Building a widespread photonics ecosystem in India

Mrs Sakhamuri, could you please give us a brief introduction to the Hind High Vacuum (HHV) Group?

Smriti Sakhamuri: We are a 60-year-old company which pioneered the manufacturing of vacuum pumps, solar panels, cryogenic vessels and vacuum furnaces in India. In fact, we were India’s first vacuum science and technology company. We started off as a start-up out of the Indian Institute of Science. My grandfather S. V. Narasaiah founded HHV in 1965. He was driven by the dream to build zoom-lenses. He had travelled around the former USSR and documented the impact of World War II through his camera. Back in India he wanted to start manufacturing zoom-lenses. But he realized that there was a lack of essential technologies—i.e. vacuum coating systems. Together with the director of the Indian Institute of Science, he started to engineer solutions. India was a very poor country back then. We had limited access to materials and knowledge of thin films, optics or vacuum technologies. But, driven by his dream, they managed to engineer and build India’s first vacuum pumps and thin film coating system companies.

Today, HHV Group offers vacuum furnaces and coating systems based on various chemical and physical vapor deposition (CVD/PVD) processes. How did you become a system and machine provider?

Sakhamuri: In the early years, during the cost-intensive development phase, our company ran out of monetary resources several times. In need of cash-flow, we started to provide systems and machines for external customers. Today our group consists of four companies. HHV Thermal Technologies, where we make large vacuum furnaces, space simulation chambers as well as graphitization and siliconization furnaces for various carbon composite materials. HHV Advanced Technologies provides thin film solutions, which include CVD- and PVD-coating machines, coating as a service and high precision optics. Our UK-based Company HHV Ltd. provides sales and services for our thin film coating equipment. The fourth branch is our joint venture with the India-based engineering specialist ASM Technologies which is engaged in the manufacturing of tools and sub-systems for the solar and semiconductor sectors. All in all, we have three manufacturing plants in Bangalore, around 750 employees and a global network of distributors. My grandfather’s dream of building zoom-lenses has become true—and we offer thin-film and vacuum furnace equipment needed for critical applications. At first, people thought he was a bit crazy—to start a high-tech start-up in an under-developed environment with poor resources and lots of restrictions and embargos. But, he was convinced that India needs homegrown technologies—and he was ready to master the challenges in close collaboration with universities and research labs in India. Step by step and very hands-on our Group reached milestones like India’s first coating system or India’s first space simulation chamber.

Do you deliver your products primarily within India—or worldwide?

Sakhamuri: Over the years we have focused more and more on international standards to meet the expectations of global markets. Today we manufacture thin film coating equipment for space-qualified components. The focus on quality led to us operating India’s leading vacuum flask and solar module production facilities. Also, in other industries we supply a growing base of global customers, for whom we manufacture various vacuum technology components like diffusion pumps. Today, we provide indigenous technologies to Indian companies and close the existing supply-gaps with our solutions. But we also deliver customized high-tech solutions throughout the world. Be it Vacuum Aluminum Brazing Furnaces for the world’s largest headlight manufacturers or large Rotary Vacuum Brazing Furnaces for cryogenic engines which are used to launch satellite carriers to space. With some of our global customers we have been working together for more than 30 years. And some of our thin film coating machines are standard systems for many universities and research labs worldwide. Thousands of those systems are installed on a global scale and here in India we are the strongest coating brand.

In vacuum technology, you offer customized solutions in addition to standard systems. Which industries do you work for—and where are your customized solutions particularly in demand?

Sakhamuri: Coating of large telescope mirrors is an example of highly customized solutions. Today, India has strong space and astrophysics programs. Our coating solutions allow manufacturing mirrors of up to 4 meters and, we are also part of an international 30 m project based on Hawaii. Our optics—oftentimes with customized coatings—are delivered to customers in the UK, Italy, Germany, France apart from Asia and the USA. Laser-Safety applications, lenses for cinematography, or components for UV-lamps as well as entire assemblies are also in demand. The industries or clients we serve include aerospace, automotives, medical technologies, universities and R&D-Institutes. In some cases, we manage to translate highly customized solutions into standardized products for a broad range of customers and industries, which we manufacture in volume. But especially in the space and the optics industry, nearly every product is slightly customized.

CVD and PVD coating processes are highly advanced technologies. Has HHV engineered them in-house?

