After SCL Mohali, Tata’s Dholera plant to help startups build prototype chips
Following the state-run Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL) in Mohali, Tata Electronics’ new semiconductor facility in Dholera will provide manufacturing support to chip startups for design tape outputs, Union electronics and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Tuesday.
Taping is the stage where the final design of a chip is sent to a semiconductor manufacturing facility (fab), which then prepares it and produces the first physical prototype chips for testing.
This step is crucial because many Indian startups have to rely on overseas facilities like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) and US-based GlobalFoundries to get even a limited number of chip samples before starting actual production. This process is costly and also hinders Indian startups’ ability to analyze failures, conduct testing, and identify manufacturing or assembly challenges first-hand.
“The second facility that will be used for taping will be Tata’s Dholera factory. So the Dholera factory – 28 nanometers (nm) to 90 nm and SCL’s 180 nm. In a sense, there are close to 75-80% (of its kind) of chips produced in the world. We will be able to build this entire ecosystem in our country in the next 2-3 years,” Vaishnaw said at an industry event. In New Delhi.
The Minister met with 24 chip design companies selected under the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) programme. The Minister said that 14 of these startups have received around 100 million in funding from venture capitalists. ₹430 crore.
Currently, the SCL Mohali facility is used to support chip design startups and academia with tape outputs. However, it runs on legacy 180nm technology, which limits work on more advanced projects. In November, the government announced plans to modernize the facility over a three-year investment. ₹4,500 crore.
Tape releases of academia’s chip designs are largely done on a multi-project wafer (MPW) basis at SCL, a government official said on condition of anonymity. The few startups that have reached the exit stage usually do so at TSMC, where they receive incentives under the DLI program.
MPW is a shared semiconductor wafer where multiple chip designs from different companies are produced together. It is a cost-effective way to produce prototype chips by sharing a wafer with multiple designs.
Arumugam Govindswamy, managing director of MBit Wireless, a semiconductor company with excellence in cellular internet of things (IoT) technology, said, “Tata’s Dholera facility for band headers will definitely support startup ecosystem building products in 28nm and 40nm technology. But price points for band headers should not be higher than global rates. Then it will be beneficial.”
According to Govindswamy, the key demand from the government for the next phase of the chip design plan is better market access for selling the products as well as more funding for tape rollouts and mass production.
Separately, Vaishnaw said the government aims to make high-tech small chips consisting of 3nm nodes to be used in products such as modern smartphones and computers by 2032. The plan is to go to 2nm.
“To reach the 3 nanometer chip production and design level by 2032. Of course, we do the design even today. But we must reach the production level of 3 nanometers,” said the minister, adding that 50 percent of all semiconductor design work in the world will be done in India in the coming years.
The minister said that under the second phase of the DLI plan, the government will focus on six chip categories – computing, radio frequency, networking, power, sensor and memory. The minister said the government aims to establish 50 factory-free enterprises in the next phase of the plan.
The Minister said, “As we enter 2029, we will have a great capability to produce and design chips that are practically needed in 70-75 percent of the applications in our country.”
As part of the current DLI scheme, startups are entitled to receive subsidies in the amount of: ₹15 crore. Distribution-related incentives are also available for start-ups that reach the commercial sale stage of their products. However, no startup was able to claim distribution-related incentives of 4-6% (at most) of net sales. ₹30 crore per application as no design reached the deployment stage.
During the meeting, several startups called on the government to improve market access and increase funding support for chip products as they enter the mass production phase, which requires significant costs after coming off the tape.
