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The United States finalized two Joint High Energy Laser Weapon System contracts with nLIGHT Defence and Lockheed Martin Aculight on 9 th July 2026. This programme’s first contract awards are worth around $86 million, and its potential value is $847 million. With the help of this experimental display to be production-ready to oppose drone technologies along with travelling defence systems. High-energy lasers should be operating at the power range between 150 kilowatts for current designs and between 300 and 500 kilowatts required for advanced cruising defence engagement targets. Another incorporated system to operate at 500 kilowatts would be designed with the aid of tech established by the High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative.

Unlike interceptors, laser-powered weapons fire with no projectiles, travelling at the speed of light, and don’t need to launch missiles with every shot. So long as you have electricity for power, and a way to cool it down, a laser can have almost an effectively infinite capacity, and relatively low per-shot costs, perfect for swarms of large drones. The laser weapons will be relatively large and come in a modular, containerised format for placement on top of ground-based vehicles and for warships. The major hurdles to overcome include the effects of intervening air on the beam, focusing the weapons, getting it to cool down effectively, and consistently generating enough electricity.

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India has deployed indigenous sonars on board two newly inducted warships- the guided-missile stealth frigate INS Dunagiri and the anti-submarine warfare shallow water craft INS Agray- which were commissioned in Kolkata on 21 st June 2026, carrying more than 75% indigenous equipment. The sonar systems have been designed by the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory, Kochi, of DRDO, and are manufactured by Bharat Electronics. INS Dunagiri is fitted with the HUMSA system known as HUMSA-2020, which is otherwise known as HUMSA-NG Mk II, employing contemporary electronics architecture for the purpose of long-range underwater detection and target acquisition capability. It has already undergone laboratory, factory, and ship-acceptance tests, and the sonar systems have been successfully accepted for deployment on board Indian Naval platforms.

INS Agray is equipped with Abhay PG shallow-water sonar suite. It is a light, hull-mounted suite that is meant for service in the littoral zones, where underwater terrain variations, reefs, shallow waves reflection and civilian ships produce lots of underwater acoustic clutter and acoustic interference. The sonar suite will be installed on 16 shallow water boats. It is to act as the underwater ‘ears and eyes of vessels’ to help track, classify and hunt submarines and other underwater threats, thereby aiding its anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities, while minimizing India’s dependence on foreign sensors.

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The British company MGI Engineering is developing TigerShark- an autonomous, long-range offensive drone seen as a cheaper solution than cruise missiles. TigerShark is inspired by innovations from Formula One racing and other advanced engineering sectors, allowing it to serve as a quickly assembled, highly modular unmanned aircraft. Apparently, TigerShark is 5.5 meters in length, with a wingspan of 4.3 metres, and powered by two small turbojet engines. The aircraft is launched by a rocket booster from a mobile ground installation, can reach a speed of 750 kilometres per hour, can be equipped with up to 300 kilograms of modular loads, and can fly to a distance of about a thousand or more kilometres.

Aircraft include Auterion Skynode flight computer along with software. Inertial navigation and terrain-following are conceived to aid operation in areas of GPS-denied or interference. The weapon’s modular payloads bay is said to be large enough for traditional, EW or specialized warheads. Groups of TigerShark would be considered for an attack in an attempt to overwhelm and force an enemy air defence net and/or to prosecute a specific high-value target. These announced capabilities and production plans are expected to undergo additional development and client evaluation. This program is similar to the growing trend of developing rapidly produced, cheap, and software-denied deep strike weapon systems.

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Japan’s Ground Self-Defence Force will field test the HX-2 strike drone from Helsing, and the trials will run till the end of the Sept 2026. Rakuten is helping the German defence technology company navigate Japan’s procurement environment to secure a possible supply contract. The HX-2 is a software-defined all-electric loitering munition which could be used to attack artillery, armor, and fixed military targets, has a maximum range of 100 km and a weight of around 12kg; the drone could be configured with multipurpose, anti-tank and anti-structure warheads.

