India is poised to be the second-largest market in the world in terms of scale and growing demand for semiconductor components across several industries and applications. The partnership between Samsung Semiconductor India Research (SSIR) with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is expected to create a unique quantum technology laboratory. This is an effort to fulfill SSIR's CSR commitment and aims to provide research and educational support to dozens of faculty members and hundreds of graduate students at IISc and other institutions, especially in the fields of Physics, Engineering Computer Science, and math every year.
Led by Professor Mayank Shrivastava, Associate Professor in the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering (DESE), the laboratory aims to be a pioneer dedicated to advanced quantum technologies. The MoU was exchanged between SSIR CVP and MD Balajee Sowrirajan and IISc Director Prof. Govindan Rangarajan. The laboratory serves as a center for technological innovation, workforce training, and collaboration with national and international quantum research institutes. It will focus on the creation of domestic quantum technologies and significantly contribute to building local development and putting Indian scientific innovation on the international map.
How Does the Collaboration Empower a Skilled Workforce?
IISc noticed that India will want more than 5,000 educated engineers throughout sectors to help its semiconductor increase aspirations. An augmented body of workers in semiconductor improvement will immensely gain many industries and the country. The laboratory offers university students, especially in the fields of physics, engineering, informatics, and mathematics, unprecedented opportunities for practical training, research experience, and skill development in the field of quantum technologies, improving their employability and career opportunities. Scientists and researchers engaged in quantum research benefit from advanced infrastructure, a collaborative environment, and access to cutting-edge resources, enabling them to push the boundaries of knowledge and make significant contributions to the field. In addition, it supports and provides resources to faculty from other colleges and institutions that cannot participate in capital-intensive research.
Balajee Sowrirajan, CVP & MD of SSIR says, “Our partnership with IISc to create the Quantum Technology Lab is at the forefront of advanced quantum technologies, strengthening a skilled workforce, fostering collaborative innovation, strengthening national competitiveness and transforming industries with significant social impact. The expansion of technology increases India's focus on quantum innovation and excellence in the global technology environment.”
Prof Govindan Rangarajan from IISc says, “IISc has emerged as a leading research center for quantum technology. This new quantum technology lab at IISc underlines our commitment to emerging and futuristic research directions. This collaboration with SSIR strengthens the advanced infrastructure and expertise of the Institute, providing our students and researchers with a unique opportunity to explore the limitless possibilities of quantum technology.”
The Quantum Technology Laboratory integrates a cryogenic control chip with qubits, single photon sources, and detectors and addresses the reliability challenges of quantum technologies. The laboratory provides a platform for interdisciplinary research, industry collaboration, and knowledge exchange that fosters a dynamic innovation ecosystem. Its importance goes beyond advancing scientific understanding and enabling India to compete globally and harness the power of quantum technologies for socio-economic growth.
Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Protection
Back in February this year Samsung SSIRhas announced its partnership with the IISc to advance research and development in the field of in-circuit ESD protection. The research agreement was exchanged by Balajee Sowrirajan, CVP and MD, Samsung Semiconductor India Research, Bengaluru, and Prof. Govindan Rangarajan, Director, IISc, in the presence of representatives of Samsung and IISc.
Balajee Sowrirajan, CVP & MD, SSIR says, “We are excited to work with IISc to promote semiconductor innovation and plan to develop ESD expertise and IISc expertise. We also aim to increase capacity through continuing education, open opportunities for students to practice in industry, and encourage young scientists to become entrepreneurs.”
The partnership aims to create state-of-the-art ESD device solutions that protect high-speed serial connections in advanced integrated circuits (IC) and system-on-chip (SoC) products. Related research is being done by Professor Mayank Shrivastava's group in the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering (DESE), IISc. Solutions resulting from this research are implemented in Samsung's advanced process nodes.
ICs and SoCs are essential to almost every system, from small to large, that we see around us, but they are extremely susceptible to ESD disorders, especially those developed with advanced nanoscale CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) technologies. Most IC chip failures and field resets are caused by ESD failures. This is also rare knowledge and the design knowledge of ESD protection devices and connection concepts is market-leading. Thus, RandD ESD technology is an integral part of semiconductor innovation for highly reliable interfaces and low-power, high-speed SoCs. IISc is one of the few institutes in the world-leading research in ESD devices.
Recent Collaborations of IISc
Recently IISc has collaborated with Synopsys to empower the workforce where IISc will invest its expertise and semiconductor experience, while Synopsys, as part of its Synopsys Academic and Research Alliances initiative, will provide the trainees access to software solutions, fundamental research resources, and classroom materials.
Collaborations have been strengthened in an era characterized by critical semiconductor applications in digital devices, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and other fields. An MoU was signed for the program led by Associate Professor Mayank Shrivastava, Department of Electronic Systems Engineering, IISc.
IBM Collaborates with IISc to Drive Hybrid Cloud and AI Innovation
The collaboration is to extend previous research on natural language processing and question-answering in an attempt to provide more comprehensive and accurate answers. Performance optimization focuses on achieving fast and efficient results when making inferences on devices such as smartphones and hybrid cloud environments.
It also helps IBM in Machine learning for time series involving deep generative artificial intelligence models for multivariate data and self-supervised representative learning models. These innovations can bring the power of basic models and creative AI to multiple application areas such as healthcare, industry 4.0, and smarter cities. Create new technologies to manage and optimize workloads in hybrid cloud environments, including edge, quantum, and serverless. The goal is to leverage monitoring and analytics capabilities that span a hybrid multi-cloud environment to efficiently manage resources and orchestrate workloads seamlessly, as well as improve application performance and reliability.