Mohali chip plant to close down

India's first and premier semiconductor chip-manufacturing plant""the public sector Semiconductor Complex Ltd""located at Mohali in Punjab is being wound up. The department of space, which had recently got administrative control of this unique facility, put up a proposal to the Prime Minister's Office on February 16, sources told Business Standard.

The note, seeking to voluntarily wind up the company, as per the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956, has since been put up for approval by the Union Cabinet.

Almost every Indian missile carries a computer chip developed by the company. SCL's products have also found their way into more innocuous applications like water purifiers.

Once wound up, the assets of the company, with a paid up capital of Rs 188 crore, will be transferred into a society called "Semiconductor Laboratory". It will remain under the Space department and continue to engage in design, development and supply of integrated circuit chips, meant primarily for the Indian strategic sector.

Chips developed by SCL, which was under the department of information technology till 2004-05, have been used in Indian satellites for imaging and other applications. The Defence Research Development Organisation has also used SCL chips and so has the Atomic Energy Commission.

SCL is also learnt to be participating in a PSU consortium--including Bharat Electronics Ltd, Electronics Corporation of India Ltd""in the Indian citizen's multipurpose national identity card project.

SCL has recently added to its capability to fabricate micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS), an initiative funded under the National Programme on Smart Materials. Under this, SCL is believed to have taken up fabrication of a variety of sensors including those for use in 'radio-sonde' application for the India Meteorological Department.

SCL's wafer-fabrication plant started in 1984 and is currently at 0.8 micron level of technology. The plan to spin it off into a society is almost two years old and comes at a time when private sector chip manufacturing giants are being wooed by the Indian government to come and set up shop in India.