VLSI/ESDM incubation centre opened

Hubballi got a unique facility when the VLSI/ESDM incubation centre to promote startups in this sector was opened at the KLE Tech Park at KLE Technological University (KLETU) here on Tuesday.

Karnataka Biotechnology & Information Technology Services (KBITS), Indian Electronics & Semiconductors Association (IESA) and KLETU have come together to develop this facility to support entrepreneurs in the emerging sector of VLSI/ESDM (very large scale integration/electronics system design and manufacturing).

IT-BT, Science & Technology and Large & Medium Industries Minister K J George inaugurated the centre on Tuesday evening. IT-BT Department principal secretary Gaurav Gupta, IESA working president Anilkumar M, KLETU vice-chancellor Ashok Shettar, Deshpande Foundation founder Gururaj Deshpande, Deshpande Foundation CEO Vivek Pawar, KLE Society director Shankaranna Munavalli, and others were present.

"Having around 5,000 square feet of office space, the centre will accommodate Vegam, Skycraft and other startups now. A competition would be conducted to select more startups which can be accommodated here, and 15 startups would be incubated in three years. Free space would be provided for a couple years, and Rs four crore government fund for three years would be used to provide assistance in design and other works," KLETU vice-chancellor Ashok Shettar said.

World class hardware and chip design, testing, validation, high-end EDA tools partnering with Mentor Graphics, Cadence and ARM would be made available for the startups. Faculty expertise and industry mentors for product design, and other works would help them to scale up and meet market needs. This activity would help students also, he noted.

VLSI/ESDM incubation centre at KLETU would focus on design part, while the ESDM cluster of Deshpande Foundation would be more related to manufacturing, which together would create a whole eco-system here, Shettar added.