Supporting India’s semiconductor growth with high-purity precious metals: TANAKA

In a chat with Pradeep Chakraborty, Yutaka Ito, MD of TANAKA Kikinzoku (India) Pvt Ltd, India and the Middle East, has spelled out the roadmap for high-purity, mission-critical materials. Excerpts: 

DQ: How is TANAKA positioning itself to support the surge in demand for high-purity, mission-critical materials like gold, platinum, and palladium in applications such as chip packaging, advanced sensors, and high-reliability electronic devices?

Yutaka Ito: TANAKA is uniquely positioned to support the growing demand for high-purity, mission-critical materials such as gold, platinum, and palladium by leveraging more than 140 years of expertise in precious metals. 

These materials are indispensable for applications like chip packaging, advanced sensors, catalysts, and high-reliability electronic devices due to their superior conductivity, resistance to corrosion, and proven reliability. 

Few companies worldwide can match TANAKA’s ability to develop and mass-produce cutting-edge precious metal-based materials and alloys with advanced fabrication technologies—a capability demonstrated since the earliest days of semiconductor mass production.

As part of its global expansion, TANAKA is actively supplying proven semiconductor materials to emerging markets such as India, while also exploring local partnerships and conducting due diligence to assess the feasibility of establishing manufacturing bases to support the success and growth of regional semiconductor ecosystems. 

With the semiconductor industry undergoing rapid expansion, TANAKA is ramping up capabilities to meet the demand for ultra-high purity materials essential for mission-critical applications such as chip packaging, advanced sensors, components for 5G modules, and aerospace-grade electronics. 

In line with this growth, TANAKA established its Mumbai base in 2019 to align with sales and customer demand in semiconductors, electronics, and sensors. This presence enables a stable, localized supply of precious metal materials critical for chip packaging and advanced devices, reducing reliance on imports and supporting India’s strategic goals for semiconductor self-sufficiency.

TANAKA is also a global leader with a high market share in bonding wires — including ultra-fine gold, palladium-coated copper, and aluminum variants. These are essential for connecting chips and external electrodes in modern devices, offering high reliability and miniaturization crucial for dense packaging in India’s semiconductor manufacturing. 

In addition, advanced contact probe materials using high-hardness palladium alloys enhance reliability during chip testing, improving yield and reducing device failure rates—pivotal for India’s high-volume electronics market.

As India advances its semiconductor ambitions, TANAKA is proud to contribute through proven product leadership, innovation in recycling, and sustainable resource management—helping ensure performance, reliability, and sustainability for the country’s growing role in the global electronics ecosystem.

DQ: What solutions is TANAKA offering to help India-based OEMs and fabs meet strict reliability and performance standards, particularly through advanced material purification, recycling initiatives, and closed-loop precious metal recovery systems?

Yutaka Ito: At TANAKA, sustainability is at the core of our innovation. It is well known that using precious recycled metals significantly reduces carbon emissions compared to newly mined resources. 

With more than 140 years of expertise in refining and recycling, we provide customers with a one-stop service—recovering, refining, and reusing precious metals. This not only reduces environmental impact but also ensures a stable and reliable supply, aligning with India’s vision of self-reliance and global goals for a circular economy.

To support OEMs and fabs, we focus on three key areas. First, we deliver high-purity precious metals that ensure consistent performance for advanced applications like semiconductors, sensors, and electronic devices. 

Second, we provide reliable industrial products developed after years of R&D, such as bonding wires, that are critical for miniaturization and durability in today’s high-tech products. 

And third, we operate closed-loop recycling systems that recover precious metals from manufacturing processes, reduce waste, and return materials back into the value chain—helping customers control costs while protecting the environment.

Here, in India, we established our Mumbai base in 2019 to serve customers more closely and provide localized access to precious metal materials. This presence supports key industries such as semiconductors, electronics, automotive catalysts, and hydrogen energy, while reducing reliance on imports. 

We are also introducing sustainable product lines, such as the RE Series products, designed to cut the need for newly mined materials and promote more efficient use of resources.

By combining innovation, sustainability, and a strong local presence, TANAKA is committed to helping India’s semiconductor ecosystem grow while ensuring global customers benefit from reliable, high-quality, and environmentally responsible precious metal solutions.

DQ: What is the evolving role of precious metals in semiconductor packaging, especially in areas like wire bonding, thermal management, and advanced interconnects, and how is TANAKA innovating to meet these needs?

Yutaka Ito: Precious metals continue to play an indispensable role in semiconductor packaging, from wire bonding to thermal management and advanced interconnects. At TANAKA, we are driving innovation across all these areas to meet the industry’s rising expectations for performance, reliability, and sustainability.

Wire bonding remains at the foundation of semiconductor packaging, and our precious-metal bonding wires are key to ensuring long-term stability. Gold (gold-alloys) bonding wires remain the benchmark for mission-critical applications due to their unmatched reliability and resistance to corrosion. 

