Malaysia To Support India’s Semiconductor Mission

Malaysia is interested to  support India’s semiconductor manufacturing program with its proven expertise in the sector, said Consulate General of Malaysia in India Norman Dzulkarnain Nasri. In an interactive session organised by MVIRDC World Trade Center Mumbai Mr. Nasri also added that “Malaysia hasa huge electronic manufacturing cluster in Penang and it also has a huge deposit of silica, which is used in semiconductors,”

He also called upon Indian professionals to conduct vocational training in electronics and digital technology sectors are given India’s world-reputed technical educational institutions such as IITs.

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India, US discussion on Semiconductor Supply Chain

On March 10, Secretary Gina Raimondo was in India and joined Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal to announce  a U.S.-India Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will establish a Semiconductor Supply Chain and Innovation Partnership. The MOU was announced at the relaunch of the U.S.-India Commercial Dialogue. The Secretary was in New Delhi from March 5-10 and during her visit she met with Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, attended the U.S.-India CEO Forum, and held several important bilateral meetings with Indian officials. 

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Foxconn Strengthening Its Presence In India

Foxconn chairman Young Liu was on India visit recently. During the visit  the company has inked a deal to set up a new plant in Telangana and is committed to setting up a manufacturing plant in the state. Foxconn is already functional in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and it manufactures products for  Apple and Amazon there. Telengana govt. has offered 200 acres of land to Foxconn to set up the plant at Kongara Kalan, about 35 km from Hyderabad.

India is gradually becomig a major smartphone production base  and that has has raised concerns across Chinese social media. That  sentiment intensified after  the report  of Foxconn ‘s new investment  in India. 

Recently Karnataka had amended its labour law after “a lot of inputs” from Indian industry lobby groups and foreign companies llike Foxconn and Apple, although both Apple and Foxconn declined to comment on this.  Karnataka  a centre for India’s tech industry, and the state  passed an amendment to the previous labour law by allowing 12 hrs  work shifts  instead of previous limit of nine hours. 

Foxconn and Karnataka Govt. has also signed a letter of intent to built a major facility in Bengaluru. This   manufacturing plant is expected to be built on 300 acre near Bengaluru International Airport. Total investment for the plant is expected to be 500 billion Dolllar and with time this investment will increase .The letter of intent reveal that the investment would happen between 2023 and 2027 and  the project would generate employment for 1 lakh ppl.

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Tagore Technology Ready to Capitalize India for GaN Chip Production

US-headquartered Tagore Technology is a fabless company. They work  with GaN, a key technology for RF and power  for applications such as Radar, public safety radio, 5G infrastructure and electric vehicles, solar, chargers. Their designed chips are currently manufactured in Taiwan. They are ready to capitalize India for the production of its Gallium nitride (GaN) chips.  GaN is a compound semiconductor and interestingly, the Indian government has extended a flat 50 per cent incentive for setting up compound fabs in India. Tagore’s RF GaN chips are used by companies across the globe including in India, with the famous examples being public safety handsets used in Tokyo Olympics used Tagore’s RF GaN switch. 

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HCL Planning to Double Its Semiconductor Business

IT company HCL Technologies Ltd. expects to double semiconductor services business in coming three to four years. According to a senior company official,  this projection comes in allience with  the plan of the group decided to set up electronic chip plants.  HCL Group is among the companies that have applied to set up electronic chip plants under the 'Scheme for Compound Semiconductors'. HCL Technologies will assist HCL Corporate in end-to-end processing of chips.

Ameer Saithu  Executive Vice President and BU Head of HCL Technologies told PTI that  Group's semicondductor wafer fabrication unit can be built in about 18-24 months time from the date the government approves its application. The company is ready with funds. The Group is planning to set up a wafer fabrication unit for 65 nanometre nodes that are used in automobile, consumer durables and low-cost devices segment. HCL Technologies currently working  with semiconductor players like Intel, NXP, TSMC , Applied Materials.

As per Mr. Saithu the planned semiconductor plant will help HCL Technologies to complete its end-to-end offering in electronic production.

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India All Set to Invite More Semiconductor Companies

GOI is planing to invite a “second round” of applications for semiconductor chip manufacturing unit in India.  Centre is in  “advanced talks” with four global semiconductor firms to establish fabs. According to an insider,  companies like  GlobalFoundries and a major Korean semiconductor firm are in talks with the centre. The second round of applications is likely to open in first quarter of this year.  Last year, GOI Ihad accepted five proposals for the scheme with the application window having closed in February 2022.

