Catalysing the Next Generation of Startups in Semiconductor Design Space
Published on : Wednesday 03-05-2023
Vandhna Babu presents insights from the speech of Shri Rajeev Chandrashekhar, MoS for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Electronics & IT, at the SemiconIndia: FutureDesign Roadshow @ IISc Bangalore.
The country today is at an inflexion point in the innovation and technology ecosystem. India is growing rapidly in the global electronics value chain. Rapid growth of digitalisation, with India’s high growth digital and innovation economy, has created opportunities in the global semiconductor and electronics ecosystem. Last year, the government announced the SemiconIndia programme, with a total outlay of USD 10 bn, with an aim to offer financial support to companies investing in semiconductor, display manufacturing, and the end ecosystem.
India’s consumption of semiconductors is expected to cross USD 80 bn by 2026 and USD 110 bn by 2030. India has an exceptional semiconductor design talent pool, forming upto 20% of global semiconductor design talent. Almost all of the top 25 semiconductor design companies have their design and R&D centres in India. The segments driving this demand are compute, mobility, and fast-growing segments of automotive, industrials, and 5G.
In the SemiconIndia program, design linked incentive schemes have an outlay of over INR 1000 crore for semicon design start-ups, over INR 1000 crore for semiconductor research, over INR 100 crore for designing semiconductor IP cores, chips and products, outlay for chip design infrastructure.
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The global semiconductor market is expected to cross over a trillion dollars by 2030. For companies, especially start-ups, looking to play in the semiconductor space, there are many high growth areas to focus on, including computing and data storage, wireless communication, automotive electronics, industrial electronics, consumer electronics, and wired communication. 70% of the growth will be driven by automotive, mobility, and computing by 2030.
It is to be noted that fabless suppliers account for 33% of global IC sales and design adds more than 50% value addition in finished electronics products and over 60% BoM (bills of material) cost is incurred in design.
Some of the rapidly emerging Indian startups in the semiconductor ecosystem include Vervesemi Microelectronics, DV2JS Innovation, Ferminionic, Incore, Aura Semiconductor, Morphing Machines, Alphaics, SteradianSemi, Saankhya Labs, Sankalp Semiconductor, Terminus Circuits, Cirel Systems, Accord, Signalchip, etc.
Some of these startups are also tying up with global majors such as Qualcomm, Intel, AMD, Mediatek, and NXP and are co-developing IPs, chips, and design. Many of these startups also have major Indian and global companies that they can boast as their customers including Apple, Bosch, Tejas Networks, HP, Tata Motors, Dell, Bharat Electronics, BARC, ISRO, DRDO, etc.
To scale new heights, companies in India need to focus on Talent through changes in college curriculum, creating lab infrastructure, on-the-job training modules and internships for semiconductor students.
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Going forward, following steps are being undertaken by the govt and they include:
1. India Semiconductor Research Centre (ISRC) is a private industry led and integrated research centre for cutting-edge semiconductor research ranging from process, manufacturing technologies and will work closely with the leading academic institutions across the country.
2. Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL), an old govt owned fab now modernised and will be a research and leading-edge commercial fab. This will be co-located with the ISRC.
3. FutureSkills: Development of best talent in semiconductor, including VLSI.
4. ChipIN: One stop centre for chip designers across the country and help in getting companies, large or small, to get their products to scale (including funding and talent acquisition) and get them prototyped and manufactured.
5. India AI program and India DataSets program to catalyse intelligent compute/AI compute/device system design.
Article Courtesy: NASSCOM Community – an open knowledge sharing platform for the Indian technology industry: https://community.nasscom.in/communities/engineering-research-design/catalysing-next-generation-startups-semiconductor-design
This article is attributed to Vandhna Babu, Principal Analyst – Research, at NASSCOM.
