DRDO's Solid State Physics Laboratory built a 3.5x3mm gallium nitride chip delivering up to 30 watts, ending India's reliance on imported radar and electronic-warfare semiconductors.
At a glance
- DRDO's Solid State Physics Laboratory built an indigenous gallium nitride chip measuring 3.5mm by 3mm that delivers up to 30 watts and operates roughly 300 times faster than silicon, according to the Ministry of Defence's 2025-26 Annual Report released September 13.
- The chip is grown on an indigenously manufactured 4-inch silicon carbide wafer -- a GaN-on-SiC combination that pairs gallium nitride's power density with silicon carbide's ability to carry heat away from compact modules.
- Production has moved beyond the lab: the Gallium Arsenide Enabling Technology Centre (GAETEC) in Hyderabad now has limited-scale manufacturing capability, and private firm Agnit Semiconductors Private Limited signed a December 2023 contract under the government's Innovation for Defence Excellence (iDEX) programme to build GaN devices for defence use.
- The push traces back to 2016, when French firms declined to transfer the GaN radar technology behind the Rafale fighter jet deal's offset clause, citing export-control rules under the multilateral Wassenaar Arrangement.
What happened
India's Ministry of Defence confirmed in its Annual Report for 2025-26, released on September 13, that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully developed and demonstrated indigenous gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor technology for next-generation radars and electronic warfare systems. The Solid State Physics Laboratory (SSPL), a DRDO lab in Delhi, designed a single GaN chip measuring just 3.5 by 3 millimetres that delivers up to 30 watts of power and, per the ministry's own account, operates at speeds roughly 300 times faster than silicon-based alternatives. The achievement matters because, as the ministry itself acknowledged, almost all GaN components used in India's defence systems had previously been imported. SSPL has also built indigenous processes for growing 4-inch silicon carbide wafers and fabricating GaN transistors rated up to 150 watts, and limited-scale production has now moved to the Gallium Arsenide Enabling Technology Centre (GAETEC) in Hyderabad.
The details
Gallium nitride matters to radar and electronic-warfare designers for a specific physical reason: it is a wide-bandgap semiconductor, which lets it switch and amplify signals at much higher frequencies and voltages than conventional silicon while staying more efficient in the process. That combination is exactly what a radar transmitter or an electronic-warfare jammer needs -- high power and high frequency packed into a component small and light enough to fit inside an aircraft pod, a ship's mast or a ground radar array. India's Ministry of Defence says its new chip, built by DRDO's Solid State Physics Laboratory (SSPL), delivers up to 30 watts from a package measuring just 3.5 by 3 millimetres and operates at speeds the ministry describes as roughly 300 times faster than silicon.
The engineering detail behind that number is the substrate choice. SSPL grows its gallium nitride on indigenously manufactured 4-inch silicon carbide wafers rather than on plain silicon -- a GaN-on-SiC combination used because silicon carbide conducts heat away far more effectively, letting a compact chip run at high power without the transistor overheating. Alongside the headline chip, SSPL has separately built GaN high-electron-mobility transistors rated up to 150 watts and monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) rated up to 40 watts for X-band frequencies, plus S-band amplifier and switch components -- the fuller family of parts that goes into an actual radar transmit-receive module rather than a single demonstration part.
The reason this had to be built indigenously rather than bought traces back to 2016. During offset negotiations for India's Rafale fighter jet purchase, French firms declined to transfer the GaN technology behind the aircraft's radar, citing the Wassenaar Arrangement, the multilateral export-control regime that restricts transfers of sensitive dual-use and military technology. The Ministry of Defence's own language in this year's annual report -- that almost all GaN components used in Indian defence systems were imported, and that the technology is sensitive and cutting-edge -- reflects exactly the gap that refusal created. Rather than continue depending on suppliers who could withhold the technology at will, DRDO chose the slower route of developing the fabrication process from scratch.
