IIT Kanpur becomes world’s second institute to have IC Design Simulation Software for GaN Transistors

“Innovations distinguished between a Leader and a Follower” Steve Jobs

While we are grabbing medals every day in our sports bucket of India from various parts of country in CWG 2018, on the other side we have also grabbed one great achievement in our technological bucket from Kanpur. Yes, IIT Kanpur has developed its own Integrated Circuit Design Simulation Software – SPICE model for GaN HEMT. After years of hard work and fierce competition IITK has emerged as the only institute, apart from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA to achieve this distinction.

IIT Kanpur
Image Courtesy: Facebook Page of IIT Kanpur

It has all done by a team led by Prof Yogesh Singh Chauhan who is a Associate Professor at IIT Kanpur. It was chosen as an industry standard model by Compact Model Coalition (CMC), an R&D group formed by companies in the semiconductor industry to develop and standardize simulation programs for simulating integrated circuits.

It is really a proud moment for India, as IIT Kanpur becomes the second institute in the world to develop this software which will boost the semiconductor industry in India and the world. To know more about this software, Aapka Times reaches out to the Prof Yogesh Chauhan and got few interesting facts of this software.

Here are some excerpts from the conversation of Monika Bari of Aapka Times with Prof Chauhan.

What it is all about and how much time it took?
It will help companies manufacturing GaN semiconductor devices to test their circuits before actual production, since the cost of production of such devices and circuits is extremely high. This software will enable companies to test their circuits before production, hence cutting down the cost. It’s very useful for high voltage and high frequency applications and it took almost 6years to complete this project.

Will it be a revolution in Semiconductor and Electronics Industry in India and how will it impact on Indian Electronics Industry?
Yes, it will be a revolution not just in India but in the whole world as it will help the ISRO and DRDO in their Space and Defence research related systems which is very important. It also will cut down the cost significantly making sure we will first time right product as I said.

How does it feel to be able to achieve such kind of software in India?
It’s really a proud moment not only for me and IIT Kanpur but for entire country. It also feels good that we have something original which we can provide the whole world for their benefit.

To whom you give the credit, team members, colleagues, students, college and from where you got the financial support for it?
First of all a big credit goes to the students who really worked hard with me, my collaborator, Department and of course, the Institute for their constant support throughout the Project.

We have received almost Rs. 8 Crore from various sources for our research work like DST, IMPRINT, SERB, ISRO etc including Semiconductor Research Corporation and CMC.

We have also got to know that you are working with ISRO and DRDO, how is it going and tell us something about it?
Yes, we have been working with Space Application Center of ISRO, Ahmadabad from last 3 years and have completed one project and one more got approved last week. Recently we associated with Solid State Physics Laboratory of DRDO, Delhi to develop models as well as GaN devices that will be used in India’s space exploration and defence related research projects.

Does all would affect your duty to teach students?
No, I don’t think so. In fact, research always helps us improve the teaching content and gives students exposure to state-of-the-art topics. I always believe in excellence whether research or teaching.

Do you have any message for the youth who want to pursue their career in such researches?
I wanted to say that students should work with all their dedication and sincerity. As we all know, such projects and research in general take time.  We need to keep our patience alive and have confidence that  positive result will come soon.

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