From scratch to silicon: Pakistan’s race to design chips | The Express Tribune

PUBLISHED
November 09, 2025

From smartphones to aircraft, the miniature, delicate, and tiny microchips drive nearly every possible aspect of today’s life. In 2025, terms like chip wars and rare minerals dominated global headlines, while on the commercial scene Nvidia became the world’s first $4 trillion company — a fabless chip design company that does not manufacture a single integrated circuit.

For Pakistan, the fabless approach — designing chips and outsourcing manufacturing to third parties rather than building costly factories — could open the door to technological and economic transformation. But where should the country begin, and what has been achieved so far? The Express Tribune visited FAST-NUCES Integrated Circuits Design (ICD) Lab in Islamabad, the nation’s first IC design and training centre, to find out.

A humble start

The bright corridors of the ICD Lab are lined with research posters and prototypes, vividly showcasing the professional journey of Dr Rashad Ramzan and his team.

A graduate of UET Lahore, Dr Rashad’s chip design work began in the VLSI labs at Ohio State University. His academic path continued with an MSc in Electronics Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, in 2003, and a subsequent doctorate from Linköping University. He has worked in the industry and academia related to chip design for over 25 years, in Pakistan, Sweden, Germany, the USA, and other international locations.

In 2018, he returned to Pakistan and joined FAST-NU, where he began teaching microelectronics, RF circuits, electromagnetics, and PCB design — initially to just ten MSc students, from a single room.

“We only had one room in 2018 that functioned as both our lab and office, and we had just one research assistant. Despite that, I was certain this technology is absolutely necessary for Pakistan, and that it would succeed. Now, by the Grace of God, the doors have opened for us,” said Dr Ramzan.

Like the early dream behind FAST-NU — which started with banker Agha Hasan Abedi’s Rs100 million endowment in the 1980s — FAST’s IC journey began small but grew steadily. While chip design was once a niche discipline, it is gaining momentum now.

Why fabless is the way forward

Starting a commercial microchip fabrication facility (fab) in Pakistan is exceptionally difficult.

“A commercial fab requires the combination of dozens of highly specialised technologies. On the infrastructure side, it needs uninterrupted 24/7/365 electricity and immense quantities of clean water,” explains Dr Ramzan. “On the technical side, the facility must house multi-billion-dollar equipment, including advanced photolithography machines, etching, and ion implantation setups. This equipment requires precision mechanics, an ultra-clean room environment, and complex vacuum equipment to maintain functionality. Operating all this requires a highly specialised workforce of process engineers and technicians drawn from over sixty specialties, including civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical, optical, and vacuum technology, to name just a few.”

Lastly, the challenge lies in securing a stable global supply chain for the rare minerals, chemicals, and metals necessary for production.

“To sell the product, access to the global market is the final hurdle, alongside the intense competition one will face with established giants in the market,” he adds. “However, we can design chips, which is a very promising approach.”

Fabricating chips for commercial use is far out of reach for Pakistan. Only a handful of companies dominate this space, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which holds 70 per cent of the global market and produces advanced 5nm and 3nm chips for Apple, Nvidia, and AMD.

By contrast, Nvidia is entirely fabless: a knowledge-driven company that designs GPUs. They have now launched specialised, advanced processors for AI. They focus solely on design, outsourcing all manufacturing to foundries like TSMC.

Dr Ramzan initially saw the potential for Pakistan to seed a knowledge base in 2009, but without success, he briefly moved to the UAE. When he returned in 2018, national organisations like NECOP were seeking trained IC design engineers. Consequently, FAST and NECOP joined hands and started the first MS programme in IC Design in Pakistan. Twenty-four engineers were selected from seven thousand graduates for this programme, successfully laying down the foundation and knowledge base for IC design in Pakistan.

“Now the field is much more level worldwide compared to the past. All you need is brainpower, computers, software, hope for the future, and political will,” he said.

Chip design

In the UAE, between 2012 and 2018, Dr Ramzan combined teaching with hands-on research, securing dozens of US patents and gaining international experience. But he stressed that theory alone is not enough.

“Only theory in the area of IC design is not enough,” he says. Just as you cannot be a good surgeon by only reading anatomy books, training from experts is essential.”

International visibility

In 2021, the International Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS) established the annual Platform for IC Design Outreach (PICO), an international integrated circuit (IC) design contest. The lab has been a consistent participant in this competition and, to date, has secured 17 out of the 44 projects awarded globally. This achievement represents more than 30 per cent of the total awards, with the remaining distributed among other leading microelectronics academic institutions from the US, France, South Korea, Egypt, Brazil, and others. This gave the lab international visibility and expanded its reach substantially.

