A ‘designed in India’ 5G chip, fabbed at TSMC, is facing fund crunch, low commercial uptake

This is the first time a 3GPP compliant modem system-on-chip (SoC) has been indigenously designed and made working.

Volume production of the chip includes the development of a package, production test solution suited for volume production, organisation of silicon fabrication, volume testing of the integrated circuit (IC), and the management of supplying the chip. The Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT’s) 5G testbed project allocated Rs 40 crore for two chip revisions, and an additional Rs 5 crore grant was awarded to WiSig Networks for refining the third tapeout. The IT Ministry has allocated Rs 13 crore to extend the chip’s functionality for satellite connectivity, this paper has learnt.

However, a 12,000-unit production tapeout and the development of a production test program are required, as per an internal government assessment. But, it is understood that WiSig Networks has a shortage of funds as well as commercial orders to complete the remaining activities.

Among the policy interventions that the government is considering to boost commercial uptake of the chip include the Ministry of Power requiring that a share of the smart meter procurements by discoms be those that have domestically designed chips, and for the IT Ministry to introduce design-linked-manufacturing scheme for locally made smart metres, among other things. Cyinet did not respond to a request for comment until publication.

“WiSig Networks has licensed the chip from IIT Hyderabad for commercialisation, WiSig received a Rs 5 crore DCIS Grant for Rev 3 tapeout of the chip, which has been completed and chip samples are in working in the lab, we are further evaluating the same… As the chip is still under customer evaluation and qualification, we can complete the production tapeout once it is completed and production orders are received… Regarding availability of funds, it is a matter of going concern, which will be addressed as part of our business plans (sic),” WiSig Networks told The Indian Express in an emailed statement.

The DLI scheme is part of the overall $10 billion incentive scheme for the semiconductor ecosystem, which was rolled out by the government in December 2021. The design scheme aims to offer financial incentives and infrastructure support across various stages of development and deployment of semiconductor design for integrated circuits, chipsets, and system on chip over a period of five years.

India is a major force in chip designing, with all major semiconductor companies having their design offices in the country. However, these engineers have traditionally designed systems for foreign companies, which has resulted in zero to little intellectual property creation by Indian entities. The chip DLI scheme is an attempt at plugging that gap, as it incentivises a crucial part of the chip supply chain — the IP.

As of September 2024, the IT Ministry had approved chip design related proposals from at least 12 Indian start-ups and has committed more than Rs 130 crore to their projects, which span from developing integrated circuits for telecommunication applications, to artificial intelligence (AI) hardware accelerators, The Indian Express had reported.

In total, the approved projects will cost Rs 342 crore, and the government has so far released close to Rs 7 crore. It received 59 applications under the DLI scheme, with 15-20 applications currently under review. However, the run rate of the scheme seems to be slower than the Centre’s initial projections. The government wants to fund at least 100 start-ups over five years under the DLI scheme, which would be an average of 20 entities per year. That run rate has not been met yet.