What has changed since the initial demonstration is that production is no longer confined to a single lab. The Gallium Arsenide Enabling Technology Centre (GAETEC) in Hyderabad -- a facility originally built around gallium arsenide, an older compound semiconductor -- has now operationalised limited-scale manufacturing lines for these GaN-on-SiC parts. A private company, Agnit Semiconductors Private Limited, a Bengaluru-based spin-off from the Indian Institute of Science, signed a December 2023 contract under the government's Innovation for Defence Excellence (iDEX) programme to design and manufacture its own GaN wireless and power devices, giving India a second, commercial source of the same underlying technology. For metalscost.com's readers, the relevant question is what this does to gallium demand: the honest answer is that defence-sector chip volumes are still tiny next to gallium's dominant global uses in LEDs, integrated circuits and solar cells, so this alone won't move gallium's price. But it does create a new, domestic manufacturing point that consumes gallium feedstock rather than importing finished chips -- worth tracking given that China, the metal's dominant producer, has required export licenses for gallium since August 2023 on national-security grounds, adding a second layer of import-substitution logic behind India's push into GaN.
Why it matters
This is a self-reliance milestone more than a market-moving event: India has spent nearly a decade building a semiconductor capability another country declined to share, and it now has a working, if small-scale, domestic supply chain for a technology embedded in modern radar, jamming and surveillance systems. For metalscost.com's audience, the significance is less about today's gallium price and more about a new demand channel opening inside India itself -- one tied to defence budgets and a private semiconductor sector (Agnit Semiconductors) rather than to gallium's usual commercial drivers, and one that adds a second reason, alongside China's own export licensing of the metal, for India to want secure access to gallium supply going forward.
Our read
Outlook: neutral. This is a strategic self-reliance and import-substitution milestone rather than a near-term catalyst for gallium prices -- the chip volumes involved are small relative to gallium's dominant global end-uses (LEDs, integrated circuits, solar), and the story is about which country fabricates the chips rather than a change in overall gallium consumption.
What to watch
- Production ramp-up at GAETEC and Agnit Semiconductors from their current limited-scale manufacturing toward higher-volume output
- Future Ministry of Defence or iDEX contracts for GaN chips, which would signal adoption spreading beyond the current demonstrated capability
- Any move by India's indigenous GaN programme into export markets, subject to the same Wassenaar Arrangement-style dual-use technology controls that originally restricted India's access
For information only, not investment advice.
Gallium price in India
metalscost.com India reference price as of 2026-10-03.
Detailed analysis
Timeline
- 2016-01-01: During offset negotiations for India's Rafale fighter jet purchase, French firms declined to transfer the gallium nitride radar technology behind the aircraft, citing Wassenaar Arrangement export controls.
- 2023-08-01: China introduced export licensing requirements for gallium, citing national security, affecting a metal it dominates in global production.
- 2023-12-01: Agnit Semiconductors Private Limited signed a contract under the government's Innovation for Defence Excellence (iDEX) programme to design and manufacture indigenous GaN devices for defence use.
- 2026-09-13: India's Ministry of Defence released its Annual Report for 2025-26, confirming DRDO's indigenous GaN-on-SiC chip technology and its 3.5mm x 3mm, 30-watt specifications.
Demand Drivers
DRDO's shift from importing finished GaN components to fabricating them domestically creates a new, defence-specific demand channel for gallium-based semiconductors, covering radar transmitters, electronic-warfare jammers, secure communications, ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) equipment and unmanned systems -- applications the Ministry of Defence says previously relied almost entirely on imported chips.
Supply Drivers
Domestic GaN production capacity is being built on two tracks: DRDO's own Solid State Physics Laboratory and the Gallium Arsenide Enabling Technology Centre (GAETEC) in Hyderabad now have limited-scale manufacturing for GaN-on-SiC chips, while private firm Agnit Semiconductors Private Limited -- an IISc Bengaluru spin-off -- is building its own GaN wafer and device line under a December 2023 iDEX contract, giving India a second, commercial-scale source of the same technology.