Copper wires deliver outstanding electrical and thermal conductivity, making them well suited for power electronics. Palladium-coated copper wires bring the best of both, combining copper’s conductivity with the surface stability of palladium. 

Together, these three solutions give our customers the flexibility to choose the right material for their needs, whether that means ultimate reliability, superior performance, or balanced solutions for fine-pitch designs.

As devices become more powerful, heat management has become just as critical. TANAKA provides advanced silver-based die-bonding materials, including hybrid and sintering pastes, which offer excellent thermal conductivity and are designed to support next-generation power devices.

Equally important, we are committed to sustainability and long-term supply security. Through recycling know-how acquired through years of technological development, we can recover and refine precious metals from manufacturing processes, reducing environmental impact while ensuring stable access for customers. 

This one-stop approach—from procurement and manufacturing to recycling—not only strengthens supply resilience but also supports India’s self-reliance initiatives and the global push toward a circular economy.

In summary, precious metals remain central to the most reliability-sensitive aspects of semiconductor packaging, and TANAKA is proud to deliver the materials, technologies, and sustainable solutions that help our customers in India and worldwide achieve both performance excellence and supply stability.

DQ: How is TANAKA collaborating with Indian and global partners to establish transparent, traceable, and resilient supply chains for precious metals that comply with international sustainability and quality benchmarks?

Yutaka Ito: At TANAKA, we have built precious supply chains that are transparent, traceable, and resilient by working with partners worldwide, aligned with the highest global sustainability and quality standards.

We follow a Responsible Precious Metals Sourcing Policy, based on the OECD Due Diligence Guidance and LBMA/LPPM frameworks, ensuring ethical sourcing and clear visibility on origin and risk management. This mitigates risks such as conflict minerals, human rights abuses, and environmental harm. 

As Japan’s only Good Delivery Referee for LBMA and LPPM, and with ISO/IEC 17025 accredited labs and ISO 14001 certified sites, we provide independent assurance of quality, integrity, and environmental performance.

Our sourcing network spans globally accredited suppliers, covering platinum, palladium, gold, silver, and other critical metals, while strategic recycling ventures expand recovery capacity and reinforce resilience and counters geopolitical risk. 

Through our recycling systems and the RE Series of 100% recycled materials, we deliver fully traceable, low-carbon solutions that support circular economic goals.

With our India base in Mumbai since 2019, we work closely with local OEMs to ensure compliant sourcing, faster documentation, and efficient recycling programs—helping shorten supply chains, reduce risk, and support India’s self-reliance.

In summary, TANAKA offers a ‘see-through’ global supply chain—transparent, responsible, and resilient—backed by sustainability, local presence, and world-class quality standards.”

DQ: What should India do to better source materials and minerals in the future? Does it need to have a local setup? If yes, how does one go about establishing that?

Yutaka Ito: India can secure the precious metals it needs for advanced manufacturing by combining diversified global sourcing with a strong local ecosystem—especially in recycling. 

Yes, a local setup is essential, and it must be built with transparency, traceability, and world-class quality from the very beginning. At the same time, e-waste must be treated as a strategic feedstock for precious metals, by formalizing collection, logistics, and take-back programs from both urban mining and manufacturing scrap. 

Collaborating with global leaders for technology transfer in advanced refining and closed-loop recycling will be critical.

Building this ecosystem will require practical steps such as joint ventures and partnerships with OEMs, EMS providers, and authorized recyclers, piloting closed-loop programs with scalable refining and purification facilities that can deliver semiconductor-grade precious metals. Just as important are enabling conditions around infrastructure and regulation:

Power and water infrastructure: Metals refining is highly energy- and water-intensive. Refining hubs must be supported by reliable, affordable, and green energy (solar, wind, hydropower) and advanced water-treatment/recycling facilities to ensure sustainable operations.

Special Economic Zones (SEZs) / Industrial Parks for metals and recycling: Dedicated clusters with shared infrastructure—logistics hubs, testing labs, treatment plants—can lower setup costs, improve efficiency, and accelerate industry growth.

Eliminating the informal e-waste recycling sector: Today, small-scale, unregulated operators dominate e-waste recycling with unsafe, inefficient methods. Transitioning to a regulated, technologically advanced sector will enable higher recovery of precious metals, minimize environmental damage, and protect worker health.

For the semiconductor ecosystem, these steps are mission critical. Semiconductor fabrication and packaging demand a consistent supply of ultra-high-purity precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. These materials are essential for bonding wires, interconnects, plating, and advanced packaging. 

By developing local recycling and refining capacity that meets semiconductor-grade purity standards, India can:
* Ensure reliable access to critical precious metals for domestic fabs and OSATs.
* Reduce dependence on volatile global markets and supply disruptions.
* Build a closed-loop system where e-waste feeds directly into semiconductor manufacturing.
* Strengthen sustainability by minimizing environmental impact through precious metals recovery.

TANAKA, with over 140 years of expertise in precious metals, is ready to partner on technology transfer, training, and scalable programs to help realize India’s vision for a resilient and sustainable semiconductor materials supply chain.