However, its cutting-edge technology is the on-board artificial intelligence; Helsing maintains the drone’s search-reacquisition capability without a persistent data link, allowing it to operate under a jammed satellite navigational and communication system, but critical engagement decisions still rest with man. In addition, HX-2 will integrate with Altra software, which is a reconnaissance-strike system, enabling remotely piloted aircraft (RPVs), reconnaissance, and cooperation with one another. OTA software updates enable the software to meet evolving threats. Thus, it is concluded that Japanese trials reflect the increasing need for a mass-produced UAV in a high electronic warfare domain.

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Germany’s POLARIS Spaceplanes has flown the COBRA 600, an unmanned aircraft designed in collaboration with Diehl Defence as part of the Airborne Launching and Attack System programme. Details of the successful first sortie, a smooth flight of roughly 20km undertaken on 22 August 2026, with subsequent testing to follow, were published in a statement issued that day. The jet-powered, reusable, flying wing aircraft, intended to carry an IRIS-T air-to-air missile beneath an upper-mounted launching rail, has a flight weight of more than 600 kg. The first flight tested the base vehicle and did not involve carrying or launching a weapon.

This application does exactly the same, except for turning missile launches into unmanned aircraft. Using the interceptor closer to where there’s a threat to a plane launched purely from the ground would surely increase effective range and get airborne defence without a manned plane, where usually such defence wouldn’t be present within range of stand-off weapons. They will have to show integration of the missile with the target’s detection system and also a secure command link in order for missiles to be launched safely into the air. This is just the first step in achieving a relatively cheap, distributed drone defence system.

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Think of a data diode as the digital equivalent of a mechanical check valve—it forces network traffic to flow in one direction only. By enforcing this strict physical separation, these hardware devices offer an unhackable barrier that software firewalls simply can’t match.

Think back to your earliest days at the lab bench, probing a standard PN junction. Its elegance lies entirely in its asymmetry: a fundamental, physics-driven one-way valve that lets electrons flow freely in forward bias while slamming the door shut the moment the potential flips—a behavior perfectly captured by that classic, sweeping I-V characteristic curve.

But what if we took this exact primitive concept and scaled it up? What if, instead of confining this one-way restriction to a microscopic sliver of silicon at the component level, we applied it to entire enterprise network architectures?

By shifting our focus from shifting electrical current to directing data streams, we unlock a formidable paradigm in hardware-enforced security: the data diode.

The physics of the “one-way mirror”

To understand why a data diode is virtually unhackable, you must strip away the network jargon and drop down to layer 1 physics. At its core, the device relies on a strict optical gap. Inside the chassis, the copper network line terminates at a dedicated light-emitting source, a laser or an LED. Facing it across a literal physical air gap sits a photodiode receiver. When data arrives, electricity translates to photons, flashes across the gap, and is converted back into bits on the isolated receiving network.

Here is where physics enforces security: a photodiode cannot be manipulated into emitting photons to talk back. There are no clever firmware exploits, zero-day vulnerabilities, or routing tricks that can reverse this flow. The probability of data leaking upstream against this optical barrier is a hardware-enforced mathematical zero.

Figure 1 A hardware data diode eliminates bidirectional attack vectors by forcing data into a strict, one-way physical path from Network 1 to Network 2. Source: Author

Yet, while this absolute isolation satisfies the security engineer, it introduces a catastrophic headache for the network engineer. By completely severing the return path, you instantly break the fundamental mechanics of modern communication protocols.

The “No-ACK” paradox

Every network engineer knows that reliable communication is built entirely on a digital handshake. You send a packet, and you wait for the receiving end to say, “Got it.” But what happens when you violently amputate that return path? You enter the “No-ACK” paradox.

By stripping away the return channel, standard TCP becomes completely useless. There is no three-way handshake, no sliding window for flow control, and absolutely no Acknowledgement (ACK) packet. The transmitting side is effectively screaming into a void, completely blind to whether its data arrived intact, corrupted, or at all. To survive in this one-way environment, network protocols must shift from the comfortable, deterministic reliability of TCP to a brutal, speculative UDP-style broadcast.

