Kolkata, 19 September (H.S.) : In a major milestone for semiconductor technology in India, the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Durgapur showcased its indigenously developed chip during the inaugural session of SEMICON India 2026. The prestigious fifth edition of the global summit is being held from September 17 to 19, 2026, at Yashobhoomi in Dwarka, New Delhi, bringing together global semiconductor leaders, researchers, startups, and technology professionals.
The institute's cutting-edge hardware has earned national recognition for the second consecutive year. At SEMICON India 2025, the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology presented the inaugural 'Made-in-India' chip memento featuring NIT Durgapur's C2S0029 design to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Building upon that success, the official memento for SEMICON India 2026 featured the institute's latest advanced hardware, the C2S0130 chip. The breakthrough hardware is a high-precision 32-bit fully digital baseband modulator engineered specifically for FPGA and ASIC platforms. The cutting-edge architecture automates critical operations, including the data shaping, encoding, and conversion of raw binary data into digital baseband signals.
Both chips were developed under the aegis of the Chips to Startup Programme, an initiative spearheaded by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to foster local hardware engineering talent. In a related breakthrough, the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering at NIT Durgapur also successfully taped out a real-world chip titled Asynchronous FIFO for Forest Event Monitoring, further cementing the institute's role as a key academic driver in India's self-reliant semiconductor ecosystem.
The milestone achieved national prominence at the SEMICON India 2026 inauguration, where Suman Kalyan Porel, a project researcher from NIT Durgapur, interacted directly with the Prime Minister. Arvind Choubey, Director of NIT Durgapur, commended the core project team, noting that the recognition underscores the institute's unwavering commitment to pioneering semiconductor research and equipping students with hands-on VLSI design experience.
Hemanta Kumar Mondal, Chief Investigator of the C2S project at the institute, termed the recognition a landmark achievement. He emphasized that the project bridges the gap between classroom learning and industry demands by training students across the complete chip-design lifecycle. The core development team also includes researchers Subhadeep Nag and Sapnil Das Choudhury.
These accomplishments strongly support the goals of the India Semiconductor Mission 2.0, which focuses on accelerating semiconductor design, research, innovation, and talent cultivation. By training students from RTL design and simulation to synthesis, verification, and implementation - the programme equips the next generation of engineers with essential, industry-relevant VLSI methodologies.
Through modern electronic design automation infrastructure and Lab-to-Fab exposure, NIT Durgapur continues to build a robust talent pipeline of skilled engineers specialized in ASIC, FPGA, and advanced semiconductor technologies.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh