BANGALORE, INDIA: Indian semiconductor industry is expected to grow by 12 to 15 per cent from the previous year and the global semiconductor industry would grow 6 to 8 per cent, said an NXP Semiconductors executive.

Sharing this view at the CXO Conclave organized by Indian Semiconductor Association (ISA) and NXP here today, Neeraj Paliwal, vice president and managing director and design services global manager, Central R&D, NXP India said the trend in semiconductor industry is now moving towards ‘society-focused’ solutions that will benefit not one section of consumers, but the community as a whole.

“Increased government spending in India on technology and infrastructure will also boost this trend. Overall, we are seeing four key trends that are driving growth for the semiconductor industry, globally as well in India – energy efficiency, connected mobile, security and health,” he said.

The event also featured a talk by Dr. Rene Penning de Vries, senior vice president and chief technology officer, NXP Semiconductors, on the role played by semiconductors in the areas of energy and security.

Dr. Rene said about the evolution of IC industry from new products being mainly business driven to becoming consumer driven to now increasingly being society driven. The societal changes have impacted the growth of the semiconductor industry.

Rene added, “Demonstrating the need for corporations, we have turned ourselves towards the key trends that are driving growth in today's semiconductor industry are energy efficiency, connected mobile devices, security and health services.”

Focusing on the energy sector, Rene added, “One of the factors influencing global warming is our use of energy and the way it is generated. Optimizing the operating efficiency of chargers and electrical appliances, is a key step. The two major alternatives for the energy sector are generating renewable energy and increase energy efficiency.”

He further reiterated that increasing environmental concerns as well as the need to cut down on energy costs have led to increasing innovation in the field of energy. The high performance mixed signal technologies such as NXP's GreenChip, solutions for smart grid etc. will add on to increasing usage of semiconductors in the area of energy.

Smart Applications

Smart Grids and secure transactions would be listed as the top applications in the near future, Paliwal added.

When asked about the scope of Smart Grids, he said, “As applications for semiconductors have become diverse, the industry is moving from being largely technology-focused to becoming more customer and application-focused. Smart Grids is a new experimentation in India, which is expected to pick up faster in the near future.”

Educational Initiative

NXP will on Friday launch an educational program 'Anubhav' by joining an alliance with 20 university labs on training students about the importance and scope of semiconductor industry, and building microcontrollers.

Speaking about the new initiative, Neeraj Paliwal, said, “The initiative can be considered a revolution among students which would train them in developing microcontrollers on NXP technology and cater them to rural masses. It would make students independent as they are not pressured with ideas and would give them freedom to do what they want.”

He added that R.V. College of Engineering, PESIT and BMS college in Bangalore would top the list for flagging of the new initiative.