In December 2021 Central Govt declared to incentivise semiconductor manufacturing in the country and five applicants are in the running for that. Although proposals from ISMC , IGSS Venture and Rajesh Exports may not get the central approvals from the government for the incentives. ISMC is a joint venture between Next Orbit Ventures and Israel's TowerSemiconductor. Tower Semiconductor was bought by Intel in February last year and the acquisition is yet to be completed. The proposal made by TOWER has the technology although the acusition process is ongoing and GOI cannot approve at this stage.The government found two proposals – from IGSS and Rajesh Exports lacking in solid technology partners.

Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said , “First Indians chip fab to be announced in a few weeks,”.  He also added  “We are almost at an inflection point when the first fab should be declared in a few weeks. And that is just the beginning,” Vaishnaw said at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) Partnership Summit. “India is slated to become a vibrant semiconductor industry in the coming 3-4 years,” the Union minister for electronics and information technology (IT) said at the event.

Currently India is competing with the countries like  United States, South Korea, and European nations to attract global companies. All these countries are proven key player in the feld of semiconductor. 

He also mentioned  that India has successfully turned into an exporter of mobile phones from being an importer.  Now  99  percent of mobile phones used here are made in India, whereas  10 years back out of 100 phones 99 per cent were imported. 

Recently  Minister of States Shri Rajeev Chandrashekhar also expressed confidence by sying that  India will have 50 semiconductor startups by end of 2023. He also added that GOI has a clear policy that funding is not a problem if the proposal is worthy. 

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Deloitte's Predictions for Indian Semiconductor Market

Deloitte predicts that India’s semiconductor market will reach $55 billion by 2026. 

India is emerging  as a major player in 5G, semiconductor and chip technology, live sports, and AVOD during 2025-2028, according to consultancy Deloitte. Here we must mention AVOD is Advertising-based Video on Demand(AVOD) is a model where video content is made available for viewing on the internet and supported by advertisements. 

Deloitte has predicted the Indian semiconductor market will reach $55 billion by 2026 with more than 60 per cent of the market being driven by three industries -- smartphones and wearable, automotive components, and computing and data storage. They claimed in a release that the market size will grow to $85 billion and will create employment for  6,00,000 by 2030. 

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Certificate Course in Micro and Nano Electronics by IISC Bangalore

IISC Bangalore  has launched  advanced Certification programme in Micro and Nanoelectronics in collaboration with  TalentSprint. TalentSprint is  a worldwide ed-tech firm and industry leader in transformational deep tech programs and with this new programme  IISC Bangalore has strengthen their tie with TalentSprint. Curriculum of the programme is designed by  Department of Electronics Systems Engineering (DESE) at IISc Bangalore.  This course is designed to prepare industry ready semiconductor professional and specialists.

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Ansys To Train Indian Engineers

Ansys is among the global IP/EDA providers which have invested in India. Ansys operates in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka,West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. Ansys plans to contribute in skilled workforce development in India's electronics, semiconductors, aerospace, and defense sectors.

In a recent press release India's Ministry of Electronics & IT said that India will launch future labs to channel R&D capital for semiconductor and deep tech development. The labs will embed with C-DAC (Center for Development of Advanced Computing) and will encourage industry and academia collaborations. Also according to the press release, IEEE-Ansys Center for Skill Development in RF and Microwave, is focused on the adaption of the most advanced trends in RF and microwave, and Ansys Innovation Space Portal were inaugurated at Reva University in Bengaluru. 

India is trying to build an semiconductor eco-system of IC and display manufacturing, ATMP/OSAT, and IP/IC design business. GOI has launched a Design Linked Incentive scheme to offer financial incentives and design infrastructure support for ICs, chipsets, SoCs, etc.

With active participation of corporate, Govt and academia India can make it big in globally. 

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Tata Group To Set Up Semiconductor Testing Unit

Tata Sons Chairman, Mr.  Natarajan Chandrasekaran has confirmed on Thursday  about the plan to enter into the semiconductor business. Tata Group, under Tata Electronics Private Limited (TEPL),  will set up an Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT). OSAT, also referred to as assembly, testing, marking, and packaging (ATMP) units and its a crucial part of semiconductor manufacturing.  The silicon chips made at the foundries get tested and  packaged  before they are shipped in OSAT unit.  Mr.  Raja Manickam was appointed as the CEO of Tata Electronics OSAT India in 2021 .Almost after one year the company has confirmed about venture in OSAT.  

