New Delhi, Nov. 29 -- The Centre will spend Rs.4,500 crore over the next three years to modernize state-run Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL) in Mohali, electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters on the sidelines of the chips-to-startups programme at the facility on Friday. The Centre plans to fund the investment from the Rs.76,000 crore India Semiconductor Mission (ISM 1.0). "The investment will help in SCL modernization. The plan is to scale up the current production level by 100 times and create new IPs (intellectual property)," he said. For further expansion of SCL Mohali, Vaishnaw said there is a requirement for 25 acres of land. "We have urged the Punjab government that we need 25 acres of land. The sooner they give, the more it will help in the modernization and expansion of SCL Mohali." Mint reported on 10 July that a 26-acre land parcel near the SCL facility in Mohali has emerged as a potential hurdle in the Centre's plan to modernize the decades-old plant with advanced chip technology. Owned by the Punjab government, the land was identified by the Centre-run facility over a year ago for its expansion and the addition of new fabrication lines. However, ongoing disputes over the land and a higher price of about Rs.700-800 crore demanded by the Punjab government are causing delays to the government's plans, Mint reported, citing officials aware of the matter. When asked about the total allocation for SCL from the ISM, Vaishnaw said, "it is a fungible amount. The allocation will be done based on the progress." Earlier, the government had talked about earmarking around Rs.10,000 crore for SCL's modernization. In February, SCL invited bids to improve the existing 180-nanometre fabrication line. The enhancement of the existing 8-inch fab, which uses the 180-nm technology node, involves the replacement of decades-old equipment. The focus of the upgradation is also to increase the current production line capacity to 1,500 WSPM (wafer starts per month) from about 700 WSPM, which SCL does presently, showed SCL's documents inviting bids. Mint reported on 1 July that Tata Semiconductor and Israel's Tower Semiconductor have been shortlisted from among nearly a dozen companies to revamp SCL. The 180-nanometer process is an old chipmaking technology. It is still used to make chips for satellites, space and defence systems, medical devices, micro-controllers, power management, etc. In chipmaking, nanometers measure the size of tiny parts like transistors and the spaces between them on a chip. Smaller nanometers mean smaller, faster, and more power-efficient chips. An 8-inch fab line processes silicon wafers that are 8 inches (200 mm) in diameter. The size of the wafer determines how many semiconductor chips can be made from a single wafer. Today, modern fabrication facilities primarily use larger 12-inch (300 mm) wafers, which allow for more chips per wafer and improved production efficiency. In October 2024, SCL also announced its end-to-end support, including fabrication, testing, and packaging, to chip design startups in the country. This means that chip design startups, who are working on the 180-nanometer chip technology for their system on chip (SoC) designs and other products, can now utilise SCL's manufacturing facility for prototyping and limited-scale manufacturing. "SCL Mohali will provide whatever tapeout facility for startups, researchers and academia is required. This is important because no commercial foundry will take up a chip tapeout project of startups," Vaishnaw said...