To bridge this gap without data loss, engineers can’t rely on retransmission; they must rely on math. This is where Forward Error Correction (FEC) algorithms, such as Reed-Solomon coding, come into play. Instead of sending just the raw payload, the transmitting side injects precise mathematical redundancy into the data stream.

If a burst of packets gets dropped or corrupted across the optical gap, the receiver uses these error-correcting codes to algorithmically reconstruct the missing data on the fly. It’s a brilliant piece of engineering jujitsu: solving a physical limitation with pure algebraic resilience.

Here is a side note: While the optical gap in a data diode enforces one-way flow at the hardware level, in practice, integration errors, side-channel exposures, or misconfigured surrounding systems can still undermine security. Likewise, FEC boosts reliability but does not guarantee absolute integrity under all throughput and latency conditions. Just to keep some expectations low, data diodes are best understood as exceptionally robust components within a layered defense strategy, not as flawless stand-alone solutions.

System-level reality: Where theory meets the grid

In the abstract, a one-way data stream sounds like an elegant mathematical exercise. In the wild, it’s the thin line defending critical infrastructure. This is especially true in operational technology (OT) environments, where a compromised network doesn’t just mean leaked passwords; it means physical destruction.

Consider the classic security layout of a nuclear power plant or a massive regional utility grid. Engineers need real-time thermodynamic telemetry, vibration data, and RPM metrics from a massive turbine generator to monitor efficiency and predict maintenance needs. This data must be sent out to the open corporate network and cloud-analytics platforms where data scientists can dissect it. However, you cannot risk a single malicious bit traveling back down that wire to manipulate the turbine’s control systems.

By dropping a data diode directly between the critical OT network and the standard IT infrastructure, you achieve absolute isolation. The telemetry streams out continuously, but the physical layer ensures that the turbine controls remain totally invisible and inaccessible to the outside world. It creates an impenetrable digital fortress around the infrastructure that keeps the lights on.

Figure 2 Enabling unidirectional data transfer over fiber-optic cable, this data diode uses hardware separation to guarantee absolute network security. Source: Fibersystem

This brings us squarely back to the core philosophy of robust engineering design. When the stakes are this high, software firewalls—with their endless cycles of patches, configurations, and human errors—are no longer enough. True security requires moving past the ephemeral nature of code and anchoring your defense in the unyielding laws of hardware physics.

Ultimate testing ground: Avionics and high-flying isolation

While power grids demonstrate the power of hardware isolation on the ground, the aerospace industry represents perhaps the most demanding and critical application landscape for data diodes. Modern commercial aircraft are essentially flying data centers, generating massive volumes of non-critical data—fuel efficiency metrics, cabin temperature logs, and passenger infotainment streams—that must be offloaded to ground stations or corporate servers.

However, the passenger entertainment system and the flight control computer cannot share a standard, bi-directional connection; a rogue packet crossing into the flight guidance system represents an unacceptable, catastrophic safety risk. Avionics engineers solve this by implementing data diodes—often integrated into ARINC 429 or ARINC 664/AFDX network gateways.

Telemetry flows seamlessly from the cockpit down to the cabin and maintenance servers, but the physical layer ensures that a passenger trying to access the onboard Wi-Fi can never send a single bit upstream to the flight control surfaces.

Figure 3 The hardware-enforced, single-chip data diode VEGAS-429 secures the ARINC 429 serial avionics bus by physically preventing malicious back-feeding or data corruption from untrusted devices. Source: NuWaves RF Solutions

Fundamental takeaway and a challenge to the bench

Ultimately, the data diode reminds us of a fundamental truth that is often forgotten in a software-centric world: software is mutable, complex, and inherently buggy, while physics is rigid, predictable, and absolute. The industry spends billions of dollars and endless development hours in a reactive cycle of patching software vulnerabilities, updating firewalls, and chasing zero-day exploits.