The Tata Group intends to  invest $90 billion in the space of electronics and display manufacturing across the group companies over the next five years. They plan to enter Chip manufacturing in a few years. Tata Electronics will have to partner with a company that can transfer an existing, in-production technology. However, the group's other option is to develop the technology in-house and that will take long time and the process is not really easy.  

In June this year, two Tata Group companies - Tata Motors Ltd. (TML) and Tejas Networks Ltd. entered a strategic partnership with  (Tejas)Japanese semiconductor manufacturer Renesas Electronics Corporation. Renesas Electronics Corporation is a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions. This strategic partnership is focused on developing semiconductor solutions for automotive, IoT, and 5G Systems. Renesas and Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS) will also establish a Joint System Solution Development Center in Bangalore to focus on system solutions for the IoT, Infrastructure, Industrial and Automotive segments. Tata Group is one of the most trusted brand in India and since they have entered the Semiconductor sphere, its a great sign for us.

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Central Confirmation Came for Vedanta-Foxconn JV

Central Government has confirmed that Vedanta and Foxconn have finalized Dholera Industrial City, Gujarat as the location for their proposal for setting up of semiconductor Fabs in India. Initially they  proposed Telangana, Gujarat and Maharashtra as possible locations. However, the applicants in their final submissions mentioned  Dholera Industrial City, Gujarat as final location , and have submitted definitive documents required for approval.

This project will receive 40 per cent capital subsidy from the GOI. Power Tariff is set at Rs 2/unit for 10 years from the date of start of commercial production. It will also have exemption from paying electricity duty following provisions under Gujarat Electricity Duty Act, 1958. Under Water Subsidy is set at Rs 12/m3 for a period of 5 years starting from the date of start of commercial operations is the offer. The water tariff will be increased at the rate of 10 per cent on a year-on-year basis for the following 5 years. The plant needs  a  desalination unit  and Government will provide a capital subsidy on that also. There is more , the project will get 75 per cent subsidy on the first 200 Acres of land required for the Semiconductor fab project. Any additional land, required for the core activities of the project, will be available at 50 per cent subsidy. One-time reimbursement of 100 per cent stamp duty and registration fee to be paid to the Government  is also provided for the JV.

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Odisha Government Signed MoU with Epic Foundation

The Odisha government and Epic Foundation have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for designing and manufacturing chips and electronics products in the state. Initial plan is to manufacture a tablet PC in response to high demand in market for the device in education and healthcare sector. Further  this collaboration will work for manufacturing of indoor and outdoor Wi-Fi access points, smart cameras, smart meters, and mobile and EV chargers. Odhisa Government is working in reference to the drive of  building Semiconductor ecosystem in  India to meet the local, national and global demand for chips and electronics. EPIC Foundation will also work with Odisha Skill Development Authority to provide training on manufacturing, repair, and servicing of electronics products to the local people, especially women and the underprivileged communities.

EPIC is a non-profit organization that is working with the industry, government, and academia to develop and scale India’s design and manufacturing capabilities. It was founded HCL founders Ajai Chowdhry and Arjun Malhotra and semiconductor industry veteran Satya Gupta,. It has also signed MoUs with the Delhi government and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Madras and Kanpur.

“We have always envisaged Odisha as a state that has a high potential for excelling in the electronics and semiconductor industry. We truly believe that our concerted efforts can be instrumental in building supporting design infrastructure, employment generation, and manufacturing high-impact products within the state," said Ajai Chowdhry, chairman of EPIC Foundation.

“Electronics product design and manufacturing in the state is not only intended to develop cutting edge products and create equitable access for all including the underdeveloped community and differently-abled citizens but will also play a pivotal role in social empowerment," said Satya Gupta, CEO of EPIC Foundation.

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STPI to Fund 300 Startups by March 2024

The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) has supported about 65 startups till now and it intends to support overall 300 startups by Match 2024. This is in reference to the scheme announced by the Union ministry of electronics and IT in 2020 where the government had budgeted Rs 95.03 crore to fund startups across several sectors.

