiconductors, strengthening India’s ability to produce strategic chips for defence, telecom, and power electronics.
How IISc Researchers Built India’s Strategic GaN Chip Capability
Bengaluru, July 28, 2026: The IISc GaN chip breakthrough began years before semiconductor manufacturing became one of India’s major technology priorities. A small group of professors and doctoral researchers at the Indian Institute of Science continued working on Gallium Nitride technology despite limited infrastructure, uncertain funding, and a weak domestic chip ecosystem.
Their research eventually laid the foundation for AGNIT Semiconductors, an IISc-incubated company developing indigenous GaN semiconductor products for strategic and commercial applications.
IISc GaN Chip Breakthrough Took Years of Research
The original research group included professors and scholars with expertise in semiconductor materials, device fabrication, electronics, and system development. The team comprised the late Dr Muralidharan Rangarajan, Hareesh Chandrasekar, Madhusudan Atre, Digbijoy Nath, Srinivasan Raghavan, Mayank Shrivastava, and Shankar Kumar Selvaraja.
They began pursuing GaN technology when India had little infrastructure for manufacturing advanced semiconductor devices. Instead of attempting to compete directly with large international silicon foundries, the researchers focused on compound semiconductors, where specialised knowledge and intellectual property could provide India with an advantage.
After more than 15 years of research, the initiative developed into AGNIT Semiconductors, which started operations as an IISc spin-off in 2019. The company describes itself as a Gallium Nitride semiconductor developer working across wafers, electronic components, and modules.
Why Gallium Nitride Matters to India
Most conventional electronic products use silicon semiconductors. However, silicon can face performance limitations in applications requiring high voltage, greater power handling, or extremely high operating frequencies.
Gallium Nitride is a wide-bandgap semiconductor capable of operating efficiently under such demanding conditions. GaN devices can support faster switching, compact electronic systems, and improved power efficiency.
These qualities make the technology valuable for radar systems, satellite communications, electronic warfare equipment, telecom networks, electric vehicles, chargers, and data centres. IISc research has also demonstrated indigenous GaN power and microwave transistors designed for high-power and high-frequency applications.
For India, the technology has additional strategic importance because several advanced GaN components used in defence and communication systems are difficult to obtain from overseas suppliers.
From University Laboratory to AGNIT Semiconductors
Turning academic research into a commercial semiconductor product presented a different set of challenges. Chip development requires costly equipment, specialised fabrication facilities, extensive testing, and long product-validation cycles.
Unlike software products, semiconductor designs cannot always be corrected through quick updates. A design or fabrication error may result in months of additional work and significant financial losses.
Support from government-backed innovation programmes helped AGNIT develop early commercial prototypes. The company subsequently began working on GaN solutions for defence, telecommunications, consumer electronics and electric mobility.
In December 2023, AGNIT signed a Defence Ministry contract to develop advanced GaN semiconductors for wireless transmitters used in radar and electronic warfare systems. The company later raised $3.5 million in seed funding in October 2024 to expand manufacturing and commercial operations.
Reducing India’s Dependence on Imported Chips
The development of an Indian indigenous GaN chip ecosystem could reduce reliance on imported strategic components while creating domestic semiconductor knowledge and intellectual property.
AGNIT’s vertically integrated approach covers multiple stages of development, including semiconductor materials, device fabrication, packaging, testing, and system-level applications. This allows engineers to design components around India’s specific defence, communication, and power requirements rather than depending entirely on products created for foreign markets.
The company’s journey also highlights the importance of sustained funding for deep-technology startups. Semiconductor research may require many years before it produces commercially viable products, making long-term institutional and customer support essential.
What India’s Semiconductor Mission Can Learn
India’s semiconductor strategy is frequently associated with large fabrication plants and investments from global manufacturers. However, the IISc and AGNIT journey shows that original research, specialised talent, and homegrown intellectual property are equally important.
Factories can expand manufacturing capacity, but indigenous technologies give the country greater control over critical systems and future product development.
The IISc GaN chip breakthrough demonstrates that India’s semiconductor ambitions will not be built only through major industrial projects. They will also depend on researchers prepared to solve difficult problems long before those technologies become commercially popular or strategically urgent.