Yet, the most robust network security boundary ever devised doesn’t run a single line of code. It’s forged in silicon, gallium arsenide, and glass. When the stakes are absolute, physics remains the only truly unhackable firewall.

So, for the modern engineer, maker, and hardware hobbyist, this paradigm is a call to action. It proves that the most elegant solutions to massive digital problems are often found right at the component level, sitting on the breadboard.

Figure 4 High-speed CMOS optocouplers such as ACPL072L isolate data channels to facilitate secure data-diode prototyping. Source: Author

Take this as a design challenge for your next deep-bench project. Try stripping away the bi-directional safety nets of standard networking and build a proprietary one-way data link from scratch.

Bench challenge: How would you design a high-throughput, low-latency communication protocol over a medium that physically forbids the receiver from talking back? Beyond basic Reed-Solomon codes, how would you structure timing loops, heartbeat signals, or frame interleaving to guarantee 99.999% data integrity without a single ACK packet?

Dust off the optocouplers, fire up the microcontrollers, and lay out your architectural ideas, mathematical models, or protocol hacks in the comments below. It’s time to build.

T. K. Hareendran is a self-taught electronics enthusiast with a strong passion for innovative circuit design and hands-on technology. He develops both experimental and practical electronic projects, documenting and sharing his work to support fellow tinkerers and learners. Beyond the workbench, he dedicates time to technical writing and hardware evaluations to contribute meaningfully to the maker community.

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Indian Railways is planning to offer charging stations for Electric Vehicles at its railway stations. According to a recent notification from the North Central Railways zone, a tender has been floated for the installation of EV charging stations at Prayagraj Junction, Manikpur, and Aligarh railway stations, furthering charging station development at various locations frequented by the masses.

Implementing EV charging infrastructure at railway stations can offer good accessibility and have electrical grid connectivity as they are generally located within main routes. Charging stations at these locations can be used as supplementary points of charging for EVs while contributing to the expansion of public charging infrastructure.

Additionally, the campaign shows the prospects of interconnecting transport infrastructure and energy infrastructure. Railway stations have already got electrical linkages, parking sites, as well as passengers coming in large numbers; and that makes them appropriate spots for charging stations. Such sites could be used for servicing many classes of EVs ranging from passenger cars, commercial vehicles and other forms of electric mobility with varying sizes of charging infrastructure.

The North Central Railway project demonstrates how existing transport infrastructure can support India’s expanding EV charging network. As EV adoption increases, railway stations and other transport hubs could become strategically important charging locations, provided adequate electrical capacity, load management, protection and energy-management systems are deployed. This could help integrate charging infrastructure with existing power networks while improving access to public EV charging.

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JSW MG Motor India is all set to roll out its electric SUV this month. This India-specific electric SUV from SAIC Motor’s Indian arm, will be launched on August 26, 2026. The SUV will be the first production model to feature new technology – MG ADAPT (Advanced Drive Architecture Platform Technology). The modular platform will be able to accommodate different electrified powertrain setups, namely BEVs (Battery Electric Vehicle), HEVs (Hybrid Electric Vehicles), PHEVs (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle), and REEVs (Range-Extended Electric Vehicles).

The development represents a wider shift in the automotive industry toward the use of flexible vehicle architectures. Rather than designing separate platforms for different propulsion technologies, a multiple-powertrain architecture enables automakers to present numerous powertrain architectures using a single vehicle architecture. This, potentially, enables car manufacturers to develop vehicles faster and simplify production processes, and manufacturers are more efficiently able to respond to shifts in consumer needs and demands.

The MG ADAPT system combines a dedicated hybrid engine, battery, 10-in-1 Intelligent Electric Drive Unit and electromagnetic dedicated hybrid transmission, with an intelligent energy management system. The intelligent management system controls all the components to allow the vehicle to switch between pure EV, Series Hybrid, Parallel Hybrid and Engine Direct Drive mode as per the situation.