According to Arvind Kumar, director-general, STPI the process was a bit slow initially although he is confident that the target of 300 start- ups by 2024 is an achievable one.  He also added that STPI is now focusing on facilitating the creation of software products and has set up 21 domain-specific centers of entrepreneurship across the country and more locations are being explored. It has also identified 12 locations to set up edge data center infrastructure. According to Kumar because latency is a key factor, hence it is important to set up data centers near the customers.

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Electronics System Design & Manufacturing Lab at Bhubaneswar

A new Electronics System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) Lab facility was inaugurated by  Arvind Kumar, Director General, STPI on Monday at the Electropreneur Park-Bhubaneswar. Its an STPI ESDM Center of Excellence.

The Lab facility is equipped with advanced equipments like PCB prototyping, PCB SMT assembly line, Communication Testing, Optics, Agritech & Drone testing facilities which would help the innovators working in Electronics domain to Develop & Test their Prototype/Products.

The advance lab will also act as an important feeder line for the upcoming Common Facility Centre (CFC) of Electronic manufacturing Centre (EMC).

Key persons who were present in the inaugural ceremony included Manas Panda, Director, STPI-Bhubaneswar and Industry leaders including Satya Gupta, Founder & CEO, EPIC Foundation and President VLSI Society of India, Pradip Thaker, Country Head & VP – Engineering, D-Matrix, , Shivraj Dharne, Director of Technology Enablement COE, Global Foundries,and  Rajat Ojha, CEO, Gamitronics.

Electropreneur Park-Bhubaneswar, is one of the Centres of Entrepreneurships setup by STPI and supported by Ministry of Electronics & IT, Govt. of India and Department of E& IT, Govt. of Odisha with IIIT,BBSR as academic partner & India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) as Industry partner and Plugin Alliance, Texas Instruments, NALCO, Excelpoint, NRDC among others as Technology partners.

It focuses on start-ups, academia, researchers, innovators working in ESDM sector to support them with Technical & Strategic mentoring, funding assistance, Market connect etc. 

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Worldclass VLSI Training in Hyederabad !

MosChip Institute of Silicon Systems announced to start a World-Class VLSI & Embedded Systems Training Facility in collaboration with Cadence Design Systems (CDS).    This institute is a fully owned subsidiary of MosChip Technologies. They are running VLSI training courses since 2011 and now  want to enhance and expand the program. 

Telangana Principal Secretary of Information Technology Jayesh Ranjan inaugurated the training facility set up located at Aurobindo Galaxy, TSIIC in Hyerabad Knowledge city. The state-of-the-art  facility is spread across 15,000 sq. ft, can accommodate more than 600 students per year (300 per batch at a time) to train students in multiple domains like Physical Design, Analog Layout, Design Verification & Embedded Systems.

MosChip Managing Director and CEO, Venkata Simhadri, said “Our training facility has been providing world-class training since 2011 and trained thousands of students who are employed in almost every leading semiconductor company in the world.Our new training facility gives us the ability to serve the growing demands of the industry and extend thanks to EDA partners for their support over the years”, he added.

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Online MTech Course from IITM Gaining Popularity

IIT Madras has launched online M.Tech course for working professionals.Its a tailor made online programme for working professionals and duration of the course is three years, instead of the regular two-year one. 

Prof Devendra Jalihal, chairman of the center at IIT Madras, said, “The students of this programme have the same rights and privileges as regular students. The working professionals can carry out the project work at their workplaces. They do not need any residency as compared to sponsored candidates.”

The MTech degree for working professionals already includes Programmes on communications, VLSI and analog circuits, Microelectronics, Multimedia Signal Processing, Software Security, Automotive Engineering, Mechanical Design, Interdisciplinary Programmes in Quantum Technology and Data Sciences.

IIT Madras has become the first IIT to offer an MTech course through the distance mode via its Centre for Continuing Education. Besides online mode of classes, professionals joining the course can do the project work their own companies. The course started with 14 candidates in 2020 and this year the number has shot up to 605. 

Along with faculty members of IIT Madras, teachers from other premier academic institutions, eminent industry professionals will be conducting the classes for these students. Classes are held in the evening. Students can have live interaction with their faculty members and allowed  to give exams in the same city as their offices.

