Signalchip launches India’s first 4G/LTE and 5G NR Modem Chips

Bangalore based fab-less semiconductor company, Signalchip launched India’s first Indigenous Semiconductor Chips for 4G/LTE and 5G NR MODEMs in New Delhi. Aruna Sundararajan, India’s Telecom Secretary and Chairman of the Telecom Commission, unveiled four chips designed by Signalchip.

The SCBM34XX and SCRF34XX/45XX series of chips, code-named ‘Agumbe’, are the result of over eight years of deep R&D by Signalchip engineers. These chips put India into an elite group of countries that own this widely used fundamental technology.

The combined multi-standard system-on-chip (SoC) can serve as a base station chipset for a wide range of form factors from low-cost indoor small cells to high performance base stations. These are optimally designed to support evolving network architectures like Open RAN/CRAN with flexible interface configurations.

The RF sections cover all LTE/5G-NR bands upto 6GHz. These chips also support positioning using India’s own satellite navigation system, NAVIC. The Agumbe series builds up on SCRF1401: India’s first RF transceiver chip for high performance wireless standards like 3G/4G and WiFi, created by Signalchip in 2015.

“Currently in India, all devices and infrastructure, whether imported or domestically manufactured, use imported silicon chips. Silicon chip design is a very challenging activity requiring high-cost R&D, deep knowhow and mastery of multiple complex domains. Hence, this technology is not available in most countries. Given that wireless communication is central to almost all economic, strategic and domestic activities happening today, the ability to indigenously design and develop silicon chips is vital for the security and prosperity of our country,” said Himamshu Khasnis, Founder and CEO of Signalchip.

This team was mentored and funded by Sridhar Vembu, Founder and CEO of Zoho — a pioneer in cloud technology. Sridhar’s association with Signalchip was born out of a common vision to build an enterprise that develops world-class technology from India and caters to the world. The company was also guided by an elite set of professors at IIT Madras in the field of complex analog/RF design.

“India has always had the talent required to build any technology. We just need to be patient and have enough capital to put it all together. It’s a long-term commitment. Through smart planning and relentless efforts, Signalchip has acquired the capability required to create any complex and globally competitive silicon chip, indigenously from India. I truly appreciate the patience and diligence the Signalchip team has shown to build this chip. Only long-term R&D can make Indian companies globally competitive,” said Sridhar Vembu, Founder & CEO of Zoho.

Secretary Sundararajan said that when US and China are battling it out for the core ICT technology, India cannot lag behind. She said, even the high powered Committee formed by the Government of India and headed by Stanford University professor A.J. Paulraj to outline a road map for 5G telecom services has suggested breaking into the IPRs of 5G. She said, the launch of a world class product by Signalchip is start of the Third Wave, after Software and IndiaStack as First and Second wave.

The combined multi-standard system-on-chip (SoC) can serve as a base station chipset for a wide range of form factors from low-cost indoor small cells to high performance base stations. These are optimally designed to support evolving network architectures like Open RAN/CRAN with flexible interface configurations. Through the IPs created for this device, the company now has the potential to design products for multiple related fields and is currently forging ahead with additional chipsets for advanced 5G NR features. With India having more than 1.1 billion mobile phones in use, one of the highest in the world, Signalchip has created high performance and cost-efficient systems to enable densification of the network.

Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said that Data Security is the paramount concern in the World today and India cannot remain secure in terms of data, unless it manufactures its own chips. Terming the launch of the chips as tremendously significant, Secretary Sundarajan said that India is just breaking into the elite club of the world and this will have huge implications for India’s data security and data sovereignty, besides the positive economic implications. She informed that at present only 8 companies and a few countries can design and build semiconductor chips and the launch of these indigenous chips is in a real sense ‘Make in India’ for the World. She said, the pioneering work will lead to a whole new architecture of tower building mainly in the light of emission complaints and growing environmental concerns.

She also congratulated the Founder and CEO of Signalchip Himanshu Khasnis and CEO of Zoho Sridhar Vembu for joining forces in the initiative.

“This is a proud moment for India’s Digital Communications industry. I congratulate the Signalchip team for designing India’s first indigenous semiconductor chips for 4G/LTE and 5G NR modems. India aspires to take a leadership role in developing inclusive 5G technologies for economic self-sufficiency and strategic needs of the country. These chips are a significant step in this direction as they have the potential to cater to the growing digital connectivity needs of the next 5 billion users, by enabling high performance mobile networks at lower cost,” said Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan. “The Signalchip team’s persistence over the 8-year R&D period and the commitment shown by Sridhar Vembu to believe in this vision is indeed commendable.”

Details of the new chips

• SCBM3412: a single chip 4G/LTE modem including the baseband and transceiver sections in a single device
• SCBM3404: a single chip 4X4 LTE baseband modem
• SCRF3402: a 2X2 transceiver for LTE
• SCRF4502: a 2X2 transceiver for 5G NR standards

Through the IPs created for this device, the company now has the potential to design products for multiple related fields and is currently going ahead with additional chipsets for advanced 5G NR features. With India having more than 1.1 billion mobile phones in use, one of the highest in the world, Signalchip’s high performance and cost-efficient systems to enable densification of the network.