Perspectives on the semiconductor ecosystem—the solar route
Perspectives on the
semiconductor ecosystem—
the solar route
by Dr. Madhusudan V Atre, Applied Materials India Pvt Ltd
present scenario
modeling & simulation, embedded
One very important aspect of the
The semiconductor industry in India had
software, etc. Many of the chip companies
semiconductor ecosystem needs to
its initial roots set up in the 1980s. The
started marketing their chips along
be kept in mind, especially since
story started with multi-national companies
with an integrated bundle of software
(MNCs) outsourcing part of their internal
it is very relevant in the Indian
including applications, reference designs,
development to regions that were abundant
context and can help seed the
performance/power optimization software,
in technical talent as well as comparatively
etc.
semiconductor manufacturing
low in cost. This led to more ownership in
Thus a growing talent pool of resources
ecosystem: The solar industry
the areas of design of circuits, chips, SoCs,
has been generated, well versed in the
will help to grow this ecosystem, packages, memories, etc (in the analog,
art of design and software. Not only are
and is interdependent with the digital, and mixed-signal domain). It also
the resources good in generic design
semiconductor manufacturing
spilled out into software world—especially
and software, they are also increasingly
industry.
in embedded and real-time software.
knowledgeable and specialized in the
While outsourcing of applications
specific “verticals” of telecom, consumer,
software had been going on since the
automotive, wireless, systems, networking,
1970s, software intimately tied to the
storage, etc. And they continue to further
Keywords: India, Solar Policy,
semiconductor chips being designed
consolidate in the “horizontal” expertise
Solar Farms, Feed-In-Tariffs
took off since the 1980s—these included
of real-time and embedded software,
development of automation tools,
modeling & simulation, circuit and chip
design, design for manufacturability,
packaging, etc. Of equal importance is
the strong base of talent generation in
the areas of project, program and people
management.
It is inevitable that this has led to an
ecosystem to evolve and establish itself,
covering various aspects:
1. The demand for high talent in
large numbers has brought the
universities into the loop, with
many of the graduate, and post-
graduate, courses being modified
to cater to the demands of the
industry.
2. The industry has fed back into
the universities via sponsorships,
research projects, fundings, joint
collaborations, etc.
3. The government has introduced
the Software Technology Parks
of India (STPI) to help bring
in capital equipment via duty
exemptions (with certain forex
obligations to be satisfied), which
was the start of a fruitful industry-
Figure 1. Solar panels at India’s Barefoot College, which is completely solar-electricied. (Source: Government
government interaction.
Knowledge Centre) 4. The VLSI industry has formed
10 – Global Solar Technology – May/June 2009
www.globalsolartechnology.com
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