Choosing VLSI In 2022!
“THE SEA IS THE SAME FOR EVERYONE. SOME PICK PEARLS FROM IT, SOME TAKE FISH FROM IT, SOME JUST GET THEIR FEET WET.”
― SACHIN RAMDAS BHARATIYA
The government of India on 15 December green flagged a scheme of investing 76,000 crores in research and development for semiconductors. With the global high demands and chip shortage, India is bidding to establish itself as a global provider for semiconductors. The scheme is expected to have investments worth around Rs 1.7 lakh crore in the next four years. The focus will not entirely be on developing an indigenous microprocessor, as the development of designs and fabrication of microprocessors takes years to be proficient. Thus to gradually gain the knowledge and adapt the technology about semiconductors India would be establishing an industry for display manufacturing and other semiconductors chips like ADC(analog-to-digital converter), DAC(digital-to-analog converter), and RAM which are widely in demand are essential for every digital device and far less complex and inexpensive to fabricate compared to a CPU or GPU.
The Global semiconductor industry is witnessing a transition. For most digital devices like a laptop, smartphone, or SmartTV, the essential components of their computation power are their RAM, CPU, and GPU. SoCs (System on Chip) which started their journey on smartphones are now making their way to more mainstream computers. An SoC is a cumulative chip with all major components of a system. It includes the RAM, CPU, and GPU. Most Semiconductor chip manufacturers have already made this transition, like Apple with their new M1 lineup. It will be great for an upcoming semiconductor maker like India to board this train of SoC and Gain knowledge about SoCs in pace with the rest of the world. India currently spends more money on imports of semiconductors compared to the imports of any other commodity including crude oil. Smart devices, such as smartphones have become a part of basic necessity, and which needs an up-gradation every 2 to 3 years. SmartTVs and EVs (Electric Vehicles) are soon to be a part of these basic necessities in coming years. Thus India needs to bring changes quicker in its semiconductor fabrication technology to meet these demands of its population.
According to estimates by the government of India, in the coming four years 1.35 lakh jobs will be created in the Indian semiconductor industry. Like India, many other countries are racing to have a share of this pie. With Europe being adamant about regaining their semiconductor manufacturing power and Companies like TSMC, Intel, and Samsung setting newer units to manufacture more ICs, the job sector for engineers looking to enter this industry is more lucrative than it was ever before. And thus we come back to our question, choosing VLSI in 2021, and Choosing to learn VLSI in India. The Semiconductor field can not be more convincing than it is now. The industry is desperately looking for skilled VLSI engineers. ICLabs IN, Bangalore, which is considered to be one of the finest VLSI institutes in India is seeing a massive increase in applicants who wish to learn VLSI. More and more graduate students are understanding the potential of learning VLSI in 2021 and taking admission in the VLSI training centre, Bangalore.