IL&FS invests Rs 20cr in Sun Electronic

IL&FS Investment Managers has invested Rs 20 crore in Bangalore-based Sun Electronic Technologies for a 30 per cent stake.

Sun Electronic is a Rs 80 crore firm which is primarily into memory modules for computers such as HP, Wipro, HCL and Acer.

Confirming this investment, Sun Electronic CEO, Sanjay Soni said that this investment will be used to expand their current business and also to establish the integrated design and 'system in package' microelectronics business with a facility in Bangalore.

"Our mission is to establish a global microelectronics company by integrating system and chip design capability with manufacturing technology to deliver complete SiP solutions," noted Soni. Taib Bank was the advisor for Sun Electronic in this deal.

SiP is a number of integrated circuits enclosed in a single package or module and is used by various consumer electronics, mobile phone and medical electronics firms to shrink the size of equipment.

"We are going in for a high volume manufacturing set-up at Whitefield with an investment of Rs 8 crore and we have a strategic pact with Silitronics in the US for this," he added.

He explained that an SiP can contain several silicon components and passive components all mounted on the same foundation. For example, a specialised processor can be combined at chip level with DRAM, flash memory and resistors/capacitors.

"This means that a complete functional unit can be built in a chip package, so that few external components need to be added to make it work. This is particularly valuable in space constrained environments like MP3 players and mobile phones as it reduces the complexity of the PCB and overall design," noted Soni.

With this capability Sun Electronic aims to offer end-to-end solution to a customer right from system design, SOC design, product design and prototyping, and integrated volume manufacturing.

"An end customer has to utilise these diverse capabilities to deliver his product and our integrated design and manufacturing strategy will deliver a cost effective single source solution," highlighted Soni.