Why spin off a devoted subsidiary, and the way does it plan to face out in a aggressive international market? Suman Narayan of Cyient Semiconductor unveils the corporate’s strategic imaginative and prescient throughout an insightful dialog with EFY’s Nitisha…
Q. Why was Cyient Semiconductor spun off as a devoted subsidiary?
A. The semiconductor enterprise operates with a markedly completely different P&L construction from conventional companies and calls for important upfront funding. To handle this successfully, we established a separate P&L possession and go-to-market technique—therefore, the choice to spin it off right into a devoted subsidiary.
Q. What’s the fundamental enterprise focus of this new subsidiary of Cyient?
A. The primary focus of the brand new subsidiary, Cyient Semiconductor, is on ASIC and ASSP—application-specific built-in circuits and application-specific customary merchandise. We’re concentrating on customized chips particularly developed for market wants.
Q. Will Cyient Semiconductor focus solely on design, or will it additionally cowl manufacturing?
A. We’re at the moment centered on design and growth, together with structure, verification, tape-out, packaging, and ultimate check. We companion with international foundries like TSMC and GlobalFoundries for manufacturing. For meeting, we depend on companions, primarily in Taiwan. Nevertheless, we personal the ultimate check part to make sure high quality. As India strengthens its OSAT and fab capabilities, we’ll take a look at incorporating them into our ecosystem sooner or later.
Q. What sectors will Cyient Semiconductor primarily goal with its turnkey ASIC options?
A. Our focus is on sectors that require excessive integration, low energy consumption, small kind issue, and price effectivity, primarily industrial functions resembling industrial automation, medical, and information centres. These functions profit enormously from combining clever computing, energy electronics, and analogue functionalities in customized silicon, which we goal to ship.
Q. What’s the present location and crew setup of Cyient Semiconductor? Are there plans for brand new services?
A. Our headquarters are in Hyderabad, the place most of our crew is at the moment based mostly. We’re increasing globally for gross sales, with groups within the US, Taiwan, and Japan. We even have a powerful R&D partnership with IMEC in Europe. When it comes to services, we plan to consolidate and broaden our R&D operations inside Hyderabad quite than establishing new centres elsewhere.
Q. How is Cyient Semiconductor utilizing its international presence to cater to various markets, together with India, the US, Europe, and Taiwan?
A. To outline structure and specs successfully, it’s essential to be near the shoppers. That’s the reason the corporate is constructing international gross sales and engineering groups to make sure shut collaboration throughout areas and environment friendly supply of design and product necessities.
Q. Are you able to share insights in regards to the present order e book and demand pipeline for Cyient Semiconductor?
A. Whereas I can’t disclose particular numbers, we’ve seen important buyer curiosity since our launch. We now have closed new alternatives over the previous 70–80 days and are experiencing rising traction from each prospects and ecosystem companions.
Q. What course of nodes does Cyient Semiconductor at the moment work with, and the way are they chosen?
A. We primarily work with course of nodes above 40nm. For analogue/mixed-signal and energy functions, shrinking the die isn’t all the time useful. Older nodes are cheaper and higher suited to our wants. We additionally consider the on-resistance (RDSon) traits, that are essential for energy effectivity. Each GlobalFoundries and TSMC provide good processes on this house.
Q. What varieties of semiconductor packaging applied sciences do you assist?
A. We assist a variety of packages, together with advanced ones. As an example, we not too long ago labored on a 196-pin BGA package deal. We additionally assist DFN, QFN, and TSWAP, relying on the complexity and buyer necessities.
Q. Do you might have capabilities in high-voltage design processes?
A. Sure, most of the processes we use assist as much as 100 volts, which is important for functions involving 48-volt batteries. We’re well-equipped to deal with high-voltage necessities in-house.
Q. What’s the buyer profile of Cyient Semiconductor, and how much assist do you present throughout the product lifecycle?
A. Our buyer base ranges from startups to Tier 1 OEMs. For instance, we’re working with Azimuth AI in India on vitality metering. We assist prospects throughout the complete growth cycle—from structure definition to design, verification, tape-out, post-silicon validation, packaging, ultimate testing, and delivering turnkey silicon.
Q. How will Cyient Semiconductor differentiate its ASIC turnkey choices from rivals?
A. Our differentiation lies in our means to supply full turnkey options from structure to ultimate examined silicon. Most rivals don’t present end-to-end companies. Our prospects can depend on us for the entire provide chain with out worrying about managing advanced semiconductor logistics. With Cyient’s 30+ years of heritage and long-standing partnerships, such because the one with IMEC since 1998, we convey each expertise and stability to the desk.
Q. How does this new subsidiary align with India’s nationwide agenda for constructing a strong semiconductor ecosystem, as outlined by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY)?
