The Government of India is rapidly democratising semiconductor design by giving universities and start‑ups access to industry‑grade Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools and multi‑project wafer (MPW) fabrication runs through the ChipIN Centre and Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL) Mohali. Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, handing over 28 freshly fabricated student‑designed chips at SCL Mohali, said this large‑scale design ecosystem is “unique to India” and central to the country’s ambition of becoming a major global semiconductor power while remaining self‑reliant in strategic sectors.
ChipIN Centre and C2S programme
The ChipIN Centre at C‑DAC Bengaluru functions as a national design hub, hosting advanced EDA tools, compute and hardware infrastructure, IP cores and expert mentorship for academic institutions and start‑ups under the Chips to Start‑up (C2S) programme of the IT Ministry. Designs created by students are collected every three months, checked for fab compliance and then aggregated into MPW shuttles for fabrication at SCL Mohali on 180 nm technology, dramatically cutting time and cost by placing multiple designs on a single mask.
MPW shuttle performance and student output
Over the past year, ChipIN Centre has organised five MPW shuttle runs at SCL, receiving 122 design tape‑outs from 46 institutions nationwide. From these, SCL has already fabricated and delivered 56 student‑designed chips, including the 28 devices (600 bare dies and 600 packaged chips) handed over during the Minister’s November 28 visit.
Massive EDA usage and start-up support
Teaching, research and project work at participating institutions have involved more than one lakh students, who together consumed over 125 lakh EDA tool hours in the last year. In parallel, around 90 supported start‑ups used an additional 50 lakh EDA hours, taking total usage beyond 175 lakh hours and making ChipIN Centre one of the world’s largest centrally managed chip‑design user facilities.
Strategic vision and role of SCL Mohali Ecosystem
Shri Vaishnaw said this surge in design activity reflects Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s directive that India must build semiconductor capabilities of sufficient scale to become a major global player while eliminating external dependence for critical needs. SCL Mohali is expected to play a pivotal role in this strategy as a government‑run fab supporting student projects, start‑ups and strategic requirements, with its modernisation and planned capacity expansion aligned to the broader goal of using indigenous chips across high‑security and mission‑critical applications.
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Source: PIB
