By Yogan Senthilkumar, CTO, iVP Semi
The Internet of Things has quietly moved from pilot projects to core infrastructure. It now runs behind fleets, factories, energy networks and connected homes. The next phase of IoT growth in India will not be defined by how many devices come online, but by what those devices can reliably do in the real world.
And that capability will be determined largely by semiconductors. Every IoT endpoint must sense, process, communicate and often act. How efficiently it performs those functions depends on the silicon inside. As deployments move from dozens to tens of thousands of devices, semiconductor choices increasingly decide whether a connected product is reliable, secure and cost-effective over its lifetime.
One Chip Does Not Fit All
Early IoT designs often started with a generic connectivity module and built the system around it. That approach is harder to sustain as use cases diverge. A smart meter that must run for years on a battery in a remote location has little in common with a fleet tracker in a commercial vehicle or a vibration sensor on a factory robot. Their power budgets, environmental stresses, latency needs and expected lifespans differ sharply.
Connectivity therefore has to be matched to the application. Low-power cellular options such as LTE-M and NB-IoT suit widearea, low data rate sensors, while LTE Cat-1bis can support richer telemetry and remote management for industrial gateways and mobility assets. When positioning matters, combining cellular with GNSS and Bluetooth Low Energy can simplify designs for fleet and asset tracking. In buildings and factories, coexisting Wi-Fi, BLE and IEEE 802.15.4 (Thread/Zigbee) on the same platform can address different wireless requirements without multiplying hardware.
The better approach is to match the semiconductor and connectivity architecture to the job it has to perform, rather than forcing every use case into a single template.
Scale Changes the Equation
A proof of concept with fifty devices can hide inefficiencies that become expensive at fifty thousand. Power consumption is a prime example. Across a large population of battery powered endpoints, even small inefficiencies shorten operating life, increase maintenance visits and raise total cost of ownership.
That puts power efficiency at the centre of design. Semiconductor devices responsible for switching and voltage conversion-such as power MOSFETs, DC-DC converters and LDOs-determine how efficiently energy moves through the system. Their conduction losses, switching behaviour and thermal performance directly affect battery life, heat generation and overall device reliability.
Reliability matters just as much. Connected equipment increasingly operates in vehicles, factories, renewable energy installations and outdoor environments rather than controlled labs. Thermal behaviour, electrical protection and component robustness can determine how long a device continues to perform once deployed.
Intelligence Is Moving Closer to the Device
Connectivity modules are becoming more capable, and intelligence is shifting toward the edge. IoT endpoints increasingly need to process information locally, respond quickly to events, manage communications and update firmware remotely. Bringing more processing capability into the device can reduce latency and bandwidth requirements while making architectures more responsive and resilient.
This trend is visible in modern cellular modules that support hosted or open CPU operation, multiple interfaces and IoT protocols, along with differential firmware over-the-air updates. Some combine LTE Cat1bis, GNSS and BLE with an embedded microcontroller, enabling positioning, connectivity and local logic on a single board.
Power and connectivity also have to be considered together. An efficient radio is of limited value if the power architecture feeding it is inefficient. Similarly, a more powerful edge processor creates additional thermal and power management requirements. The IoT device has to be designed as a complete system, not a collection of independent blocks.
Building for What Comes Next – With an India Lens
As IoT expands across mobility, industrial automation, renewable energy, railways and consumer electronics, semiconductor requirements will become more varied, not less. Rising cost pressures and the need for flexible architectures are driving changes in IoT semiconductor design, including modular chiplet approaches and broader adoption of open architectures such as RISC V.
For India, this creates a strategic opportunity. Electronics production reached ₹11.3 lakh crore in FY2024–25, reflecting the rapid expansion of the country’s electronics manufacturing base. Recent policy measures, including the ₹40,000 crore allocation for the Electronics Components Manufacturing Scheme, are also supporting the development of a deeper domestic ecosystem spanning components, semiconductor manufacturing and design. For IoT, this creates an opportunity to build stronger capabilities across chip design, verification, software and IP, enabling solutions that are better suited to India’s diverse and increasingly connected applications.
Customers increasingly need more than individual components: they need solutions that reduce design complexity, improve efficiency and can be supported through the product lifecycle. As India builds connected infrastructure across mobility, energy and manufacturing, local semiconductor engineering, packaging, testing and supply capabilities can help make these deployments more resilient and aligned with domestic needs.
IoT growth is often described in terms of the number of devices that will come online. The more important question is what those devices will be capable of doing. The future of IoT will require silicon that delivers the right balance of connectivity, processing, power efficiency and reliability for each application-not a one-size fits all solution.