RIR Installs Silicon Carbide Epitaxial Wafer Reactors in Bhubaneswar

17 Sep 2026, 10:20 by Vinay Kakkad · KalingaTV

Commercial operations for domestic compound semiconductor manufacturing took a concrete step forward, as RIR Power Electronics announced the complete installation and commissioning of its silicon carbide (SiC) epitaxial wafer manufacturing reactors at its site in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

The machinery setup represents an essential operational milestone for the company’s broader Rs 618 crore investment blueprint, which is engineered to build out a fully integrated, multi-stage compound semiconductor production facility in the state.

High-ranking regional administrators, including Vishal Dev, Additional Chief Secretary to the Government of Odisha, along with several senior state officials, visited the Bhubaneswar hub to personally inspect and verify the physical readiness of the manufacturing plant. During the inspection, Dev underlined the state administration’s sustained institutional backing for the facility, observing that RIR’s project plays a meaningful part in elevating Odisha’s position within the country’s expanding national semiconductor landscape.

Beyond the physical placement of the wafer reactors, RIR Power Electronics confirmed that critical ancillary systems—including high-capacity power lines, dedicated industrial utilities, and supplementary supporting infrastructure—have all been integrated and brought into active commissioning. The facility now waits only on the completion of outstanding statutory requirements and formal regulatory clearances before initiating full-scale commercial manufacturing.

Once certified for commercial distribution, the plant will supply SiC epitaxial wafers to both domestic buyers and export clients across international markets.

The manufacturing setup forms the foundation of the company’s phased industrial strategy, centered around what it describes as a “Silicon Carbide to System” workflow. Rather than restricting operations to bare substrate processing, RIR aims to control the complete value chain under one vertically integrated ecosystem. Under this model, initial epitaxial wafers will be routed directly downstream into device fabrication to yield high-performance power semiconductor components—such as high-power MOSFETs, diodes, and specialized modules—before eventually translating into full system-level commercial assemblies.

The technical pivot toward silicon carbide semiconductors answers growing industrial demand for power components that fundamentally outperform traditional silicon equivalents. Due to their wide-bandgap properties, SiC devices can withstand substantially higher operational temperatures while delivering elevated switching speeds and sharp reductions in energy transmission losses.

These performance capabilities make the technology central to power-conversion architectures across heavy and high-growth sectors. RIR intends to deploy the facility’s output into automotive electrification, renewable power generation, and utility-scale energy storage systems, alongside high-reliability industrial power electronics, aerospace, defence, data processing centres, and railway transport networks. Through this vertically aligned plant, the enterprise seeks to build resilience into domestic supply chains while directly servicing critical downstream industrial and strategic applications.