The MG ADAPT platform goes way beyond just another new EV platform. It’s also an example of how automakers are dealing with the complex balancing act of electrification, cost and the need to allow buyers to select vehicles that suit their lifestyles.

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​Omega Seiki Mobility (OSM) has joined hands with ELECTRA AI to bring intelligent battery health services to the EVs in its electric vehicle ecosystem. Through this alliance, real-time tracking of battery health, prediction capabilities, and State of Health (SoH) will be added to OSM’s entire fleet. With the rise of EV adoption in India, battery health, reliability, and performance over its lifespan have become more crucial.

As part of the collaboration agreement, ELECTRA AI’s battery intelligence platform would enhance OSM’s visibility of battery performance and health, and this technology would assist in driving predictive maintenance, vehicle uptime improvements, warranty management and using data to advance product development.

For decades, battery management systems (BMS) have been monitoring parameters like temperature, voltage, and current in a manner to ensure efficient and safe function of the battery pack. With the help of Artificial Intelligence, together with advanced data analytics functionality, it’s possible to go beyond the scope of conventional monitoring by analysing the battery data over time and detect changes occurring in the battery’s condition.

For India’s commercial EV sector, where vehicle uptime directly affects operating economics, intelligent battery monitoring could therefore become an important technology layer. Instead of relying solely on periodic diagnostics, AI-enabled systems can continuously analyse operational data and provide insights into battery behaviour.​

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​Gulf Oil is investing Rs 50 crore to scale up Tirex’s Ahmedabad plant capacity from 1,800 to 3,000 DC fast chargers per year. The expansion enables the company to capture the rising demand in India’s e-bus market while growing its non-lubricant future-mobility portfolio. The company has announced a planned capital expenditure of Rs 50 crore to expand the production capabilities of its EV manufacturing arm, Tirex Transmission Private Limited. The investment will nearly double the annual capacity of Tirex’s Ahmedabad facility to around 3,000 DC fast chargers, up from the current 1,800 units.

This strategic move aims to leverage the rapid volume growth and strong momentum in India’s electric bus and commercial fleet segments. Currently, Gulf Oil holds a 65.18% controlling stake in Tirex Transmission Private Limited. This announcement is expected to raise Tirex’s annual manufacturing capacity to 3,000 DC fast chargers from the current 1,800 units, representing a targeted capacity doubling at Tirex’s Ahmedabad plant. The capacity scaling enhances Tirex’s ability to bid for larger municipal and corporate electric bus charging contracts. A larger manufacturing footprint establishes Tirex as an institutional leader in the localized EV charger manufacturing space​.

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Brandworks Technologies Pvt. Ltd., India’s fastest-growing design-driven and R&D-led electronics manufacturing company, has received approval under the Government of India’s Electronics Components Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) for the manufacturing of speakers and microphones, marking a significant step in the company’s efforts to strengthen domestic electronics component manufacturing and contribute to India’s growing electronics manufacturing ecosystem.

Brandworks’ approval for speakers and microphones places it among the companies being supported under ECMS to build domestic capabilities across critical electronics components. The category forms an important part of the wider electronics value chain, with applications spanning consumer electronics, automotive systems, smart devices, communication equipment and other connected products. The company also holds an exclusive license for Dolby Atmos soundbars in India, further strengthening its capabilities and expertise in the audio technology segment.

Commenting on the development, Ishwar Kumhar, Co-founder and CEO, Brandworks Technologies, said, “The ECMS approval for speakers and microphones marks an important milestone in Brandworks’ journey of contributing to India’s electronics manufacturing ecosystem. Our ongoing engagement with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has been an important part of this journey, and this approval further strengthens our commitment to supporting the Government of India’s vision for a deeper and more self-reliant electronics value chain. We aim to continue working closely with the government and industry stakeholders to accelerate domestic component manufacturing, build advanced capabilities in India and create a stronger, globally competitive electronics ecosystem.”