A. Our subsidiary aligns very carefully with the Authorities of India’s semiconductor imaginative and prescient, which emphasises constructing a resilient and innovation-driven ecosystem. The goal will not be solely to satisfy home demand but additionally to export high-value, high-impact applied sciences. By specializing in customized chip design, we leverage Indian expertise and collaborate globally throughout the semiconductor worth chain. This helps India’s ambition to change into a strategic international participant within the semiconductor trade.
Q. May you present us with an outline of Cyient Semiconductor’s imaginative and prescient and its place inside the Indian semiconductor ecosystem?
A. Cyient Semiconductor is primarily centered on the event of customized ASICs. The worldwide semiconductor market is rising quickly, from a $600 billion whole addressable market at present to a projected $2 trillion by 2032. This progress is pushed by demand in sectors like industrial automation, robotics, and information centres, which require customized silicon. Our imaginative and prescient is to be a high-value participant on this house, notably in bettering energy effectivity in functions like information centres, the place even a 1–2% achieve in effectivity can lead to thousands and thousands of {dollars} in financial savings. Our focus areas embrace clever computing, analogue/mixed-signal chips, and energy options.
Q. How does the current collaboration with MIPS match into Cyient Semiconductor’s long-term imaginative and prescient?
A. The partnership with MIPS is essential for our clever compute choices. Their Atlas RISC-V processor permits real-time computing, which is important for functions in information centres and motor management. It enhances our strengths in analogue, energy, and mixed-signal design, serving to us create extra built-in, differentiated ASIC options.
Q. What are the important thing challenges and alternatives Cyient Semiconductor anticipates within the international semiconductor market?
A. The most important challenges are the complexity of the availability chain and lengthy growth cycles. Clients typically underestimate how lengthy it takes, sometimes 100 to 200 weeks, to convey a semiconductor product to market. The chance lies in India’s rising concentrate on changing into a semiconductor hub and our means to ship full, high-quality options.
Q. What are the elements contributing to the fragility of the worldwide semiconductor provide chain?
A. Geopolitical points are forcing corporations to localise provide chains. This results in elevated R&D prices, as corporations might must do a number of tape-outs for various areas. Completely different fabs might require completely different design processes, which might complicate manufacturing and enhance bills.
Q. What strategic measures can governments and firms take to strengthen the availability chain?
A. First, governments should proceed elevating semiconductors as a nationwide precedence. Second, they should recognise and assist the lengthy growth timelines. Lastly, encouraging home chip growth by Indian corporations for Indian merchandise is important to strengthening the native ecosystem.
Q. What’s the present workforce dimension at Cyient Semiconductor, and what are the hiring plans?
A. We at the moment have round 400 to 500 staff. The main target isn’t on scaling numbers, however on growing productiveness by automation and hiring extremely expert engineers. We goal to ship extra merchandise with fewer individuals whereas sustaining top quality.
Q. What engineering roles are most in demand at Cyient Semiconductor?
A. Analogue engineers are in notably excessive demand. Should you’re good at analogue design, you may command nice alternatives within the semiconductor sector in India.
Q. Are you hiring contemporary graduates or primarily skilled professionals?
A. We consider in a mixture of each. Contemporary graduates kind the bottom of the expertise pyramid, whereas skilled professionals information and mentor them. Our purpose is to develop future leaders internally. We’re partnering with native universities in India to construct our expertise pipeline in Hyderabad.
Q. What’s your expertise acquisition technique to draw specialists in a aggressive market?
A. We concentrate on providing a transparent profession path, difficult and significant work, and aggressive compensation. Greater than expertise, we worth accelerated studying. We comply with the ‘10,000-hour rule’—engineers who focus intensely on a talent for 5 years can rapidly change into specialists.
Q. Are there any partnerships with universities or establishments to construct a expertise pipeline?
A. Sure, we’re constructing partnerships with establishments like IIITs, IITs, and BITS Pilani. We’re hiring a devoted chief to drive these tutorial collaborations beginning in mid-July.
Q. Are you providing internships or coaching applications for engineering college students?
A. Sure, we plan to roll out internship applications by the top of the 12 months. We’ll goal BTech college students of their second to fourth years, and MTech and PhD college students centered on electrical engineering.
Q. What’s the hiring combine between native and worldwide expertise?
A. Round 80% of our hires will come from the home expertise pool in India. We’re dedicated to nurturing and rising native expertise.
Q. Are there any extra future growth or branding methods you want to share?
A. Our purpose is to be recognised as India’s main semiconductor supplier for ASICs in industrial automation and information centres. We’ll proceed to spend money on R&D and refine our go-to-market and branding methods to make sure that individuals recognise Cyient Semiconductor as a dependable, high-quality supplier.
