The corporate’s subsidiary Cyient Semiconductors has submitted a proposal to the federal government providing superior expertise that may assist SCL enhance its present capabilities and make extra chips sooner or later.
“This enchancment will precisely make it (SCL) fitted to us to do chip tapeouts (from SCL). It is a good match to the final capabilities that now we have and we require for purposes equivalent to energy administration chips, automotive chips, and chips in wi-fi connectivity,” Jan Crols, chief expertise officer of Cyient Semiconductor, instructed Mint.
The corporate can be trying to loop in a big semiconductor firm as a accomplice to assist with superior expertise for the SCL Mohali mission.
Whereas Crols didn’t disclose the income alternative if Cyient’s bid for upgrading expertise will get chosen for SCL, business executives mentioned it could possibly be about ₹500-1,000 crore out of the entire ₹4,000 crore tender. Cyient might be competing with Tata Semiconductor and Tower Semiconductor, that are additionally within the race to revamp the present unit at SCL, Mohali.
A tapeout is when the chip design is 100% full, and the design information are despatched to the semiconductor foundry to be manufactured. Merely put, Cyient Semiconductor designs customized chips tailor-made for particular purposes in sectors like automotive, industrial, knowledge centres, and medical. Within the absence of any chip manufacturing facility within the nation, the designed chips are then manufactured outdoors the nation in amenities of chip producers equivalent to International Foundries.
To make sure, Cyient Semiconductors can be a channel accomplice of GlobalFoundries and offers firms with fabrication entry, technical session, design enablement, meeting, testing and different value-added providers.
Revamp overdue
When requested if using SCL for tapeouts and manufacturing can be cost-effective, Crols mentioned, “I don’t see why this might not be cost-competitive inside India. However value is just not the one issue, the (SCL facility) must have improved options at a great worth.”
The federal government is bettering the decades-old SCL Mohali facility. Among the many bidders, 5 firms—Cyient Semiconductors, Utilized Supplies, ARAK Tech, Tower and Tata Semiconductor—have certified within the technical spherical. Tower and Tata are widespread bidders in all three packages.
The mission consists of figuring out the upgrades wanted to enhance SCL’s present 180-nanometer (nm) fabrication line. This entails bettering expertise, integrating superior tools to spice up manufacturing capability, and changing decades-old equipment that requires frequent restore and upkeep.
Cyient’s bid is restricted to offering superior expertise for the 180-nm line. This consists of supplying expertise mental properties (IPs) with Course of Design Kits (PDKs). A PDK is sort of a toolkit that chip designers use to construct and check their chip designs. It has all the principles, information, and fashions wanted to make sure that the chip works appropriately with the machines that can make it.
The 180-nm course of is an previous chip-making expertise. It’s nonetheless used to make chips for satellites, house and defence programs, medical gadgets, micro-controllers, energy administration, and many others. In chip-making, nanometers measure the dimensions of tiny components like transistors and the areas between them on a chip. Smaller nanometers imply smaller, quicker, and extra power-efficient chips.
All-round assist
On Tuesday, minister for electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw mentioned, “The SCL modernization programme is progressing very effectively. There are two elements to the modernization plan. The primary is to extend the manufacturing degree. The second is to have SCL as a facility, which is obtainable for researchers and startups to check and do tapeouts of their merchandise.”
Vaishnaw added that if any firm goes to an everyday business facility, they would wish a minimal manufacturing quantity for taping out. “So we positively want one facility within the nation the place any new product pitches designed by college students, researchers and startups might be taped out and validated, then it may be taken for business manufacturing,” he mentioned.
Moreover submitting bids to enhance SCL, Cyient has additionally proposed to develop into a go-to-market accomplice for SCL. “Now we have had conversations with SCL (additionally) on how we is usually a go-to-market accomplice with them. Now we have recognized the panorama externally for a really very long time. Placing a fab is ok, however you additionally should fill the fab, and that’s the place our design experience and entry to market are available in,” mentioned P.N.S.V. Narasimhan, president and head of company affairs at Cyient.
When requested if SCL’s 180 nm node would match Cyient’s work, Crols mentioned, “Sure, we additionally use 180 nm expertise however with additional options equivalent to excessive voltage capabilities. For energy administration and automotive purposes, 180 nm is essential for us and plenty of different firms.”
Within the April-June quarter, Cyient reported a 6.9% year-on-year (y-o-y) improve in internet revenue to ₹153.8 crore. The corporate’s income from operations rose 5% to ₹1,781.5 crore.
In April, Cyient introduced the launch of its totally owned semiconductor subsidiary, Cyient Semiconductors.
