Signalchip: Building India’s Indigenous Cellular Modem and Radio Chips

India’s telecommunications networks connect more than a billion mobile users, yet much of the specialised semiconductor technology inside cellular base stations has traditionally come from foreign suppliers. Bengaluru-based Signalchip is working to change this dependence by designing indigenous baseband processors, modem chips and radio-frequency transceivers for advanced wireless communication systems.

Founded in 2010 by semiconductor engineer Himamshu Khasnis and a team of experienced professionals, Signalchip operates as a fabless semiconductor company. It designs the architecture, intellectual property and circuitry of its chips in India while relying on specialised semiconductor foundries for physical fabrication. The company focuses primarily on high-speed wireless technologies such as 3G-WCDMA, 4G-LTE, 5G New Radio and software-defined radio systems.

Signalchip’s most significant achievement is the development of the Agumbe family of cellular communication chipsets. Unveiled in New Delhi in February 2019, the Agumbe series was presented as India’s first indigenous semiconductor-chip family for 4G-LTE and 5G-NR modem applications.

The family includes a complete 4G modem system-on-chip, an LTE baseband processor and radio-frequency transceivers for LTE and 5G networks. The distinction is important: the Agumbe portfolio combines indigenous 4G modem and baseband processing chips with multistandard radio transceivers extending to 5G New Radio frequencies. Together, these components provide many of the essential semiconductor building blocks required for cellular base stations.

Understanding the Technology Inside a Cellular Network

A cellular base station performs two broad categories of work. The baseband section processes the digital information carried by the network, while the radio-frequency section converts that information into radio signals that can travel between the tower and mobile devices.

The baseband processor handles functions such as modulation, signal coding, error correction, scheduling, network protocols, data routing and management of multiple simultaneous connections. It must execute complex mathematical operations rapidly while meeting the strict timing requirements of cellular standards.

The radio-frequency transceiver acts as the link between the digital baseband system and the antenna. It converts processed digital signals into radio-frequency signals for transmission and converts incoming radio waves back into information that the baseband processor can interpret.

Developing either component requires expertise in digital signal processing, analog electronics, radio-frequency engineering, processor design, embedded software and semiconductor integration. Creating both baseband and RF products gives Signalchip control over a wider portion of the cellular communication chain.

The Agumbe Chipset Family

Signalchip unveiled four principal chips under the Agumbe programme.

The SCBM3412 is a highly integrated single-chip 4G-LTE modem containing both baseband-processing and transceiver functions. It was designed primarily for residential and enterprise-class small base stations where compact size, lower power consumption and competitive costs are important.

The chip supports 2×2 Multiple-Input Multiple-Output technology, allowing the base station to transmit and receive multiple data streams simultaneously. Signalchip lists downlink speeds of up to 400 megabits per second and uplink speeds of up to 150 megabits per second, along with Time Division Duplex and Frequency Division Duplex operation.

It also supports inter-band and intra-band carrier aggregation, allowing different portions of wireless spectrum to be combined to increase data capacity. Additional features include NB-IoT capability, WCDMA support, satellite-based synchronisation, security accelerators, trusted boot, a secure processing zone and a quad-core processor capable of running real-time operating systems and Linux.

The SCBM3404 is a 4×4 MIMO LTE baseband processor intended for enterprise, local-area and macro base stations. Its processing architecture supports the physical, data-link and network layers of LTE-Advanced, LTE and WCDMA systems.

Signalchip developed specialised hardware and software processing engines for demanding wireless operations. The 4×4 MIMO capability enables the system to work with four transmitting and receiving antenna paths, increasing network capacity and improving spectral efficiency in suitable deployments.

The SCRF3402 is a 2×2 radio-frequency transceiver designed for LTE networks, while the SCRF4502 extends the company’s RF architecture to 5G New Radio and several earlier wireless standards.

The SCRF4502 is described as a dual-channel MIMO analog-RF transceiver operating between 350 megahertz and 6 gigahertz, with RF bandwidth of up to 100 megahertz. It is designed for 5G-NR, 4G-LTE, 3G, GSM, Wi-Fi and a range of software-defined radio applications.

Its architecture incorporates high-speed analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, an auxiliary receiver and interfaces such as CPRI and JESD. These capabilities can support compact remote radio units, network-listening functions, calibration, satellite navigation and different cellular configurations.

Built on Earlier Indigenous RF Research

The Agumbe series emerged from several years of semiconductor research rather than from a single development project. Signalchip began working on indigenous communication silicon soon after its establishment in 2010.

In 2015, the company developed the SCRF1401, described as India’s first RF transceiver chip for high-performance wireless standards including 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi. Knowledge and semiconductor intellectual property developed through this programme subsequently contributed to the more advanced Agumbe family.

By the time the Agumbe chips were unveiled in 2019, Signalchip said its engineers had spent more than eight years developing the underlying baseband, mixed-signal, processor and RF technologies.

Unlike assembling a communication system using imported semiconductor components, indigenous chip development requires engineers to create fundamental circuit designs and reusable intellectual-property blocks. These may include processor cores, digital-signal-processing engines, data converters, security modules, memory controllers, network accelerators and radio-frequency circuits.

Owning these building blocks allows Signalchip to modify its products for different communication applications and develop future chips without rebuilding every component from the beginning.

Supporting NavIC-Based Positioning

The Agumbe chipsets also incorporate support for satellite-navigation systems, including India’s Navigation with Indian Constellation system, or NavIC.

Navigation capability is useful in cellular networks because base stations require precise timing and synchronisation. Satellite signals can help coordinate transmission timing between network sites and support functions such as network monitoring and self-organising networks.

In 2022, Signalchip entered into an arrangement involving the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing for the design, manufacturing, deployment and maintenance of integrated NavIC and GPS receivers.