Breakthrough with GSME

Years of groundwork paid off when the US-based Global Semiconductor Micro Electronics (GSME) approached FAST to train engineers for their design centre in Oman. Competing against training firms from different countries, FAST-NU won the contract. This was an end-to-end training programme for 100 engineers in Oman that included theory, hands-on microchip design, manufacturing from TSMC, and final testing — all necessary for a real IC designer.

Students followed a strict routine: lectures in the morning, lab work in the afternoon. After a year, they successfully designed and developed nine projects manufactured on two 65nm CMOS dies from TSMC. The same team went on to establish Oman’s first chip design centre, which has been running smoothly for the last three years.

Encouraged by the success, GSME agreed to fund the creation of a design centre at FAST-NU.

“This centre, GF-METRC, is now fully operational and actively supporting the industry with multiple successful tape-outs,” reveals Dr Ramzan.

Training the next generation

Initially, NECOP and FAST-NU collaborated to start the training programme, which was later funded by GSME in 2023.

“We faced a dry period for a couple of years, and we feared that the programme would close. During that time, the flame was kept alive by bare-minimum funding provided by our generous friends and expatriates, especially the alumni of UET Lahore.”

Most recently, things have become more favourable, as the government has at last realised the importance of this work. In 2025, crucial funding was secured from the Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT) through IGNITE, and 33 engineers are currently being trained in a one-year programme leading to an MS in IC Design. The Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) has also announced a short training programme.

In 2018, Pakistan had just one microchip-design verification company whereas now there are at least 18 in Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad. FAST-NU alone has produced over 100 IC design specialists in Pakistan, with a few pursuing PhDs abroad and the rest fuelling local firms.

The manpower challenge

While progress is evident, scaling remains a hurdle.

“Any multinational chip design company that comes to open a design centre here needs 1,000 to 1,500 engineers. Pakistan currently has only about 1,000 engineers in this field. To become a global attraction, like Vietnam — which is a popular destination for IC design companies — we must have a pool of 10,000 engineers so that a company like Nvidia, AMD, or TI can select 10 per cent from this pool and open a design centre here. We are still far from that threshold,” shares Dr Ramzan.

Pakistan boasts talented expatriates, including senior executives at AMD and Altera. But until the talent base at home expands, attracting global chip firms remains difficult.

Legal gaps in IP protection

Another major obstacle is intellectual property (IP). Pakistan lacks an IP culture and specialised lawyers in these deep-tech areas.

“We need strict and well-defined laws because patents can be worth millions,” says Dr Ramzan.

Innovations and patents

Despite challenges, the lab has secured several US patents across advanced technologies, ranging from low-cost vaccine monitoring systems and electronic fuel sensors to 5G/6G duplexers. These innovations demonstrate that design-led growth is possible — provided the missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle are in place.

“If Pakistan wants to explore high-tech fabless chip design, it must begin by establishing design centres and providing deep, super-skilled training specifically targeted to the needs of those particular design centres. This is essential to avoid generating jobless experts and to encourage start-up companies. Our government must abandon the Soviet model and instead enable and empower the private sector, focusing on organic growth that is deeply rooted in society,” says Dr Ramzan.

Teaming up

Microchip design is teamwork, not a solo journey. Just as billions of transistors work together in perfect harmony for your mobile or laptop to function — it’s teamwork. The work you see here is the result of hundreds of engineers collaborating over the last seven years. The initial team members — including Dr Hassan Saif, Muhammad Omar, Hamza Attique, and Ali Sabir, among others — worked tirelessly and round the clock towards a single vision.

The unconditional support of the Head of Department, the entire EE department, the campus director, and particularly Dr Waseem Ikram and Dr Aftab Maroof, has been instrumental throughout this journey. Their unwavering commitment exemplifies the collaborative spirit and supportive culture that define FAST-NU.

The roadmap

Pakistan’s journey into chip design may have started humbly, but it is gathering pace. With growing expertise, partnerships, and new companies in the private sector, the country is edging closer to establishing a foothold in the global semiconductor race.

Yet without stronger IP laws, greater and more focused investment in manpower, empowerment of the private sector, and sustained political will, progress risks stalling. The seeds of innovation have been sown — but the harvest depends on how Pakistan nurtures and retains its young talent.

All facts and information are the sole responsibility of the writer