Tessolve to bring chip-testing centre to India

Tessolve Inc, a California, US based semiconductor testing services company, has set up a state-of-the art centre at Electronics City here, the first time an independent company has done so in the country.

The setting up of this Rs 45 crore 50,000 sq.ft facility also means that the semiconductor industry in India is nearing the time when it will have reached that critical mass so vital to strong growth.

P Raja Manickam, Tessolve's founder and chief executive officer, told reporters on Wednesday, "this facility will do away once and for all with the testing limitations in India". IIT educated Manickam has Texas Instruments and Fairchild Semiconductor on his CV.

Tessolve's engagement with clients also reflects this global vision: clients include Chartered, 2Wire, Alliance Semiconductor, Insilica, SCI and Wipro.

The company provides services including development, hardware design, failure analysis and reliability testing.

The company offers clients options of working on a turnkey basis, use of its testing infrastructure or the services of its 50 engineers here, a release said. The staff, some roped in from overseas, can work on handling wafer sort, final test development (RF, digital and mixed signal) and device characterisation, the release said.

Ashok Belani, on the board of directors of Tessolve, said, "Locating a world class testing centre close to the design groups is a compelling proposition".

Some 80 per cent of India's semiconductor design houses, mostly the captive units of large multinational companies such as Texas Instruments, are in Bangalore.