The Government stated that Signalchip had developed most of the critical intellectual property used in its Agumbe baseband, modem and RF chipsets indigenously. The company’s existing navigation and radio technologies could therefore be adapted for dedicated NavIC receivers used in mobile devices, vehicles, tracking equipment and low-power Internet of Things systems.

From Indian Chip to Operational Network

Designing a chip is only one part of building an indigenous telecommunications ecosystem. The semiconductor must also be integrated into radio units, base stations, network software, antennas, power systems and management platforms.

Signaltron, an Indian telecom-equipment company working with Signalchip technology, has developed the Sahyadri series of base stations using Agumbe chipsets.

At the India Mobile Congress in October 2022, a successful video call was conducted between a Sahyadri base station at the event’s Atmanirbhar Bharat pavilion in New Delhi and another base station installed at a BSNL location in Hirekattigenahalli in Karnataka. Both systems were powered by Signalchip’s Agumbe silicon.

Signalchip described the demonstration as the first deployment of an operational network system running on an Indian cellular chip.

The Department of Telecommunications had earlier included Signaltron among the Indian companies participating in Universal Service Obligation Fund-supported pilot projects. These projects were intended to test and strengthen indigenous LTE, E-band and 4G-5G technologies in partnership with BSNL, ITI and the Centre for Development of Telematics.

In 2024, the Indian Army reportedly inducted an indigenous chip-based 4G mobile base station developed by Signaltron using Signalchip’s semiconductor technology. The Sahyadri system was designed to operate both as an independent private network and as part of a conventional cellular network, demonstrating the potential of indigenous communication systems for secure and specialised deployments.

Applications Beyond Commercial Mobile Networks

Signalchip’s technology is designed primarily for cellular infrastructure rather than ordinary consumer smartphone processors. Its products can be used in small cells, enterprise networks, rural communication systems, private cellular networks, defence communications and software-defined radio platforms.

Small cells are compact base stations used to improve coverage and capacity inside offices, factories, residential complexes, campuses and densely populated urban areas. A highly integrated base-station chip can reduce the number of external components required, helping equipment manufacturers create smaller and potentially more affordable systems.

Private LTE and 5G networks are another important application. Factories, mines, ports, airports, power plants and defence establishments increasingly require dedicated wireless networks that provide predictable coverage, security and control over critical data.

Software-defined radio capability broadens the possible uses further. In an SDR system, many radio functions traditionally implemented through fixed hardware can be changed or upgraded through software. A wideband, multistandard RF transceiver can therefore support communication research, spectrum monitoring, specialised industrial systems and secure wireless platforms.

Signalchip identifies residential, enterprise, defence and law-enforcement applications among the markets for its system-on-chip products.

Indigenous Telecom Chips Securing Indias Telecom

Telecommunications infrastructure is part of a country’s critical digital backbone. Mobile networks carry personal communication, financial transactions, government information, industrial data and emergency services.

Control over semiconductor design can improve supply-chain resilience and reduce dependence on a small number of overseas vendors. It also gives Indian equipment manufacturers greater visibility into the hardware and intellectual property used inside their products.

Indigenous design does not automatically mean that every chip is fabricated inside India. Signalchip follows the fabless semiconductor model used by many global chip companies, under which product architecture and circuit design are developed by the company while manufacturing is undertaken at an external semiconductor foundry till India builds its on foundry.

The strategic value lies in ownership of the design, technical knowledge and reusable intellectual property. These assets allow an Indian company to customise products, investigate security concerns, create specialised variants and retain more value within the domestic technology ecosystem.

Telecom semiconductor development also creates demand for highly skilled engineers in analog design, RF engineering, VLSI design, embedded software, protocol development, verification and systems integration.

A Foundation for India’s Telecom Semiconductor Ambitions

Signalchip represents a rare Indian attempt to enter one of the most technically difficult segments of the global semiconductor industry. Cellular baseband processors and RF transceivers must comply with complex international standards while delivering high performance, low latency, controlled power consumption and reliable operation across challenging radio environments.

The company’s Agumbe programme established indigenous capabilities across baseband processing, mixed-signal electronics, radio-frequency design, modem integration and navigation support. Its technology has progressed from laboratory design and silicon development to base-station demonstrations and specialised network deployments.

Signalchip’s journey also illustrates the long development cycles involved in deep technology. The Agumbe chips required years of sustained research before their public introduction, followed by further work to integrate the silicon into complete network systems.

As India expands domestic semiconductor manufacturing, private 5G networks, Open RAN systems and secure communication infrastructure, companies capable of creating fundamental telecom silicon will become increasingly important. Signalchip’s work provides India with an indigenous technological foundation on which more advanced cellular, navigation and software-defined radio products can be developed.

Rather than limiting Make in India to the assembly of imported components, Signalchip is attempting to build intellectual property at the level where modern communication networks truly begin: inside the semiconductor.

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References

Signalchip Technologies Pvt. Ltd. — Official Website
https://www.signalchip.com/

Signalchip — Agumbe LTE Single-Chip Base Station
https://www.signalchip.com/lte-single-chip-base-station/

Signalchip — LTE Baseband Platform
https://www.signalchip.com/lte-baseband-platform/

Signalchip — 5G-NR RF Transceivers
https://www.signalchip.com/5grftransceivers/

Press Information Bureau, Government of India — India’s First Indigenous Semiconductor Chips for 4G/LTE and 5G-NR Modems Unveiled
https://www.pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1566475

Press Information Bureau — Development of Indigenous NavIC and GPS Receiver Chips
https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1821809

Press Information Bureau — Indigenous Telecom Technology Pilot Projects
https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1838558

Signalchip — Indigenous Agumbe Chip-Based Network Demonstration at India Mobile Congress 2022
https://www.signalchip.com/imc2022/

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