Nikita Kumawat, Co-founder and Director, Brandworks Technologies, said, “The approval under ECMS is a strong validation of the capabilities we have been building across electronics design, engineering and manufacturing. Speakers and microphones are at the centre of a wide range of connected and consumer electronics products, and developing these capabilities domestically will allow us to contribute greater value across the electronics supply chain. We see this as an opportunity to further strengthen our manufacturing capabilities in India and build solutions that can cater to both domestic and global requirements.”

The approval comes as the Government of India continues to accelerate the development of a deeper and more self-reliant electronics supply chain through ECMS. With the latest round of approvals, 106 projects covering 30 products across 15 states have now been approved under the scheme, representing a total approved investment of ₹69,548 crore and projected production of ₹5,34,101 crore. The scheme is designed to encourage investments across key electronics components, sub assemblies, supply-chain products and capital goods, with a focus on increasing domestic value addition and reducing dependence on imports.

For Brandworks, the latest approval builds on its continued engagement with the Government of India’s efforts to advance the country’s electronics and technology ecosystem. The company has previously partnered with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) through initiatives focused on strengthening India’s capabilities in emerging electronics and technology domains. The ECMS approval further reflects Brandworks’ continued commitment to contributing to the country’s transition towards deeper domestic manufacturing and greater value addition across the electronics supply chain.

The approval also represents an opportunity for Brandworks to further integrate component manufacturing into its electronics manufacturing portfolio while creating capabilities that can support the evolving requirements of India’s fast-growing electronics industry. The company intends to leverage its manufacturing and engineering capabilities to develop scalable production infrastructure for speakers and microphones and support customers across multiple electronics segments.

The development comes at a time when India’s electronics manufacturing sector is witnessing increasing demand for locally manufactured components, driven by the growth of smartphones, wearables, smart consumer devices, automotive electronics, connected devices and other technology-led products.

With the ECMS approval, Brandworks aims to play a larger role in this transition by contributing to a more resilient, locally anchored, and globally competitive electronics supply chain from India, while working closely with the government and industry ecosystem to advance the country’s electronics component manufacturing capabilities.

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The frequency response of a Butterworth filter is not supposed to have any peaking. SPICE claims the contrary.

I came across an online datasheet for some op-amps where I found two schematics that intrigued me. Screen-shotting them together resulted in the following montage (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Two published filter circuits that caught the author’s eye.

Doing a quick Google search on the term “Butterworth Filter Response” yielded the following two paragraphs.

The Butterworth filter is a type of signal processing filter designed to have a frequency response that is as flat as possible in the passband. It is also referred to as a maximally flat magnitude filter.

As the ripple increases (bad), the roll-off becomes sharper (good). The Chebyshev response is an optimal trade-off between these two parameters. When the ripple is set to 0%, the filter is called a maximally flat or Butterworth filter (after S. Butterworth, a British engineer who described this response in 1930).

This was nothing new, but I just wanted to confirm for myself that the frequency response of a Butterworth filter is not supposed to have any peaking.

Putting these two filters into a SPICE simulation led to something unexpected (Figures 2 and 3).

Figure 2 This SPICE simulation of the low-pass filter circuit seemingly shows peaking.

Figure 3 This SPICE simulation of the high-pass filter circuit also seemingly shows peaking.

Both simulations show peaking in their frequency responses, which for a Butterworth filter is not supposed to be the case. I then modified the circuits as shown in Figures 4 and 5, with the  simulation results again also included in the graphics.

Figure 4 This SPICE simulation of the modified low-pass filter circuit is absent any peaking.

Figure 5 This SPICE simulation of the modified high-pass filter circuit is also absent any peaking.

One change to each filter, highlighted in the graphics, seemed to correct the peaking issue. Whether the modified filter coefficients are truly Butterworth might be questioned, but for all practical purposes, these two changes seem good enough.