Sakhamuri: With the PVD we have in-house expertise right from making India’s first coating system. Prior to acquiring Edward’s thin film business in 2009 we used to manufacture equipment for their line. Since then, all machines have been sold under the HHV brand worldwide. We also collaborate closely with universities and advanced research labs here in India, to develop and optimize our CVD and PVD solutions. Recently we managed to build and supply the first indigenous Ion-Beam-Sputtering (IBS) System together with one of the leading Indian R&D-Institutes in this area. In the field of reactive sputtering for example, we cooperate with a large mobile phone manufacturer. They want to set up manufacturing plants here in India and are therefore building up relationships with domestic partners. Also, around CVD we are involved in collaborative innovation processes with R&D-and industry partners.

What role does photonics play in India today—and how do you assess its market potential?

Sakhamuri: To be honest, photonics is a small segment in India’s manufacturing landscape. In terms of the global photonics enabled market, the value is in trillions of dollars. Here in India, we do a lot of phone or laptop-assemblies. But indigenous machines to manufacture semiconductors, coatings, heat treatment or optics still are a negligible part of the Indian GDP. But our government has realized the potential and started to act. In 2021 a study estimated the Indian photonics industry was worth 3,5 billion US-Dollar and expected it to grow at yearly rates of 12 to 15 percent. While this is still small, our industry is on a very dynamic growth path.

Are these assessments also the basis for your joint activities with ASM Technologies in the semiconductor market?

Sakhamuri: The reason why we set up this joint venture is that we are seeing this huge push for manufacturing in India. Large international telecom, semiconductor, machine vision and compressor manufacturing and design companies are taking aggressive steps to set up manufacturing plants and technological environments with R&D-labs and testing facilities in and around Bangalore. By seeing their encouragement, we felt that we should take our steps as the leading vacuum and thin film brand to enter the semiconductor and solar markets. We are seeing a lot of push from the government for their “Make in India”-strategy and in terms of building an ecosystem here. We don´t want to compete but to build together with global players and bring them together with our domestic ecosystem, that we have been establishing in the last 60 years.

How important is the Laser World of Photonics India for the development and expansion of the photonics industry in your region?

Sakhamuri: These kinds of shows are very important, particularly those with strong brand value. The Laser World of Photonics operates in multiple countries, attracts the leading global brands and is well organized. Being available on this platform gives a signal to the global photonics community, that there are companies like HHV in India. With that in mind, we recently took the step to be part of the LASER in Munich. With its strong brand recognition and value, we feel that it kind of reflects the same principles and philosophy that we also have as a company. Last year, the link up with electronica here in India was a huge success with a record number of visitors. At HHV we hosted a high-profile delegation with 35 CEOs from the leading Japanese vacuum technology companies through the Japanese Vacuum Association during the Laser World of Photonics India, which wouldn´t have happened without this fair.

Allow me to ask you a more personal question: are you an exception in your home country as a young woman on the board of a technology company—or are management levels becoming more permeable to female experts in general?

Sakhamuri: To be honest, I didn´t plan to join HHV. I am an economist and mathematician. I worked at the world bank for many years and thought of staying in that job for the rest of my life. What drew me to our family business was the philosophy of building indigenous technology and capability on the one hand but also having a strong mission within our family. We want to uplift every person who is working here. I joined HHV six years ago, when I was 29 years old. In fact, it is a challenge to see women in this space. Manufacturing in general and in photonics is more male dominated—not only in India but worldwide. But the gap is even bigger in India, perhaps because we have only a small number of deep technology companies here. That said I recently met a growing number of women in leading positions either in bigger scale companies or also in R&D labs. For example, I was pleasantly surprised to find a “Women in Optics Panel” on our last conference at the Indian Institute of Science. There are more women working in research than I was expecting. Our industry is starting to champion women in senior leadership positions, because companies realize diversity as an asset and that they need women’s perspective to develop solutions for all their customers. I expect that we will see far more female leaders in the coming years because many obstacles that hindered them from moving up are now being removed. At HHV women have played an important role for decades. I was lucky to find wonderful and highly skilled female mentors when I joined the company. Here, I have the opportunity to lift up our workforce of around 750 people in a very concrete manner—be it education policies for their children or providing career opportunities or be it creating jobs by manufacturing essential technologies in the vacuum furnace, thin films and optics sectors.

So, in the end, your grandfather’s dream came true in different ways. Not only is HHV capable of manufacturing zoom lenses and the needed technological building blocks, but also did his action activate your personal zoom lens: You zoomed into the life of 750 individuals and their families with very concrete results. Perhaps it was not what he intended to do, but what he managed to do.

Sakhamuri: That is a wonderful way to put his life’s work and our company’s history into perspective.