India's SCL turns to ASIC design services

SCL manufactures ICs and MEMS on six-inch diameter wafers. Business was largely limited to government agencies and so in recent times, it has turned to ASIC design services and VLSI design education services.

The unnamed U.S. customer is focused on power management, amplifiers and optoelectronics. SCL said it has delivered two designs and is working on three more in the power management domain.

“Developing analog and mixed-signal ASICs is our niche business and about eight are developed and supplied each year. The plan is to increase the number to 10 in this year and thereafter to between 15 and 20 ASICs in another couple of years,” said D.N. Singh, executive director of VLSI, at SCL, Mohali, near Chandigarh in northern India.

Since SCL was declared a national facility for MEMS manufacture under India’s national “Smart Materials” project, the company has augmented its CMOS wafer fabrication facility to take up MEMS fabrication. “In MEMS, our main focus is on the development of sensors, accelerometers, microneedle arrays and RF MEMS,” Singh said.

The tie-ups SCL was seeking with established MEMS firms for technology transfer with volume production buy-back arrangements has not happened, though it did conduct negotiations with two undisclosed European MEMS firms.