The applicable caveat is that if you really do need a Butterworth or Chebyschev or Bessel or Elliptical or…. filter frequency response, don’t just blindly follow whatever example you might find printed, no matter who wrote it. Check your design independently of any supplier’s application note(s).

An approximation might not be good enough to serve your needs.

John Dunn is an electronics consultant and a graduate of The Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (BSEE) and of New York University (MSEE).

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The post Dual amplifier active filters appeared first on EDN.

India is continuously making efforts to increase its domestic battery production ecosystem amid mounting pressure for electric vehicles (EVs) and energy-storage systems. Announced battery-cell manufacturing projects currently total nearly 100-gigawatt hours (GWh) in capacity, a significant increase from the historical heavy reliance of India on importing the key lithium-ion cells. Still, a significant barrier to bringing on announced cell production and a holistic domestically sourced battery supply chain exists in the country.

The development is particularly important for India’s rapidly growing EV industry, where batteries make up a large portion of the total vehicle cost, directly impacting range, performance and cost-effectiveness. The strengthening of India’s indigenous battery cell manufacturing system could reduce its dependence on global supply chains and support India’s overall aspirations for electric mobility.

Driven by policy initiatives, including the Rs 18,100 crore Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, India has been promoting domestic ACC manufacturing. The programme plans for the manufacturing of large-scale battery cells and also focuses on domestic value addition.

As India’s EVs grow in number, India must develop its capability for large-scale manufacturing. Approaching 100 GWh of announced capacity marks significant progress, but the real hurdle will be turning those announcements into functioning factories, along with developing the domestic technologies and upstream supply chains necessary to make India’s EV battery ecosystem less dependent on the global value chains.

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Exicom Tele-Systems has started production of liquid-cooled AC and DC power modules for EV chargers at its Hyderabad facility. The development marks a huge milestone for Indian EV chargers and power-electronics manufacturing ecosystem in India. It states that it is also the only company in India to manufacture this kind of liquid-cooled power module for markets worldwide.

The development comes as demand for high-power EV charging infrastructure continues to grow. With the EV charging systems trending higher power EV charging solutions, it is getting quite crucial for power electronics systems to handle heat dissipation in power electronic devices. This has come at the launch of liquid-cooled modular power electronic solutions from Exicom to handle the heat dissipation issues in the powerful, compact design system for EV charging solutions.

The EV chargers use power-electronic components to convert and regulate electrical energy before delivering it to the vehicle. These parts produce an extreme amount of heat while charging a vehicle. Conventional methods for cooling with air turn into a major challenge as power density rises, requiring larger cooling systems and greater airflow.

Liquid cooling is generally considered to be the more practical approach for handling the heat created by these high-power electronics. Exicom has previously highlighted liquid-cooled power electronics to be the type of technology that is best fit for high temperature and rugged environments where dust can influence the reliability of the charger.

This latest development with an in-house liquid-cooled power module output at the Hyderabad facility would be Exicom’s first step into more sophisticated, domestically built charging power electronics. Moreover, it shows the increased significance thermal technologies will have as India’s charging infrastructure moves toward more rapid high-speed charging.

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The 30th International Symposium on VLSI Design and Test (VDAT 2026) was inaugurated today at Jaypee Institute of Information Technology (HIT), Noida, bringing together eminent academicians, semiconductor industry leaders, researchers, policymakers and students to deliberate on emerging technologies shaping the future of semiconductor and intelligent computing systems. The three-day symposium is being held from 20-22 August 2026 with the theme “Advancing Intelligent, Secure and Quantum-Ready Semiconductor Systems for the Next Era of Computing.”

The landmark edition is being hosted by JIIT in collaboration with Delhi Technological University (DTU), Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (HIT-Delhi), Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women (IGDTUW), National Institute of Technology Delhi (NIT Delhi) and Netaji Subhas University of Technology (NSUT), with the support of the VLSI Society of India (VSI) and IEEE Uttar Pradesh Section. VDAT has been a flagship platform of VSI for three decades, connecting researchers, academia and industry in VLSI design, semiconductor technologies, testing, EDA, embedded systems and emerging computing technologies.

