AICTE launches curriculum designed in BTech Electronics VLSI Design & Technology, Diploma in IC manufacturing

To boost India’s semiconductor nation dreams, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has designed a curriculum for BTech Electronics VLSI (very  Design & Technology and Diploma in IC manufacturing. A high-paying industry, Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) is the process of creating an integrated circuit (IC) by combining many metal oxide silicon transistors onto a single chip and is immune to automation. Given the increasing interest of nations in semiconductor manufacturing and R&D, the sector is likely to witness a spike in demand for engineers with semiconductor know-how.

The usual starting salaries for a fresher role in a VLSI company can vary from Rs 10 lakhs per annum to Rs 20 lakhs per annum, depending upon the company, with an average annual salary of Rs 14 lakhs per annum. However, the average annual salary in a relevant multinational company for beginners varies between Rs 30 lakh to Rs 80 lakh per annum, as per AICTE.

The AICTE curriculum in B.Tech in Electronics (VLSI Design and Technology) covers an introduction to IC Design & Technology, digital systems labs, semiconductor device fundamentals, analog electronics, introduction to CMOS processing, introduction to VLSI Design, analog IC Design, static timing analysis, fabrication and characterization lab, and physics of electrical engineering materials. On the other hand, the diploma in IC manufacturing will cover an introduction to VLSI Fabrication, semiconductor fab familiarisation, electronic devices and circuits,  clean room technologies, semiconductor technology equipment maintenance, allied activities for foundry like safety protocol for foundry, vacuum technology, and within industrial automation it will cover semiconductor packaging and testing, electronics system assembly or product design and renewable energy technologies.

The courses will be uploaded on the AICTE portal and AICTE-affiliated colleges, universities and technical institutions can opt to offer these. The curriculum comes along the lines of the Semicon India program (with a total outlay of Rs 76,000 crore), which is aimed at the development of the semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated, “We are investing heavily in skilling and training young Indians for the needs of the 21st century. We have an exceptional semiconductor design talent pool which makes up to 20 per cent of the world's semiconductor design engineers. Almost all of the top 25 semiconductor design companies have their design or R&D centres in our country.” 

The government has also introduced the Chips to Startup (C2S) programme aims to train 85,000 engineers (Bachelors, Masters and Research level combined) qualified in ESDM disciplines over a period of 5 years. Necessary tie-ups with 82 technical education institutes have already been made. Even IIT Hyderabad launched BTech (Electronics Engineering) specialization in IC Design and Technology last year.