Academia needs to step up with more fundamental research on chips: Hitesh Garg

During that time, the consumer industry shot up and demand for chips used in PCs, laptops, and phones went up as people were working from home. TSMC shifted their focus on these chips. Six months later, the automotive industry went back to TSMC asking for chips because demand was coming up. They asked them to come back later, which was the reason for disruption.

Now, the supply chain has eased off. But it eased off for lower nodes first and for higher nodes later as there are no new factories which are being built for higher nodes. It has eased off for the lower nodes for which all new factories are built. But now, the supply chain is easing off for higher nodes as well.

In your view, does the just-in-time practice need a rethink?

Absolutely. There need not be high levels of inventory, but at the same time, there should be some level of inventory. It takes three months to make a chip and another three months through the supply chain. Car manufacturers should have sufficient inventory so that they can steer through these cycles.

As an industry leader, do you think the Indian chip industry suffers from a talent gap?

In my view, it’s more of a perception, but at the same time we need to be prepared. We need to be prepared to do more but I don’t see a huge gap. We get a lot of strong technical experts in all areas, be it hardware design, analog and digital circuit design, DFT, among others. There are enough skill development programs, organised both by the government and the private agencies, so that we have a funnel which is feeding startup companies entering the system. We need to continue with the skilling initiative so that we do not start seeing this gap three or five years down the line because this industry is evolving rapidly. Currently, no gap exists, but let’s continue with this endeavour to build great talent so that we can also address future needs.

Can India’s chip design ecosystem support its fabrication dreams?

That’s exactly where we are going. There is a great know-how within the Indian ecosystem and I am part of the Indian Electronic and Semiconductor Association’s (IESA) executive council as well. We are organising the IESA Vision Summit in January where we focus on the theme of design-led manufacturing, which looks at how design companies can steer more on the manufacturing side. Just one small example– we have startups which are building chips and design-linked incentives are given to them. If there is a startup which is building a fantastic chip and they can fabricate their chips in India, their costs will go down and the logistics will improve. Having manufacturing capacity will not only support big companies but also the startup ecosystem in India. The design can feed into the manufacturing and the manufacturing will feed back into the design.

Where is the scope for improvement in the Indian semiconductor ecosystem?

If you talk about government, academia, industry, and startups, everybody has to collaborate to grow this ecosystem. It is being done in India. It is unique here as I do not see that level of collaboration happening anywhere else in the world, barring some pockets. The only thing I would like to pinpoint is the question of doing more research in our universities so that we can become thought leaders in the tech industry. While we are doing our bit, professors and universities have more time to do fundamental research in these fields for us to be leaders.

There is sustained conversation on cybersecurity and preparing for future challenges by enhancing chip security. Can you tell us more about the work being done?

We are known for and are front-runners in security. Our secure chips are going into the most secure things– for example, identity beats in ID cards, wallets like Apple Pay, and a lot of similar services use our advanced security mechanisms. At the same time, we are also looking at the future. New innovations are coming up in quantum computing with which the speed of execution will increase by multiple folds. That also creates a risk for security as your password can be hacked in just a few seconds. We are working on post-quantum cryptography standards by developing and defining them to make us future proof. We also send our experts to have these advanced discussions with the Indian government as well.

How is the chip design industry contributing to innovation in electric vehicles (EVs)?

With EVs, we are looking at how we can charge in the most efficient way. We have the best in class battery management system (BMS) chips. We are working on 48-volt batteries and how they should be charged and have better life so that your car can have a range of more than 600-700 kilometres.

Can innovation in BMS chips improve EV battery longevity?

Absolutely. With our advanced BMS, we are constantly monitoring the state of health and the state of charge of the batteries. We are developing a battery management system that will ensure safety as you are having such a big charge in your car. I think safety is paramount. At the same time, we also make sure that we have the right amount of charge given to every cell so that they are not overheated or overutilized for maximum battery life.