Govt to Modernise SCL Mohali With ₹4,500 Crore Investment

• Centre plans ₹4,500 crore investments to modernize SCL over three years.
• SCL expansion needs 25 acres; facility to boost chip production 100 times.
• SCL to support startups with tape-out services and advanced chip design tools.

Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stated that the government intends to invest ₹4,500 crore to upgrade the state-run chip manufacturer Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL) in the coming three years. The Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL), an independent entity under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), is the sole comprehensive device manufacturing facility in the nation offering complete solutions for developing Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), opto-electronic devices, and Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS).

The minister stated that the centre has asked the Punjab government for a 25-acre piece of land to facilitate the expansion. "SCL will be modernised with an investment of ₹4,500 crore over a period of the next three years," Vaishnaw said.

He mentioned that SCL will be crucial in fulfilling Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for semiconductors and assured that privatizing the facility is not being considered. The minister mentioned that SCL must boost production by 100 times. "There is a need to bring substantial change in technology. We need to take a big jump over decades-old technology that we have here. SCL Mohali will provide a 'tape out facility' for startups," the minister said.

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A "tape out facility" is a semiconductor manufacturing plant where a completed chip design is dispatched to the production unit after finishing the design stage. He mentioned that 300 university students, undergraduate and research fellows, are utilizing the most advanced EDA tools for chip design in the country, and SCL will be crucial in the manufacturing of those chips.

EDA tools, also known as Electronic Design Automation tools, are software applications utilized for designing electronic systems such as integrated circuits (ICs) and printed circuit boards (PCBs). "We need to expand SCL Mohali. We have requested the Punjab government to allocate 25 acres of land. The faster you allocate the land, the faster it will help in the expansion of SCL Mohali," Vaishnaw said.