Aheesa’s VIHAAN broadband chip achieves first-pass silicon success, combining India’s indigenous VEGA RISC-V processor with built-in security for fibre broadband networks.
NEW DELHI: Chennai-based fabless semiconductor startup Aheesa Digital Innovations has achieved first-pass silicon success with VIHAAN, its flagship broadband networking chip, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology confirmed on August 15. The milestone marks a notable step for India’s growing chip design ecosystem, coming just under seven months after the chip’s design was sent to the foundry on January 26.
Achieving functional success on the very first fabrication attempt, without requiring costly redesign runs, is a meaningful technical achievement for any semiconductor startup and particularly encouraging for a young Indian fabless company working within tight capital constraints.
Built Around India’s Own Processor Core
What sets VIHAAN apart is its foundation. At its core sits the 64-bit VEGA processor, developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing under the government’s Microprocessor Development Programme. This is an open-standard RISC-V architecture chip designed entirely within India, meaning Aheesa avoids the recurring licensing fees that typically come with using proprietary foreign processor designs. This choice strengthens the cost structure of the chip while supporting India’s broader push to build traceable, domestically designed silicon for critical infrastructure.
The chip itself is purpose-built for fibre broadband equipment, supporting GPON and EPON protocols used in fibre-to-the-home connections, along with integrated security engines that verify firmware authenticity and protect network traffic through hardware-level encryption. This combination of local processor architecture and built-in security addresses both the commercial performance needs of telecom equipment makers and India’s growing emphasis on using verified “trusted” telecom hardware in sensitive network infrastructure.
A Well-Supported Path From Idea to Silicon
Aheesa’s progress reflects the value of India’s evolving semiconductor support ecosystem. The company’s tape-out and validation work was backed by MeitY’s Design Linked Incentive Scheme, part of the broader India Semiconductor Mission, which reimburses design costs and provides access to expensive design software and prototyping tools that would otherwise be out of reach for early-stage startups.
Alongside this policy support, Aheesa raised close to ₹40 crore earlier this year, led by the Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Fund Management Corporation through its Emerging Sector Seed Fund, with additional private venture capital participation. This funding gave the company the resources needed to purchase prototype wafers, build laboratory testing infrastructure and develop the software stack needed to bring VIHAAN to working silicon.
Part of a Broader Wave of Indian Chip Design Success
Aheesa’s milestone sits within a wider pattern of progress across India’s fabless design startups. According to government data, companies backed by the Design Linked Incentive scheme have collectively raised over $100 million in venture capital and completed between 30 and 35 tape-outs across various foundries, spanning applications from motor control chips to edge AI vision processors. This is complemented by the Chips to Startup initiative, which has already produced 245 academic tape-outs across 71 institutions, steadily building the trained engineering talent pipeline India’s semiconductor ambitions will need going forward.
This ecosystem-wide momentum suggests Aheesa’s success is not an isolated case but part of a maturing pipeline of Indian companies moving from paper designs to working chips.
A Practical Software Ecosystem to Match
Beyond the chip itself, Aheesa has built a complete development platform around VIHAAN, including its Seshnag reference design and Aheesa Router OS, a production-ready software stack built on the widely used OpenWrt framework. This gives device manufacturers a ready-made foundation to build commercial routers without needing to develop network drivers from scratch, an important practical detail that could meaningfully speed up adoption among Indian telecom equipment makers.
What Comes Next
While first-pass silicon success is a strong technical validation, VIHAAN still has a clear path ahead before reaching commercial shelves. The chip will undergo extensive testing across varying voltage, temperature and load conditions over the coming months, followed by field trials with telecom operators and equipment manufacturers through late 2026 and into 2027. Aheesa has targeted a commercial production tape-out for 2027, after which the chip would move into full-scale manufacturing and assembly ahead of deployment in real broadband routers across Indian homes.
A Strong Signal for India’s Telecom Supply Chain
India’s telecom equipment makers have historically depended almost entirely on imported chips from global suppliers. With expanding fibre broadband rollouts under programmes like BharatNet and rising demand for 5G fixed wireless access equipment, a homegrown, security-hardened alternative like VIHAAN offers a promising building block for reducing that dependence over time. Backed by strong institutional support, a capable founding team with deep industry experience and now a validated working chip, Aheesa’s progress offers a solid example of how India’s fabless semiconductor sector is steadily translating years of policy investment into tangible silicon results.
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