Government Policies
The achievement was confirmed in the Ministry of Defence's Annual Report for 2025-26 and is explicitly framed by the ministry as a step toward self-reliance in a sensitive, cutting-edge semiconductor technology; the private-sector track (Agnit Semiconductors) is being funded through the government's Innovation for Defence Excellence (iDEX) programme rather than direct DRDO development alone.
Geopolitical Risks
The entire indigenous programme traces to a 2016 refusal: French firms declined to transfer GaN radar technology to India during Rafale fighter jet offset negotiations, citing the Wassenaar Arrangement's export controls on sensitive dual-use technology. That same dynamic now applies in reverse to gallium the metal -- China, the dominant global producer, has required export licenses for gallium since August 2023 on national-security grounds, meaning India's new domestic chip-fabrication capability still ultimately depends on secure access to gallium feedstock from a concentrated, policy-sensitive supply base.
What could lift prices
- India now has a demonstrated indigenous capability to fabricate GaN-on-SiC chips up to 30 watts, replacing an import channel the Ministry of Defence itself said covered almost all GaN components used in its systems.
- Production is scaling beyond a single lab, with GAETEC's limited manufacturing line and Agnit Semiconductors' commercial GaN wafer and device facility both building domestic capacity for defence, telecom and power-electronics customers.
What could weigh on prices
- Defence-sector GaN chip volumes remain tiny next to gallium's dominant global end-uses in LEDs, integrated circuits and solar cells, so this indigenization milestone is unlikely to move gallium's own price or global demand balance in the near term.
Country impact
| Country | Impact | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| India | High | India now has a demonstrated, if limited-scale, domestic capability to fabricate the gallium nitride chips used in radar and electronic-warfare systems, ending a specific dependence on imports the Ministry of Defence itself acknowledged in its 2025-26 Annual Report. |
| France | Low | French firms' 2016 refusal to transfer GaN radar technology during Rafale offset negotiations is the specific historical event that pushed India toward full indigenous development, though France plays no ongoing role in the current, self-developed programme. |
Industry impact
| Industry | Effect | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Defence | Positive | Indigenous GaN chip fabrication gives India's defence sector a domestic source for a previously import-dependent, export-controlled component used in radar, electronic-warfare and communications systems, reducing exposure to future supply refusals of the kind seen with Rafale in 2016. |
| Semiconductors | Positive | The programme establishes new domestic GaN-on-SiC fabrication capability at GAETEC and, commercially, at Agnit Semiconductors -- concrete manufacturing capacity for a compound semiconductor previously fabricated almost entirely outside India. |
Who gains, who loses
- India's indigenous GaN chip makers (SSPL, GAETEC, Agnit Semiconductors): These labs and firms gain a government-backed defence production mandate and a head start in a domestic market that previously had no local GaN chip supplier at all.
- Foreign GaN component suppliers to India's defence sector: Domestic production directly displaces a supply channel the Ministry of Defence said had covered almost all of India's GaN component imports, reducing the addressable market for foreign suppliers of this technology into India.
Other ways this could play out
- If GAETEC and Agnit Semiconductors scale production meaningfully beyond their current limited capacity, India's defence and telecom sectors could become a genuine new domestic consumption point for gallium feedstock rather than relying on finished imported chips.
- If India's indigenous GaN capability eventually supports export orders, the underlying gallium and silicon-carbide wafer supply chain could draw new attention given gallium's own status as a metal subject to Chinese export licensing since 2023.
Price risks
- Defence-sector GaN chip demand is currently too small relative to gallium's dominant commercial end-uses to independently move gallium prices
- China's export licensing controls on gallium, in place since August 2023, remain a supply-side risk for any country building domestic gallium-dependent semiconductor capacity, India included
Historical comparison
- Before indigenous fabrication: The Ministry of Defence said almost all gallium nitride components used in India's defence systems had previously been imported, a dependency dating back to at least the 2016 Rafale deal negotiations.
Technical view
Price is trading below both its 20-period and 50-period moving averages, a bearish alignment.
Computed from metalscost.com's own stored price history.
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