Mohali’s semiconductor laboratory leads chip push in India

Twenty-five chip designs created by Indian startups and MSMEs have been successfully taped out (manufactured and fabricated) across multiple foundries, including advanced technology nodes such as 12 nm at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the government told Parliament today.

Semiconductor Laboratory in Punjab’s Mohali has also taped out 175 student-made chip designs at its 180 nm technology node while another 79 chip designs created by students have been taped out at overseas foundries.

Sharing the above information in Parliament, the government said India’s focused attention on semiconductor development had led to the training of over 68,000 students in chip designing and a successful tape-out of overall 254 designs made by them (175 at SCL in Mohali and 79 overseas).

Taping out a chip means finishing the final design phase of an integrated circuit and sending the digital blueprint files to a manufacturing plant (foundry) to be made into physical silicon.

Sharing this information in the Lok Sabha on a question by Congress MP Manish Tewari, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Jitin Prasad said 25 chips had been taped out under the government’s Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme which sought to support startups and MSMEs in chip design area.

Under this scheme, 24 projects from startups/MSMEs have been approved between 2023 and 2025 for financial support to develop semiconductor chips.

The approved projects address critical sectors such as video surveillance, drone detection, energy metering, microprocessors, satellite communications, light emitting diode (LED) drivers, broadband and Internet of Things (IoT) System-on-Chips (SoCs).

The government has informed Parliament that the beneficiary companies have collectively attracted venture capital (VC) investment amounting to more than four times the financial assistance disbursed under the DLI Scheme, reflecting strong confidence of industry and investors in the technological

capabilities and commercial potential of these companies.

India runs two schemes for semiconductor promotion — the Chips to Startup (C2S) Programme and the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme under which India has a linkage with the TSMC.

The C2S programme focuses on developing industry-ready talent and strengthening academic research capabilities and the DLI Scheme for startups and MSMEs.

The government said India accounts for about 20% of the world’s semiconductor design engineers, with more than 1.25 lakh semiconductor design engineers working in the country.

India also hosts about 7% of the world’s semiconductor Global Capability Centres (GCCs), reflecting its growing importance in the global semiconductor design ecosystem.