The 30th edition is particularly significant as VDAT is being organized in Uttar Pradesh for the first time in its history. Its presence in Noida reflects the growing importance of the Noida—Greater Noida region in India’s electronics, semiconductor, data-centre and advanced-manufacturing landscape, while providing a platform to connect the state’s emerging priorities in electronics manufacturing, semiconductor investment, innovation and high-technology employment with leading researchers and industry.

The inaugural ceremony was graced by Ms. Sunita Verma, Scientist-G and Group Coordinator, R&D Dix4sion, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, as the Chief Guest, and Dr. Kamaljeet Singh, Director General, Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL), Mohali, as the Guest of Honour. The ceremony also witnessed the presence of Prof. S. C. Saxena, Pro-Chancellor, HIT; Prof. Shweta Srix’astava, Director, HIT and General Chair, VDAT 2026; Dr. Satya Gupta, President, VLSI Society of India; Chitra Hariharan, Secretary, VLSI Society of India; Prof. Prateek Sharma, Vice Chancellor, DTU; and Prof. Ranjana Jha, Vice-Chancellor, IGDTUW, among other distinguished guests.

In her address, Ms. Sunita Verma emphasised the strategic importance of India’s semiconductor journey and the need to strengthen capabilities across chip design, fabrication, advanced packaging, testing, materials, equipment and intellectual property. She highlighted the growing significance of Al, edge computing, hardware security, heterogeneous integration, chiplets, silicon photonics and quantum technologies, and stressed collaboration among government, academia, industry, start ups and research institutions.

Dr. Kamaljeet Singh emphasised the strategic importance of strengthening India’s indigenous semiconductor capabilities and developing a robust ecosystem spanning research, design, fabrication and technology deployment. He highlighted stronger academia—industry—government collaboration an essential to accelerating semiconductor innovation and supporting India’s strategic and emerging technology requirements.

Dr. Satya Gupta, President, VLSI Society of India, highlighted that continued evolution of VDAT us a platform for leading researchers, industry experts and students to exchange innovations in VLSI design, semiconductor technologies, testing and system design, 8iid emphasised the relevance of the 2G26 theme to AI, sect hardware, heterogeneous integration and quantum computing.

The inaugural programme featured addresses by Prof. S. C. Saxena, Dr. Satya’ Gupta and Chitra Hariharan, Dr. Kamaljeet Singh, Ms. Sunita Verma and Mr. Hitesh Garg, Vice President and India Managing Director, NXP Semiconductors. It also featured the Synopsys—JIIT Tapeout Initiative, presented by Mr. Amit Khanuja, VP—RD Engineering, IP Group, Synopsys, the unveiling of the VDAT 2026 Proceedings, and inauguration of the Cadence-Certified Laboratory by Ms. Tal Zigman, Global Academic Network, Cadence Design Systems.

The symposium received 441 research papers from 78 institutions, of which 122 papers were accepted, representing an acceptance rate of 27.7%. The research programme covers seven technical tracks addressing contemporary areas of VLSI and semiconductor technology, including circuits and SoC design, embedded systems, AI hardware and design automation, emerging semiconductor devices, advanced integration, hardware security, advanced memory architectures and quantum ready technologies.

The three-day programme also includes keynote addresses, invited talks, tutorials, a PhD Forum, Startup/Chippreneur activities, poster sessions and industry—academia interactions, providing opportunities for researchers and young technology professionals to engage with experts from leading organisations including NXP Semiconductors, Cadence, Synopsys, STMicroelectronics and Renesas.

The symposium marks an important milestone for HIT Noida and the Delhi-NCR academic consortium, providing a platform to showcase the region’s academic and technological capabilities and strengthen connections with India’s growing semiconductor and electronics ecosystem. The organisers expressed their appreciation to the distinguished speakers, participating institutions, industry partners, researchers, reviewers, students and volunteers for their contribution to the successful organisation of VDAT 2026.

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