There is a famous saying, “Oil is black gold, but chips are digital diamonds.” This phrase has a depth. While crude oil has shaped the last century, the economic power of this 21st century is centered on the small chips. Here the term 'chip' is semiconductor, and the power defines one of the most significant technologies in the modern era that impacts globally.
In the last four years, since the ambitious launch of the ‘India Semiconductor Mission’ (ISM) on 29 December, 2021, the country has enhanced its semiconductor journey by announcing INR 76,000 crore production-linked incentives (PLI) schemes and has already invested INR 65,000 crore. India is creating not just a story but history globally, using sand to transform itself into a superpower in the advanced technical era.
India launched its first indigenously developed 32-bit processor, Vikram-32. Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw unveiled this semiconductor chip and presented it to PM Narendra Modi at the inauguration of the ‘Semicon India 2025’ conference.
The Vikram-32 microchip has been developed by the Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL), Chandigarh, of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Experts say it is specifically designed to meet extreme conditions of rocket launches and space environments. This successful initiative aims at catalysing India’s semiconductor ecosystem and turning the vision, ‘Designed in India, Made in India, Trusted by the World,' into reality.
Semiconductors are famously known for their amazing electrical conductivity. A semiconductor behaves as an insulator at low temperature and a conductor at high temperature. Basically, a semiconductor is neither a pure conductor nor a good insulator. It means that under specific conditions they can conduct electricity, and under some situations they resist it. This unique classification makes semiconductors an ideal choice for technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) chips, computer chips, electronic circuits, and internet of things (IoT) devices that rely on conducting a huge amount of power through a comparatively small area. Silicon and germanium are good semiconductor materials.
VIKRAM-32 is India’s first space-grade 32-bit processor, an indigenous chip powering satellites, defense, and India’s tech future. VIKRAM-32 is the successor to the VIKRAM 160, a 16-bit microprocessor that has powered ISRO’s launch vehicles since 2009. The initial lot of VIKRAM 3201 devices was successfully validated in space in the Mission Management Computer of the POEM-4 (PSLV Orbital Experimental Module) in the PSLV-C60 mission.
Some key points about VIKRAM-32 are:
1-In collaboration with SCL in Mohali, the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre of ISRO has designed & developed these microprocessors.
2-The VIKRAM-32 processor, the first set of semiconductor chips presented to PM Modi, is named VIKRAM-3201.
3-The VIKRAM-3201 and another chip, named Kalpana-3201, have been inducted into ISRO’s satellite program.
1- The VIKRAM-32 operates on a single 3.3V supply with a clock speed of 100 MHz.
2- The processor functions reliably temperature range from 55 degrees centigrade to 125 degrees centigrade.
3- It comes with built-in testability features, specially scan and functional modes. It is packaged in a 181-pin CPGA.
4- VIKRAM-32 offers a 20-bit external address bus, 256 software interrupts and four 32-bit timers. For communication, it integrates two on-chip 1553B bus interfaces.
5- The processor is based on the programming language ‘Ada’, which is widely used in the aerospace industry.
6- This microprocessor is designed and developed using SCL’s 180nm CMOS technology, ensuring robust and reliable performance.
7- This chip also handles complex calculations in aerospace and satellite missions.
8- Assisting software tools of VIKRAM-32 have also been developed by the ISRO, as a compiler, assembler, linker, and simulator.
9- The new VIKRAM-3201 chip can also be used in other crucial sectors as defense, aerospace technology, advanced automotive solutions and high-reliability energy systems.
Through a shocking transformation, semiconductors are born from sand, not just any sand, but silica sand. Luckily, there is no shortage of sand, with having concentration of quartz SIO2 as 95% high. Silicon is the second most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, comprising 26%, after oxygen at 49%. But silicon is not found naturally in pure form, required to make semiconductors or electronic applications.
The process of making semiconductors from sand is here in steps:
It all begins with sand, or more precisely, quartz crystals. It is then purified by heating.
Purification process of heating sand or silicon starts with a reducing agent, carbon, to generate carbon monoxide (CO) and silicon.
The product of this purification process is known as metallurgical grade silicon (Mg-Si), with a purity of 98 to 99%.
This metallurgical-grade silicon (Mg-Si) is then subjected to a chemical process to increase the purity further.
The process involves exposing metallurgical-grade silicon to hydrogen chloride (HCL) gas, which reacts with impurities. It forms compounds that can be removed, and then the result is semiconductor-grade silicon with 99.99% (9N) purity.
Then another additional processing is done until ultrapure electronic grade silicon (EG-Si) is obtained.
The next step is to use this ultrapure silicon to grow a single crystal ingot. The most common technique used in this process is named the Czocharalski (CZ) method.
Now, at this stage, we get pure single crystal ingots. The next step is to cut these ingots into thin slices or wafers using wire saws.
At this point, thin slices or wafers have many imperfections and surface damage from the slicing process. To remove such defects, grinding and polishing are applied to wafers from both sides. This produces a mirror-like surface ideal for photolithography.
The final step is a complete, thorough cleaning and inspection process. At this stage, prepared wafers undergo chemical cleaning baths to eliminate contamination from particulate, organic, ionic and metallic sources.
Then, automated inspection tools scan every wafer under bright light to check for surface defects.
Once these silicon wafers are certified to be defect-free, carefully packed and shipped to chipmakers like Intel, Samsung and TSMC for fabrication into integrated circuits (IC).
FAQs
Q.1- What is the main purpose of semiconductors?
Ans- Semiconductors are essential for the operation of virtually all electronic devices as they are highly used to make transistors, diodes, and integrated circuits.
Q.2- How many types of semiconductors are there?
Ans- There are mainly two types of semiconductors, intrinsic semiconductors and extrinsic semiconductors. Intrinsic semiconductors are pure materials like silicon or germanium, with no impurities. Extrinsic semiconductors are doped with impurities to enhance their electrical properties.
Q.3- Who is the biggest manufacturer company of semiconductors?
Ans- NVIDIA is positioned as the leading semiconductor company in terms of market capitalization under 3.3 trillion US dollars, as of June 2025. Followed by Broadcom, TSMC, ASML, and Samsung.
Q.4- Which country is no. 1 in semiconductor?
Ans- Taiwan is the undisputed leader in semiconductor manufacturing, responsible for over 60% of global chip output, and more than 90% of the most advanced chips.
In the modern era, semiconductors have become the backbone of powering critical systems in healthcare, defense, transport and space, consistently equipping with latest technologies. The demand for smart devices and the continuous rise of artificial intelligence fuel the growth of industries, needing powerful semiconductors chips for real-time data processing.
India is laying the foundation for the global leadership in the ambitious, vast and vital semiconductor sector. SEMICON India 2025 is all about innovation, self-reliance, and nation’s rise as a world-wide powerhouse in the semiconductor sector.
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