As semiconductor projects move towards more demanding technologies, infrastructure complexity is rising sharply. Deerns is focusing on the less visible engineering challenges, from process-critical utilities to water reuse and execution capability that could shape India’s semiconductor journey.
India’s semiconductor ambitions are moving beyond putting fabs and advanced packaging facilities on the ground. The harder challenge may now be making these facilities operate reliably at the level demanded by increasingly complex processes. In an exclusive conversation at SEMICON 2026, Eric Stuiver, Group Sector Director Electronics, DEERNS, explains to EFY that the next phase will require a different class of infrastructure expertise one that goes well beyond conventional HVAC, electrica ,and cleanroom design.
He highlighted that process-critical infrastructure is emerging as one of the least visible but most important challenges for India’s semiconductor ecosystem. These include specialised gas and chemical systems, vibration control, ultra-pure water, power quality, contamination control, and the complex integration required to keep them working together.
The gap becomes particularly significant as India moves towards wafer fabrication. While backend facilities are also becoming more sophisticated, front-end fabs introduce a far higher level of infrastructure complexity, involving large numbers of gases and chemicals alongside ultra-pure water and tightly controlled environmental conditions.
Their approach is to avoid treating these requirements as standard building services. Instead, its engineers start with the semiconductor process itself and work backwards to determine what infrastructure is actually required. This process-led approach is particularly important because there is no universal cleanroom or utility configuration that works across semiconductor, advanced packaging, photonics, or quantum applications.
One of the more interesting practices the company is bringing into India involves resource efficiency inside semiconductor facilities. The company pointed to systems used in other markets where ultra-pure water can be recovered and reused at very high rates rather than continuously requiring fresh treatment capacity. This can reduce both energy consumption and water demand while making the overall process more efficient.
But the company sees an even bigger challenge beyond engineering design: execution. Building these facilities requires highly skilled teams capable of integrating numerous specialised systems and maintaining stringent quality throughout construction and commissioning. The company believes India will need to build this execution capability rapidly rather than learning through multiple project cycles. That is where it is positioning its global experience as a shortcut for the Indian ecosystem. Its teams can transfer expertise from projects in Europe and other semiconductor markets while developing local capability around handling, logistics, installation and operation of specialised infrastructure.
The company’s India focus is also becoming more specialised. Rather than pursuing conventional projects, Eric says it is concentrating on high-end applications linked to future semiconductor technologies, including nanometre-scale processing, photonics, quantum technologies and the coming transformation of semiconductor backend processes. There is another issue that could ultimately determine how far this ecosystem can scale: energy. The company sees an emerging “energy super cycle” alongside the AI boom, with semiconductor and data-centre infrastructure placing unprecedented demands on electricity. The company believes future semiconductor technologies themselves will need to contribute to solving this energy challenge through greater efficiency.
For India, therefore, the next semiconductor infrastructure race may not simply be about constructing more fabs. It could be about mastering the specialised systems hidden behind the cleanroom walls and developing the engineering, execution and resource-efficiency capabilities needed to keep tomorrow’s most demanding semiconductor processes running. The larger question is how much of this specialised know-how India can localise before the next generation of fabs, advanced packaging facilities and emerging technology labs arrive. That is where Deerns’ experience and its plans for India become particularly interesting.
Stay tuned for the full interview.
