In yet another push for making India a semiconductor nation, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Wednesday said that it is democratising chip designing in India. The ministry is in the process of a systematic overhaul of the semiconductor design approach at 120 premier academic institutions across the country where anyone with innate skills, can get the semiconductor chips designed from anywhere.
In 2021, MeitY had tested a pilot deployment under Special Manpower Development Programme for Chips to System Design (SMDP-C2SD), wherein a centralised design facility at C-DAC was enabled for remote access by over 50,000 engineering students at 60 academic institutions for designing chips. It now intends to make accessible a centralised chip design infrastructure to be made available at the India Chip Centre setup at C-DAC, to train 85000+ B.Tech, M.Tech and PhD students at 120 academic institutions across the country in the chip design area for the next 5 years.
At the centralised design facility hosted at India Chip Centre (C-DAC), MeitY says the most advanced tools for the entire chip design cycle (i.e. Front-end design, Back-end design, PCB design & analysis etc. for Digital, Analog, RF & Mixed Signal designs), going up to 7nm or advanced node will be available along with an arrangement of instructor-led/ online training on design flows by industry professionals are being made available for next 5 years. In addition, for making available the chip design infrastructure at India Chip Centre (C-DAC), leading industry vendors from EDA (Electronic Design Automation), Electronic Computer-Aided Design (ECAD), IP Core and Design solutions Industry are being partnered.
Taking advantage of the government’s initiative, the government expects several academic start-ups will mushroom across the country, cross the initial entry barriers and pave the way for entrepreneurship/ startup-led design & innovations ecosystem in the country making indigenous IP Cores, Chips, System on Chip (SoCs), Systems for different application areas like 5G/ IoT, AI/ ML, Automotive & Mobility sector etc. in India, for the World.
At SemiconIndia 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country is investing heavily in skilling and training young Indians for the needs of the 21st century. “India also has an exceptional semiconductor design talent with makeup to 20 per cent of the world’s semiconductor design engineers.” Almost all top 25% semiconductor design companies have R&D centres in the country.”
Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Electronics & Information Technology envisions making available a design talent pool of highly skilled engineers for turning India into a semiconductor hub through the Chips to Startup (C2S) Programme and other initiatives in Semiconductor policy, which will strengthen & supplement the Indian talent pool designing the leading-edge chips for semiconductor giants with complete ownership of some of these chips in the country.
Source: businesstoday.in