Evaluation method of the course is different from the regular one. A  problem statement will be evaluated and approved by the IIT Madras faculty and  a mentor from the company will guide the student at their workplace. The student’s progress will be jointly evaluated by the faculty of IITM and the mentor. The role of the IIT Madras faculty would be to approve the problem statement and review the progress.

Listing out companies that have sent their employees to pursue this MTech programme, Prof Jalihal said, “Silicon Labs, Qualcomm, BEL, HAL, BNY, Silicon labs, Synopsis, Valeo, Cypress, Honeywell, Analog devices, HCL, Sundaram Clyton, Mahindra, Daimler, Bosch, Lam Research and Fiat Chrysler are some of the organisations among others.”

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Tata Group is Eying on Another Facility in Karnataka

The Tata Group has initiated discussions with Taipei's Wistron Corp to buy its manufacturing facility in Karnataka. Wistron Corp is one of the three top vendors for Apple in India. The whole deal is of Rs 4,000-5,000 crore as per a source familiar to the discussion. Obviously Tata Group is keen to extend and strengthen their presence in Indian Semiconductor Ecosystem. Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd (TEPL) is wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons and is already a components vendor for iPhones. There is also another plan to deal with other large manufacturers from Korea and Japan. 

The Tata Group declined to comment on this and according to sources aware of the whole process the group is really keen and to workout on this plan. If the buyout plan doesn't work they might move forward with joint venture.

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Intel is Keen to Extend Partnerships in India

 

In India Intel has partnerships with about 117 companies whereas this number is higher in other countries including China. Santhosh Viswanathan who has become Managing Director and Vice President – Sales Marketing & Communications Group, Intel India early this year, is very keen to increase this number in India. 

Recently Intel had partnered with Gurugram-based engineering and contract manufacturing firm, VVDN Technologies, to manufacture enterprise-grade products for companies in India. Intel has started working with local partners and it will boost the semiconductor ecosystem building in the country. 

According to Viswanathan, India should also focus on creating data center infrastructure as India has  20 per cent of the world’s internet users although less than 2 per cent of the world’s servers are in India.

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VLSI Design Conference in January 2023

VLSI Design Conference 2023 is going to take place in  Hyderabad. Its a sought after event for stakeholders in the semiconductor, VLSI and Embedded systems space. The event will be held from January 8-12 with the support of the Telangana Government. This event will be comprising 36th International Conference of VLSI Design and the 22nd International Conference on Embedded Systems, the organisers of VLSI Society of India said.

More than 2,000 global delegates are expected to attend the 5-day conference and it will feature around 70 promising IEEE publications which includes both papers and posters.

Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Industries and IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao and eminent industry leaders are scheduled to speak at the inaugural session of the programme. 

The whole  programme is divided in two parts-  2-day tutorials and 3-day conference. The conference will have address by VLSI industry leaders, academia and scientific researchers. The tutorials will witness industry and academia footfall with sessions running in three parallel tracks. 

There will be sessions on topics like 5G, Automotive, Semiconductor Manufacturing and Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test. This event is expected to be the highlight of the event. There will be contests also.

Sanjay Churiwala, General Chair, VLSI Design Conference 2023, said, “The first physical conference post-pandemic has garnered a lot of interest and enthusiasm. This conference acts as a platform for industry and academia alike to discuss, deliberate, and explore the frontiers of the semiconductor ecosystem.”  

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Semiconductor FAB Unit in Odhisha

Flagship Investment Summit of Odisha, 'Make in Odisha Conclave' is being held from 30th November 2022 to 4th December 2022. A great news was revealed on the third day of the conclave! Eastern India’s first semiconductor chip manufacturing unit will be set up in Odisha on  40 acres of land near Bhubaneswar with an investment of Rs 30,000 crore in the first phase which will subsequently go up to 2 lakh crore. 

SRAM & MRAM Group, a United Kingdom-based business conglomerate has proposed to set up this fab, on request of Chief Minister Shri Naveen Patnaik. This project will provide direct employment to 5,000 skilled and semi-skilled people. It will also generate 3,000 indirect employment.

India has a dependency on China, Taiwan, Korea, etc for its semiconductor chips which are used in equipment ranging from washing machines to airplanes. Once this manufacturing unit starts rolling out chips, work on several types of machinery waiting for semiconductor chips will gain speed without foreign dependency. In this unit, the semiconductor company will design and fabricate printed circuit boards, collaborate with product companies to assemble and also try to design and develop its own R&D center, a release said.

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